A good tip is to not overdo it. Overcompression will lead to less punch (that's what compression is supposed to do) and absolutely kill the energy of your track.
#how do I make my mixes loud and punchy without causing clipping?
sleek shuttle
It looks like you might be mixing at 0dB, try lowering your inserts lower before clipping. That way, it won't clip as much
As long as your master's still hitting 0dB at the end, it's at the same volume
Especially if you have compression which adds pre-gain
Ohoho streaming platforms, that's a fun one
Fun fact, if your song is too loud, they turn it down in post anyways
(more so than if you just keep it quieter to begin with)
If you're worried about that, get yourself a LUFS meter and compare it to the levels of your target platform
LUFS and dB both measure volume
dB is how loud it is, whereas LUFS is how loud it sounds
That is, dB is more "scientific", but LUFS is tailored specifically to the human ears
Welp, that's what clipping and compression are kinda for
At least give the -6dB mixing trick a try
That's also fair
With compression and clipping yeah
This is relevant I swear: what's your computer's volume when you mix
Loud input -> Loud output vs. Quiet input -> Loud output
70
With your 0dB mixes, do they still sound better than with the -6dB mix at like 100 Windows volume?
Just try to make them the same-ish output volume
I'd play around with the numbers a bit, but keeping the insert levels down is a pretty common way of mixing
Get yourself a LUFS meter though and see what you get out of it, and make sure you're still hitting 0dB at the end 😉