How long do you typically spend on a track

[shonky]

It's very difficult to tell. Think the quickest was about 5 hours but the amount of time spent opening old projects, listening through them thinking about ways to finish them, adding some bits, realising I'd lost the bits I liked and replaced them with shite, computer crashes and general despair mean that some of them in real time might take a month or more.

I don't use a stopwatch. Certainly speeds things up if you can notice that a part isn't working and bin it immediately, rather than spending hours finding a new one. Can spot loads of old projects where there's a good part and loads of padding to try and turn it into a tune.

[genfu]

its kinda interesting, i thought maybe my attention span was too short, cause i tend to complete most tracks in a day, and if its something decent that comes out of it i spend a few more days on it adding different parts and stuff. and mixing down properly

but it seems like im not the only one who knocks stuff out quite quickly..

[two oh one]

Certainly speeds things up if you can notice that a part isn't working and bin it immediately, rather than spending hours finding a new one.

This is so bloody true!

Also, it helps if you get that very first sound right. I see putting a track together like growing a tree. Getting the right seed is very important, because every sound affects your next sound choice. You need a good foundation.

My favourite tracks are the ones that seem to make themselves with little help from me. I zone out for a while and when I come back around, the meat of the track is just kinda sat there ready for me. I click save and call it a night.

[ikonika]

depends, recently i've been feeling uninfluenced so everything is taking long, plus got a backlog of bout 10tracks that need finishing...when i use to do hip-hop id make a track in like 15-30 mins top...cant do that anymore

[alias]

No input = No output.


I make a tune, leave it somewhere, find it and be like these is sick but its missing this. I voted for 1-6 months.

[sully_shanks]

45 mins tops.
make 10 tunes day..youll have sutin to pick from then.

not bein funny - but is that joke?

[konehed]

45 mins tops.
make 10 tunes day..youll have sutin to pick from then.

not bein funny - but is that joke?

obviously, 45 minutes is way too much time to spend on a track


:6:

[sully_shanks]

haha
i spose listenin to yr production more than 5 times over before its finished is a bit much to ask.

[two oh one]

I always 'design' a track on paper beforehand. Think of what I'm trying to achieve or say, then get all the pieces together that I need to achieve what it is I'm going for. If I don't have a solid concept before I start hitting buttons, then I know I'll end up with a noodle track. That is, something which sounds ok, but doesn't have any real personality to distinguish it from anything else.

It usually takes one night to flesh out the 'hook' or get the main thrust of it all all together. If I end up with something I think is strong and memorable, I stop work and sleep on it. Literally go to bed.

If I don't wake up with the track I was making the night before going through my head or can't recall it within a few moments, I trash it. If something doesn't stay in my memory, I don't think it has the juice.

If I do wake up with it in my head, then I take the rest of the week to arrange it, think of alternative movements, transitions and do a rough mix. I put up the rough mixes, take suggestions, then get to the final mixes whenever.

[j_j]

45 mins tops.
make 10 tunes day..youll have sutin to pick from then.

not bein funny - but is that joke?

not at all,make a beat,if u feel it,keep it,if ur not feeling it,bin it n make a new one.
if your making music you prob should have melodys etc and inspiration in your head most the time,(which is why your making beats right) so its not hard when u know ur system.
dont worry about mixdowns.if u use shit sounds ur fucked neway,a good engineer tho can iron out most mixes.
i make about 50 beats a week maybe more if im on it.
most beatmakers prob do.
jus how u use what u use.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n9ltZOleLo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOIc8dghjj0

[sully_shanks]

think theres a big difference between a beat n a piece tho. i see see it as hip production style once you got the hook - sampled, ya add drums n the bassline n its done. maybe do the same for the bridge n ya sorted. the skill is in pcikin the right hook.
electronic styles tends to be more experimental in sound sourcing/creation, larger palletes of sounds. morecomplicated strucure n that. n i wouldn't want someone else engineerin my work.
big up those who can thump em out still.

