What does it mean to push harder into the master bus?

I had a mentee ask me this today:

When you say I should push the master bus more, should I push it harder into a compressor or limiter?

My response:

Yes; mostly compressor.

Basically I think of it like this: if you have your master bus plugin chain — for example, my basic chain is saturation => compression => eq => limiter — you can literally just put a Gain (aka Trim) plugin at the top of the chain and increase the gain going into the chain. Thereby literally pushing the mix a bit harder into the master bus.

This is a great way to quick see whether there's a "how hard am I pushing it" sound that seems to fit the song even a little bit better. Maybe pushing it less hard makes it sound better! Or maybe it feels even better if you hit it a little harder; maybe everything glues together and interacts in a more exciting way. The interactions on a master bus are nuanced and complex.

Sometimes I'll realize that I want to be hitting the compressor less hard but the limiter more hard — they interact with the kick drum differently.

Or sometimes I’ll realize that I want to hit the compressor a bit less hard, but I want the song to remain the same target loudness So I'll put that gain plugin at the top of the master bus chain, do a couple dB quieter there, and then figure out how best to make up the lost loudness post-compressor. Sometimes I can just get away with hitting the limiter a couple dB harder ... sometimes a little clipping or before the limiter helps, or tape, or something of that nature to help munch some transients so the limiter doesn't have to work quite as hard. Each song is different.

Hot, cool & vicious — jamie