Okay, I'll try to hit this from the top.
Ido: Thanks for the positives. You've hit the vocal on the head. That's what I'm trying for. I want the vocal to be a "pad" that you can understand the lyric from. If you can understand the words, I have what I'm after.
Robus: I have a mix that is in REALLY good shape. Had to be for this to work. Then when I mastered it, I had to hack it up. The softer parts had to be mastered differently from the hard parts and still gel as a whole, but it's over limited at this point because of the way it needs to fit back together...If I posted the mix, you'd be all over it because the acoustic parts are barely audible...doesn't work with the limiting any other way. I considered making this thing 4 pieces and running different limiting...hey, with automation, that could work. Run different limiting on the different parts so the loud is less limited (and therefore less stressed and flattened) and the acoustic parts can stay where they are (but come back up). I want loud and in your face followed by extreme serene. That's the goal!
DM60: The only thing on my master bus extra above your recommendation is a glue compressor running 1.1:1 and barely moving the needle. The acoustic parts are sounding pretty much like I want them (I'd honestly like them quieter and more dynamic), but I'm having a hard time getting the electric parts to gel RIGHT when I push them. The song is really 4 songs patched together into this one, so the mix is really odd. I've got a lot of bass and drums (during the acoustic parts) that are -16 - -20 dB lower than the electric parts. So making the two levels gel with a limiter engaged required some "out of the box" thinking, which is why there's no mix without mastering.
The bass is what it's been through the entire project. Same set up all the way through. Some songs add a piano mirror, and some (like this one) have a sub running underneath to give it more bottom. Voice is straight up with my one plug on it plus compressor. Most of those tracks don't have anything more than high pass. Not even EQ. I'm doing a bit of EQ at the bus level to mask the limiter's push...apparently not enough.
musicgeekandlvr: You are absolutely correct. I had to push the limiter to 10.6dB (whereas most of my tracks run between 3dB and 5dB to get the same loudness my other tracks have. It is WAY overlimited...and therein lies the rub. I'm literally trying to use the same limiter across three completely different tasks in the same song. This IS what sounded best...
Robus and Dave: I'm pretty thick skinned. I come here to get help, not to get hurt. My feelings come second to my music...
Okay, I'm going to try to automate the limiter...drop it back a lot to begin with and try dropping it out altogether during the acoustic parts so they are much more dynamic. We'll see how that comes out.