Mixing down in Vegas
 

I'm mixing down on Vegas 7.0, but sometimes I get confused with the volume on my speakers vs. what the ACTUAL volume of my project REALLY is. That is to say, a sound on my time line could be too faint or too hot/loud, but my volume on my monitors (speakers) might be in the complete opposite direction. Should I simply focus on my mixdown/master meter levels all together? Thanks.

My theory has always been that, as long as it sounds good to you AND the master meters aren't going past zero, you're OK.
This assumes that you're listening to the final mix on a decent set of monitor speakers as opposed to a set of cheap computer speakers or headphones as the latter can trick you into applying unnecessary FX.

You can always calibrate your workstation and monitor levels using a $50 sound pressure meter from Radio Shack. In a nutshell, adjusting one channel at a time you take a sine wave tone at known to be -20dB and play it in the workstation, adjusting the output level to -20 on Vegas's meters. Switch to a pink noise signal at the same level (the DAW meter will read closer to -10 on pink) and adjust the monitor gain until it reads ~+80dBSPL on the sound pressure meter at the mix position. The exact level depends on the destination of the program - broadcast, theatre, home DVD, etc - so you might be setting up for SPL anywhere from 75dB to 82 dB

Hi Mike, Glenn's advice is spot on. I work in a recording studio on a freelance basis and every time I’m mixing down (especially in environments where I’m not sure of the acoustics of the room or the monitoring speakers they use) i always play what’s called a reference track first to see what my desired 'sound' actually sounds like on the system I’m using. For example, if I was mixing down a heavy metal track then i would bring in a commercial heavy metal CD that I KNOW is mixed well and is of similar sound I’m trying to achieve and then I would compare my mix to that mix to gage if I’m on the right path.

If your mixing down for film I would import a sample from a movie similar to yours and listen to your audio levels in comparison. One bit of advice I would give though is to use 'panning' wisely. It can add great 'space' to your track giving different sounds room to sound realistic and be more effective, however if you over do it you can bring a lot of unnecessary attention to your mix as it will sound fake and in the worst case scenario someone may be listening on a dodgy set and may only hear half of what you've spent hours and hours mixing.

Oh and also be very careful with reverb, unless you’ve got a good monitor setup or know your equipment VERY well, a little reverb will often come out sounding like a A LOT of reverb. I could go on for hours so forgive my long reply but I hope this helps.