bitflipper
 
It sounds like maybe you're putting your music onto a CD and then comparing it to radio broadcasts in your car. 
 

 
That's exactly what I'm doing, and I'm finding that different stations broadcast at different volumes.  The local country station (about 25 miles away) sounds comparable to my stuff (since my mastering experiment began) while the local rock station (about 5 miles away) is much louder and pushes more bass.  But I also have a home theater on which I can just load my tests onto a flash drive and listen to them on it, as well as a cheap boom box.

Johnbee58

chuckebaby
 
How much are you paying for the L2 ? 29.00 ?
Yes its a good deal.
 

No.  $69.00!  With PA sales tax it comes to around $75.00.  But, as I said, I'm not expecting mastering in the real sense of the word.  Just want to boost the level as much as possible without crushing it.
JB

The Waves L2 Ultramaximizer is on sale right now for 29.00 dollars. https://www.waves.com/plugins/l2-ultramaximizer
I don't know maybe im missing something.
 
For what its worth I agree with Anderton about the L3 and that's also 29.00 on sale as well.
https://www.waves.com/plugins/l3-multimaximizer#image
 
The L3 is a great tool

chuckebaby

Johnbee58

chuckebaby
 
How much are you paying for the L2 ? 29.00 ?
Yes its a good deal.
 

No.  $69.00!  With PA sales tax it comes to around $75.00.  But, as I said, I'm not expecting mastering in the real sense of the word.  Just want to boost the level as much as possible without crushing it.
JB

The Waves L2 Ultramaximizer is on sale right now for 29.00 dollars. https://www.waves.com/plugins/l2-ultramaximizer
I don't know maybe im missing something.
 
For what its worth I agree with Anderton about the L3 and that's also 29.00 on sale as well.
https://www.waves.com/plugins/l3-multimaximizer#image
 
The L3 is a great tool

Yeah, I saw that, but after trying it out I'm leaning toward the Ozone Elements.
 

 
 

Just to confuse things even further - IK's Lurssen mastering console has really surprised me with how good a job it does for a "preset" mastering plug-in.

Also a fan of Lurssen mastering console. wish there were more options/deeper editing available.
But its still a great little preset mastering tool.