Thanks G. I've never visited that website, so thanks for the heads-up. I'll have a snoop around on there. Seems like a little gem for free VSTs etc.
Yes, the Limiter in my DAW is just 1 dial and when you crank it, surprisingly, it doesn't sound half bad. When it's 'maxed' there is obviously some degradation in audio quality (a muffling / distorted effect), but used moderately, it's pretty useful for boosting the overall volume of the song without running above 0dB.
I've been practicing and experimenting with my mixing a lot recently, using just 1 of my songs, and it seems that I'm reaping so much from my software AND I'm learning about my actual musical performances, too. I listened back to some guitar tracks that I laid down using a humbucker guitar (fat Tele), then re-did the same tracks with a strat (single coils) and the difference in note-attack between the two 'takes' really does have knock-on effects for the nature of the compression I use, i.e. the attack and release of the compressor I set slower for the strat, because the 'chimey' character of the strat sound (in the middle/neck position) is all about note attack and short sustain, therefore having a quick compressor attack time robs flavour of the sound a little. The humbucker guitar produces a fairly even long sustain note so I have been setting the compressor to higher attach and longer release times. Does this make any sense, and does it sound about right? Anyone lese found this?