Another technique that dovetails nicely with this is taking a loop and slowing it down to halftime.
Make the arrangement first, label the clips, then generate the sounds. Professional writers do it like this for novels, when the story is set, its then easier to write it down.
Oh hello Digitakt firmware.
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I just want to add that some of my favorite songs r loops.
There’s endless rap beats that I love that r very simple loops. Disintegration loops is one of the most celebrated ambient albums of all time and it’s really just a very short loop for a very long time.
I think disintegration loops is actually a perfect example of how you can stretch a loop out to infinity. There’s so much u can do to a simple loop to give it movement, feeling and shifting dynamics to make it feel alive.
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“This is a grotesque example of a band’s sickening self indulgence. At 0.032 during The 2nd drum solo, the casual listener may well ask why there is such need for such overblown showmanship. As skilled as the drummer is, there’s no need to drag a solo out for an excruciatingly long 0.0025 seconds, shortly followed by another of almost equal length.”
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Didn’t read the whole thread, but like to share one thought about finishing:
In my experience it is relatively ‘easy’ to build a song UP, layer ideas onto it and create some alternating parts. Then every song needs an end, a FINISH so to speak. Some keywords to get from the (probably already existing) main part (loop) of a wip-song to the finish: Build DOWN, reduce, simplify, take away and/or circle back to the (minimalist) intro if there is one.
What I am trying to say is, that in my experience often times the roadblock in completing a song is to find an appropriate ending to call it done.
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I’m here too, but I’ll add
0.5 buy a piece of kit because I think that’ll break the blockage
1.5 figure out how to integrate new kit into the setup
1.6 realise i don’t have the right cabling
1.7 play with it standalone
I’ve found that Moog’s DFAM has interrupted this for me, but the resultant sounds are not my intended direction of travel. I’ll going along with it for now, so for #3 I’m liking what I’m hearing but I really don’t know what to do with it.
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You can try my way 
Jokes aside, it can be very frustrating. On the other hand it has been useful for me at least to set some time limit, otherwise I can get stuck to #2 forever.
Plus one for DFAM!
Do what I did and get a second one. Why?
Complete self indulgence.
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Yeah definitely this video and this Guy !
the 4 bar loop described with solutions
Definitely a great video which describe well the main struggle and how to overcome it.
And the free ebook associated 
Practical Guide to Composition
My bigger issue with songs is trying to map them all out fully in the beginning on a time scale, it’s as if I need empty “building blocks” set up as a sketch before I populate anything!
Getting cool ideas that end up in what should be the “middle” of a track is where my struggles begin.
Endingwise- It’s vastly easier to add in a a deconstructed/glitched out or FX drenched, mic handling flaws, missed frets leaking-through raw ending to contrast the rest of a tightly coupled arrangement.
It’s the beginning that gets more difficult to visualize, even with “Insert Silence” at the start of my timeline, that can mess up expected timing, put meter changes or envelopes off… and I still feel constrained.
Anyone else have this problem?
What I likely need to do is figure out how long the track should be, create a looping area far further than I think I’ll need, and then slide the loop to the left as I populate sound and MIDI to start, that way I’m not needing to mess with envelopes or adding/subtracting anything.
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I don’t even want to mention how much gear I’ve bought since I last finished a track. including a new studio computer and audio interface. 
it hasn’t been as long as the OP. and I have finished tracks before. my process seems to be:
- finish a bunch of stuff in a relatively short period of time
- huge gap of time where I hate or am un-motivated by everything I do
- goto step one
I’ve been stuck on step two for about two years now.
I think I basically come up with a good idea/approach for writing and structuring tracks, and then eventually get bored or sick of it. I’m not entirely sure how to snap out of that… new gear? change DAWs or sequencers? take time away from my gear and do something else? sell everything and start fresh? 
What really helped me in recent times with this issue was to actually complete a task. In my case a friend of mine asked me if I know where to get some royalty free music for his interior design videos and I offered him some help. So I had someone waiting for a complete piece of music that had to be finished in a certain amount of time. This was an enormous boost to my motivation and lastly creativity. In the end I finished to “songs” within two weeks and it was a very satisfying feeling. So setting some goals is always a very good source of motivation.
I guess nobody wants to hear this but what I also noticed was, that getting away from the hardware as a main workstation and instead working in a DAW (using hardware as an additional tool when its needed) is much more effective when you really want to finish stuff.
Just my two cents
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A change of technical workflow is potentially inspiring when you’re already productive, it’ll add new roadblocks on top of the old ones!
What are your biggest frustrations when you’re in a rut?
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I hope you got compensated for your music, be it financially or in kind. Whenever the usage is going to be professional, it’s safer for the friendship to keep things on a professional level.
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Well tbh there was no money involved so I saw this as a challenge for myself and I’ve learned a lot writing those pieces. That was enough compensation for me… also the next two fancy diners are on him 
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BARS!
