[AngryMonkey]

Hi,
Firstly apologies for what is probably a very noob question, ive looked around but am still very confused though.

I have a song, a mix, it starts with 1 guitar which is -7db, this is fine and the overall mix reads as -7db. Then some drums join in which are also -7db, but the overall mix now reads -4db.

Then the vocals join in, again they are -7db, but now the overall mix reads -1db...

So every extra track that joins in makes the mix louder, even though they are individually the same level.

This is causing problems because people turn their hifis to how loud they want when the intro comes in but by the time the vocal comes its all too loud.

What should I be doing here? Do I need to somehow compress the entire thing so it always reads the same level (would -1db be a good value)? Or should I be using some form of automation to change the levels of each track as new tracks come in?

Thanks,
AM.