Nice one Curly...

Yes you have got your elements definitely in the right places now and although I suspect you will have moved on a fair bit since you posted this (knowing your mentor that is... :;), I'll mention a few bits...

That bass is sounding good - I'm on headphones once a bloody gain but I can hear it sounding full and certainly would need only a bit more tweaking for it to sound fab on a rig ... kick needs to be brought up to match the bass - definitely some layering required using another kick to put a top on it - plus compression and after effects EQ which you may have been shown by now...

Lead sound sits nicely in the middle and is pretty much as forward in the mix as it should be - for now... other elements are ok and I can hear some stereo movement and widening which is good, although the shaker sounds etc are a bit thin but hey, not too worry as I know the exercise your trying to achieve...

So apart from getting into the higher frequencies, like the ride an such, mission accomplished and it's better you do keep your composition simple for now as it does help to take one step at a time... and not wind up writing some fantastic track but only to find that it doesn't work on the production side of things - which happens to all of us!

Good progress.... :coolio: