Recently, I had a long mastering project that ended up requiring a lot of my outboard gear and a lot of digital processing....MS EQing, etc.
It got pretty complex, but I was able to get into the zone and make it work really well.
It was a loud, kind of loose rock project.
The clients were thrilled, which makes me feel good.
Job well done.

I was approached by a very similar band a few days later.
Since I was still in the zone....truly an expert at the task at hand....
I took on the project and approached it with the same "chain" of mastering gear/software.
Man.....It was like pulling teeth.
Nothing worked.
I ended up stepping back, listening to the songs again, and approaching from step 1 instead of step 24.
I ended up doing the master in ProTools using only an itb EQ and one hardware EQ.
It was great.

Not to beat a dead horse, but there really can't be a "Chain".

Usually when I see what some of the younger, eager guys' mastering setups, they all have things encoded to MS and have a bunch of gear that is not helping anything patched in.
I always disable the software plugins and have them start with just an EQ.
It's amazing to see someone realize that overkill just sounds bad.

But, half the fun is playing with tools, isn't it?

Lagerfeldt's parable could not be more true and simple.

Can I use that?

B