Hi All, its been a while...
 
So I have this track I am really happy with (shock horror !) In keeping with good practice (and getting a little better possibly) I am recording at 24/48 and have a simple 4 track project which sounds like I want it to sound to my ears. I have just checked the peaks on the final mix and I am shocked at how low the levels are, and yet how clear and noise free it all sounds. Respectively, the peaks are -10.9 (Acoustic Guitar), -29.0 (synth pad), -16.5 (vocal) and -12.1 (Superior Drummer 2 stereo output hand percussion track).
 
My question, before I attempt to master this weekend using Ozone 4, is, how should I approach mastering this track, keeping most of the dynamics, yet still getting up to 'commercial' levels, or at least not so far away that the track appears half the volume of other material. Other material I have recorded in the past tended to be recorded hot, and left me little room for manoeuvre. Now I have finally learned to use restraint, I am not sure if the levels I have recorded at are too low, or if I have actually given myself a golden advantage. Yes of course I can just dive in there and use my ears, but I want to give myself a rest from the material for a few days and this is an ideal opportunity to  gather some thoughts from the greater collective experience here on the forum.
 
Over to you guys...
 
Garry Kiosk
 

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I am about mixing/mastering will chime in, but...
 
Assuming there's nothing else you want to do at the track/stem level in the way of EQ, compression, volume automation, reverb or other FX, you might just want to start by bringing the Master bus level up to peaking around -6dB, using the Input Gain, and then master as you normally would using EQ, compression, limiting, etc to get the spectrum balanced and bring the level up the rest of the way. But there's nothing wrong with using input gains on the final stages of compression and limiting to get all the additional gain, either.
 

Already a great suggestion to try, bringing up the input gain on the master bus never occurred to me as an option to bring all levels up relatively and safely. Thanks...

+1 to that suggestion. If you like the dynamic range of the piece, that is the easiest route (keeps the dynamic range in tact too).

Please keep the dynamics as much as you can. I wouldn't worry too much about dB levels. What I would worry about is am I cutting down on the life and breath of the music and let the levels be dammed. Although I am a strong advocate for Ozone when you mentioned it I wince hoping you don't succumb to the power Ozone offers. Please use it conservatively.   

Yes John, this is a lovely track and just came together so quickly, I will share it on the song forum. Yes, Ozone is so powerful...I finally learned constraint in tracking, this is why I am determined to give myself a rest from the track for a few days...and gather some suggestions in the meantime...Its hard to be your own producer.

The Kiosk Project
Yes John, this is a lovely track and just came together so quickly, I will share it on the song forum. Yes, Ozone is so powerful...I finally learned constraint in tracking, this is why I am determined to give myself a rest from the track for a few days...and gather some suggestions in the meantime...Its hard to be your own producer.

Judging by your regard for the music and all you know I'll  say I don't think you're going to run into any problem. 

On most projects I tend to have quite low volumne - when mixing I tend to lower faders frather than raise them, hence the final mix levels can be low.
 
What is the Master fader peaking at when you have those 4 tracks set as you say?
 
I now add a sub-mix from the beginning of each project, set at -6db, so that I can then easily raise the overall volume of my final mixed piece easily using just the sub-mix fader.
 
I'd be very interested to hear what your mastering settings are in Ozone (I also use it)  for this piece - particularly the Limiter settings - with low overall volume of the stereo master, I find miyself lowering the Ozone limiter threshold to 8-10 db which seems a lot, and I wonder if that adds a few artifacts in?   If I had a higher overall volume to start with, and then not have to have the limiter work so hard, maybe the mastered track would be cleaner ... 

@The Kiosk Project - how did it go with the song?  Would be interested to hear it, and learn what you did with it.