Such an enormous topic this one, in all senses.
My fortune is that I like to tell stories and this reflected in my music project as well. So as I am a character, Harbiter, my albums are my story. And every album is like a book, the songs its chapters. In this case, the challenge is to translate these chapters into good songs and not just a way of telling a part of the story. Because music should be music and I think a song must work as a song.
Also I like so much to work on sounds because all the processing I do on my tracks are like the details of the story.
(I see you have the Shadow hills compressor. I use that too, it's amazing!)
hehe, yessir. not a mix/master bus of mine goes without it. 😼
(and the Schwabe Digital trio has been my latest favorite additions too - HiFal especially, omg... high-end MAGIC 🤯🪄✨