I use panning to make the mix sound right to me.

I often pan the drums and bass opposite and a little off-center, no more than 20%. In my mind I'm creating some space for vocals, and I read about pro engineers doing that, but I don't know that it really makes any difference:)

Once I'm happy with panning and other mix dynamics, I usually put a Stereo Imaging plugin on the Music Bus or on the Entire Mix Bus and experiment, adjust to taste.

Ozone has one and there's one bundled with Sonar.

(I've dabbled in Mid-Side processing a few times too. Waves Center is popular for that kind of technique.)

My songs are here:
https://soundcloud.com/scott-h-olson