How long to make a track ?
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fromkaraoketostardom
- mnml mmbr
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How long to make a track ?
Just curious, how long does it take for all of you to finish a track, from start to end ? I know everyone has his way of doing things, but i'm just curious. I spend days on the same damn track and feel so slow !!!
Graaarrrr!
If I'm frustrated, I've spent too long in a particular session of composition, and I'm likely just micromanaging and obsessing. I'll throw down a track in one-two hours, but it'll just be a rough sketch with a few instruments supporting a fun idea/experiment (usually vocal).
Fleshing out, arranging, and mixing the track happen (for me) over three or four weeks as busywork for when I'm not putting down other ideas.
Whenever I feel that my workflow is inefficient/plodding (ie, that my house is too micro!), I'll usually strip the track down to one or two good loops and build around those. I find it insidiously easy to get caught up on programming little variations before I've got down the full structure of a track. Too often have I zoomed out from my sequencer only to find that I've been fiddling with eight bars for an hour plus! At that rate, the idea of the finished track becomes monstrous, exhausting! To hell with it!
As a solution, I'll do anything I can to keep things fresh and translate hot hooks into full tracks. I'll compose two wildly different loops and challenge myself to work a song-long transition between. I'll record MIDI for fifteen minutes and hack it down to five minutes' worth of gonzo loops. Sometimes I'll work on a three/four instrument loop until it's super-super dense, paste it over the length of the track, and cut out elements to create the song's arc. Destruction is quicker and easier than creation, I've found.
Oh dear, I've addressed a broader issue than the one you'd raised! In any case, I hope this helps. It's been therapeutic for me to recall those tendencies of mine that waste my time and fray my nerves with their rude artlessness.
(must...program...velocity!)
Darrell
Fleshing out, arranging, and mixing the track happen (for me) over three or four weeks as busywork for when I'm not putting down other ideas.
Whenever I feel that my workflow is inefficient/plodding (ie, that my house is too micro!), I'll usually strip the track down to one or two good loops and build around those. I find it insidiously easy to get caught up on programming little variations before I've got down the full structure of a track. Too often have I zoomed out from my sequencer only to find that I've been fiddling with eight bars for an hour plus! At that rate, the idea of the finished track becomes monstrous, exhausting! To hell with it!
As a solution, I'll do anything I can to keep things fresh and translate hot hooks into full tracks. I'll compose two wildly different loops and challenge myself to work a song-long transition between. I'll record MIDI for fifteen minutes and hack it down to five minutes' worth of gonzo loops. Sometimes I'll work on a three/four instrument loop until it's super-super dense, paste it over the length of the track, and cut out elements to create the song's arc. Destruction is quicker and easier than creation, I've found.
Oh dear, I've addressed a broader issue than the one you'd raised! In any case, I hope this helps. It's been therapeutic for me to recall those tendencies of mine that waste my time and fray my nerves with their rude artlessness.
(must...program...velocity!)
Darrell
I usually sit down and make a drum loop before anything, which usually takes me about half an hour to an hour. After that, I hop on the keys. If I can't make anything decent sounding after about an hour period, I stop and find something else to do. It does not help at all if you try to force it out of you.
Usually, i'll spend an hour or two on a track or some loops and re-visit it the next time i'm able to put out a decent product. On occasion I get stuck and there are tracks that I can never find the proper addition too, so they may never end. On average though, if I am going to be satisfied by a song it usually takes me about a week of listening to it and playing with the arrangement for me to actually think of it as done.
Usually, i'll spend an hour or two on a track or some loops and re-visit it the next time i'm able to put out a decent product. On occasion I get stuck and there are tracks that I can never find the proper addition too, so they may never end. On average though, if I am going to be satisfied by a song it usually takes me about a week of listening to it and playing with the arrangement for me to actually think of it as done.
"The techno sound of detroit [...] lacking any human musicianship in its execution reeks of sweat, sex and desire. The creators of that music just press a few buttons and out comes - a million years of pain and lust." ~ The JAMs