I think the engineering public has to keep something in mind. There is a lot of diffrent situations Mixdowns occur in. As ass backwards as this is many of the Major Label releases mixed by "The Big Guys" they have no idea if Joe Basemant DAW Guy who is freinds with the A&R guy is going to master it or Stephen Marcussen(A total f*cking pro). Unfortunatly in the major label arena Who masters it is often based on who will cut a good deal to the A&R man for doing his small projects for cheap in exchange for doing a big project. I hate anonymous internet stories but probably the best record I ever did was mastered by a vetran mastering engineer who murdered it. The A&R man who the Producer and I both know well back in the day used to blow lines together constantly.
My point is a lot of people who are mixing have no say nor have any idea where their finished product will be going. So they often advise processing the mix with plug ins.
There is another group of people who cant listen to the finished product unless it is as good as possible. I have to monitor t the end of my mixes with an L1 or Maxim in the path to just hear what the compressions gonna do. I can't even mix with a part that I hate in the song cause it will annoy me. The song I mixed today had a horible back up so I put it in during the last few passes. I digress.
There is lots of scenarios but what I would argue the best thing you can do is build a relationship with a Mastering engineer. If a Mastering Engineer can understand what your going for and discuss with you the shortcoming s of your mixes he can then learn how to process it to a way you will both be happy with. 9 times out of 10 if that mastering Engineeer is worth a dime he will have a better enviorment to asses your mix in and as well better Tools.
There are lots of Inexpensive Mastering Engineers who can do just as good a job as the big guys for a lot less money. If your doing mostly small budget stuff build a relationship with one rather then pretending your a genius who has great tools and can do it yourself. Your product will thank you.
If you ask any good Mastering Engineer they will be more then happy to tell you what you can do to better your product for them. Trust me the first time I followed instructions the results were much better and I have showed this to many engineers before and not one of them has regretted it.
I think some of this was discussed in my Tape Op interview with Alan Douches this month... If not an unedited version I believe is here:
www.westwestsidemusic.com.
Aside from Alan other great Mastering Engineers who are inexpensive are Roger Seibel @ SAE and John Golden. All of these guys can do an amasing job on a 30 minute record for around $300.