Quote:

I like the way you built it, likely using Mute at Bar for that.

The man's still got good taste and always knew how music is supposed to work.

--Mac

Here's a screen shot of what I did:



Notice the piano (in stereo) starts the song by itself.

Next, the bass (converted to a mono track) comes in after a bit, but I did a fade-in to get rid of a distracting first note.

Then the drums (in stereo) come in.

Along with the drums, the strings (also in mono and tuned an octave higher than normal) do a slow fade-in, panned to one side.

Finally, as the strings go to full volume, I bring in a mono track of the pedal steel, panned to the other side.

The point is that, although you may have all the instruments available right from the start, you don't "need" to use all the tracks for every measure of the song, and it's "legal" to let instruments come in and go out at different parts of the song. Playing with mutes, fades, and song dynamics adds life to a song and makes it unique to you. It's up to you to decide "what's important," and "when".