Hey, thanks for the compliments and critiques~
Yeah, emotional music is super easy for me to come by, but I feel like I need to work on pulling back on angst and drama lol I've made an effort to make happier songs in the past, but it was a short-lived phase bc it all has like.. sad undertones lol also that piano one's my favorite too, I don't play piano.. so I'm glad it came out sounding the way it did.
And yeah! I do have a bad habit of drowning stuff in reverb now, and uhhh.. I don't feel bad about it xD I can justify it all I want by saying "no, the context of using it in each song is different, because blahblahblah" but the fact remains, I overuse it. I like shoegaze music and a lot of guitar ambience in there is drowned in pedal effects, so it's very much a stylistic choice. Sometimes the samples or synths I'll use don't sound good enough to me without 'em so yeahhh. Spacey vibes all the way lol
To answer the question about recording, nah. I've never recorded actual instruments, it's always been plugins, samples, and soundfonts. You just gotta know how the sound works on the actual instrument and becomes easy to mimic. So the guitar for example, I use a lot of pitch automation for bends and slides. The piano song has me messing the volume on each key to make it sound like it's played on a grand piano with weighted keys. Same goes for drums, but also messing with volume panning to the left and right (the drums in the metal song are kinda mapped out like an actual drum set). I've never had the money for decent recording equipment or instruments in the 7-8 years I've been making music so I make do with what's already in FLStudio and whatever samples or soundfonts I can download for free
I'd comment on your music, but my phone's about to die, so I'll get back to it when I can!