To keep it short, I focused on what might be candidate details to nudge it a bit, and try what's in.
The commented mixes all are legit, no harm intended.
This was a very useful challenge because it requires abilities in most disciplines and sound registers, and efficient use of busses and plugins because you end up with many tracks to digest for the DAW.
A weakness in any area, vocals, drums, bass, guitars, effects, will always severely hamper the outcome.
There were some mixes with good vocals but overall dull or boxy, and with some others, compression was too weak, so the midrange in the vocals together with reverbs practically shouted down everything else for quite a few phrases.
I imagine how it would sound in a pub, visitors might come with a girlfriend or try to find one
So you should be able also to talk to your friend, while a lush mix of this song is playing, but still can feel the drums and guitars rocking.
(hopefully, the social distancing nightmare will end in a few months)
spafles
very legit approach, good performance and feeling, because also very natural, though with some extra work, it could be a tad more polished at some moments, so far this would be possible at all without compromising the vibe.
square
the kick with the bus compressor hits very hard and cuts short holes into the general sound.
higher parts of vocals can sound nasal.
the snare sound is nice but it is missing some counterpoint from kick and guitars, these might afford some more brightness to keep up.
tom immon
very good overall sound. bass sounds great, but also a bit dominant against the chord guitars.
vocals well processed. the toms in the bridge part sound a bit thin. good game with the harmony vocals after that.
you might cut the fadeout a bit tighter, there are noises.
dora_de
good overall sound, but the guitar solo sounds a bit twangy, might afford some lower mid-range.
I like the smooth and soft drum sound. you might protect it from being drowned by the guitars with some sidechaining.
lower crunch guitars in the finale might also become a bit thicker and more bassy.
john
sounds beautiful, good drum processing, but I would also like to hear more of the room mics, to complement the stereo width of the guitars, and boost the depth. vocals may become a bit nasal in the tom bridge.
"Teode" seems very powerful. Explains a lot.
finnishcharm
I think the "radio" trick went quite well. good overall feeling.
at some points there is a little build-up that may sound boxy. a careful widening up the higher frequencies in the drums might improve this.
Pemberley
basically great ideas and details, and the drum kit as such sounds beautiful.
but while it may work in head phones, in a pub (this music is great for drinking beer) the drums and most other stuff might get drowned entirely in the reverbs, and the vocals might stick out in a distracting way.
Oba Ozai, thanks for your insight, these are strong differences, to some extent they might reflect different styles.
Warren Huart uploaded free tutorials about mixing of bass and kick (I hope it is legit to mention him, there are also many more great guys out there), he attenuates some frequency in the kick to make room for the bass, and another in the bass to make room for the kick. crucial might be 80, 60, 40Hz (depends on the tune and style) and then also a decision what instrument should dominate the subsonics.
optionally, there is side-chaining that ducks the bass for a few milliseconds a couple dB, while the kick hits. it is very delicate to tweak this.
for some EDM they go into oscilloscope mode and align every kick and bass note to start fully in phase sync (and they create the sound components under that constraint), and also use heavy pumping that leaves the kick in a dominant mode.
I use Noisebud Evouyn which is a meter for subsonics. It is very coarse, and says just safe, ok, or bad, red or green. At least for those without a woofer it gives some hint if you are in the ballpark.
For example, I controlled kick and snare with resonant hipasses at 42Hz and 135 Hz, using the resonance knob to tweak the intensity (and naturally, duration) of the low frequency. Find one that sounds good, this is crucial. For me SFilter works well, but I have it only 32bit VST2.
What is "better" depends only on the opinion of the song provider/challenge client. We saw totally different ways of thinking and judgement here. There are the technical limits to prevent that a mix becomes unusable, but different houses may well have somewhat different rules, so everyone must find their own ways through their careers.
