Rate my improvement, if you hear any

[Limak]

Ok guys so here's the deal:
At about half of May i took on my first serious mixing attempt ever(the first really serious one) and it was mix of Drown My Day demo.

http://www.keepmyfile.com/download/11e9df2320568

And here's the rest of this great Drown My Day demo mixed by me:
http://www.keepmyfile.com/download/e21eec2320563
http://www.keepmyfile.com/download/810d0e2320567
http://www.keepmyfile.com/download/b1af3a2320569
http://www.keepmyfile.com/download/2e00802320570

Be straight and in my face, I need to know if I'm progressing or regressing in my ability to mix. I can handle any criticism.

 

[jess.oceans]

I really like both of these
at the beginning of the second one it sounds like something has too much compression on it. I like the tone of the guitars in the second version better as well. But in the first version they stand out a lot more.
The drums in the second version sound better as well, might wanna lower the cymbals just a touch though, not too much. Theres just a couple hits that are a bit loud. And try out some parralel compression on the snare to give it some more smack.
The vocals in the second version are mixed alot better. Not as loud, they sit perfectly with the rest of the mix.
What guitars/ amps were used to record the guitar tracks?
And how did you record the drums? I really like your kick sound, as well as your toms. What did you do to them?
Same with the drums, I really like your kick sound.

 

[Limak]

Yep about compression in the beginning, it's parallel compression on kick/snare I overdid, on this take I just did it to the drum bus(which I always have separately from OHs bus). Next time I would para comp kick/snare separately. The snare had many things running on it so I guess i messed up eq/sample on it, next time I'd blend the snare diffrently with my fav sample. About the guitars standing out, yep on first mix they do stand out alot more but my intention on second mix was to not overdo it again, I though making them stand out too much was an error(correct me if I'm wrong here though). About OH's yes the left side - i f*cked it up, it was hard to balance because left side are programmed OHs and right side are real recorded ones(the guy that recorded their OH's messed up left side and they needed to program it). I'm overall happy with right OHs and ride/hh but yeah I'd do something with those left OHs now(I just didn't want them to be burried and barely audible like in first mix). On the vocals yep thats pretty much what I'm most proud of on my new mix, I redid my mixing techniques on that.
On the guitars you wouldn't believe - DI were recorded through Toneport(with a passive pickup used!!!). I reamped them through my good ol' Mesa Tripple Rectifier... nah joke they were reamped with Revalver III demo(which rules!).
Drums are almost all Addictive Drums(replaced only snare with 100% blend) and a touch of eq/para comp.