Oh man... Learning the ropes in a setup where you have to worry about the noise floor all the time really tought you something.
So sad those days are gone.

 

yeah, i looked at the waves stuff etc., but honestly, it's best to do by hand with automation. Depending on your DAW, the waves stuff won't work in Ableton etc... I don't know how many tracks you are working with, but outside of "evening" things with compression etc, it is far better to use your ears and taste. There is really no shortcut for that. Hell, Roy Thomas Baker (producer of Queen, Cars, Journey, etc etc), he used to manually ride levels to TAPE, rather then using compression etc.. He knew the songs, and would ride the levels of what was printed.. That's why when you put up his mixes, just the faders up to same level, it already sounds like 99% of the record.

I have tried different solutions over the years, but to tell you the truth, there is just no easy answer outside of putting in the time and work... wish I had a magic plugin that could read my mind and set levels etc!

 

dpMeter – Freeware Multi-Channel Meter VST/AU/RTAS Plugin

 

HoRNet VU Meter

 

All the level rider stuff works as far as I know. Changing the level is not the same thing at all as using compression. Personally, I still like to automate my mix or change the volume envelope where needed inside the clip. You can always keep tweaking by writing a new automation, with subtle adjustments as you go. I don't know why more people don't use the write/mix function. In the old days, it was fun watching the faders move on the console by themselves after you played back a "write"...