I have been harvesting after seeing a few trichs go amber. Am letting this current batch go a bit longer.
Yes, when I touch these buds they do give off a nice aroma. And when I trim them after harvest(wet trim), the smell is awesome. I dont usually hang them after trimming. I put them in a cool dark place in a plastic wire basket. Every morning and night I rotate the buds so each get plenty of air time. This step usually takes 4-5 days.
Once they start to feel dry on the outside, I put them into jars and let them sit for a few hours so I can get a good reading of humidity. If they are still too wet, I leave the lids off for 8 hours. I then close the jars and see where I am the next morning. If still too wet(above 70%), I repeat the process. Once I get down below 70%, I open the jars for 15 mins in the morning and 15 mins at night and give them a gentle shake so the buds dont stick to eachother. I do that until humidity is below %65...then I open them weekly til below 60%.
During the curing process, the jars are kept in a Wine Cooler at a contant 68f.
Letting plants thoroughly ripen can really make a huge difference in the quality, and is one thing I see people have a really hard time with.
If your plants have good smell when you touch them, then other then chopping early I'd say its a drying and curing issue.
I played with lots of drying techs over the years. Wet trimming never gave me ideal results. I did it some times because it was crazy hot and humid at my house at the time, but I knew after experimenting that it was not the ideal result.
The absolute best results I've gotten come from removing all the fan leaves at harvest, only leaving leaves TOTALLY covered in trichomes. Then I hang the whole plant or branches depending on size and space, and let it hang for 10ish days usually till the outside is slightly crispy and the stems will crack when bent, but I can tell the buds still have a little moisture in the middle. I remove them from the stems at this point and put them in a paper grocery bag. This equalizes the moisture in the buds, and allows them to slowly finish drying for another 4-7 days or until they are dry enough that they smoke nicely. At that point they will be ready to get a final clean up trim of any leaf left and go in jars for long term storage.
My buds pretty much stink the whole time after harvest. There might be a couple days in the middle of the hang dry where they don't smell much unless you touch them. Otherwise they are dank the moment they are dried nice to smoke. I've still had strains that smell more or less then each other but once you learn when to harvest and how to dry well you will have the dank buds you are looking for.