Mixdown Level. How loud for preparation of mastering stage?

Hello. As I learn about mixing down music and mastering, clearly they are different stages.

I am looking at the free trial for Wavelab 7 and considering using it as a mastering option.

So my questions are:

What should the mixdown stage ouput level look like so it can be appropriately mastered?

Should I avoid attempting to pump the volume at the mixdown stage by not using multiband compression and the maximizer on the mixdown master output?

Is there a noticeable difference between someone doing the all in one pass of mixing and mastering for volume pumping? Verses rendering the recording as a mixdown by itself and then running that mixdown through a mastering process for volume pumping and eq adjustments?

Thank you for the good help. Gary

If you’re mastering you should leave the master output empty during mixdown.

Whether or not you can hear the difference: No. If you use the same plugins in Cubase the result should be identical. Wavelab might be easier to work with though, and it has better metering.