I did my first song in Studio One (I was using Cakewalk before) and I noticed that my mixdown export was always complaining about clipping, which didn't make sense to me based on what I was seeing in my meters. So I have done a test, whose results mystify me and I am hoping someone can explain the results.
Setup: New song with imported A440 reference tone -3 dB, channel fader is set to 0, Main is set to 0
Test One: Mixdown export with setting of "Bypass Master Effects" is checked
Result One: Mixdown export file has reference tone of -6 dB
Expected Result: Mixdown export should be -3 dB
Test Two: Mixdown export with setting of "Bypass Master Effects" is NOT checked
Result Two: Mixdown export has reference tone of 0 dB
Expected Result: Mixdown export should be -3 dB
I would think that unity gain should be in play between the channels and main fader, but they appear not to be. So can someone explain why I have these results?