Master volume setting

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Every time you boost something, you'll automatically boost the distortion on that sound to...

There's actually no reason in setting your master to a lower value than max, and then boosting the separate channels. Always try to make as little boosting as possible.
Instead set master out to max, then lower some channels if they clip. Every time you raise or decrease the level you'll get some distortion and loss of signal to. The difference maybe isn't that great, but don't bost the separate channels if you can raise the master instead.

Dynamics...