Second mix is way better. Very, very good first effort! I'm on headphones, and my ears are tired, so I'm a bit limited over here, but here's what I get as far as the mixing goes, and a couple tricks:
Hats are too hot in the mix, especially open. Will have to bring down the cymbals a little. Start with your OH track, then compensate with dropping the hats a little more, and see if it levels out the drums.
Nitpick -- I'd suggest moving around the crashes here and there - two of them that are used predominantly are right pan, the main crash is being hit a lot. When this happens in succession with no tonal change, it's obviously samples. What can help, is to play with velocities a little bit (on HH and crash), which can change the tone a little, and humanize it, so that it isn't the exact same sound every time it's hit.
Vocal tracks sound crisp and clear, but need a little beefing. Play with the compressors you got handy. The reverb's a good effect from what I can tell, but pushing the limit on wetness. Reverb's almost a "seen-but-not-heard" rule with good vocal tracks. A good idea with mixing is to check balance by firing up what you think is a good mix, then listening to it outside the door.
At the same time, watch your compression
Listen to the chorus, something's going on in the mix that's mostly effecting the kick frequencies.
Bass needs mids (something I've found habitually while using my X3), and it's heavy on the low end. Very little definition. Should be fixed by a wee bit o' scoop out at 300-400Hz (bell curve), then try bumping up the 500Hz-1K range, and maybe cut it out a bit at 60-80Hz. Fix your patches on the POD later.
+1 on the frequency slotting, it's natural byproduct of well sampled drums (it's hard to beat Toontrack on this). If you really wanna get funky with it and learn a bit, especially since you're doing this yourself - start playing around with a frequency analyzer and EQing. Rather than typing for a half hour, this'll explain far better than I can. And has pretty pictures!
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You're on the right track. You're not paying for studio time, which is one of the best moves you can make as a musician. But, be warned. It'll suck hours out of your life like a shiny swirling vortex of DOOM. Take breaks away from the computer to stretch your body, your eyes, and your ears, and remember that there is a clock in the lower right side of your computer screen
Anyhoo. As is, this is better than most of the $30/hr demos I hear. Good work, man!
