How Long Does It Take You To Finish A Song?

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If you're an electronic musician, something that works well is to work very fast for the first draft of the song. Finish it in one or two evenings, maybe even in a single session. Make that "V1" of the song, but consider it DONE. Complete.

This keeps you finishing -- and allows you to make a bunch of songs quickly, which you can then pare down to the best for V2 remixes.

For the remixes, use all the time intensive production processes you want - go all out with it. But doing it this way means you're not spending too much time on the lesser songs.

You also get the joy of working fast and spontaneous, but you can still go really deep on the important songs. That's what I (try to) do these days.

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Cyanide Lovesong wrote: Sun Jan 15, 2023 10:13 am If you're an electronic musician, something that works well is to work very fast for the first draft of the song. Finish it in one or two evenings, maybe even in a single session. Make that "V1" of the song, but consider it DONE. Complete.

This keeps you finishing -- and allows you to make a bunch of songs quickly, which you can then pare down to the best for V2 remixes.

For the remixes, use all the time intensive production processes you want - go all out with it. But doing it this way means you're not spending too much time on the lesser songs.

You also get the joy of working fast and spontaneous, but you can still go really deep on the important songs. That's what I (try to) do these days.
Great advice.
In the first approach, it´s very important to keep yourself in the creative mode.

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I am new here and in production so I average 3-6 months per song. I overwork the songs and tweak (so many versions) to make it better but I don’t know if I’m taking too long to put out tracks or “get out there”. Some YouTube videos suggest 2-3 weeks lol

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I'm of the opinion there is so much to learn you are never going to master it all but I'm having a blast doing the entire process start to finish in a day per song. I've only been learning music for the past couple months but In that time I was able to throw together a 15 song album and some singles. I even "mastered" them and released it via distro kid to get a taste. Seriously, make stuff put it out and if you choose throw the entire project away and start over save you great works for your final version and don't let some big vision stop you from making and learning.

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Finish a song? Ha ha ha ha...
Signatures are so early 2000s.

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Gavincoolguy wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 1:54 pmI've only been learning music for the past couple months but In that time I was able to throw together a 15 song album and some singles. I even "mastered" them and released it via distro kid to get a taste.
Link?
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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BONES wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 11:12 pm
Gavincoolguy wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 1:54 pmI've only been learning music for the past couple months but In that time I was able to throw together a 15 song album and some singles. I even "mastered" them and released it via distro kid to get a taste.
Link?
Don't hurt me Mr Bones
https://open.spotify.com/artist/70Lg29T ... xKFsT5-jAQ

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For me it's usually 40-60 hours average per project, but these hours can be spread all over entire month or even two.

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You're safe, I don't have a Spotify account so I can't listen to it anyway. But if you are talking about your music, it's handy for people to have the opportunity to hear it.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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At best I might finish a decent track in one evening, but usually we're talking about at minimum two evenings work. That's the finished songs. I have a lot of unfinished tracks that I'd like to revisit, but some of them are so messy it'd take some time to extract anything of worth from them.

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BigpappaFly wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 1:06 pm I am new here and in production so I average 3-6 months per song. I overwork the songs and tweak (so many versions) to make it better but I don’t know if I’m taking too long to put out tracks or “get out there”. Some YouTube videos suggest 2-3 weeks lol
if it's not your job, then there is no hurry.
especially while you are as you say, new to production.
after a while, many things will become second nature, so will be done in less time, where now you try this then that...

just keep going!

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BigpappaFly wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 1:06 pmI am new here and in production so I average 3-6 months per song. I overwork the songs and tweak (so many versions) to make it better but I don’t know if I’m taking too long to put out tracks or “get out there”. Some YouTube videos suggest 2-3 weeks lol
That doesn't sound excessive to me at all. It says that you probably have higher standards than a lot of other people, that you want to do the best possible job. I'd say that's a good thing.

We average an album every three years. It was more than 6 years between albums three and four, but we got there in the end, and the finished thing was better for taking our time and getting it right. The shortest gap was between the first two, which was still two years. We're not on a schedule, it takes as long as it takes.

What's important to us is that each new album improves on what has gone before. I notice that a lot of bands who do work on a schedule (because they do it full-time and need to get product out on a regular basis) tend to have more variable quality. When you need to write 10 new songs every year, it is inevitably going to affect the quality at some point. There will always be times when the creative juices aren't flowing and you need to be patient, if you can be, and you need to take enough time to get everything to the highest standard you can manage. It all gets easier over time, with experience. Taking your time now sounds like a really good way to start, to get yourself into good habits.
NOVAkILL : Asus RoG Flow Z13, Core i9, 16GB RAM, Win11 | EVO 16 | Studio One | bx_oberhausen, GR-8, JP6K, Union, Hexeract, Olga, TRK-01, SEM, BA-1, Thorn, Prestige, Spire, Legend-HZ, ANA-2, VG Iron 2 | Uno Pro, Rocket.

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1 month to two years for me. The music I write is quite busy/dense and I have the worst combination of perfectionism and procrastination/easily bored/burned out thanks courtesy of ADHD. I could probably write a bit quicker if I used presets more but I find preset surfing mind-numbingly dull and I primarily write music and design sounds because it's stimulating and fun. I'm proud of the tracks I do finish and although I'm hoping that after I start treatment for my brainworms, I might be able to increase my output a little more, I have made a kind of peace with being so slow. I'm not doing this for a living, I have no external pressures, so as long as it continues being a fun experience, it's all good :)
Always Read the Manual!

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You don't need to have ADHD for perfectionism and procrastination/easily bored. I can procrastinate like a professional. I've done 3 full tracks since November, which is supersonic compared to my normal rate. I used to take 3 years/track almost, in fact I rarely ever finished anything, but then finished product was rarely ever my goal. Getting rid of a lot of diddling around with sw seems to be a thing which has helped me actually complete stuff. Hands on keyboards and fingers on hw knobs makes me productive, sw never did, in fact I find it gets in the way.

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BONES wrote: Sun Feb 12, 2023 11:28 pm
BigpappaFly wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 1:06 pmI am new here and in production so I average 3-6 months per song. I overwork the songs and tweak (so many versions) to make it better but I don’t know if I’m taking too long to put out tracks or “get out there”. Some YouTube videos suggest 2-3 weeks lol
That doesn't sound excessive to me at all. It says that you probably have higher standards than a lot of other people, that you want to do the best possible job. I'd say that's a good thing.

There will always be times when the creative juices aren't flowing and you need to be patient, if you can be, and you need to take enough time to get everything to the highest standard you can manage. It all gets easier over time, with experience. Taking your time now sounds like a really good way to start, to get yourself into good habits.
I think this is really good advice.

It does take longer when you're starting out and learning tools. It does take longer if you make the effort to make it sound like you want it to sound, to your standard and to your taste.

I can have many tracks on the go, somethings that help me:
Start a session depending on your mood. If creative get stuck in and fire pit ideas.

If wanting to improve/learn pick a particular thing or two and try to make something with the limitation.

Have an aim for a session to keep on track I.e. create ideas, make arrangement, rough mix, add things or tweak a mix, complete final mix

And one that's helped a lot, deliberately limit the tools and approach to a track or set of tracks, then you can double up e.g. learning a synth or compressor better, while making a cohesive set it tracks.

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