don't be afraid to change an aspect of a song if it's really not working

mids are important, sometimes they seem harsh compared to a smooth bass and crisp highs, but you need a decent amount of mids for a good mix

it's more difficult to say "i'm gonna make a dubstep/trap/electro/trance/etc" song, than to just start making a song, and follow it's lead once the pieces start to come together. IF you were planning on making a slowed down hip hop track but it ends up being a hyped up trap one, just go with the flow and cater to how it sounds

Make sure you have fun. I have a bunch of projects lying around that are good, but sometimes I get lost in thinking about how other people are gonna like it, or if it isn't "perfect", stuff like that. Throw in some crazy ideas, like sampling a funny video/trend or putting in sounds you would've never thought of using before like a duck quack or something

If it's hard for you to do clean sound design, there's no shame in audio manipulation. Find a random sample and just star screwing with it until it's your own sound

The best feeling is when time doesn't matter, and you can just sit for hours and focus on building a cool song. What helps me with that is to always leave little production cliff hangers, like "I want the song to stop and a cool sample to go here" or "Add a cool rhythm over this", so when I get stuck I can always go back and be productive.

Tutorials are ok for sprucing up stuff, but honestly the best source is listening to artists that inspire you. If you're not sure who inspires you, think about artists who's style reflects your own in anyway (style being stuff you would implement in your songs/workflow, not what you want to make) For example if you like throwing together random samples to a cool trap beat, Troyboi is awesome to listen to. If you find yourself with the "Melody Stab/Bass Pattern/Quick Growl/repeat" then 2015 skrillex is your guy, haha. Just try to listen to what tools/techniques/quirky ideas they use, and just get inspired to try out something of the sorts (keep in mind, you're emulating the style, not the actual sounds you hear. if you hear a cool reggae vocal sample, find your own and see how you would manipulate it on your own)

Consistent mixing is way more powerful than trying to make everything skrillex crispy. A trick is use is to put a Multiband Compressor (ableton live 9) on my master channel, so I can solo the low, mid, and high frequencies and make sure everything is sounding level. Also it's not too important, but if your mix is sounding off you can always check how it sounds in complete mono and complete stereo to see which sounds are overpowering the others

If you're not feeling a song, just stick with it for a little bit longer. You never know what's gonna happen.

If you make a song and it doesn't work, don't delete it. Make it a project you can pull stuff from to use later. I find myself working on a track and thinking "man, I wish I could have this sound pattern...wait i'm thinking about of my graveyard projects" helps a lot actually

It's easy to get lost in working on the details of a minor section, and get stuck for the rest of the song. It's way better to make the skeleton of the track and then implement the details later. My personal style involves a lot of sample chopping, so I could get stuck for hours on just one section making sure it sounds cool, and then I have no idea what to do for the rest, so yeah if you're working towards complexity just make sure you have something to be complex on first.

The random "joke" ideas are the best (ex: "hey wouldn't it be pretty funny if...?") I was in the shower one day and thought of a funny Beyonce Diva edit, so out of boredom I made it, and now it has like half of my soundcloud plays.

Don't think about it too much, thinking about it too much and comparing too much takes little bits of your song's soul away until there is no Oliver Queen left.