first of all, i must also vote against that vcr. :]
i mean, it might make things sound hella interesting, but it certainly wouldn't do much good in trying to achieve the classic goals of mastering.
anyway, considering that you already know how to mix (make track elements have their own place in the spectrum, balance gain levels, and so on...), things that help me achieve a full sounding and loud mixdown are:
1) clean, proper mix is important (although not essential. i love hearing some of my old uneducated mixdowns that were pushed to the limits using all the 'wrong' methods.)
2) adding subtle distortion using a saturation plugin (now, i know you're happy with your tools, but i must suggest trying bootsie plugins called ferricTDS and nasty vcs. reading the manuals for this would be a wise thing to do, some interesting points to be found there. these pluggies are free and brilliant. od course, you can always experiment with other distortion/saturation tools,
the point here is first cut some peaks using soft clipping, before adding compression. observing peak levels and using your ears to achieve improved loudness before going into distortion is crucial at this stage.)
3) after using soft clipping to cut the first measure of peaks, add patiently add subtle amounts of compression/limiting using your favorite tools. check out the peak meters while listening to the overall loudness to make sure you're going in the right direction, and prevent overdoing it.
as someone said before, adding loudness in small increments is the way to go. clean your mix up, add some soft clipping, add some more soft clipping, compress a little, try the other way around, and so on untill you're happy/don't give a fuck anymore.
and good luck with your music fstz, it kicks plenty ass already!
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