How long does it take you to finish a track?

[Lambox]

Just out of curiosity, how long does it take you to finish a track? And by "finish," I mean absolutely 100% done and ready to be given to the world/internet/public, never to be altered again. And also, how long have you been producing?

It seems to me the longer I have been making tracks, the longer it takes me to finish them. I like to think that this is because I am always learning new tricks, but who knows. Lately, it takes me about four to six weeks to really, really be happy with a track.

Now, I don't want this to turn into some kind of macho "I am more passionate about music and I turn out a track every single week/day/hour." We all have personal lives. Be serious and be honest.

Also--and I'm just curious because I do this--do you guys work on more than one track at a time? I almost always have four or five tracks that I work on interchangeably.

[Topps]

2-3 weeks

[ksandvik]

It depends on so many factors. Most of us work on multiple tracks at the same time. Let the ears rest and have a fresh view.

Even if I think the best production work is done very rapidly, let's say 8 hours from start to finish max. Just hard to get into this mode.

[Nephew]

Such a weird question as it's hard to say. Some tracks just come together faster than others, and some it seems like you spend ages working on.

And then their are different stages to the process as well be it writing, arranging, mixdown and so on, and these all take different amounts of time as well I'd say.

Personally for me, I've gotten a lot better at getting idea's down, getting ride of parts that don't work and just coming up with that four bar loop that is your track.

And on that note, with getting better at getting idea's down I see myself being more critical about the arrangement. That's taking up the most time out of the whole process.

But after the arrangement, the mixdown I can pretty much nail in one session now with a few tweaks here and there after giving it a rest.

If I were to break it down,

Writing = 3 to 4 hours

Arrangement = 4 to 6 hours

Mixdown = 1 to 2 hours

Total = 8 to 10 hours

And yeah, I usually have anywhere from 4 to 8 tracks I'm juggling at once just to keep the ears and mind fresh.

[Nephew]

And I really don't see how you can measure this in "weeks", as that has no correlation to the amount of time you spent on it and there's no consistent value between how much time person A spends on producing in a week to person B.

[Lambox]

And I really don't see how you can measure this in "weeks", as that has no correlation to the amount of time you spent on it and there's no consistent value between how much time person A spends on producing in a week to person B.

While I agree that "weeks" may not be the best unit of measurement here, at least in my case, it's the best way to measure the time I put into it. An hour here; an hour there. My problem is that I can only really produce quality material when I get a burst of inspiration or ideas, and it's not something I can force. Sometimes I spend an hour or two working only to realize I've produced garbage and have to scrap what I've done that day.

Personally... 30-40 total hours in 4-6 weeks usually is what it comes down to for me.

[AdamPollard55]

Depends on what the track is. I can do an edit in 2 or 3 hours. A remix in 10ish hours. And an original could take anything from 10 to a gazillion hours, since the creative aspect is what takes time

[strategicsilence]

there have been times where i'll finish an entire song in about 4 hours, sometimes less.

[Tarekith]

Like the OP, the longer I write music the longer it takes me to finish. I'd say anywhere from 2-4 weeks per song, though I often have more than one in progress at once.

Just an average though, some I can do in a weekend, others in a few months if I'm really busy.

[Max Jones]

If I start a track I sit there until I finish it. The main loop normally takes me about an hour or two then the arrangement about 6 hours and then I tinker with the mixdown until I get sick of hearing it, this will be spread out over 2 days tops. I admire people who can spend weeks crafting something but I get very cranky when making tunes, i'd probably lose a lot of friends! I also never work on 2 songs at the same time.