Takes me about 12 hours if I'm going to do it in one sitting. I have made a few tracks in the past where I've actually just taken the whole day, from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep, creating a new song. It makes good practice, but I never expect anything worth releasing by that process. If I'm expecting something Good, then I usually take anywhere from 2-5 days, 3-5 hours per day. Adding up to 6-25 hours time taken. Quite a large range.

A full track takes about 30-50 hours to make, usually spread over many months.

Note that it took me about 3-4 years to actually get to the point where tracks took 30+ hours to make on a consistent basis. The number of things I submitted fell sharply around early 2010, consistent with large improvements in quality.

The problem is never really spending more time on a song, the problem is always figuring out what you need to do next. Spending additional time on a track is rarely beneficial to someone who simply doesn't understand what needs to happen next. If you don't know what to add to a track, spending more time on it isn't going to change that. You need to instead spend time listening to professional songs and trying to figure out what they are doing that you aren't.

At 8/29/12 12:57 AM, Blackhole12 wrote: You need to instead spend time listening to professional songs and trying to figure out what they are doing that you aren't.

I agree with this. When you start analyzing commercial tracks with an aim, you can learn some great techniques or get inspiration/ideas for your own. When I say "with an aim", I mean listening to a particular part in commercial tracks that you feel you need to fix or add to your track. i.e., "My transition sucks! I'm gonna listen to commercial tracks and see what they do,". You'll most likely pick up on more than just listening to a track and analyzing the whole thing by habit.

I used to think that most catchy tunes had the same exact beat going the whole way through, or most of the whole way through. People on NG would say "the beat is too repetitive" in reviews of my tracks. At first, I thought, "maybe it's because they're not into mainstream music," but for the hell of it, I listened to many tracks I like, and noticed that the beats had many small varieties throughout the track. Even if the BOOM-CHA was the same, there are more percs and varities with percussion which aren't really IN-UR-FACE noticeable, but which give the track more interest and a professional touch.

I tend to use bass and guitar in most of my electronic oriented music tracks and that takes much longer to get the mix right and everything recorded properly. If I am on a roll, it takes me 3 days to a week. if I am doing a mostly electronic track, i can fish a track in one day, but usually 2 to 3 days. If I am working with a vocalist, it can take awhile to get the right sound and mix.