Well, it's only a problem if mastering tools are used for mixing, really. There are so many tracking compressor/limiter plugs that it doesn't seem necessary to try and use mastering tools for this purpose. I mean, the built in latency is what makes the mastering plugs work for their intended purpose.

And you can quote me.

That's a tough call... What works for me is often guaranteed not to work for anyone else.

What makes Alchemist golden (for everything... individual tracks, mixing, mastering) is the surgical control over envelope shape and how/when each component of the processors works with each other. It's basically a multi-band version Solera with some of the most beautiful visual feedback I've seen (comparable to Ozone or APEQ. So, for each frequency band you have a compressor, expander, dcompressor and dexpander each have an upper and lower threshold as well as normal compressor/expander controls. The envelope controls are per band and if I remember right (I'm not at production computer) there is a pre-emphasis eq per band as well.

I've never been able to get results I was happy with out of Ozone, so I can't comment on that one. I think that's a personal problem though because I have a coworker that can work miracles with it. I still use CQ1 and ML4000 4 though, it just depends on what the situation calls for.

I dont like the Voxengo's interface or how the knobs handle.