Hi, I think i made a mistake and am heading towards getting each track to be around -18 dB Rms before i start to mix.
I thought one way would be to normalize tracks that are too high or low.
So I’m not not sure how LUFS helps with this.
Would i be best to normalize using the Peak normalization ?
Added to this and rightly evoked by @Antoine-B , I am still worried about the actual composition of the involved gas. 
Probably not a solution for a little planet… 
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What valuable information…thank you !
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No, peak normalization is useless, because some signals like drums or percussion have a high peak to average ratio whereas others like synth pads, organs, some basses and so on have a very low peak to average ratio.
Which basically means if you normalize a snare and a pad track to say -6dBFS, they don’t nearly have the same loudness.
Don’t fret too much about it. I mostly do my gain staging in Cubase with the channel meters, faders set to zero, settting the level with the pre gain section. If I have percussive signals, I see that the loudest part don’t peak higher than say -10dBFS to at most -6dBFS. For more constant signals like pads, organs, bass and the like, -18dBFS. Other signals like vocals, acoustic guitars that lie between those extremes, somewhere from -18 to -12dBFS. Some time I check with a digital VU meter (like in supervision). But only roughly. Doesn’t really matter if it isn’t hitting some exact number, I don’t care.
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I agree with Fese.
Also, if your monitoring is ok you can just do this mostly by ear. Set one track to whatever level you think it should have going into a plugin and then just match the level of all the other tracks by ear.
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I’m d’accord with @fese and @MattiasNYC . If the pregain adjustments put the signal roughly in this ballpark area I am fine. In addition, I coloured my meters accordingly (-18dB / -12dB/ -6dB /0dB) to get a quick visual overview in the mixer window.
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Yep, setting up you meter colors according to whatever values you chose is helpful.
Also regarding metering customization: It’s possible to set the fallback time of the meters to something else, so that the rise time is quick but the fallback is closer to a VU meter. So visually - for some people - there’s a way to get it to feel closer to VU and that might make it easier to adjust levels.
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@fese …yes, of couse, these are my very own and personal colour settings which work for me, no universal truth claimed.
@MattiasNYC Yes, very good point 
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Many Thanks Everyone that’s sorted me out now.
All i need is some talent and we’ll be away.
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A lot of great thoughts and comments shared in this thread. If you’ve not watched this Izotope YouTube video on 2025 Mastering Trends, I’ll bet you find it interesting. I’m not going to scratch my head quite as hard after watching this when it comes to the overall “levels” questions, (or maybe I’ll be scratching my head harder!). 
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Hi,
the video in your link deals with the next and final step in line - the loudness of the master. That is a separate subject with the potential to raise a whole new set of highly controversial questions… Nevertheless, interesting video, thanks for the link!
Thanks I’ll have look