[headhunter]

most tracks take about 24 hours... i start the beats n bass before i sleep then wake up and finish it.. so about 7 hours in total.. then leave the mixing process to the night time after ive pissed around all day doing random shit.

if i spend longer than 3 days on something, the vibes lost and i delete it. but this don't seem to happen too often these days.

[legend4ry]

sequence a track from stratch in a night, fuck with for a week, hate it, realise a week or so later its not too bad and finish it within a month. then hate it again

^ This is why I have never finished a tune.

[two oh one]

sequence a track from stratch in a night, fuck with for a week, hate it, realise a week or so later its not too bad and finish it within a month. then hate it again

^ This is why I have never finished a tune.

That's a problem. I also used to finish nothing because I'd either get bored with it, or start something new halfway through it and then not get back to it because the new one is the focus of attention.

You have to realise that you'll never be satisfied by anything you do. You'll be into it while you're doing it, but at the end, your head will be somewhere new.

This is a blessing and a curse. It makes you lose interest quickly (Work faster!), but it also makes you get into the next piece and the next piece. It keeps you going, improving.

If you made that one elusive track that you loved, you probably wouldn't bother making another. You just have to learn to see it through and abandon it. It's for the listeners at that point forward. They decide if they like it or not and usually they're not as hard on your work as you are. Own worst critic and all that.

Leonardo da Vinci said "Art is never finished, only abandoned"...

[gravious]

I start a track, laying out the basic beat and first riff in a few hours. Usually this results in 'break thru 1'.

Then tinker with it for a few months,

Then I have 'break through 2'. The main elements to the track are laid down at this point.

leave it for a few months.

'Break thru 3'. Finish it off.
Spend a while sorting out mixdown/levels intermittently, often with weeks between listens.
= finished track. This process varies in lenght from 3-4 months to a 18 months.

I have hundreds of things that don't make it past break-thru 1, but its cool, cos I can pillage them for ideas, riffs beats etc.

I am currently working on HURRYING THE FUCK UP, but so far to little avail.

[batfink]

every tune's different. sometimes tunes just make themselves but i do find i spend alot of time fucking with sound design. But you gotta be careful. Spend too long on one track and like headhunter says, the vibe will go and it wont come back. Best dnb tune i ever did couldnt be finished cos i listened so long and hard to it i couldnt see where to go next. Cant see the wood for the trees scenario.

but the time it takes to make tunes pales into insignificance when it comes to trawling through piles of 45s, LPs and Cds in search of that elusive sample. For example, i spent about 4 hours on friday listening to a big pile of bernard herrman ost's to find some samples. Now ive ripped all the tracks i like i've still got to go through most of it chopping out samples.... Its fun in a masochistic kinda way.

I;ve also got a pile of 45s about two foot high which i need to go through and about a foot of 12" LPs which ive bought and not had time to listen to, let alone sample. its a hard life.

[misk]

im currently 5 hours into a tune, and takin an internet/fuck off and play video games break... this particular tune sounds great, and its pretty much made itself.

but the tune i finished before that needs quite a bit of tinkering...

what it comes down to is FINISHING TUNES.

for the record too, i spent about 4 hours making random percussion loops and such before i even started making this tune.. and i've used quite a few of them in this tune... so... who knows how long i've really taken.

lately i've freed myself from the need of pre-concieved perceptions of what i think i tune should be and acted more on the fleeting thought of "wouldnt it be cool if..." and gone off on some random direction. this seems to be working, as im having fun (i sometimes forget how to do this when producing) and staying focused (only one strange changeup per tune ).

good times... i had fun with that.

[joseph-j]

sequence a track from stratch in a night, fuck with for a week, hate it, realise a week or so later its not too bad and finish it within a month. then hate it again

...then forget all about it, hear it again 2 years later and think "thats actually really good" and slap yourself for not pushing yourself harder.

[forensix (mcr)]

Im working on about 5 tracks at the moment ive spent 2-3 months on them all, makes a change from before when i spent a couple of days on a track

[ludofuzz]

Kylie Minougues 'Locomotion' was written in 5 minutes apparently!!!!