how long does it take you to write a track?

for me, i sit down and methodically do one bit at a time and each time i'm adding something i always try to get it perfect with effects and eq. in this way i think i take too long because if i saved that kinda thing to the e thannd i'd probably go about producing alot faster.

how long?

i think that everyone probably has their own process, personally when i write a track i start with bass or drums or if i have a specific sample that i have in mind, and i eq/process everything as i go. typically it takes anywhere from a few hours to weeks to write a track

the shittiest tracks by me get made in less than a day. i need a few weeks to make anything worth listening. can't rush art.

sometimes i just jam and record things that turn into songs quite quickly, like a day or 2, tops. usually i can lay down the basic parts of a song in a about a day, but it can take much longer to tweak specific things out. i usually dont work on a song longer than about 2 or 3 weeks though cuz i get bored.

but as beneboi said, it varies.. sometimes really awesome songs come out of nowhere in the span of like 20 minutes. or even i might rework a song from 5 or 6 years ago or whatever, but that's rare and im usually bored and uninspired when i resort to that. yup.

I can write something really fast - at least a bunch of parts that work together. It's arranging it into a full song that takes me a while.

I've been making music with my new tascam 4 track and it takes a lot longer than the computer but it's more fun and sounds better to me. Also it inspires you to take longer on writing strong melodies and harmonies, I think.

 

So now I'd say about a week per track.

many months

 

at least.

n.12 units of time

An hour or two.

It can take anywhere from 1-10 hours to compose a song, and then mixing/mastering can take anywhere from 2-10 hours (counting rendering time of course). A lot of the mixing/mastering is done between composing seperate parts of a song though, and of course the total time can always vary. I had a track that I kept thinking I was happy with the master, and then the next day I'd realize I wanted to do it differently, and it ended up taking pretty much 2 solid weeks to be happy with it. I am a bit obsessive though when it comes to striving for my vision of perfection, so if I hear some weird frequency or the modulation on some effect or instrument didn't sound right it could sometimes take more time than it should to track it down.

 

If I'm composing classical pieces, it usually takes 2-15 hours to compose, but then I rarely have to do any mixing/mastering, so in some ways it's easier.

 

There are definitely cases where it's been different. I can sometimes create a song that I find amazing and is +5 minutes long, and be completely done with the first runthrough of the master and everything in under 5 hours of work, and then sometimes a simple 1 minute track can drive me insane and take many many more hours...

2.9% of time spent composing a track, i spend picking my nose. and eating it.

how ever long it takes me to shoot my bolt

Depends doesnt it? You may write a wee melody in 30 seconds and s

it on it for a year or two before using it. You might write a little drumbeat accompaniment in an afterno on and think nothing of it. You might even decide to write a track in an hou r just to see if you can do it! This question is too broad; c- see me after class.

Edited October 21, 2008 by edge

20 minutes tops for an awesome loop

1 month to listen to it again and realize it is awesome

day or two to finish it

i've been working on a 14 minute prog rock instrumental for around two months now, and it's still in the "figuring it out using only a 12-string acoustic guitar" phase. so yeah, usually my band style stuff takes a while, mostly because i procrastinate a lot between coming up with ideas, working on arrangements and recording.

 

but my electronic stuff doesn't usually take me very long at all. depends how inspired i'm feeling.

Edited October 21, 2008 by modey

anywhere inbetween 30 minutes an 30 hours. usually spread across a week or two.

time is an illusion.

  JohnTqs said:

the shittiest tracks by me get made in less than a day. i need a few weeks to make anything worth listening. can't rush art.

 

TELL THAT TO PICASSO!!!!

I never really finish anything so it can take quite a long time. And I always keep changing things, after that I often stop and still don't think it is finished.

 

 

If I keep reviewing my tunes I run out of ideas, so I usually have to take a break for about a day or so.

Edited October 21, 2008 by Berk

depends on how much work you want to put into it!

  joshier said:

depends on how much work you want to put into it!

 

Yes, but when I relisten my tune too often I know exactly what's coming at what time, and for an 'objective' view I need to take a break now and then. Sometimes when I haven't heard my work for a few days I discover stuff that I think is out of place.

 

You're right though, it all depends on the motivation you've got.

I'm often left with 30 second ace snippets that are rarely flushed into songs. Couple full length songs a year really, without countless < 1min bits.

All of the above.

I've found in most cases my favorite tracks are 90% complete the first day and completed within a couple days afterwards. The first day is usually when i'm the most inspired and the process goes really fast, but those times can be few and far between. So i'll usually end up trying to force out a track and end up with 10-20 1-2 minute demo's or potential songs that never go anywhere.

 

I have a hard time returning to a track if I've let it sit for too long, which is a shame, its just tough for me to get back into the frame of mind i was in initially.

When I first started doing the Zephyr Nova thing, I'd typically spend 3-4 days average on a track, working many hours each day. Then my programming started getting more intesive and I'd spent a week or more working justas much per day. Now when I make tracks I tend to stretch them out over a longer period of time, as I'm too busy to bang them out like I used to. It's actually been quite some time since I made any new Zephyr Nova tracks, aside from a few remixes. I lost my drive for it. It'll be back some day, I'm sure.