I guess it may be one of the reasons why I often struggle with mixes - other than for electronic music, I happen not to like low end all that much, on record anyway, and certainly not as much as it is inherent to modern day production. So I'm trying my best to come up with an acceptable compromise.
 
I remember a few years ago listening to a recent Iron Maiden album and then going back to The Number of The Beast and realizing how the older albums sound much more intelligible and smoother. There was a ton more information frequency-wise on the more recent album, afforded by high resolution recording, but the results were less interesting. It lacked focus and clarity.
 
The same is true of just about every bands I like, from the late 90s onward. And it's not just a matter of loudness.
 
Too much bass on everything, all the time, and it sounds "flat" in a weird way, because the energy down there is constant, no matter how well managed it is. There's no room for the mids to breathe, and the stuff that isn't actual music is made as important as the stuff that is music...

One very overlooked fact about the good older recordings is how much less distortion was used on the guitars than you thought.
 
A lot of distortion sounds great when your in your bedroom wanking away by yourself, but in a mix it just doesn't work well.

This could easily turn into another huge "how to make a bass sit well in the mix" thread, but anyway to my ears anything involving Donald Fagen always has just the right amount of low end. Even if you're not a fan of his music, his latest album is a great example of brilliantly mixed bass frequencies.

craigb
One very overlooked fact about the good older recordings is how much less distortion was used on the guitars than you thought.
 
A lot of distortion sounds great when your in your bedroom wanking away by yourself, but in a mix it just doesn't work well.

I've often thought this is one of the reasons that many recordings from the 'classic' rock era have had such longevity, maybe it's less wearing on the ear or something. Clapton is a good example, being especially clean sounding but even Blackmore and early Hendrix, especially on studio recordings, barely get into crunch territory by today's standards.

craigb
One very overlooked fact about the good older recordings is how much less distortion was used on the guitars than you thought.
 
A lot of distortion sounds great when your in your bedroom wanking away by yourself, but in a mix it just doesn't work well.

 
Wow, thanks for that mental image (not!).
 
Note to self..... never, ever, ever, ever, ever borrow a guitar from craigb.
 
I agree about the distortion bit. I wouldn't know about the other thing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
How many hands does that man have ? No, don't go there.......Where's Bapu when you actually need him ?. I need reminding of something trivial to remove this awful image from my head.

Agreed about distortion. That one is easily verified once you start recording, as counterintuitive as it may seem.

The Back in Black album by AC/DC is a classic example of hot and heavy guitars that weren't artificially distorted at all. Just good old crankin' it up.