Average time spent on a track

2-6 hours of working time, usually.

months and months and months

usually in one big renoise file, i'll have a sampling session around the house, and then exhaust every possibility i think of for months, and then condense all those ideas into one goofy long.. thing. i like that way because the different ideas will compete in a way, and i'll find myself going through hoops to make the ones i like work with each other and the ones that don't hold up after the 100000th listen get left behind. also makes an unlistenable mess for anyone else that hears it, but :sup:

  On 4/5/2011 at 9:38 PM, wahrk said:

I take about a month or two with anywhere between 3 and 10 tracks getting actual attention at any given time. It usually goes like this:

 

-initial session, writing the first section or two

-adding a little more

-open it up, listen, no idea how to continue x20

-finally get inspired to continue and add next couple sections, tweaking previous ones and altering mixing all the while

-possibly more listening/doing nothing sessions

-several tweaking sessions, usually involved newly learned techniques

-final mixing

-done

this made my day. that's like every track for me!

It's the fucking truth man. I spend so much time in my DAWs just playing back songs 2 or 3 times with the intention of thinking how to add to it only to hear it drop down to silence again and go "Hmmm, I'll come back to this again sometime soon."

  On 4/6/2011 at 7:36 AM, wahrk said:

It's the fucking truth man. I spend so much time in my DAWs just playing back songs 2 or 3 times with the intention of thinking how to add to it only to hear it drop down to silence again and go "Hmmm, I'll come back to this again sometime soon."

Guilty. And these tracks never see the light of day from me. If I don't capture the magic in the first four hours, it isn't getting finished.

I've been doing Record Production Month Challenge(RPM) for 4 years now, you basically get a month to make 10 songs or 35 minutes worth of music, it really teaches you how to pick and choose your battles. Most songs end up getting completed in 2-3 days. 1 day is totally realistic. Setting deadlines and having a process will get music done. If it really takes someone weeks to feel "inspired" then I don't think they are trying hard enough.

Sometimes me and a buddy will be on AIM first thing in the morning, and try to make an entire song in 30 minutes. You can do it, it just might not be a masterpiece. I think this is a great way to "warm up" being in your studio, your next song will usually happen quickly.

That being said I've worked on "dubstep" songs with friends of mine that last an entire week because we agonize over every millisecond of audio. Working on tracks for this period of time usually results in ear fatigue and loathing the song.

I can't stand listening to the same thing a billion times.

  On 4/5/2011 at 12:39 AM, ganus said:

  On 4/5/2011 at 12:26 AM, luke viia said:

usually about 6-7 hours / track... i tend to lay down an idea quickly, export it from a DAW (this is the doom of any productive session for me), listen to it occasionally (ok, compulsively) for a few days, then go back and add new ideas.

God damn, this is the bullshit that happens to me every time. Unfortunately with me, I usually can't find new ideas I like enough for it, so it just dies completely and I am left with 1000 half-baked songs.

basically same as both of you. sometimes a song can take a totally different direction... aka take only 1 section from it and go off of that. can be months later.

i'm pissed though with all these half finished tracks. i don't want to finish them because i feel like it will be boring work.

  On 4/5/2011 at 9:38 PM, wahrk said:

I take about a month or two with anywhere between 3 and 10 tracks getting actual attention at any given time. It usually goes like this:

 

-initial session, writing the first section or two

-adding a little more

-open it up, listen, no idea how to continue x20

-finally get inspired to continue and add next couple sections, tweaking previous ones and altering mixing all the while

-possibly more listening/doing nothing sessions

-several tweaking sessions, usually involved newly learned techniques

-final mixing

-done

at '-open it up, listen, no idea how to continue x20' i start to hate the song. gotta hold onto it though.

Between 2 and 5 days depending on how well things flow.

  On 4/6/2011 at 6:13 PM, acid1 said:

I've been doing Record Production Month Challenge(RPM) for 4 years now, you basically get a month to make 10 songs or 35 minutes worth of music, it really teaches you how to pick and choose your battles. Most songs end up getting completed in 2-3 days. 1 day is totally realistic. Setting deadlines and having a process will get music done. If it really takes someone weeks to feel "inspired" then I don't think they are trying hard enough.

ooh that's a good challenge. gonna give that a shot (starting this month). :sup:

If there is some, here is the schema for me :

0. The idea. Generally it comes from a daydream (for example when I'm walking in the street), and in that case I wait to have a more dense idea, with more melody lines and also ideas about the sounds I want before to work it on my equipment. Sometimes I also begin a track with no idea at all and it comes as well.

