Well, here at the studio, we run our mastering chain Apogee PSX100>Manley Massive Passive ME>Manley Slam!ME>Waves L2 hardware.

If mastering in software, I am am a big fan of most of the UAD-1 Mastering Plug-ins, and a variety of other stuff, Waves, Sony, etc..

I think I know a LITTLE about mastering.

But the labels want hot, the artists want hot, and no-one is even listening on decent speakers at the labels, anymore. It's pathetic.

Rip the original Nightfly CD (widely recognized as one of the best recorded and engineered CD's ever) and some of the tracks don't even PEAK at -3db! Most pop tunes, even the quiet passages hit the limiter. Half the time, the intro is the perceived loudest part of the song, because the compressors and limiters haven't bit down yet!

I've been doing mastering for quite a while, and it's enough to make you weep!