i pay exclusive attention to sound, i dont write anything down unless im away from my computer and smth pops in my head. since i do all my writing on my guitar (or keyboard) and my computer its easier to just record as i compose and rerecord things as necessary than to write anything down and then record it. a lot of my music is also very textural and/or performance based in ways that cant entirely be accurately transcribed in traditional notation (in part because sometimes the finer details dont even get “written” until theyre recorded because of how improvisatory a lot of the different parts can be).

aside from all that, too, music is very much about sound anyways. when i write im very focused on making sure everything sounds right and will spend ages playing something over and over against what ive already recorded to make sure it all works together before i record it. things like is that note clashing with another note, should this part be in a different octave, does the rhythm clash with the groove of the piece, does any of the clashing still work in context with everything else in the piece/does a note clashing and sounding “out of place” create a good dissonance that enhances the piece or a bad dissonance that takes away from the piece. not necessarily in as many words as for me its more of a “feel” thing in the moment, only dipping into that level of analysis to try and figure out what i need to adjust.

i also am not particularly good at reading and writing traditional notation, i learned everything i know thru the internet teaching myself and i never found notation to be particularly useful esp starting off as a guitarist playing heavy metal where if you do use any kind of notation its usually tablature instead of classical notation. i know enough to sort of slowly work my way thru simpler melodies and chords but i havent bothered that much to learn any more than that because ive found not really bothering with notation hasnt really had any negative impact on the music i make. its very ill suited to more performance based and more improvisatory music, as well as for any kind of guitar playing outside of strictly melodic work (rendering chords and strumming patterns in traditional notation is fucking awful to look at), and since a lot of my work is improvisatory and performance based and utilizes a lot of very textural and chordal guitar parts, i feel like focusing on notation would make my music even worse.

this isnt even COUNTING the fact notation literally cannot account for synthesizers beyond basic melodic information and the amount of things a single synth patch can do just cant be recorded in traditional notation (see: late 00s and early 10s dubstep basses).