1. The firsts composition steps. It usually is the most intense part of the process, ideas come so quickly it's like I don't even think about them.

2. Then I often got lost in the narcissism of listening the thing repetitively and wondering how the fuck this just came out from myself. That's how I decide that song just has to be the next-gen braindance hit and at this moment nothing constructive comes out. No new idea is too good to continue the track.

3. Eventually I find a way to continue it anyway, and I usually lose a bit of the blind enthusiasm I had about it in the previous step. Step 3 is also the time I begin to mix some elements and to make the track sound clearer.

4. Final mix, some composition re-adjustments. Then compression on groups of tracks, then a kind of quick mastering, and then soundcloud.

Actually about 20% of my tracks reach step 4. About half of them stay stuck at step 3 because I eventually don't know how to make it a "finished" thing.

Step 1 to step 4 can take less than a week (it actually happens twice, when no work to do were bothering me), a few weeks (that now tends to be the average ; 2-4 weeks) or a few months (but this doesn't really happen any more unless I'm stopping the track with the idea to come back later).

  On 4/7/2011 at 2:00 AM, luke viia said:

  On 4/6/2011 at 6:13 PM, acid1 said:

I've been doing Record Production Month Challenge(RPM) for 4 years now, you basically get a month to make 10 songs or 35 minutes worth of music, it really teaches you how to pick and choose your battles. Most songs end up getting completed in 2-3 days. 1 day is totally realistic. Setting deadlines and having a process will get music done. If it really takes someone weeks to feel "inspired" then I don't think they are trying hard enough.

 

ooh that's a good challenge. gonna give that a shot (starting this month). :sup:

Theres the spirit! Technically it starts every feb www.rpmchallenge.com but there is absolutely nothing stopping from you starting now.

I haven't made music in ages, but it goes a little something like this: First draft takes me 4-5 hours. Then I start working on new stuff and tweak the draft every now and then over a period of weeks. When I feel it's close to what I want (all the basic things I want to do with it are in place) I renderer every track seperately and rebuild the track using the stems. Usually I end up tweaking /fucking the track beyond recognition in this stage. This final stage usually takes a couple of months, but I'm never working on just one track, so how long I actually spend on one, I have no idea. The End.

  On 4/4/2011 at 11:55 PM, del dot said:

Hello, I am relatively new here. I have been producing braindance for a little over 2 years now, and I am at the point where I need to start producing a shitload of music to satisfy the demands of my own ego, my fans, and my label. However, I have a problem. It takes me so long to write a track. We are talking >60 hours per track. I am a very busy student so I don't have much time to produce, so a track can take anywhere from 2-5 months depending on how much detail I put into it.

 

Those of you that do braindance full time, how long do you spend on a track? And how long have you been producing to get to that point?

 

del dot

www.d3l.in

I also take the same time even more. Your tracks sound really nice so keep doing it like this. Adding details and doing a good mastering takes time. But as has been said working on multiple tracks at the same time and merging them later can speed up the process (thats how clark does it by the way)

  On 4/5/2011 at 12:26 AM, luke viia said:

usually about 6-7 hours / track... i tend to lay down an idea quickly, export it from a DAW (this is the doom of any productive session for me), listen to it occasionally (ok, compulsively) for a few days, then go back and add new ideas. after that i usually call it done so i can get another idea out.

  On 4/8/2011 at 10:50 AM, illfly mandog said:

  On 4/5/2011 at 12:26 AM, luke viia said:

usually about 6-7 hours / track... i tend to lay down an idea quickly, export it from a DAW (this is the doom of any productive session for me), listen to it occasionally (ok, compulsively) for a few days, then go back and add new ideas. after that i usually call it done so i can get another idea out.

Same here. And I tend to stick stuff up on soundcloud too quickly, mainly to try and get some feedback from people.

Then I get bored of the idea, and start something new...

Since the time I started doing this in 2004 until now, it's always been between three days and a week and a half for a track. Half the time is probably spent rendering wavs and relistening to the thing from start to finish to get an idea for what could use improvement. I also try to clear my head of the song before relistening so that I can hear it with "fresh ears" (ie. I'll put on a random tune from my mp3 collection to push my track out of my head, or going for a walk with an album I like). Otherwise my brain will just get lost in the details and lose all sense of objectivity. I'll cease to hear it as one piece unfolding over time and instead hear it as a series of parts.

