Old school thinking here. Studio consoles have an input section and an output section.
On the left you have, say, guitar tracks. Each has eq, fx, etc. Those guitars are routed to the Guitar master fader on the right side, which goes to your Master fader, which goes to your hardware out. Put the meter on your Master bus.
You'll have a Master Bus for guitar, bass, drums, vox... Get everything sounding the way you want on the left side faders, then use the right side to get the balance you want.