Master fader levels query

hi, I don’t understand the Master strip in the Mixer and am hoping someone can explain. It’s about the levels shown. I’m watching some music playing and can see that the number top right of the strip is showing the highest value since the last click resetting it. It’s on -0.9. But the “level bar” going up and down is predominantly above zero, in fact typically +3 and at one point about +6, yet the value remains -0.9. I’m not talking about the “dots” which move around above the main body of the “level bar”, just the latter. The two channels are tipped yellow and going red sometimes.

So I’m wondering why it’s not a consistent picture.

When exporting, I’m worrying that clipping may happen so I’m reducing the slider so the bar doesn’t go higher than zero. But now the numeric level is several dB negative. I set Normalise in the export window to ensure I get back to “full volume”. Do I need to do this?

This is with Ardour 8.5 official, looks the same with 8.9.

The master bus uses a K-meter by default; regular tracks use a peak meter. You can change all this as you wish.

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