How long do you typically spend on a track

[ToxicBass]

The total project time is usually 6 to 8 hours spread out over a week. I like to mix down with fresh ears so usually wait 2 days after finishing arrangement to do the final mixdown.

[Skratch]

FL has a time counter. Mine rarely goes over 12 hours.

I don't know, even when I do get technical with stuff, it just doesn't take me that long to do. I've always wondered what it is that keeps people working on a tune for that long, know a dnb producer, Puzzle, spends as much as 60 hours on tunes, I'm, kinda embarrassed at how quickly I get it done, surely I'm missing something
Longest I remember spending is 20 hours.
I very rarely finish anything I start overall, about 300 "works in progress"(parts to recycle), 30+ finished bits over the past 4 or 5 months

Where is the FL counter?

[ToxicBass]

FL has a time counter. Mine rarely goes over 12 hours.

I don't know, even when I do get technical with stuff, it just doesn't take me that long to do. I've always wondered what it is that keeps people working on a tune for that long, know a dnb producer, Puzzle, spends as much as 60 hours on tunes, I'm, kinda embarrassed at how quickly I get it done, surely I'm missing something
Longest I remember spending is 20 hours.
I very rarely finish anything I start overall, about 300 "works in progress"(parts to recycle), 30+ finished bits over the past 4 or 5 months

Where is the FL counter?

Options => Project info

[forsak3n]

Just wondering how long it takes other people to finish off a track?? I've been learning and attempting EDM production for about a year now and I've got a shitload of unfinished tracks and only a couple finished. Lately I've been trying to finish off one track at a time instead of just making a cool riff and moving on, but i've been on this one particular track, going around in circles for a couple of months. It's starting to get to me

Maybe I'm just being impatient as i'm just starting to get the grips of layering drums, programming synth, resampling etc etc etc and getting my creations to a standard quality of production. Sometimes I'll spend days trying to sculpt a particular synth sound and get nowhere, or it doesn't fit in with what i already have in my track, or it's not up to the quality of "insert artist name here" and it feels like i've wasted how ever many hours i've spent on it...

It'd just be good to know how long it takes you guys to finish tracks, how long it took you guys to reach the level your at and if you experienced the same problems I'm facing at this time.

Thanks!

[press]

they are never done for me, i struggle with feeling confident about them and it often takes someone, hoepfully a label owner, telling me they like it and its done to feel might really be done.

so 3-6 hours to write, 1-2 extra to refine arrangment and 1-10 months to get the mix somewhere im ok with.

Id like to say im a perfectionist...its probably more likely mixdowns are not my forte.

[mthrfnk]

I've actually never finished a track properly. The closest I've come is to designating one of my tracks a "demo" rather than a "wip" as every other track on my SC is lol. The most time I've spent on one track is probably 8 hours, the most I've done in one sitting is probably 5 hours. My reason for never really finishing tracks is that I know I can do better or I have new ideas, although I'm currently trying to finish like 6 tracks to put together as an EP - that'll probably take me ages

[Aufnahmewindwuschel]

everything between 10 minutes and 1 year (more like chilling (hiding) in the back of my harddrive)

[Augment]

i either use to much time on a track, and end up scrapping it, or I use to little time on a track, and it doesn't sound that good.. (Mix wise)
For example, the track in my sig was done in about 5 hours.

[Jedeye]

I've been making music now for 15 years and at the stage you're at i wasn't even bothered about sound quality or getting it to sound sonically pristine. It was all about getting ideas down quick and arranging/finishing tunes. I never spent that long sculpting sounds either, it was more of a case of 'that will do' then move on. It was only years later that i actually started caring about the sonic values of a track and i mean a good 5 years later! Now i'm obsessed with getting my music to 'sound' good so it stands up with pro stuff but i was never like that in the beginning. It was all about fun and just making and finishing stuff just so i could take a cassette round my mates and play them some material.

In the past i have had spells similar to you when i spent weeks and even MONTHS on a tune only to bin it in a moment of madness because i thought, i can do better than this, i'll just start a new one! lol. But funnily enough now i look back and don't see it as wasted time because it's all practice. Whatever you were doing, you were learning at the time and will apply that to new stuff. Learn to finish tunes first and foremost, it doesn't matter if it's not perfect, perfection does not exist.

[blinx]

4-8 hours from start to finish. I spread it over a few weeks (because the real life job and wife take lots of my freetimes).

1-4 hours to sketch/write the hook/bline/beats
1 hour for arraingment
1-3 hours mixdown/mastering

A few interviews for perspective:

I read an interview from taken at Ultra2012 where flux pavilion mentions it takes him FOREVER to actually finish a tune. He went as far as confessing that he more or less sucks at producing. He can make hooks/concepts/gangster beats but for him the arraingment/mixdown is what just takes him awhile and drives him nuts. He said something like 6months to finish tunes sometimes.

