Hey Monk, I totally have not forgotten about you, I was just… busy! Yes, very busy. 
Thanks for the detailed answer. You’re right, there is some signal in the lower mids that the track can wonderfully do without.
The drums are sitting a bit in the back because I think they are less important in this song and I don’t want to distract the listener too much from all the soloing instruments. The kick doesn’t have any extra processing (well, it didn’t, it has now: I’ve removed some of the high end), there’s a little bit of compressor on all of the drums, though. And there’s plenty of dynamics in there, too. The percussionists of this combo are quite good, really. (I already mentioned that I very much like what you did with the muted drums in your mix and I still do but I wouldn’t want to change a song in a way that would require the band to play it differently to match my mix.)
I’m totally ignoring any of your advice about the “low quality swishy” MP3 I posted because half of it is crap and I’ve known the other half for close to 20 years now. A VBR MP3 at that bitrate is almost indistiguishable from “the real thing” unless you’re one of a very few who can best a double-blind test. Most people can’t, I can’t either, especially at the bitrate I’ve been using which is why I’ll keep using it.
Thanks again for the comments!
Anyway, here’s the second version (for real now, totally uploaded the wrong file):
Thanks for the detailed answer. You’re right, there is some signal in the lower mids that the track can wonderfully do without.
The drums are sitting a bit in the back because I think they are less important in this song and I don’t want to distract the listener too much from all the soloing instruments. The kick doesn’t have any extra processing (well, it didn’t, it has now: I’ve removed some of the high end), there’s a little bit of compressor on all of the drums, though. And there’s plenty of dynamics in there, too. The percussionists of this combo are quite good, really.
(I already mentioned that I very much like what you did with the muted drums in your mix and I still do but I wouldn’t want to change a song in a way that would require the band to play it differently to match my mix.)I’m totally ignoring any of your advice about the “low quality swishy” MP3 I posted because half of it is crap and I’ve known the other half for close to 20 years now. A VBR MP3 at that bitrate is almost indistiguishable from “the real thing” unless you’re one of a very few who can best a double-blind test. Most people can’t, I can’t either, especially at the bitrate I’ve been using which is why I’ll keep using it.
Thanks again for the comments!
Anyway, here’s the second version (for real now, totally uploaded the wrong file):
Most mixes done in Reaper or Bitwig on a MacBook Pro using Sony MDR-7506 headphones and some hifi system with old Saba speakers in a small-ish untreated room. If I commented on your mix, please check the board for my mix and reciprocate. :) Thank you!