Song. Start to finish. What's most important?

[frackermak]

1. Notes.
2. Drums and bass. Bass is tricky.
3. Interesting noises that work together.
4. Mix. EQ, Compression etc.
5. Master

When you get to mastering, nothing is more important than mastering.
But if the rest isn't right, it doesn't really matter...

[Forgotten]

Composing it in the first place. The rest is just arrangement.

[counterparty]

Vocals

[dark water]

...
When you get to mastering, nothing is more important than mastering.
But if the rest isn't right, it doesn't really matter...

I'd agree.

You seem to have surely answered your own thread question: everything is the most important depending on your stage in the process?

I'd add that having a confident creative vision/theme at the composing and mixing stages in particular are also important imo, although plenty of excellent tracks have also been made via "noodling" or "happy accidents" instead of foresight.

[Shane Sanders]

I'd say the shape/arrangement of the music is the most important, but not in a way that makes the other stuff unimportant. I've got a few ideas on my phone, just quick acoustic jams that I captured after playing with the ideas for many evenings. One day you just capture it, knowing that it's going to guide the hard work of production. These distillations are not the best-recorded music, but it shows me that it's the ideas and how they flow together that informs the totality of a track later on.

[Hink]

the next part

[empphryio]

1. Rhythm
2. Melody
3. Instruments used
4. Harmony
5. Structure
6. Mixing/Mastering

[jancivil]

...

[melomood]

feeling it

[fairlyclose]

Song for who? If it is for a commercial market just do what everyone else is doing and change one aspect - but your song quality will have little to do with the commercial success as commercial success is about social relations and marketing potential
If you are making a song for yourself then there are no rules at all and sometimes that can lead to commercial success.
But .. rhythm and melody.. you can get away with only one but it is incredibly unlikely you can get away without either. Everything else is icing (given the social relations caveat)

[foosnark]

What is the goal of the music? Because you can't judge all music with the same criteria, and you can't say what's the most important thing without knowing what the music is trying to do.

Maybe the point is to sell records.
Maybe the point is to get people dancing.
Maybe the point is to get people to hang out longer and buy more beer.
Maybe the point is to make a movie more engaging.
Maybe the point is to make people feel like they belong.
Maybe the point is to make people think.
Maybe the point is to make the workday pass easier.
Maybe it's just to cover up uncomfortable silence.

Almost certainly there are multiple goals and they might differ depending on who you ask.

Even including "mastering" on this list assumes you're talking about recording, not a live performance. (Though it's fair to say, mastering can't make a bad recording good, and unless you're REALLY bad at it, it's probably not going to make a good recording bad.)

[DJ Warmonger]

Important for who? For what purpose?

Apples or oranges?

[vurt]

Important for who? For what purpose?

Apples or oranges?

she dont use jelly, or any of these
she uses
vaaaaaaaaaseline

[Distorted Horizon]

To finish it. You don't do anything with an unfinished song.

[recursive one]

To finish it.

How do people do it?