I also read a subfocus interview where he mentioned he rewrote Rock It like 3 or 4 times over 8 months before he finally found the winning combination.

Different ppl write songs differently.

[lloydy]

Just recently i can get the arrangement down in 4-5 hours,as long as i have an idea of where i want to go with the track.My most recent track i finished the other day i got the arrangement down in about 4 hours but the mix i worked on for a few days.So probably in total that one took me 10 hours.
I think its how the tracks flow for me,i have finished over 20 in the last 12 months,some the mixes need sorting and others i'm happy with.The best piece of advice i think i can give that has really helped me is practicing and understanding techniques until you can do them with little effort makes the creative process a hell of a lot easier.
Getting a flow or finding your zone when making a tune will really make the process a lot speedier to accomplish,you really don't want techniques you don't understand slowing you up.With the track i finished this week i listened to the mix and heard something i didn't like went into the arrangement added a little bit of something something and sorted it out.This in my opinion is what you need a good understanding of all processes involved in the art and you will find you bang out tunes like theres no tomorrow.
I will be the first to admit my tracks are not the strongest out there but i am coming from strength to strength with each track i produce and all i have done is practice and read.

[ChadDub]

I typically finish tracks in an hour, or up to around 2 days. If it takes longer than that it usually sucks and I hate it so I start over.

[Attila]

I've only been producing electronic stuff for about 4 months, but before when I'd do my other material with other bands, I'd refuse to not finish a track in a day haha...usually ended in a 18 hour marathon before passing out. But now getting the details and eqing and everything right is such a focus, I think I could probably finish a track in about 2-3 weeks if I threw down 5-8 hours a day on it. This one track I'm finishing up now has been a WIP since Christmas though, so it varies...somewhere between 6 hours and 5 months seems about the sweet spot though.

[ChadDub]

I've only been producing electronic stuff for about 4 months, but before when I'd do my other material with other bands, I'd refuse to not finish a track in a day haha...usually ended in a 18 hour marathon before passing out. But now getting the details and eqing and everything right is such a focus, I think I could probably finish a track in about 2-3 weeks if I threw down 5-8 hours a day on it. This one track I'm finishing up now has been a WIP since Christmas though, so it varies...somewhere between 6 hours and 5 months seems about the sweet spot though.

Trust me, once you do this for long enough you start to realize that your best tracks have been the ones you spent the least amount of time on.

[e-motion]

1-2 hours for the drop

1 week writting

1 day finishing

[narcissus]

some are. not necessarily. and i've been making music on computers for about 12 years. (over half my life)

i rarely spend less than 10 hours on a tune these days, unless it's just a fun old school acid track or something.

i start with some rough idea of a feeling i want to evoke, and have a pretty solid idea of where it'll head from the get go.
probably about 2-3 hours just playing around in loop mode, getting the sounds, notes, mixing, drum lines, etc., hitting just perfect, and transitioning from part to part to make sure it can meld. perhaps 3-6 hours, especially if there are bunch of different sections. next comes the skeleton of the structures (usually drums for the whole song, maybe basslines, a synth or two, and some atmosphere and swells). i'll record these in real time so that it feels right, and do a few passes of the whole song. this can take a while, as my songs are rarely shorter than 6 minutes these days. from there i fill everything in, which really takes the bulk of the time. might be 5-15 hours. i'm mixing, automating, and changing notes as i go. also, if i need a complex sound that i don't have already, i'll open a new project and render it, and i might spend an hour or two on sounds like this. i get a working model of the tune, usually without any reverb and delay, then add that in, and finalize mix, another 2 hours.
the last step is bouncing, listening about 5 times, and by then there will be some flaws that stick out every time, and i go back and fix and bounce. another hour or two. then i do a more in depth version of this, which is putting in on my mp3 player and bringing it everywhere, listening in all sorts of moods and places, and there will probably be about 3-5 places that aren't 'perfect,' after maybe 10-20 times of listening. this process can take a few days to a week or two, but of course i'm not listening constantly.

[eshscramble]

if i ever have to spend more than 120 minutes on something i drop it.
i make most tunes in 90 or less... benefits of a tracker i suppose!

[fuzion]

a few days then yearss mixing and mastering

[Sharmaji]

anywhere from 90 mins for something that's a track for someone else to write a topline to, on up to a year or more with a song that's got a spark, but keeps getting clouded.

working fast and oganized is key.

[+3]

24 - 48 hrs (+/-) Divided randomly between evenings working it or not. Two hours Monday, One hour Tuesday, etc etc… over about a week or so...