I must have seen the same video, because I shoot for -18db for my tracks before they get to the fx as well. 
I hadn’t thought to overdo it though, and then bring the dynamics back with volume automation afterwards… I’ll have to give that a try. For the most part volumes stay fairly consistent, except on vocals. There is a huge range in there. And that’s the part that I want to sound the most natural. I think for me on this song, it was a buildup of instruments that did it, all trying to be loud in the same spots. It’s something I definitely need to work on.
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I have similar issues… I tend to let the vocal have centre stage and use eq quite heavily on the instruments in the denser parts of the mix… it can get complicated as rather than automate the eq I tend to have duplicate tracks with altered eq that I switch to but when I have a lot of tracks it can get very confusing… but I have found eq to be a key space maker for me… it’s just not easy… drat it!!
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