How much tine do you spend making a track?

[DJAmok]

This seems to vary quite a lot from what I´ve seen so far. Some people have the main loop done in 5 mins (how the hell can they do that so fast?? ;-) )and then arrange around it for another 45 minutes and they have a new slamming technotrack, others take their time and wait for inspiration to come and have 5 or so unfinished tracks at a time.

I usually have the main loop done in around 15 minutes, then I play around with the effects and filters a bit, and then start another one. the next day I´ll return to the first and start changing things that didn´t bother me the day before. Usually I have the whole track done in about 2-3 days. Some times it happens though, that although a track is almost done I start losing interest or forget about it. Oh well, guess everyone has his bad habits ;-)

So basically I was just curious, how much time do you devote to a track before you move on?

[JACKSTAR]

I normally sort out the drums 1st which can take about an hour then fiddle about with a synthline for another hour until something starts to take shape. What I spend most of the time doing is sorting out the little noises and edits while arranging in Cubase then of course checking the levels before mastering to DAT because we all tend to keep turning up the gains on everything so you need to make sure your not gonna piss the mastering engineer off with mental hissing rides all over the place. Sometimes I can do a whole track start to DAT in 5 hours but then sometimes it might be 3-4 days but by then i'm sick off it.

P.

www.paullangley.net

www.jackstar-recordings.com

[d-lysergic acid]

it depends
the most important for me is the inspiration
w/out it I can't do anything
I use many methods for making my trackz
it depends what method I use...
when i am really inspired like I was when I was making
my track "Q-tek" which soon u'll hear I make my trackz for
one day...to make this track it took me 6 hours non-stop workin`
for this 6 hourz I didn't move from my pc I was in state of trance
if I can say it that way and if this means really anything to u...
However sometimes I do like u amok said
I have about 50 unfinished trax that are waiting to be finished...
It takes me about 10 to 20 min to make the main "basic" loop
one day i work on the loop , then other day i work on the fx ,
and etc.

[miromiric.]

anything from 1 day to a month really. usually i make the main theme in 2 or 3 days and then other things are made within 2 or 3 weeks usually.
but thats for trax i finish. other that i don't like i stop doin after 2 days work max.

[DJZeMig_L]

I start generally by some synth sounds or wackyng up some samples/ loop ... then I'll probably play around 4 2-3h... mainly try sounds and different seq.s, or just jamming live 4 a bit, after that it's either workin or not... having that donne .. I start all the seq. preparation... and get down 2 business (which generally takes part a different day from the main groove scketching)... The thing that I love/ hate the most is the seq. as I pay 2 much attention 2 little details, small changes, etc... so I end up getting tired of earing the same sh** so i feel like changing everything every 32 bars lol... I "lose" loads of time tweeking synth sounds and eq, efx, etc... by the end the track is almost like a remix from the original idea!!

So in total it's always between 3-6 days around a track.. (not counting backing up, mastering)...

then I need some days off until I NEED 2 get in the studio for unstressing... I guess If I didn't DJ I would produce a hell of a lot more eheh :P

Z

[heavy beats]

sometimes it'll take me 2 hours. especially if i'm collaborating with others.

other times, i noticed i'll spend about a week on the tune and just call it done and move on.

but most of the time, it'll take me a month because i'm a freaking perfectionist. I can't stand that! my biggest problem is making the track standout. whether it be a hook, stab, bassline or the drums, that shit takes me forever these days. :-\

[Col]

i cant finish a track, thats my problem. sometimes its down to not being able to find enough interest within the track, or i cant find that something extra within the loop just to top things off.

i can knock loops up from anything from 30mins to 24hrs. but in saying that, i can still find myself going back to loops i started months ago.

[mux]

Building the actual music? A few hours here and there. I find my best tracks come from building the initial track in an afternoon, then coming back to it a few weeks later and reworking it, then adding even more spice later - usually after playing it out and having it rock... if I play it out and it doesn't rock, it gets scrapped immediately. :)

My problem is recording. I find the process boring. As a result, I have ONE "finished track" to my name, and a whole bunch of live recordings and demos. All I want to do is play the techno live in front of crowds! I come from a guitarist background, playing live in the bar circuit, and I don't really want to be a recording engineer - but I guess it's give-and-take. :(

[Dustin Zahn]

I can make typical belgium sounding shit in an hour easily. But for me, there is a positive correlation between time and quality when I produce music (most of the time). Often times I'll work on the basis of a track for 3-4 hours, and won't end up touching the actual track again until a couple months later when I'm in a similar moood. There's been times where I've spent 20+ hours on a track and it shows.

[The Divide]

Depends how well its going, sometimes I get really lucky and everything just seems to fall into place really quickly. More recently its started to take me a lot longer because my ears are more tuned than before. The longest I have taken on one track is probably 2 weeks (about 30 to 40 hours). On average I think I can start and finish a track in 2-4 days. Once I have something out on the desk I cant really stop and star another one, would mean rewiring everything and that would be much more time consuming. If I worked in the same way every track (used the same settings/sample banks and patches) it would be a lot quicker but I dont want to start getting into that habbit too much

[herman]

As with everyone else it seems it very much depends on the projects im working on at the time it can be 45 minutes from switching on the gear to a finished dat copy and some times it will take me a couple of days, i generally have a rule that if im not really feeling where the track is going after 2 hours i will just scrap it and start something else though that is particulary true for dance floor stuff. the more complex detroity string stuff usually takes me longer than anything else to make though and the stuff i just knock up tends to get the best reaction and sales ...............................i think that says something ;)

[Ritzi Lee]

Depends!
Today it was really incredible.
I did a track without using loops.
All midi and phat...
Did it all in 1 day!!!

[audioinjection]

I start generally by some synth sounds or wackyng up some samples/ loop ... then I'll probably play around 4 2-3h... mainly try sounds and different seq.s, or just jamming live 4 a bit, after that it's either workin or not... having that donne .. I start all the seq. preparation... and get down 2 business (which generally takes part a different day from the main groove scketching)... The thing that I love/ hate the most is the seq. as I pay 2 much attention 2 little details, small changes, etc... so I end up getting tired of earing the same sh** so i feel like changing everything every 32 bars lol... I "lose" loads of time tweeking synth sounds and eq, efx, etc... by the end the track is almost like a remix from the original idea!!

Haha dude I'm totally the same way

[DJZeMig_L]

ehehe sometimes I envy the old days that everything sounded right and I could almost jam live and gte the basic structure down in about 2-3 hours, go for a cuppa then get back and do the final seq in about 3-4 .. record 2 DAT and presto ready 2 roll...

Now I hear something and it seems 2 hurt my ears, I need 2 eq, efx, bla bla bla... and it takes 4eva! :(

Z

[romelpotter]

i have done tracks in a day but then i have also taken 6 months to complete a track. imo the time it takes doesn't mater a whole lot. once its done ...its done :lol: :lol:

[BloodStar]

sometimes I finish a track within 2-3days, sometimes in one day. In some cases I've almost finished track, I just make a change here and there, add some effects, change some seqs and I'm stucked in it at the moment,. So I just save it for later use and start something new. and it's the same very often, that when the track is almost finish I start the changes and **** it up./...

[The Overfiend]

Between the comp crashing and me getting frustrated about 4 to 5 days.
But I also work on like 3 or 4 tracks at a time.

[RichieV]

1 month if i spend time each day

[StoQ]

i have done tracks in a day but then i have also taken 6 months to complete a track. imo the time it takes doesn't mater a whole lot. once its done ...its done :lol: :lol:

yeah, time doesn't mater. Some tracks need a few hours, another ones a few months