Final Mixing Chain doubts

[crazy_jorgito]

Hello to all!

I've been using this forum and many other sources to learn about mixing during the last 8 months. I've been a musician for 10+ years and I really want to be able to put out my own material with a good quality.

Im conscious that Mastering is an important part of the process, but I tend to think that with a very good mix, it's more than enough for most of the people that listen to music on their headphones. Therefore, right now im focused in mixing.
Let me give you some context.

My basic setup is:
- DRUM BUS (stereo aux input), GUITAR BUS (stereo aux input), SYNTH BUS (stereo aux input), VOCAL BUS (stereo aux input), FX BUS one for each effect (stereo aux input), MIX BUS (stereo aux input), PRINT BUS (stereo audio track) and MASTER FADER.

I route all my DRUMS/GUITAR/VOCAL/SYNTH BUS to the MIX BUS. When the mix is ready, I print the MIX BUS into the PRINT BUS. After, I select the printed track in the PRINT BUS and bounce it.

My questions are the following:

1) The method of printing my MIX BUS into the PRINT BUS and then bouncing the track recorded in PRINT BUS makes sense? Am I doing more steps than I should?Or would it be enough with exporting the track in the PRINT BUS? Is it better to directly bounce the track without printing it in the PRINT BUS?

2) Normally plugins that go into the MIX BUS would be: an eq with very minor tweaks, a compressor to give the mix some life/punch, a tape machine to give it some color and a limiter to raise the volume (if needed) or to control that there are no peaks over -0.3db. Right?

3) Here is something that I just can't get my hear around; what is the use of the Master Fader? I know that it raises the volume of the output, but normally I've seen that if you have a mix that needs more volume, plugins like the Waves L2 Ultramaximizer are used for this purpose in the MIX BUS as the last plugin of the chain. Does it make sense to use this plugin In the Master Fader track?

4) I've read that if you need to raise your mix volume by more than 2 or 3 dB, its better to chain limiters each one raising the volume of the track by a maximum of 2/3dB (rather than using one limiter to raise the volume directly by 6dB) and that the last limiter (L2 Ultramaximizer is the one I use) on the chain should be the only one with dither settings. Is this actually right? I've uploaded a pic of my MIX BUS; PRINT BUS and Master Fader.



Take into account that I'm new but im trying to make a big effort to keep improving and learning each day.

Thank you for your time!