You got me. Somehow I got to Level 5. I was at 30 day gold level leaderboard. Now it's Luiza Milenova. If you look at my avatar and hers you can see she is a ---lot--- prettier than I. I think it's a conspiracy. Since you are a Cubase user I'll give you a 'like' and you are on your way to Level 3.

@Billy Cordero "But could be a good way to compare how the meter reads at the different calibrations." It's going to read = to the math. -18 to -14 is going to get you 4dB difference on the meter.

@Billy Cordero Ha! yeah. The other way you can look at it is that -20 gives you 20dB of headroom, -14 and your headroom is reduced to 14dB, etc.. This too makes sense in context because from start to finish. Recording to Mastering you are always closing in on 0dBFS. VU meters are eye catching. If you get alerted by the VU you can then look to RMS, Crest, LUFS, Peak, etc. which take more attention to study.

@Rick Sanders I'm not sure if I follow you. You have louder parts, quieter parts, etc.. and want all at same level? They won't louder and quieter then. The "range" simply sets a max. Think of it like a speed limit sign that could control your car speed. If it set to 55 then you can press pedal to floor but you are only going to get up to 55 mph. So if you compressing a lot like 12dB via your ratio and input but then set the range to 8dB that's all you will get. The 8dB not the 12dB. It's kinda like a safety valve. So you are only doing 2-3dB of compression. Hmmm.. If I'm following you and you want everything going through the compressor and you want everything the same level even though they are loud and quiet parts... I think I would look at automating the output gain. IOW, if you like the way things sound but just want certain sections to be louder you could use more makeup gain. If you used input gain that would change the character of everything. Or you could just stick a gain plugin on it and automate that.

Here ya go. Watch this.... Oh by the way. that 2-3 dB we were discussing. That is not gain reduction. That is simply your compressor being on of off. That number should be the same. Unless you intend it to not be. I wasn't thinking about what you were writing. IOW let's say track meter is reading -10. Turn compressor on and it should still read -10. Now compress something and add make up gain. It should still read -10 which means your compressor has not removed any volume nor added any. So basically your ears don't get fooled by difference in loudness. Here is how you can get lots of compression. You set a ratio to 10:1 let's say. a Threshold of oh -40. Now you run signal. Well if it's loud enough you are going to get 1dB Out for every 10 you let in 10:1. So let's say you let in 35dB you are only going to get out 3.5dB. That's 31.5dB of compression. Now let's say you turn on your Range control and set it to 10dB... Well now no matter what you are only going to get 10dB of compression with those same settings. Watch this video. I haven't watched it all but it looks like a good one for everything compression. The part you want is at 41:55 if the link doesn't mark it correctly. https://youtu.be/PGPWjO7Qy84?t=2521

Live performance - I'm not sure the Steinberg developers knew this was possible. This was 5 years back during lockdown. As far as I know he is a DJ. One thing I do know is he knows MIDI and knows music that makes people move. Enjoy and remember, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82rzL4NVmZM

@Forever Simon Holy Cow!! You deserve some sort of award.

@George Legion Otigbah Correct. The snare, in rock, pop, etc. holds down the "back beat" and is often prominent. The vocal however is also most often the item of main interest. So get them close to each other regarding impact. More than a few dB and you will hear what may sound like a difference of balance. Like they are not playing together in the same song / space. So I'm sure you have heard songs where the vocal is very forward and ones where the vocal seems like just another instrument. At some point it's artistic choice but starting from where the two elements seem just about the same is a good place to start. If you want to hear the -concept- listen to Willy Nelson. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain. That run he does on the guitar is balanced with his voice. But his voice stays just bit above it. The snare is set quite far back. So different instruments but same concept. In rock, pop, modern country, you will hear the snare as something that needs to be more up front. Just as they chose to do with his guitar. It's sort of his signature that compliments his vocals. So both are focused, prominent, and do not fight each other. That's the concept. Now go listen to "Burning Down The House" by Talking Heads. Vocals and Snare all the way.

@George Legion Otigbah Sorry, caffeine kicked in. No -80 was just random number. Representing a high quality audio interface. -50dB is a whisper. So -80 can be considered silence. The point being and to the point of the thread. Try to get the concepts down. You get dynamics. It's the variance between the loud and soft. You understand that certain types of music have minimal dynamics. On your balance of the vocal and snare starting at 1-2dB the concept you may want to consider is that 10dB is considered roughly heard as twice as loud. So 5dB half as loud and now you are being asked to balance something within 1-2dB across a song. So your ears and feelings are going to be more important than meters most likely. Sorry if I got carried away and confusing. Regarding dynamic range and dynamics. Just remember that automation, clip gain, compression, all the things you hear as solutions can also create a flat static lifeless mix which is most often not the desired result.