Dude that is awesome advice hahaha....I'm glad I asked you because that would have never crossed my mind to try that. I'm in the same boat, I just mess around sometimes but it only gets me so far. I'm just ready to get my mixes to the next level. And hell yeah, judging by the way you have everything sounding, I'll keep my eyes peeled for your EP man. Keep it up!

Just try some compression, ditch the SD2 kick and trigger it with something else (im sure you can find music with just the kick being played - one i can think of is parkway drive's newer album, on one of the songs just the kick is being played in the beginning and its a decent one) and mess with the eq so everything stands out more. I have my snare's eq set to lots of lows for the punch and a little highs for clarity.

Let me know if you want any more info, be on the lookout for an awesome EP this summer

-Eric

Thanks a lot man! I use superior but i trigger the kick with another sample I made (basically took the kick from the band when they had a single kick with nothing else) using drumtrigg (super simple and free!), everything else is superior.

I honestly dont know much about compression or anything, ive learned everything I know from trial and error and just messing around with VSTs, which is probably why it has taken me so long to get a decent mix. I am trying to release an EP for my solo project this summer so ive been getting serious about how my mix should sound instead of just messing with stuff.

For the snare, i use a huge amount of compression and some reverb. It took me awhile to get it to sound right, but ive just been making slight changes for a couple years and im finally at the point where i'm happy with the sound of it in the mix. I use EQ on pretty much EVERY track including the master track (not supposed to lol) and I just go by what sounds right.

Dude, the clips you've been posting lately are magnificent. You're an awesome guitarist and everything about your songs is brutal. I noticed a huge change in the quality of your mixes once you posted the "New Kick Mixtest". Seems like you've been hard at work. Do you just use Superior? I've been trying to get my kicks and snares to get super punchy like that but I still fall short.