Hello Andrew,

I think your suggestions are great, I appreciate you starting the post, and I like it that you took the time to start the conversation and to throw out some ideas, as opposed to just being another gloomy and negative negatron bashing ideas with nothing whatsoever constructive to offer.

To me that means you're a real songwriter in progress, so good for you!

😃

I encourage you to employ the ideas you've already created and to also explore others, because the more tools you have in your tool kit from a mixing and song building standpoint the better off you will be.

If you PM me I will send you a spreadsheet that shows you the mix from a well known Tom Petty song which uses a lot of the techniques you have mentioned plus others.

If I could add an additional train of thought it would be this:

The worst mistake people make in songs these days is they fill up too much of the space and make their mixes thick and chunky with no room to breathe.

When you listen to brilliant old school songwriters and producers from back in the day talking about the most important aspect of a mix they talk about "air": giving the mix plenty of space.

Unfortunately with technology, it's way too easy to just push buttons and spit out a bunch of tracks and chunks of sound and start stacking them on top of one another to create another musical slab of bacon.

Things that are created in a couple of hours or even a couple of days this way can be pretty thoughtless and horrific.

In order to achieve what I think you are trying to achieve and talking about, you have to slow down the pace, and be very careful and intentional about what you're doing, and even play some of the parts yourself if you're able so that the music has an authentic air.

On top of that you would only add in pieces of music that were necessary to develop the build, gradually increasing the intensity and energy level as you go into the rise and into the chorus, as you have rightfully alluded to, which indeed is songwriting 101.

I am sincerely glad that you are pondering and thinking about all of these things instead of just unloading another huge gigantic blob of blubber onto the market like so many other people are doing. I say hurrah.

If you want to also focus daily on the discipline of slowing down and thinking very carefully about the number of tracks that you actually need, eliminating all the tracks that you don't need, and making sure that your mix has plenty of open space, dynamics and air in it, I think you will be well on your way to achieving your goals. As you undoubtedly know, it's easy to be lazy. And it's hard to be good.

I have enjoyed listening to your work on the forum so far and I can't wait to hear more from your creative and productive mind.

David Snyder
Songwriter/Renaissance Man
Studio + Fingers

https://davidsnydersongs.com/
https://spoti.fi/359Gigs
www.davidsnydermusic.com/
www.reverbnation.com/davidpsnyder
www.soundcloud.com/davidsnyderchannel
https://www.songtradr.com/user/profile/david.snyder