Cactus Music
+1  to leaving the master buss clean. Adding anything to the master buss is an attempt to master yourself. Just leave headroom, as said, with no overs. 
You job is to mix. 
Focus on balancing the tracks the way you like it. And try to get the Bass and Kick under control. Easier to get this right in mixing than in mastering. 
Get you overall vibe happening. 
Try and keep it clean and clear.
 
 
Reverb on the master??? well I guess if it is a monks chanting sort of thing.. 
Nothing worse than reverb on bass IMHO. 

You wouldn't use a whole lot on the master, but I've used it to create a cohesive space (no too much unlike a "glue" compressor) in that you are putting something there to tie things together.  
 
Really subtle use.  
 
Ever mic an upright bass?  I bet you had some room reverb in there.  If you close mic a bass amp, or record it direct it is possible there is room to add a slight touch of reverb without anything sounding "off."  
 
I can think of a lot of things worse than reverb on bass.  

Brian Walton
I can think of a lot of things worse than reverb on bass.  

yeah, like me on bass!

Or a bass solo 

Cactus Music
Reverb on the master??? well I guess if it is a monks chanting sort of thing.. 

 
 
im with you Johnny I've never tried using master bus reverb (like Crag mentioned).
but I cant argue with Mr. Anderson results. I've heard them. they are great.
 
i do however sometimes put master bus compression on the master bus while setting my levels and such.
but i remove it once i export.

I always put the LP 64 multi band on the master,, but then it's more or less a safeguard to catch overs. I turn the attack time right down .  It also gives me a visual on which frequencies are going over. I go back to the mix and fix stuff until nothing is showing action. You can pull the levels on each band to see how close things are too. It's a great tool for me and has served me well. But then I'm doing my own mastering after export in a Wave editor. If I did wish to send something off,  I'd probably use it to see what's up and then turn my master level down a touch and by pass the bin before export. 

Thanks for all of the great advice! I hadn't planned on having any plug-ins on the Master out.
 
I do have another question: Just to see, I bypassed the aforementioned plug-ins and noticed that, although most of the song rides around -4.0 dB, there are some peaks at 0-DB (even one at +1 db). How do I address this?  thanks

chuckebaby
im with you Johnny I've never tried using master bus reverb (like Crag mentioned).
but I cant argue with Mr. Anderson results. I've heard them. they are great.

 
Just to clarify - I do this very rarely, and only once or twice has it been an artistic decision. Most of the time it's to solve a problem, or fit a context that wasn't anticipated when the song was recorded...e.g., mastering a compilation where all the cuts except for one have some degree of reverb. I've also used it sometimes with audio-for-video to diffuse the sound somewhat if it was taking away from the visuals.
 

kawika
Thanks for all of the great advice! I hadn't planned on having any plug-ins on the Master out.
 
I do have another question: Just to see, I bypassed the aforementioned plug-ins and noticed that, although most of the song rides around -4.0 dB, there are some peaks at 0-DB (even one at +1 db). How do I address this?  thanks

 
What I do is find the offending track. Look at the peak and hold meters on each track and see if one of them shows an over. It is often drums or a runaway vocal. 

Thanks Johnny, I want a drastic level change at that spot. Can I just lower the master output so that those peaks are under 0db?

Yes and no. If one of the tracks is going over it will still be a possible nasty clip. Use volume envelope on the offending peak. 
If none of the tracks are going over and it's the combined level that's driving the master over the top then for sure turn it down or do like I do and use the multi band compressor to see which frequency is offending. 
My take on it is if say, only the the lowest band is the cause of the over and the rest are not moving the meters, then the compressor is only compressing that one frequency and the rest are clean and unaltered. So I just leave the compressor active. The alternative would be turn down the bass or the Kick until the level is not peaking and by pass the bin.