Would this work...

[jmorris]

Hey,
If your sticks are audio tracks, then they're neither 10 feet nor 2 feet tall when put together. And if they're made up of different signals that are complex in the freq, time, and amplitude domains (read music) then forget the math. All you need to know is that they will add in some complex manor, and that you'll have to keep an eye on the peak levels on the buss as they sum, and attenuate channel levels accordingly so as to not overdrive the buss. You'll want to treat obtrusive peaks on the individual tracks, not save it for the main buss, as the latter affects the entire program instead of just the problem. Those treatments can be by compression/limiting, by editing, or some combination.

I can buy that if I have one track at -15db, then add a second track at -20bd, my master bus may be a tad more than -15db but not the cumulative of the two. I have had 40 tracks running at a time and when I have added or removed some I have not ever noticed any real change with the bus master levels( unless I just plain never paid attention). Now, I'm not doubting you but what is the "science" behind this?