if i get all my tracks to a volume im satisfied with (i.e the parts i want to be loud are loud, the parts i want to be subtle are quiet, etc), but the track is peaking say 3db, what would be the difference of just turning the master track volume down to create headroom, as opposed to leaving the master track at 0db and altering individual tracks until i create enough headroom? I've read numerous times not to touch the master track db and to keep it at 0, but what is the difference if I just pull the master track db down instead of pulling down the db of other tracks such as the snare, or synth lead? In the end, there will be the same amount of headroom, but there's these two ways of going about it. Will dynamics be affected if I pull down the db of the master track instead of several individual tracks? thanks

I know that a compressor typically consists of
threshold
ratio
attack
release
gain

i understand what each of these does such like the ratio controls the strength of the compressor etc, but could you not just automate volume to achieve the same effect? For example, a compressor reduces the level of audio that exceeds the specified threshold set by the user, so you can use a compressor to reduce db of the loud parts and not so much on the quieter parts. wouldn't volume automation achieve the same effect?

hey Ninth Parallel awesome song and thanks for the in depth tutorial. would you mind explaining how you created the sound in the beginning of your video from around 0:00 - 0:40?

hey guys i was wondering how odesza created this synth at 1:25 where its bouncing

https://soundcloud.com/odesza/white-lies

did they sidechain it to something to make give it that movement? thanks