a thread that i was hoping for....

Are there any tips or tricks to achieve a punchy + gluey mix with the least amounts of dynamics sacrificed? I like to mix with a 2-buss comp from the start (30 ms attack, 50-100 ms release, 3:1, 1-2dB VU GR) for the gluey and punch effect, but I notice that towards the end of the mix (after automating everything), my mixes tend to sound a little undynamic.

I have compression on individual instruments and busses, with parallel compression on the drums and serial compression/limiting wherever necessary.

I realize I have to rethink the compression on the individual track and buss level, but would really like to hear some opinions on my situation.

Should I just dump the 2-buss comp since its probably killing what little dynamics I have left? Or should I use higher thresholds/lower ratios on the individual tracks as to leave some dynamics for the 2-buss comp to use? Or should I let the mix be a little dynamic and let the dynamics be handled during mastering?

p/s I also have HPFs/LPFs on most tracks for mud cleaning/air filtering