Hi, im a bit stuck with a problem i was hoping to hear some other perspectives on.

I finished mixing a track to my liking and now that im mastering it im stuck on around -18.6 LUFS and a -1.5 dB headroom.

While im scared of losing some of the dynamic of the track im guessing its better i get to do it manually and to my pleasing rather than letting a streaming platform squish it or leave it quiet?

As far as i know a compressor seems like a decent way to balance this out pretty effectively at this stage but since i have kick and sub-bass sounds that i dont want to be neither "longer" nor "shorter" in its sound, ive had trouble using a compressor wether normal or multiband succesfully on a mastering track.

But im a tad bit shit at compressors so i may very well be missing something there.

Thanks ^^

I've seen some pro engineers put 2 limiters on the master and say "the second one is to take the load off the first limiter so it doesn't work that hard". And I was wondering, what do they mean by that? Wouldn't just one limiter suffice?

Also seen people use 2 compressors on the same track one after another and I don't see the reason for that. Can someone explain please?

I've been making & mixing music now for well over a decade and still find choosing and dialling reverbs the part I avoid the most due to it being so nebulous.
I'm working with Ableton on a Macbook Pro.

1. What’s your workflow for dialling in a reverb fast?
2. How do you decide on room vs. plate vs. hall for a given source?
3. Do you EQ or compress the reverb return, and how?
4. Plugin recommendations?
5. Any good tutorials or exercises?