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I posted a similar thing some time ago on this board.
Use the VU's only for setting the initial gain when cueing (cue a loud part of the track where much is going on). The trick is, the leds/needles/whatever system your mixer uses, should AVERAGE around 0dB for the best result. Peaks don't really mean much (the faster the response of the meters, the more true this statement is). Average, that's the key.
The loudness of tunes is mainly a result of compression. Some tunes use pretty little compression (big dynamics, big movements of the meters), others are just squashed to death (little meter movements).
When you have a tune that has big dynamics, it's perfectly allowed to let short peaks go in the yellow/red zone (+ 3 or even +5 dB is really not a problem for peaks, unless you got a crappy mixer with almost no headroom). With heavily compressed tunes, you'll see on the meters that they dont move much, so the "working zone" around 0 dB will be smaller (for example they'll move from -1 dB to +1 dB).
Why? Your ears are usually not as fast as meters (the real pro VU meters with needles (and I don't mean those you see on consumer gear) follow the ears delay). So they won't notice shorter peaks as loud as they really are. The loudness you will perceive is the average signal you hear).
But once you set the initial gain, my advice is, forget the meters. Don't watch them, close your eyes, tape the meters over, whatever. Once you actually start mixing in the tunes, use your ears, and only them. Meters can sometimes give you a completely wrong idea (like you try to keep the meters moving at about the same rate, but you clearly hear a drop in sound). Just listen and correct to keep it steady...
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