Mastering TiPs

i've used mulch for mastering quite a bit in the past. i have a .amh
file template with just a file player (for the finished track), and
then EQ, compression, limiting and monitoring plugins placed after it.

here are my recommendation for vst's (all shareware or freeware):

EQ - Paris EQ (4 band fully parametric), or ClassicEQ (for simple
graphic adjustments, and has a warm sound), or LPGEQ2 (for more
complex graphic EQ - has loads of bands)

Compression - Endorphin (love it!), or there are are few new things
out you might like to try, i have read good things about them on KVR
but not really explored them myself, such as the C3 Multiband
Compressor, the Smart Electronix MJ Multiband Compressor, or T-
Sledge. There's the Classic series compressor too.

Limiting - I either use the one built in to Endorphin, or the Classic
Master Limiter, or TL's Maximiser, all of which are excellent.

Tube/Tape Saturation - I don't usually try and add any tape/tube
saturation after these, as most of the above plugins are far from
neutral, and already have a nice amount of "warmth" programmed in,
but if you wanted you could check out Spice, TubeLimit or the Voxengo
Tube Amp.

Metering: i recommend Toby Bear's Bit Viewer, Ssmart Electronix
Exoscope, Cchris Whitehursts FFT/C-Plugs suite, Inspector, and PSPp
Vintage Meter.

Normalising: I don't know of a normalising plugin, i usually try and
make sure the final version is just under 0dB FS. i usually use cool
edit if i have to normalise.

Warm distortion: Daniel Lind's Grease Ttube and Tube Limit both have
a nice sound, or you could try some of the guitar amp simulations
like the Simulanalog Guitar Suite (the Marshall JCM sim is great), or
Green Machine.

Final word of advice - I've had a go at mastering stuff for release
before, just be aware that you are not making it worse (keep checking
it against the original). I have often found myself thinking that the
original mulch export sounded better than after i had put it through
lots of the above, and have ended up keeping the original version!
Also Mulch is 32bit floating point internal, but maybe some of those
plugins aren't, so i would tend to ditch them if i found that to be
the case.

I would like to add that Nick Whitehurst's plugins are located at
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/NickWhitehurst/. He also did a
small saturation plugin which I use 'all over' (it uses very little CPU
time).

The best sound processor I've found so far is the MyMag saturator by
NickWhitehurst :
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/NickWhitehurst/mymag1.zip
It seems to act both as a vintage tube compressor/saturation. To my
ears, it sounds as good as professionnal grade plugins while being dead
easy to use. I've even incorporated it in my liveset, at the end of the
signal chain - good dynamics and warmth !
I've also found out that just running recorded stuff through AM audio
engine (file player -> sound out -> wave file) does enhance slightly the
sound (AM's magic ?).