When doing actual mastering I turn all of that off and usually run a saturator or two of some kind (probably tape and master bus emulations), perhaps and exciter, some eq, a few compressors and at least one limiter. I sometimes go into stereo-widening as well at some stage.
No, the other way around actually! Tape saturation usually "dulls" sharp, quick, high sounds (like hi-hats) and make them a little bit less piercing. So you can usually push the limiter even more without crushing them completely. I use a plugin called TB Reelbus for tape saturation.Wont this create more unnecessary transients when it hits the Limiter? I only ask because I love using saturation however, bit scared to use it on final bus..
You should try placing the sound analyser at the end of that chain. Since you still have a lot of processing done based on those effects, you should analyze it and the end of your effects chain.When I master my beats my master channel is like :
1) Sound analyser. To be sure my track are below the 6db before I start mastering
2) Compressor
3) EQ
4) Multiband Compressor
5) Oxford Inflator
6) Reverb (sometime)
7) Limiter