Squash!

What aspects of your mixes do you feel are best to squash and why?
 
Please try to relate to frequencies, instruments, and/or fav genres ... where you'd deem.
 
I'll begin:
 
My genre is beatz, currently.  IIRC, there is a law of science that states: "dancy beatz require 8-16 measures of squashing in sections ... if not the whole d&ng song".
 
Boost-11 is my fav squasher (low CPU and fast to dial in); Ozone4 squashers get too intelligent for my average IQ (or, my ears can't tell the difference)
 
I love to generously squash the kick and bass from about 45 to 250Hz ... but haven't figured precise freqs yet.
 
Also, other pecussives get squashed a bit less.
 
Vocs oft get squashed with up to 35dcbs of (hyper-compression), but
-- with narrow rolloffs of lows and highs,
-- the shriek-freqs: 3.5khz gets a 3-6 dcbl reduction at about Q=1,
-- 6-9 Hz get gentle rolloffs ... so that by 10kHz there can be no vox sibs, brilliance, hiss, etc. becoming squashed.
-- serious de-essing is necessary during vox squashing of siblant males.
 
I'm debating on acoustic and electric guitars.  I know some of you metal folk compress out most of the timbre oft.  Usually I don't compress electric guitars much, unless things are in-out too much, level-wise.
 
None of the tinnier instruments get squashed more than 3-4 dcbs (strings, vios, trumps, etc.).  These are more likely to receive saturation assistance, to warm the mids, so to speak.
 
And I'm 98% sure there's law of science that states "generous saturation applied to a squashed low end is abomination". 

Fried squash with onions..... oh my....!  Almost heaven with some steamed cabbage and vinegar....


In a mix..... not so much. 

I try NOT to squash anything in my mixes. 

WHAT HOOK IS SUGGESTING...

is really old school, in a way, and very effective.
classic example, 'when the levee breaks', recorded in a foyer of a large home, with mics up the stairwell picking up the high ceiling room, the kit below on (marble?) floors....
just a couple of mics, to pick up that whole thing, tweaked by compressors.
hell, he even added some delay to it!

so the idea is, be free with the ideas, and bold as well....
you can from super clean recording, to super sludgy..... all by design.

+1 on the M-160. A truly great mic. Just don't drop it on the floor, it's not as rugged as it looks.

The only thing I routinely squash heavily are BGV's. IKM's Fairchild 670 has gotten a lot of use in that application.