theres a few things that come in to play on denser buds. 1. your lights.
2 temps. 75-82 f,
3 nutrients, genetics,
4 your grow style. with lights you want to hang them to what the manufacture recommends , leds are usually for veg anywhere from 22 inches to 28 inches and flower is about 20 inches to 12 inches. that just depend on what watt light. for metal halides also depends on watts, but they hang much higher because of heat. with t5 florescent tubes you can get much closer, so the light you use should be the right height for the watts another thing with lights you can also use more, the more the better esp. growing our favorite plants.
next your temps need to be dialed in as if the temps are too high your buds can be loose as well, so increase air flow and reduce temps, next nutrients play a big role in how those flower sites change to bud sites, read the label on what or how much they tell you to use, use less, remember less is more, in nutrients you can go organic like farm fox, n p k industries, ect, these all work great for the plants needs, from going in to veg and in to bloom, the food you feed them will show at harvest time, next genetics, now you could have done everything right with the light and food, and temps and if dense is not in the seed from the breeder you will not get dense nugs, good strains for example are northern lights
is a good indica strain, any indica strain will give you dense buds unless the temps are off. there are hybrids that offer some dense buds as well, just read descriptions , and do your research by looking up grows on here. look at others diaries, last your grow style will change for the better. after each grow, you learn. and asking questions like you just did, that is one of the best ways of learning, besides the trial and errors we all have gone through and here and there still go through, but even if the buds are not as dense as you want the important thing is you grew it yourself and you did nt have to buy it from someone else. hope that helped you