New kid on the block presenting new music (REVIEW REQUESTED)

[Sleutelbos]

Hello everyone, new kid on the block ready to introduce himself.

In short: I picked up the guitar almost five years ago and after strumming some chords decided that composition/songwriting is what I like most. I picked up a piano, bass, some synths etc and started composing as often as I could. Last year that resulted in 150+ recorded songs, but most of them were 'practice pieces'. This year I decided to 'give it my best' and see how far I could come.

Fast forward: the end result is 'Inside Outsider', a concept album that tells the story, with broken chronology, of a young fellow who hasn't had too much luck in his life. I've come to understand that it's not supposed to link to all songs on a different site so I've uploaded a few here. Hopefully this should give a proper impression of the whole deal, although you'll need the whole album to really follow the story.

I'm not sure how to get a link to my songs, they are in my profile so hopefully there's a button somewhere that leads to my profile.

All songs are from the Inside Outsider cd (which, for those interested, can be downloaded free of charge at my own website, the link is in my profile again) and I hope they'll show the variety of musical styles. It would be really cool if people would listen to these songs and tell me what they think. No specific aspect just whatever seems to be noteworthy to you.

I guess that's enough for now, hope people will take the time to check it out and if anyone has any questions just ask.

[1undread]

I had a listen and generally speaking there is a lot of potential here but its all depressing. (I guess thats the point)
You have to work on mastering, and when working with a band the music needs to be tighter.
You may consider muting tracks then binging them back and using different effects just for a bit of verity in a song. Try using dub techniques. After listening to all of the tracks that piano was just getting on my nerves.

Hope you take this the right way.

[Sleutelbos]

Thanks for listening! You're right about the mastering, this is actually the first time I've tried it and obviously mastering is a art on it's own. I'm not really sure what you mean with having tracks come in as it happens in practically every song already but I'll re-listen with your comments in mind. Thanks for the feedback!

[1undread]

Maybe a remix?
I can do it myself if I can find the time.
Then every thing will be clear.

[1undread]

[Sleutelbos]

Ah, that makes sense. While I do change the timbre of tracks I haven't thought much about fading them out and at a later time back in again. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll be sure to keep it in mind! As for mastering, I use Ozone3. I did some MatchEQ with songs in the same style I like, and used multiband compressors, stereo enhancers, slight master reverb and limiters. I do try to keep the compression within reason as this kind of music needs space to breath but obviously I have a lot left to learn.

Thanks for thinking along!