MBR - Which mastering effects do you like?

[FuzzFace]

Which mastering effects do you like?
Which ones work best under what circumstances?

Just hoping to draw from your experiences.

[Geir]

I almost exclusively use the "live" effect. Sometimes I use the danceComp or dancemix if I want more compression and bass, but sticking to the same effect for most of my songs makes it easier to predict the result in the recording/bouncing process. I "know" how to mix during bounces to get the guitars/vox right in the mix when going through several bounces, and rarly have to step back to redo the bounces

[FuzzFace]

I almost exclusively use the "live" effect. Sometimes I use the danceComp or dancemix if I want more compression and bass, but sticking to the same effect for most of my songs makes it easier to predict the result in the recording/bouncing process. I "know" how to mix during bounces to get the guitars/vox right in the mix when going through several bounces, and rarly have to step back to redo the bounces

So you use effects every time you bounce, rather than waiting until all the tracks are done and applying the effect across the completed song?

[Geir]

No, sorry, only when mastering. But I've used the effect so many times I have a good idea of how it WILL sound when mastering

[FuzzFace]

Ok... thanks...  I need to play around with this because to-date I have just been doing flat mastering.

[Glenn Mitchell]

I always go thru the list and then try and decide if it actually improves it. If it doesn't really, I don't master. It can turn out just fine by exporting directly.

[Bluesberry]

On my microBR I use "live" a lot also.  I like what it does the overall mix, spaces everything out nice it seems.