Starting fresh

Knowing what I know now, if starting from scratch today I’d consider the following:

An eq with 2 bell bands, both q of 0.5, 60hz and 10khz

A de-esser or hf limiter 

Gain into a clipper

Dual mono limiter set to +1.3 gain, -0.3 ceiling

That’s it!  With good monitoring and good listening that setup will take you far.