Hey,

My thought -while listening to this track- is that you indeed should be happy about the result. It's proper techno.

Maybe the 16th hihats can use some variation (parallel proces with a flanger, for instance, or a bit of panning) or some ducking.

Mix sounds pretty good, can you describe what you mean with other mixes being cleaner?

Maybe you want to put more (short) reverb on the hihats or something to create a feeling of wideness but the mix sounds fine to me.
I like my techno dark and dirty, as opposed to clean. Maybe that's why I like it.

Thank you for the compliments and the advice. I think one problem I've had with techno vs other genres is the feeling of "dirtiness".  Other genres try and get a clean mix and techno thrives on being dirtier.  I just have a problem feeling when it's finished because I want to keep adjusting the mix.

I get what you mean by clean, though here that's not a bad thing at all.  The effect you're after might be best achieved on the master bus, or better yet by being mastered by a mastering engineer to your spec of grit.  To make this gritty, I'd use plugs like Soundtoys Decapitator or Radiator, a tape sim like Waves Kramer or Abbey Road, and maybe the Opressor in the Eventide Ultrachannel sparingly on the master, or heavier on groups, like drums and bass.

The other thing, like the others have said, is variety.  I think actually some rearrangement would negate some of that need, maybe shorten passages to keep the pace up.

Good stuff though!

Hey man beautiful piece of techno here. I think one thing you could do to add a bit of variation and dirtyness is a bit of automated distortion on the clap shuffle thing. Also like you mentioned some variation in the hats/shakers although I think that only needs be very subtle. Other than that be proud of your track. It does what it is meant to do.

The synth that comes in at 2:00 doesn't do enough, it's too simple or it doesn't fit.
Maybe it needs something else with it or some reverb or a new synth all together.

I do kind of like it at 2:35 at first but it gets faded away, and it's this future house kind of synth. If you want it to be techno, it needs less of a bouncy rhythm and a just something different i guess.

The sound effects and percussion are fantastic though.