Glad to hear you're enjoying the FabFilter. I haven't tried all alternatives out there but I love their interface and it sounds very transparent to me. I don't know if you teach at an institution but I work at a music school and got a 50 percent discount through there. They don't often have sales, I think only a 25 percent off around Christmas but I think I can get you ten percent off, they have some kind of referral system I haven't used before. PM me if you decide to buy it and want that deal.

FWIW, Waves support is the best I've seen so far but you do need to have an active plan (called WUP, you get one year with every plugin but have to renew after that). But I really don't think C4 can stand up to ProMB.

dantarbill
Soniformer (32 bands)

this thing's a beast!

pwalpwal

dantarbill
Soniformer (32 bands)

this thing's a beast!

Are you basing your claim of bestiality on personal experience (i.e. having used it, understood what it was doing, and gotten good results)?  Or is it more of "Hey look!  It has 32 bands!"
 

It's 32 bands, but not 32 individually configurable bands that I'm seeing. The Waves L3-16 Limiter has 16 bands, but they provide you with 6 that you can really adjust. There's some voodoo behind it all, and it provides a more accurate result, but I wouldn't geek out too much on the number of bands they tout. If the Voxengo only had 8 bands, that would be plenty for most people. The Waves C6 is a masterful MB Compressor, and the Waves L3-16 is a really solid tool for Mastering in the final Limiting stage.

Other features make them quite valuable, such as being able to side-chain trigger any single band in the C6 (I use this on my guitars buss to allow the kick drum to 'duck' the lower mids and mid-bass on guitars, so the guitars can have girth, but not get in the way of the kick drum. 
 
The Waves L3-16 employs the principle of band priority, meaning that you can adjust which bands will Limit first before others, when slamming a mix hard.

Yes, each of Soniformer's bands is individually configurable. But configuring 32 bands one at a time is a PIA, so it lets you draw curves for each parameter (e.g. Attack) that affect the bands as a group. By setting each band's ratio and threshold independently you effectively get band priority.

try the demo http://www.voxengo.com/product/soniformer/

Waves C6
 
 

Sanderxpander
Please don't spend 150 bucks on C4, Waves goes on sale constantly and that is an old plug. If that is about your budget check out FabFilter ProMB, which is much nicer, or even Ozone Elements. If you'd like the C4, hang in there and wait for a sale.

I've been watching my inbox. Holy flash sale batman! Every day something is 50% off. Right now the C6 Multiband Compressor is on sale for $79.
 
I'm just gonna upgrade to Sonar Platinum and use the L-Phase one though. Platinum comes with a couple other things I could use so I figured it would be more economical for now.