Hey guys,

I've just been spending time listening to all your guys music and I just feel that mine is lacking in some way. (I'm not classically a musician [as you could have guessed!] and all music theory I have had to teach myself from bits I've heard and read).

I feel like it could be in the mastering, but it could be something even more fundamental than that in the music itself.

Anyway, if anyone has any tips and tricks, I would be completely and utterly all ears!

i know its a lame thing to say, but the best way to improve is practicing. you might also check other peoples work and see how they did things. especially on botb, where you can download most of the sourcefiles.

after listening to your music, i think one of the main issues atm is the sound / instrument design.

a thing that helped me with that was to cover existing songs (maybe with more limitations, to make it a challenge) because it sometimes helps you to do things you usually wont do while composing originals.
and i also pay more attention to song structure and progression of a track, when i rearrange/remix/cover stuff note-by-note.

if you dont like doing covers or so (and they're not allowed on here anyway) you should still take a look at other peoples work, maybe. experiment with stuff, change your workflow as a challenge, even if it feels weird at first. look if you can get some interesting results.

so basically tl;dr :: practicing

Awesome, thank you for the advice!

I think breaking down other pieces of music is a great idea, not just to see how they are structured, but also as you suggested, to look at the instrument design and try to make it sound right!

And of course I will definitely just keep practising as well!