Looking for some opinions for my new 2 songs

[Grindonthemind]

First track: I think in terms of the production quality, it's good. The mix is nice. For some reason the kick sounds a little off (overwhelming) to me for this track, especially when everything is sidechained. Almost like it's taking up too much space/too loud. It might just be the headphones I'm listening on though. Vocalist is talented and the vocals sit in the mix well.

Second track: Maybe a little better than the first in terms of the mix. It's nice and tight. It's a little more subtle and I like that. Overall, very nice.

Ok, so I have to ask: You're a talented producer and know what you're doing, no doubt. You also have a very talented vocalist. I just am not sure what sets these tracks apart? (did you write these songs, or did the vocalist?)

You take some small risks production-wise toward the end of both tracks (which I like), but otherwise these tracks are very standard tracks to me. The singer has a such a nice voice, it almost seems a shame to waste it on some very standard sounding club tracks. I'd just let this guy kill it naturally--I've always thought augmenting a voice with FX should be reserved for less talented singers, not somebody like this with excellent natural talent.

Maybe the response isn't as good as you expected because the track is simply too ordinary. Between you and the vocalist, there's too much talent here to be wasting on this "standard" sound. "Waste" might not be the right word because you've obviously put hard work into these, but given your obvious ability, you should be able to carve out some unique flavor in your mixes to make these club tracks real bangers.

Just my 2 cents, and take my commentary with a grain of salt because I'm certainly not a pro producer or anything. But I know talent when I hear it.

[Jay FitzGerald]

I'd have to agree with Grind. They're both sounding very slick indeed but they're both sounding very generic, Ne-Yo-esque clubby R&B. There's no real USP in what you're doing here.

The production's great. I personally think the lyrics could do with some work but that's probably just me. Your singer's pretty good. So all the foundations are there. It just needs something to set it apart from the army of R&B clones out there.

Good work though.

[sbechristos]

Thank you guys a lot for your detailed thoughts about these tracks. I gotta admit the sound is pretty basic, yet it was lil more up-to-date when I produced the tracks 2 years ago. The whole process of recording and mixing just took over a year because the singers are located in the states and I live most of the time in Germany. I had a hard time organizing everything from overseas and gettin all the featured acts together in the lab for recording.

My thought was doing something, as you described neyo-like or maybe even Usher cuz thats what the most wide generation is listening to, I admit that its not very inovative.

We got those small dubstep part at the end of the pop track which I found as beein a lil refreshing. The other one with the sidechained vocals in the hook, was completly different after the first mixdown. The kick is too much indeed, I noticed that as well but we ran out of time unfortunatly.

Never the less, I thought both would get more attention in the music buizz but they flopped. Bad for us..