After listening to the song twice, the following thoughts come to mind:

I like the track. For my untrained EDM taste, it's musically well produced (I don't produce EDM myself); maybe you could add a few more little elements here and there to add interest, but that's really just a matter of taste. The song works well as it is, and you as the producer know better than I do how you want it.

The mix sounds balanced, dynamic and pleasant to my ears; there is nothing that I would find disturbing. I haven't checked if it can compete with other mixes in that genre in terms of loudness. I like the dynamics as they are. Since I'm monitoring through a UAD audio interface, I used the Neve 1073 EQ to boost a few dB at 360 Hz. This gives the master a gentle warmth in the mids that I like, at least on my speakers (Focal Trio 6 BE) in my room.

All in all I can only say: Well done!👍

@Markus Lange Thank you for your assessment! Interesting thought with the EQ boost, I will try that right now:)

Yeah could have added a bit more elements here and there, just foley stuff or I thought about some vocal chops, too, but I think I'm past the production stage now and will just move onto the next project with that in mind.

Really cool, in-depth feedback, Markus! If you ever want some review of one of your tracks, let me know:)

Hi Matthias K. :) I agree with Markus. The balance of the song is good and it sounds good. it's pleasant to listen to, good work. Here the only thing is that you are a little low on volume. If I'm not mistaken at -12 LUFS in the strongest moments with an average of -14 LUFS. I agree that this gives better dynamics to the song and certainly sounds better, but on average this genre ranges between -10/- 8 LUFS... and worse. Very sad! Now the problem is that if you have produced to stay at -14 (as an average) it will be impossible to reach even just -10 LUFS without destroying your track :( I'm telling you from experience. In these cases I feel like crying xD

@Vittorio Di Rocco Hey, thank you so much for your feedback! Really cool to hear that my mixing and mastering is solid since this will be my first real release:)

I wasn't sure about the loudness so I just checked: that's just Soundcloud doing it's thing. My Ableton project is actually crazy loud, drop peaking around -5,9 Luf integrated. I'm actually surprised it still sounds good haha

During mastering I didn't pay too much attention to the LUFS, just checked if it was above -14 at the end :)

But it's always important to keep the loudness in mind, thanks for the advice!! M:)

Production I don't have any comments, quite solid! You have enough automation to keep things interesting. Personally I disagree with Markus in the sense that I don't think you need to add more elements. A good rule of production/composing is the rule of 3 (the listen can only really focus on 3 elements at once)

Mixing wise first thing I noticed was Hi-Hats are too loud. It's the loudest element by far. When you're close to final mix level I like to do something called The Quiet test Bring your volume to barely audible and listen to hear every element. if somethings too loud it'll stick out, if somethings too quiet you won't be able to hear it. When you do that with your mix you can only hear Hi-Hat. Goal is always balance in a mix. Low end could use a little cleaning, seems like you could probably cut more low end out of the piano. lower frequencies phase a lot more so typically have one element do the heavy lifting for lower bands. The sidechaining groove keeps it pretty clean though with the kick to bass relationship.

I wouldn't get too crazy about Lufs and what not because everyone has a volume knob anyways. You'll get turned down for being too loud regardless when uploading to certain platforms. This link is a good reference for that: https://youlean.co/loudness-standards-full-comparison-table/

Just make sure you're mix is relatively loud not actually loud hahaha.

Despite the short story I wrote everything is fairly minor and when you get close to good you'll hear some conflicting advice. Everyone has different taste so do feels best to you (Especially production and composition wise)

Keep up the good work!

@Curtis Gammon Thanks for the feedback, Curtis! I appreciate every opinion:)

Yeah Hi-Hats keep me up at night haha, I had a phase where I had them way too low on every track, now I think I've gone a bit overboard the other direction.

The Quiet test is always a good idea. I try to always remember the Perceived loudness curve when I do it. So turning everything down should resolve in the mids being the only audible thing. The fact that you hear mostly hats is even worse then.

The piano doesn't go that low to be honest, nothing below 200 Hz, maybe it's something else? The kick and bass relationship is a typical troublemaker so I'm glad to hear that it's clean:)

Will keep the high end with the hats in mind on future projects, thank you! Let me know if you'd like feedback to one of your tracks!

Cheers
M

Interesting note with the hi-hat. It inspired me to listen again more closely (that's why we're all here, right? 😉). Here are my results:

Avantone MixCube with very quiet monitoring:

Kick, bass sequence, claps and synths equally audible; hi-hat only slightly audible.
Suspected reason: The Avantone MixCubes are rather mid-heavy and therefore weaker in treble and bass (as they are supposed to be). If the hi-hat is too loud, it should still be quite audible, even on these speakers.

Focal Trio 6 BE when listening very quietly (full-range mode):

Intro: Piano and synth sequence equally audible.
Further course: kick, bass sequence, claps and hi-hat equally audible, whereby the hi-hat is minimally more audible than the rest.
Presumed reason: The tweeters of the loudspeakers go up to 40 kHz, thus transmitting crystal clear in the range audible to us. If the hi-hat were really too loud, I would have to hear it very clearly on these speakers compared to other elements in the mix. So for low treble systems, the hi-hat probably sits quite well in the mix.

Neumann NDH 20 headphones during very quiet monitoring:

Intro: Piano, hi-hat, claps equally audible, whereby the claps seem to be somewhat more upfront.
Further on: kick, claps and bass sequence sitting in the center; hi-hat seems to be a bit more to the sides and thus stands out a bit from the rest (this may explain why it can be heard well). The piano is also always easily audible.

After this analysis, I think that the impression of a too loud hi-hat might also have to do with the monitoring situation. Every room and every system is different, so is everyone's hearing. Would be interested to hear what other listeners think about the hi-hat in the mix.

I monitor typically with DT990 pro 250 ohms. I'm aware these headphones have a bump in the higher frequencies in regards to it's frequency response.

That being said I might backpedal a bit. I listened to some industry standard house tracks and it's very much a part of the genre mixing style to have prominent hi-hats. You're not that far off tbh but sometimes 1-2 db does make a difference. especially if you're listening on smaller driver speakers or phones etc.

If you're feeling really crazy... add more body to your hats. Lots of house guys do this and you might find you don't want them as loud.

Just my opinion though, not a deal breaker for Mathias's mix by any means.

@Markus Lange that's quite a setup! thanks for the detailed description on every system:)
interesting with the claps on the headphones, maybe they needed a touch more reverb. but I don't think we have any dealbreakers here.

@Curtis Gammon yeah house music is a bit more cymbal heavy, so depending where you're coming from it might sound off at first. I had one or two reference tracks in the mixing project so it should fit the genre.

thanks for the suggestion for the hats though! might try more body if I need a heavier groove. here it's quite nice to have it sparkly I think.

Cheers