Guys, I've finished my mix. I finally managed to skirt the problems and get it done the way I wanted. The mysterious automation level anomaly still hasn't been resolved but getting rid of the mutes did it. My own automated panning mistakes involve copying mono plugins into stereo tracks and attempting to pan mono tracks within mono tracks. Some of this was because I wasn't starting with my own template and assumed things were set up certain ways, some of it was just my own stupidity and inexperience. So when I have a chance, I'll make some test tracks and see if I can recreate the automated level problem or if it was just some luckless combination of factors due to my bandmate who engineered the original recording and the mix on my own very different system. If I can get it to happen again I'll start another thread. Thanks to everyone for trying to help me with this, that's why I always turn to this forum to solve these problems. - Emile