If I recall I think I just used sylenth. The whole movement of the sound comes from the modwheel vibrato and a simple envelope on the filter. Its an old track so i probably processed it very crudely with OTT and reverb. If I was at home I'd look at the project file, but I'm pretty sure thats how I did it

For me, the one thing that remains a constant when layering snares is I don't have more than one element providing the transient, and when I layer other sounds on top I make sure they don't clash with the transient by using fades, small delays and whatnot

Interesting initial idea, but it could use more variation to keep it interesting as the track progresses imo

Don't get disheartened, it takes me a long time before I get anywhere near a good mixdown and even then I'll be super hard on myself

To add some variation to a looped sample, try creating loads of channels with different effects and processing, and drop the sample into different channels at different times

Did you leave the sub/bass out one purpose?

This is actually really good, especially for the first post