ashcat_lt
Well-known member
Yep. Me too. The OP did say "about half" were old things already mixed. Don't even mess with those unless there's something you really think you can fix better than the ME.
For anything else, though, I'll go with my first answer. Absolute levels mean just about nothing before the mastering stage. What matters is Dynamic Range. If you're going to leave "headroom" thats what you need to be looking at. Don't be the one to smash it down to final loudness levels. Leave some Dynamic Range for the ME to work with so they can (hopefully) get your loudness without destroying things as badly as you might.