Limiters on Master Buss pros and cons?

Cactus Music
For the last few years I have had great success using the LP 64 Multi Band on my Master buss. 
I use a fast attack on all bands and the lowest band is set at 0db and the rest are at 3 just above the line. Seemed to be the default. This gives me a visual of where a song has problem frequencies. 
If the low end is showing a steady level then I need to go back to my Bass and Kick and either turn them down or apply a hi pass filter at around 100hz. 
But what this does is I'm hearing warmth disappear from vocals and guitars when the LP 64 is on. So I use it to trouble shoot then turn it off before exporting. I get better results with loudness and levels at the sacrifice of warmth when I leave it turned on. 
I tried the CA limiter and all it did was either nothing or instantly squash things. ( I guess I don't understand the controls?) 
 
What do others do to maintain a safe level for export using a limiter? 

I think the important part is to get your mix as solid as possible before slapping anything on your master buss. Although this is just m opinion. I think many times people put eq, limiter, compressor etc, on the master buss prematurely to compensate for things that could be fixed in the raw mix. If you are putting something on the master buss that makes your mix sound inferior to when you didn't have it on, the answer is somewhat simple.

Johnny, If this is a mix down and not a master I would like to make a suggestion,
Use instrument bus compression/limiting vs. master bus limiting/compression.
More often than not, in a mix down scenario I never put compression or limiting on the master bus during export.
I use it instead on the instrument buses. This helps me zoom in on key issues without effecting other issues (like adding punch to drums, without effecting guitars)
 
You will need to get surgical by operating on 1 patient at a time and personally I find instrument buses are the only way to do this.

Thanks to all good information and I will chew it over, 
And yes I do not intend to master at this step, a you might be aware from other posts I use Wave Lab exclusively for this for a long long time now. 
But I am always fighting with the mix being way up close to the top end of the scale in the master buss. 
So my reason for using the multi band has been it will act like a spectral scope and show me ( broadly) where I have the culprit that is pushing the meters up. I turn it off when done. 
Turning the whole mix down just transfers the problem over to the mastering stage where your still going to need to identify loud frequencies or end up compressing the whole mix to get the RMS level where I need it. So for me that has not worked. 
I think Chucks idea might work for me best. I would not need anything more than a guitar buss. 
I already always have a compressor on the vocals
All drums and keyboards are 1 VST each so they get processed there
But guitars I will have 2 or 3 tracks so I'll try a sub buss on that. 
 
My method has worked well for me but I guess I feel I'm stuck using the same tools I used in 8.5 and need to progress and explore some of the new stuff like the CA etc. 
With me it's I'll try something like pro channel, can't get anything to work and never give it another chance and return to what I understand. 
 I'm in the mixing stage of a 14 song acoustic type album and not happy at this point in what is happening so looking to do something different this time around thanks to all who take the time to read and make recommendations I'm all ears! 

by limiting on the master bus,
you are letting things like the SNARE, dictate the dynamics of the song.
 
i'd suggest not using a limiter on the master bus while mixing.
 
 
now, compression is another thing,
but a caveat:
if you are going to use a compressor on the master bus,
put it on from the very beginning of mixing (not tracking) and mix with it on from the beginning.
 
and always consider it one of TWO compressors on each individual track...
assume you are compressing at the track level, AND at the master output,
you may not need as much compression on either individually.
 
 
and always turn it off, gain balance, and check to see if it's actually doing what you want it to!
 

chuckebaby: You are far too modest, my friend. I always love your mixes! You are one of the very few people I ever look to for critiques of my own mixes, because I respect your abilities so much. You rock!