https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WuTEXdXSY4
 
I made the mixes, and I swear I can't tell the diff.

You can't hear the differences? I'm confused by that... there are very noticeable changes on my system. The one labelled "original CD" (what shows as track 14) sounds the best on my setup...

Ok, it's not fair to say I can' hear them. The difference between the 'Original CD' track and the others is huge. But the very subtle changes I made along the way I find quite difficult to detect.
 
For example, the difference between two of the tracks is primarily the clicking of the 'bass' button on the concrete limiter and then adjusting the levels again and getting the track average loudness to fall around the same spot.
 
So, this amounts to clicking a button that makes it louder then pulling the fader to make it softer again. the net change in volume of the bass is difficult to detect. The only way to hear it is to detect the difference in limiting which I find quite hard to hear when I'm jumping from one to the other.
 
In theory, I should be able to just listen, eyes closed, and be able to say which bounce I'm listening to. I don't do a great job at that. Some differences are more detectable, but a number of the bounces are quite close to each other.
 
Thanks for listening and giving your feedback by the way.
 
I created a survey monkey survey...
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JDRYHMN
 

liked 14 the most too, seemed clearer and more open sounding

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone will prefer one of the bassy mixes.
 
I'm also wondering if maybe I shouldn't have used the RME EQ to accentuate it.

The point of a good mix is that it should translate to many/most different playback systems. #14 is the mix that will do that best...
 
More bass does not necessarily mean more low end on the EQ or adding sub harmonic structure. Have you tried applying a little dirt to make it growl, have you tried pushing an upper mid freq to make it punch through (ie: 400, 800, etc...). Another approach I like instead of EQ is to use a multi-band compressor... which will dynamically control the various levels of each range.

All of those ideas are applied to the different mixes in the video.

I'm using m spectral dynamics on the master bus. I'm also using it to duck the bass sound the kick.

I'm expanding the bass between 1 and 2 k.

I've got the whole bag of tricks out!

Mostly, I want the band to love it. It would be nice if other audiences would too.

Has he heard it on different system, or just your studio monitors. I'm wondering if he heard it of nice phat stereo speakers he'll be like 'man you nailed it, much better than the original!' when you give him version 14.

gswitz
Mostly, I want the band to love it. It would be nice if other audiences would too.

I have listened on two systems here. My studio monitors, and my home stereo which has a typical hype on the bass. On the studio monitors the original CD mix is clean, the rest have varying degrees of muddiness. On my home stereo the original CD mix is still clean while the rest are not listenable at all. I suspect if I took this to a car (where bass is also hyped) I would get the same results as my home stereo.
 
Yes you want to please the band, but there comes a point where you do know better than they do as is proven by the original mix!
 
Just my 2 cents...

I listened on my studio speakers (ADAM P-11A + sub), my everyday headphones (ATH-M50) and my best headphones (Sennheiser HD-580).
 
On the Audio-Technica cans, which are bass-hyped, most of the bass-heavy versions were too bassy. On the Sennheisers, which are very flat, some variants were still slightly bass-heavy. 
 
On speakers, your effects did improve on the original but often emphasized not-so-pleasant frequencies in the process. I think the answer is going to be a combination of harmonic distortion and careful equalization. A dynamic EQ might be just the ticket, because the bass part covers such a broad range of notes, making it hard to find settings that will work all the way from start to finish.