Just to jump back in...appreciate all the feedback but definitely don't want anyone to get upset over this thread... =)
 
Honestly, I feel like I do way too much when I'm composing a song and building a track, and it's a pattern I'm trying hard to break out of.  My first job in Nashville is "songwriter", but now that also means "studio and producer genius" just to get heads to turn.  The temptation of "unlimited everything" is a double-edged sword for obvious reasons...but for me...it's usually "cool...I added all these amazing parts and layers...now let's add the vocal....oops I have mud and no space for it!!!"  The simplicity, if you wanna call it that, of hearing Billie Jean, was just eye (and ear) opening.  No worries about sub bass/kick issues, sidechaining synths, or any of the self-inflicted problems I seem to create.  There it all was...comped or whatever form I had it in....and it sounded amazing even on my laptop speakers.  MJs flaws...out of tune harmony stacks...squeaks and snaps...it was all beautiful.
 
For example, I love my Trilian bass (in fact, Charlie Puth used the EXACT same retro-60's patch I use all the time for "Attention"...which you can see on that video I linked), but man...I have to carve SOOO much out of it sometimes, like I do with kick samples and other synths to make it all fit together.  It's like - every sample and patch these days is mastered/saturated/huge (the temptation), and when you wanna use it all, you get garbage.  I'm tired of listening to my old mixes and having the same reaction -- what the $#*@ was I thinkin?!?!?
 
I shop at Publix a lot and am amazed at these incredible hits from the 70s and 80s they constantly play that sound beyond amazing at 50 feet above me on a cheesy mono speaker.  It's all so humbling and I really wanna get to the "less is more" mindset...and try to un-forget all I know about VSTs and loops and Neal Peart's words from an ancient interview of "more is more".  I'm not good enough yet to make more sound like more.  I also blame a Dr. Luke ASCAP vid I watched of him de-constructing a Katy Perry hit with 7934897 tracks.
 
All I wanna do is make the right decisions so that I love my mix and composition better with all the tracks un-muted as opposed to right now, where I spend too much time adding things that actually make it worse, which muting stuff easily reveals.  Some pop music is really sparse these days, as Nashville is starting to copy too, so maybe there's hope for me yet.
 
Thanks to all for this forum space....I mean....music therapy sessions!  
Rizzo

caminitic
I shop at Publix a lot and am amazed at these incredible hits from the 70s and 80s they constantly play that sound beyond amazing at 50 feet above me on a cheesy mono speaker.  It's all so humbling and I really wanna get to the "less is more" mindset...and try to un-forget all I know about VSTs and loops and Neal Peart's words from an ancient interview of "more is more".  I'm not good enough yet to make more sound like more.  I also blame a Dr. Luke ASCAP vid I watched of him de-constructing a Katy Perry hit with 7934897 tracks.

 
I'm always jealous of people who pull off that less is more thing as well. I think the problem is that when you're using things like samples and raw synth sounds, less is more arrangements tend to sound too bare and sparse because the samples are too clean and missing some of the essential ambience, atmosphere and grit that classic tracks had. 
 

caminitic
All I wanna do is make the right decisions so that I love my mix and composition better with all the tracks un-muted as opposed to right now, where I spend too much time adding things that actually make it worse, which muting stuff easily reveals.  Some pop music is really sparse these days, as Nashville is starting to copy too, so maybe there's hope for me yet.
 

 
If you sent one of your tracks off to a renowned, highly paid engineer for mixing you'd find that he would make extensive use of the mute button to "fix" your arrangement. That's partly what you pay for with a top engineer - they're not just EQ'ing and compressing, they're making subtle (and not so subtle) arrangement decisions as well. No doubt there are frequently disputes between artists and engineers when an artist has his or her heart set on a particular part, and the engineer says nope, that's not adding anything good to the mix. This is something I'm getting better at all the time - having the creative guts to hit delete on parts that I spent too long kidding myself were essential to the track because I really enjoyed listening to them in solo. The best thing to do in those cases is to save the part to your hard drive in an archive of rejected stuff that you might actually find a good use for later on. I've repurposed parts from track to track lots of times. 
 
The mute button is a powerful arrangement tool. If you read about how Talking Heads made a lot of their classic tracks, it turns out they would just record a groove on each instrument repeating throughout the whole length of the track, and then make creative use of the mute buttons to bring them in and out at different times. The result was a wide open, clean and spacious sound that never got too cluttered, but which had lots to interest the ear over the course of the song. 

dubdisciple
Every week i have kids come in and get mad when i tell them their take was garbage and needs to be redone. Thet think mixing is a magic way to fix everything

Hopefully you do it gracefully and not tell them its garbage.
One can easily lose interest and become distant without some positive re enforcement.
Im not saying to hand out participation trophy's. just a little encouragement.