On an Elektron: Warm up, figure out what I want to do, and drop into the zone - 1-5 min. Find or make a sound that fits the vibe - 2-15 min. Get to know that sound a bit, how it wants to move, bend it, explore its surface area - 5-30 min. Repeat until it stops feeling like a sound and more like a place, start moving things around the stage and making room for everybody, start tweaking levels - 30-120 min. Make variations, arrange things into a track/song, make slight tweaks - 1-6 hours. Record, edit, etc. - 30-120 min.
On a modular or with outboard gear it’s different and slower…
I make mostly arrangements of simple folk songs, most of which fit in one pattern slot, on the Digitone. It may take 15-30 minutes to enter all the note data. But it frequently takes another 30-60 minutes to get the thing to groove and for all the parts to be balanced in the texture.
On average, it takes at least an hour before my head starts bobbing.
Sometimes minutes, sometimes months. Some are easy and flow like water. Some are challenging and at points might barely seem worth it.
But like @kryten42 said, who cares? Work your stuff til you like it and then it’s done. How long it takes me to get to a point where I like what I’m working on will have no bearing on how long it takes you to get to a point where you like what you’re working on. Not trying to be rude, but literally no bearing. And like more than one has said, sometimes the ones that required the least effort bang the hardest and the ones that required serious toil are just so-so. So even one of my own ‘beats’ can’t be accurately compared to any of the others if we’re talking about work vs result. That whole equation is truly nebulous. There is only one way to find out and that is to put in the time.
Yeah I think it’s ok to take your sweet ass time on things. The world is so impatient and results-focused and imo the proof is in the rushed, shallow, shit pudding. Stop listening to the voice telling you to hurry and listen to the one telling you to go deeper and find those hidden treasures, even if it takes more time.
As long as it takes. Some times it’s just lazer beams from my eyes, other times I’m beating my face against a wall until it’s wet and splatty. I don’t worry about it though… Do you???
Some of my best tunes took me around one work day from start to finish, composing, mixing and light mastering. Sometimes at work i need to do an ad thats like 30sec long, i need to do music and sfx in like 4 hours, so i can do a decent work quite fast.
Composing the “meat and potatoes” is always quite fast, minutes usually, fettling usually an hour or two, finishing can take longer.
When I was young I did not have the luxury of going back to rework stuff, so usually tracks were finished and recorded in hours. Nowadays with multiple machines, which can hold multiple projects, and multiple choices, instant recall etc, I find a lot of stuff goes on the ever growing “finish later” pile. But I’m trying to change those bad habits.
I do not attempt to rush the songwriting process, but work through various stages towards completion. Mostly in time boxed segments. A song is finished when its finished.
That said, for Techno music, the process is much shorter and I can definitely finish a song within a day, if the creative juices are flowing. But that is never the intention, and not the norm. Usually I focus on an initial idea, and build upon it. Since switching to an all hardware setup for Techno, I prefer to record a several live mixdowns, and select my favorite for the final version.
Conversely, for lyric-based genres, such as R&B, it takes me much longer to complete an entire song. In my opinion, the song completion process is more complex, especially when working solo. Just recording vocals can take more than one day with harmonies, layers, comps, and overdubs. Writing, and more importanly rewriting, the song lyrics also takes me a considerable amount of time.
If I am focused on one song, it can take me about a month to six weeks to finish a lyric-based song, which includes writing, recording, mixing, and mastering. Collaborations can help to expedite the song completion, but not always. My songwriting process usually starts with me on guitar or piano with a notepad and handheld recorder to develop an initial idea about the song topic and music direction. When the time comes to turn on a DAW, the fundamental components of the song are already available in a raw demo format, and the production stage commences.
It can take weeks before I consider something finished, or even passable. I can usually get a solid sketch within an hour of work but a lot of the elements that end up being essential don’t occur to me until days later.
nah I don’t worry about it, I’ve got songs that I’ve been working on on and off for years. Usually things branch off my old stuff though. It’s like having a plant then when it grows out you take cuttings off it and plant new plants. At some point you just look around and think “man that’s a lot of plants”. I love some I hate some. The main one is coming on ten years old. I’ve just been thinking about reigning it in a bit and trying to take a more focused approach. I’m not looking to become a “content machine” but I do find it admirable when people can consistently set targets and produce finished work. I think reliable timeframes are important if you ever intend to work with people and I do intend to
thanks to all who wrote serious responses. I’m not a humourless dick, I’m just not a fan of reddit type posting where everything has to be a joke, it’s not my cup of tea
