<pony><original><metal> Modern Day Canterlot

[EpiPony]

Heyy guys i'm back!
I haven't been on here (or anywhere in the community really) in like forever. But i'm back with music!
As you might have already guessed from the title, it's kind of based around modern day babylon's style of music.
I've been working on my mixing and mastering mainly, and i think this track really sounds way better than anything i've done before.
Without further ado, here's my track. I'd love to hear what you guys think, and how i could improve on anything :3

[Feedback]

I like it! It's well-composed, and the tracks fit well together to my ears. I do have a few nitpicks though, mostly with the mix in the chorus section;

~I don't know if it's youtube's compression messing things up or not, but I can barely hear the drums. A good compressor and EQ to help focus them would do wonders.
~Lower the main guitar, and compensate by using an EQ to raise the mids. I don't know if it'll work with the distortion and tone you're going for, but this is a trick that someone showed me a year or two ago. It helps make everything a little more visible by lowering the volume of the lead instrument just a tad, while still keeping it the focus by raising its main frequencies, which are the midrange frequencies in this case(Not sure their exact range on here. Experimentation!). On the same note,
~Give more low-end definition to that low, chugging guitar. Either with an EQ to emphasize the lower mids, or by recording the dry guitar signal doing the part, that thing drives the track, and needs to be more visible.
~More panning! I like the panning of the drums and some of the background guitars, but a lot of it feels stuck in the middle. The main lead instrument should be in the center, but go hog wild with panning the other tracks! For me at least, a lot of widely-panned instruments not only makes everything clearer and more distinct, it makes the song more expansive and full-sounding.

Again, all of these are purely with the big, distorted choruses. I really like it musically, and the clean verses sound great to me. Can't wait to see what happens with this!

[EpiPony]

I like it! It's well-composed, and the tracks fit well together to my ears. I do have a few nitpicks though, mostly with the mix in the chorus section;

~I don't know if it's youtube's compression messing things up or not, but I can barely hear the drums. A good compressor and EQ to help focus them would do wonders.
~Lower the main guitar, and compensate by using an EQ to raise the mids. I don't know if it'll work with the distortion and tone you're going for, but this is a trick that someone showed me a year or two ago. It helps make everything a little more visible by lowering the volume of the lead instrument just a tad, while still keeping it the focus by raising its main frequencies, which are the midrange frequencies in this case(Not sure their exact range on here. Experimentation!). On the same note,
~Give more low-end definition to that low, chugging guitar. Either with an EQ to emphasize the lower mids, or by recording the dry guitar signal doing the part, that thing drives the track, and needs to be more visible.
~More panning! I like the panning of the drums and some of the background guitars, but a lot of it feels stuck in the middle. The main lead instrument should be in the center, but go hog wild with panning the other tracks! For me at least, a lot of widely-panned instruments not only makes everything clearer and more distinct, it makes the song more expansive and full-sounding.

Again, all of these are purely with the big, distorted choruses. I really like it musically, and the clean verses sound great to me. Can't wait to see what happens with this!

Haha for the drums i assume you mainly mean the kicks? the cymbals, snares and toms are pretty audible already IMO. As for the kick, i've tried many things but the samples of those in AD are just way too boomy and don't really have a lot of that nice metal 'click'. I've already compressed, EQ'd and saturated the living hell out of 'em and they're already like 3 dB higher than the rest but in the mix they sound quite inaudible still.
Could also be because they are in the same spectrum as the preferred range of the guitars and bass. I might see whether i can work about that though by EQing those a tad differently on future songs, perhaps use extra samples for 'em as well. On the drum master i could go a few dBs higher as well but i think that sounds kinda counterproductive, making the drums tóó present, mainly the cymbals (IMO).
On about the guitars, the leads are quite mid-heavy already, mainly high-mid (on the amp itself mids and presence are set very high, and post-recording i put a 3dB boost at around 2000 kHz). I think that boosting them even more will result in a very unnatural sound.
As for the chunky chugga chugga, i really like to keep the guitars a bit out of the range of the bass guitar by applying a HPF at around 50Hz and a few cuts here and there in the bass range, mainly keeping the chugs in the lower mid range. You know, going for a 'djent' type sound (like MDB haha). I don't really like it when chugs have too much low end :P
About panning, i'm never really creative with that haha, i usually just do stereo tracking but never really go about doing two different things on both sides. I did a few times on this one though (the main guitars are played differently L and R, and the rhythm guitars do some harmonizing a couple of times)
I have used a completely different approach on this song in comparison to my previous works, by means of keeping everything as natural sounding as possible, using only minimal effects.

I thank you a lot for your advice, there's quite a bit of helpful tips in there. Actually i already used most of the advice you gave me on the song, but i might push them a bit harder. Either way i'm glad you like the composition, that is one of my main issues most of the time: creativity haha. I might upload an improved version using your advice on my soundcloud soon, if it makes the chorus sound significantly better.

[DJGaugen]

The cymbals are way too loud, m8. They make the kicks and snares harder to hear. It's like the cymbals are Miep Gies, and they're trying to hide Anne Frank from the Nazi's.

The composition is pretty cool, I really like it.

Nothing else to really pick at, really. 8 / 10 m8.