Usually I'll attack whatever I'm working on until it's finished, so most of my waking hours will be devoted to it. Coffee is key.

  On 4/8/2011 at 11:33 PM, Zephyr_Nova said:

I also try to clear my head of the song before relistening so that I can hear it with "fresh ears" (ie. I'll put on a random tune from my mp3 collection to push my track out of my head, or going for a walk with an album I like). Otherwise my brain will just get lost in the details and lose all sense of objectivity. I'll cease to hear it as one piece unfolding over time and instead hear it as a series of parts.

I agree, always interesting to try to forget about the track and then listening back to it. It makes you hear it as "the regular listener".

For me, the length of time it takes to finish a track is really quite varied. I'm always experimenting with new techniques or honing in certain methods until they are concrete in my head. My best tracks are always the ones I spend one to two hours on, idea-wise, and then maybe another couple mixing. Nothing gets a track finished quicker, however, than a hard deadline in which you cannot work on it any further. Personally I am not disciplined enough to set my own deadlines, so this method only works when it is out of my control (example: label needs it finished at a certain time, track needs finished for a show, working on track for others, etc.)

there are different levels of completion. to me the highest is album-level, when the track has been perfected and also mixed to fit into a broader context. before that it can be finished on a track level, a complete piece of music but lacking the further development of its context. and before that can come many levels of drafts, depending on your workflow.

i can get a track to some level of completion in a day or two if i really focus on it, but perfecting it and/or mixing it into an album could take a long time. i like to sit on old ideas for a few months before finishing them - then you get the perspective of you and your past self at the same time.

being able to upload music to the internet definitely blurs the lines between final version and rough draft. I am also guilty of uploading things to soundcloud too fast, but lately i've been sort of forcing myself to upload rough drafts to my blog continuously, just to test my own productivity. it's nice having an outlet to quietly publish songs which may not be album-worthy but still feel special to you.

  On 4/10/2011 at 12:29 AM, Boxus said:

I am also guilty of uploading things to soundcloud too fast, but lately i've been sort of forcing myself to upload rough drafts to my blog continuously, just to test my own productivity. it's nice having an outlet to quietly publish songs which may not be album-worthy but still feel special to you.

This sounds like a good solution to a common problem. I think a lot of folks, myself included, are quick to upload our tracks, even rough ones, because we are all looking for the gratification that comes when someone responds to it positively. Using it instead as a way to test your own productivity seems like a good way to turn something negative into something positive.

  On 4/5/2011 at 12:26 AM, luke viia said:

usually about 6-7 hours / track... i tend to lay down an idea quickly, export it from a DAW (this is the doom of any productive session for me), listen to it occasionally (ok, compulsively) for a few days, then go back and add new ideas. after that i usually call it done so i can get another idea out.

This... and the time frame as well. there were a couple of tracks that took me over a month. but lately with the resources I have now. 6 to 7 hours have been the average. I sometimes sit in my office/studio and let something I made loop for hours then come back and add something else. only problem with that is that I have the loop in my head when I sleep.

Yeah very very different.

The average time spent on developing a good music idea, groove, feeling, what I refer to "tune" ... could be from 1 minute to 20 minutes.

The average time spent on further playing around with it could be 1 hour to 1 day.

The average time sequencing and remixing that stuff could be 1 hour to infinity ( = I never finish most)

The average time to get to a state to be able to develop a good "tuning" and also feel confident about it and don't miss-hear it, could be one minute to infinity ( = I'm not a great musician at all but that can't be true!).

But if we see making a track as a part of the whole process called life which will never be finished I would say:

In average I spent my life on my tracks

forever!

It depends on the length of the track and how much detail I want to go into, but generally, about 4-6 hours. I used to start and finish a track in one go, but I usually divide it up into two sessions now.

I just feel it's hard to stay in the mindframe of the track when I have to work on it on such a long amount of time. I finished a track recently that I had started a year ago. Just wrote some lyrics for it, made some new parts and recorded the vocals. Feels good to be done with it. I make a lot of my own patches in the FM8, as well.

I've been writing electronic music since 2000.