This is EXACTLY why I mentioned proper gain staging before adding plugins.
This doesn’t work just dropping your fader on a channel…insert a plugin on a track pull the fader down and it will not effect the volume going into the plugin this has to be done at tracking or with the gain control on said track.i start a mix by setting all my gain on every channel in my mixer then do the mix and if the end mix is a touch to high in vol when done link the whole mixers channels and drop it till where it needs to be.
Then start the master.
End of the day once you have a good solid mix you shouldn’t have to do as ‘much’ work.you said your doing an amateur cd as long as all your tracks ballance together after you done your masters and their is no major volume jumps between tracks you should be good…like soul burn mentioned above as long as their not over limited and squashed.I read some people going through analog compressors dont even put a limiter on they are fine without.