This mix is on "Flames" - just like my speakers!

[dcp10200]

Regarding the cloudiness around 200-500hz: I think my version sounds better & beefier compared with your mix. The cut you made is exactly what I try to avoid in my mixes. I think the mix sounds hollow without that beef down there and I hear this kind of hollowness all the time in other mixes on this forum... often to a point where there is absolutely no body/low mids left in the guitars. I always come back to Andy Sneap/Killswitch mixes for reference because I absolutely love the guitar sound and the overall balance. His mixes always have this low mids beefiness and I always try to preserve that, but I must admit that a small cut around 400 hz would probably help the song to gain a bit more clarity.

I probably exaggerated the cut too much there, all you need really is a 1-1.5 dB cut at the most. I wouldn't normally eq it out but rather use a multiband compressor at 281 Hz, an attack of 16 ms, and a 25 ms release as a starting point, this is apparently what Andy does with his stuff. It basically just pushes down on palm mutes or whenever the low mid area gets too powerful in the mix.

It could be me but I've always heard that 300-400 Hz range as a vacuum cleaner or air escaping through a window but using a conventional eq to scoop it out is often too extreme, dynamic EQs and multiband compressors seem to work for me. Also a trick I've heard from Warren Huart (Aerosmith,Ace Frehley, Korn, The Fray) at Produce Like a Pro is boosting 220 Hz on a Neve style EQ (any eq will be fine really). I'll generally do that and follow it up with that multiband setup to keep it under wraps.

Cheers,
Doug