Ozone has done it for me.  I tried going alone and using what was included with Sonar, back in the "old" Sonar days (started in Sonar 6) and never really got good mix masters.  I tried demo versions of Ozone 5 and T-RackS and Ozone won out for me.  I bought Ozone 5 elements and have Ozone 6 elements and had a demo of Ozone 7 elements but Ozone 5 gets me great masters (for primarily traditional country).  I've done 6 CD projects (10 songs on each CD) of song demo sessions for a retired Nashville songwriter and major label producer and he has given me "great marks" for the final products.  Other clients like my mix/masters too.

Johnbee58
I'll try anything, but my budget is under $100.00. 
 
JB

Grab a Trial of one of the Ozone 8 products.
 
Wait for Ozone Elements 8 to go on sale ($49 or $29), seem to happen every couple months or so.  

Ozone looks promising.  I think I'll try it out.  It has a demo for 10 days and it's currently $130.00, but if it's as good as everybody says it is, it might be worth it.  Like I said, I'll try it.  Checked today.  Waves has the L2 Ultra on sale for $29.00 and the L3 Multimaximizer is currently the same price.  I'll read through Craig's "how to" on the L3 but the Ozone seems like a little less work, but less educational.  Gotta decide also if I want to have the software do the thinking for me or do I want to take the challenge and learn it myself.  Thanks for the suggestions and ideas.
 
JB

I agree with what the other folks are saying about it being a good idea to try demos of iZotope Ozone Elements etc.
 
I bought Ozone Elements on sale for $39 and love it. As for its educational value, the wizard just gives you a starting point. I always tweak it a bit. Its EQ settings are usually pretty spot on, but I like to touch up the Maximizer, usually bump up the transients, and then switch on the Spatializer. It's a suite, so you can use the individual pieces with other EQ's, Maximizers, Spatializers, etc., if you decide to later.
 
Having said that, I think your track sounds fantastic with the Waves L2! Nice and punchy, reminded me of Gaucho-era Steely Dan, which, coming from me is high praise. I can hear the limiter/compressor working, but I know what to listen for, and it just sounds good.
 
Good work, man, you're on the right track. Mixwise, maybe sprinkle some micropitch on that vocal (there's one in the Cakewalk vocal processor) and a little more 'verb.

Johnbee58
Ozone looks promising.  I think I'll try it out.  It has a demo for 10 days and it's currently $130.00, but if it's as good as everybody says it is, it might be worth it.

We're talking about Ozone Elements, remember. If you wait, it is regularly discounted for $39 at Pluginboutique

Euthymia

Johnbee58
Ozone looks promising.  I think I'll try it out.  It has a demo for 10 days and it's currently $130.00, but if it's as good as everybody says it is, it might be worth it.

We're talking about Ozone Elements, remember. If you wait, it is regularly discounted for $39 at Pluginboutique

Never heard of that outfit before, but it looks interesting.  The discounts remind me of the old AudioMidi retailer (remember them?).  Anyway, I take it that the Ozone Elements gets loaded into the Master Buss, correct?
 
John B.

L2 is a pretty decent brick-wall limiter. I find the best way to use it is to use the link button between the sliders to pull both down until the sound starts to get rubbish. Then delink the sliders, set the output one to below 0, say -0.3dB and the one controlling compression so that only the peaks are getting hit, and then only by a very few dB.

I agree with Anderton about the L3, it’s very good and very flexible.

Cakewalk’s Concrete Limiter is/was very good but I don’t think it’s available now. Frontier does a different kind if job to a brick-wall limiter. L2 and similar limiters should be the last thing in the processing chain other than meters, Frontier I think is better used as a more moderate processor.

Compression before final limiting can often be a good idea, the Waves SSL bus compressor is good for that and is often on sale these days. The idea is to do things a little at a time - mastering is adding final touches, not making major changes to the audio. At least, it is unless you’re mastering for vinyl where the physical requirements of the cutting lathe, press and playback equipment might mean some significant eq is required to tame frequencies vinyl can’t handle well and there’s also the reduced dynamic range of vinyl to consider. Vinyl mastering is a really skilled and demanding job.

Don’t add any dither unless you are reducing the bit depth. If the project is, say, 24 bit and the exported audio file will be 24 bit switch off dithering. If you don’t the dithering will just be adding unecessary noise. It’s a process that really should only be carried out once as the last step in reducing the bit depth to that required by the target media. As for which dithering algorithm to use, if you can hear significant differences between them on anything other than a very simple, open mix congratulations, you have more sensitive ears than 99%+ of the population. :-)

Ozone has presets but even the presets are all user configurable.  In my use the presets work 95% as is.  The others I have to tweak as needed.  
 
I don't have Ozone in the Master Bus.  I mixdown to a new track and then add Ozone to that track.  I then export or print as some call it the new mastered track as 16 bit 44.1Khz wav. 
 
Ozone can actually be used in any track.  I've done that to the voice track and used the EQ in Ozone once.

fireberd, thanks!
 
I downloaded Ozone Elements demo and I'm extremely happy with the results and I think I'll be going to buy this puppy.
I tried the Master Assistant on both Streaming and CD. 
 
STREAMING-Suggested a 0.00 threshold (totally open) and cut the ceiling back -1.0.
CD-Suggested ceiling brought down to -0.3db with threshold @ -3.2db along with EQ adjustments.
It sounds GREAT!!  Much louder but without much noticeable clipping. I uploaded the CD mix.  Have a listen (same link) but be warned.  IT'S HOT!!
 

Johnbee58
...Bitflipper, if  bring the threshold down any lower that would defeat my purpose and I would have to crank up the volume on my car stereo.  Of course, some stations have different levels, or so it seems.  The local country station was close to the level on this, but the rock station (which is closer in distance to me) was much hotter, at least on the low end.

Bear in mind that radio stations do their own volume adjustments. It sounds like maybe you're putting your music onto a CD and then comparing it to radio broadcasts in your car. That can yield misleading conclusions. Try using a well-mastered commercial CD for that comparison instead, like something from the 90's. You'll find that it's not at all unusual to have to turn the CD up compared to the volume setting you listen to the radio with. Plus your car's stereo may be applying additional compression as well, further muddying the waters.
 
L2 is a long-established standard, even if it's not as sophisticated as more recent plugins. Yes, it distorts. But some people like that and use the L2 for that reason.
 
If you're struggling with mastering, Ozone is your best bet. Yes, it's relatively expensive, but nothing out there does a better job with less fiddling. If you don't want to spend that kind of money, and you have an edition of SONAR that includes Adaptive Limiter, use that instead. It's very good.