I think I recall a Ken Scott interview where he noted that 200 hz was the ugliest frequency on the spectrum. He said he never failed to cut 200 hz out of almost everything. I isolated a few tracks with a steep 200hz band pass - and I'll be damned -  it IS ugly.

200 hz is where most of the thump in your music comes from.
you need 200 hz.
on certain things.
 
a lot of times, if you have buildup of 100hz, and do cuts, you can boost at 200hz on the same tracks and get 'warmth' back....
 
so it all depends on the individual track, how you mix them, and how other tracks interact at that particular freq.
 

Dang, so there is no one size fits all?
 
Who knew?

Jeff Evans
 
What many of you don't realise is that if any of you had the opportunity to work with a really great producer on one of your own songs what they would do first is cut half of the stuff you guys have tracked right out leaving space and only the real important stuff behind.  People are too scared to cut stuff out and leave space behind. They think it does not sound full and is weak but the opposite is true.  It sounds fat, strong and clear.

This is one of the reasons I have a really good producer/friend mix my projects.  He can choose what to keep and what to omit, where I have too many parts that i love.
 

Rbh
I think I recall a Ken Scott interview where he noted that 200 hz was the ugliest frequency on the spectrum. He said he never failed to cut 200 hz out of almost everything. I isolated a few tracks with a steep 200hz band pass - and I'll be damned -  it IS ugly.

 
If you're a Ken Scott fan (and who isn't), pick up his book "From Abby Road to Ziggy Stardust."  An amazing book, and I couldn't put it down until I'd read it twice (and created a KS playlist on my phone, as he detailed a lot of specific amazing work).

I often hear people citing an arrangement as the problem in a mix when in reality, I can't disagree more. I've heard  some busy mixes in my time where there were counter melodies, and technical riffs along with orchestra sections. Though I can see where this may be a concern to some, I highly doubt the majority of us are dealing with Trans Siberian Orchestra mixes.
 
Frequency masking is the biggest culprit along with not making the right calls simply because a person doesn't know when to tweak or when a sound needs to really be discarded. Proper compression as well as panning, control of panning of effects and eq-ing of effects is crucial. We all too often forget to mention this and right away blame an arrangement. An artist should be able to create and play what they want, even if it clashes with something. It is our job as the engineer to make it work, not just remove it as a clutter track.
 
I'll give you a tip to totally prove my point. Any time you think the arrangement is causing the problem, put a high pass to the extreme on each instrument in the mix to where all low end is removed. From there, mix and pan the instruments to where you can hear them all. Then, gradually release your high pass a little on each instrument. As soon as you notice masking or something disappearing to where you need to raise a fader on something, you have found a source of masking. Eliminate the masking, not the track or the arrangement.
 
The only time I have messed with an arrangement is when it was so cluttered and against the grain, that it sounded like 5 different songs were playing at the same time, and the track made no sense. OR....when a keyboard player is playing left hand on top of the bass guitar track. Other than that, I have never had to mess with an arrangement or tell someone to change something. It has to be really extreme for me to even try to persuade a client to change their song. So I always attack the mix and exhaust everything regarding it before I go after the arrangement. ;)
 
-Danny