How do you use limiters/compressors?

There's more to compression than just heavy handed squashing, namely 'transient modeling': by shaving off just the very top of the signal you can adjust the way transients are sounding without crushing the dynamic range. As to the old school workflow there were considerations which encouraged being frugal about patching effects: with hardware however many channels you have is how many channels you have of an EQ/comp/whatever. With a nearly infinite number of insert points and instances there's not much drawback to using exactly the effects you want on every single track even if the benefits are approaching barely-audible. It's not like the days of having a single 670 in the house and having to decide where you're going to use it on each buss/sub-mix.

Very true! ow when you buy a compressor ITB you can use as many instances of it that your computer can handle!

Awesome! The best thing you can do is just learn how to use them well. Learn the ins and outs of what threshold, ratio, knee, attack, release and make up do. Then you can flip compressors to do whatever you want. :)

Thanks again all. I am going to check out the multiinspector. That looks like an interesting and useful tool.

I compress the following: Master Track Drum Buss Kick Drum Snare Drum Toms Bass Acoustic Guitars Guitar Solos Lead Vocal Buss Background Vocal Buss

I don't focus on compressing groups or instruments. I compress what I think needs to be compressed. Compression is a tool not a shirt you can throw on whenever or whatever.