How long to make a professional house track?

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SimonT

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How long would it take a really good house producer (obviously with all the right equipment) to create a deep house or house track from start to finish, roughly, if they were to work on it 6hrs a day? I could imagine it taking 3-4 days myself. Someone said they thought it'd take weeks or months.
I just think, when you got all your own sounds built up, I'm guessing that's what you'd do, have folders of all your own created sounds:- bass, lead, polysynths, pads, sequenced/rhythmic sounds etc. Folders of all your drum samples, already eq'd etc. Folders full of effects and samples you might want to use and/or manipulate. Then you'd have your white noise sweeps/wooshes and snare rolls etc saved as patches, so you just have to load them in and automate them wouldn't you? So my assumption, once you were good enough and knew what you were doing is:-

Day 1 - Choosing your sounds and building up the basic structure. Layering, mixing and panning etc along the way. Incorporating your sweeps or snare rolls etc. Adding fx, adjusting levels etc along the way. Choosing a vocal sample, or writing some lyrics and laying down a vocal. Adding fx etc to the vocal, maybe chopping bits of the vocal and stuttering etc.

Day 2 - Continuing the track, adding automation and builds, and finishing it off. Listening to the mix through good speaker monitors, adjusting levels and putting any final touches to the individual tracks and any final tweaks etc, you might need on the individual tracks.

Day 3 - Bouncing it down and then doing the final mastering.

I am by no means knowledgeable on finishing a house track. I am just curious really. Am I way off the mark and it takes weeks/months, or would that be achievable for a consummate professional?
 
If you understand the structure of house music then you could finish a song in a day.

Just know there's an intro, then breakdown, then build up, then drop and repeat.

You get your chord progression down and a hook Melody / bassline and you have a house song.

Just make sure you have a hard hitting 4x4 kick and you're set.

Listen to Tommy Trash.
 
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It's different each time. This isn't any mechanical workflow by a robot. This is art made from your own creativity.
Not to mention all people are different and require their own personalized workflow to make it as effective as possible.
Lastly, it's all about making great music, not spitting out music as quickly and frequently as possible.
 
me it takes a month or two... for a complete house track.. i can't work on a track for 6 hours a day... my ears would get tired.. but so much goes into it.. first is melody.... this is everything... then you find the right sound for the melody.. then layer.. then layer some more with more sounds.... i probably go through 200 sounds... no then drums... then I add an intro part.. then maybe a climatic part... i gotta create melodys for that and find the right sounds yet again... then a break down... then i add drums.. kick / clap / maybe hi hat... then i compose it on my playlist.... choose what goes where... then you gotta have nice filters effects drop transitions etc etc... that's probably the hardest part.. choosing how the song will flow .. then i have to mix it... afterwards i smoke and listen to it.. and hear shit differently and make changes accordingly.. then I walk around playing it outside in different environments.. make little tweaks and i'm done... so yea 1 month or 2.. lookout for my next house song btw lol it's gonna be a banger
 
One day to a couple weeks. You cant spend longer than a certain amount of time on a track or else it goes stale.
 
All in the workflow,, I now Ill Bill did a good talk on how to improve your workflow as a producer, He makes Glitch Hop but the skills are transferable. I would link it but cant post links :/

and as for houses structure, there's no real 'rules', only tracks that piss off DJ's haha. I just try and feel the music and listen to it until i'm like, ok something needs to happen here. Listening to House helps also.

My favourite producer's at the moment are everyone on Hector Couto's new label 'Roush" give em a listen if you get the chance
 
Like many people have previously stated. It's how the producer works. I need to get mine flowing immediately so if I work for about 6-8 hours on a track I'm most likely done. The next 2-3 days is just testing it out, removing and adding, mixing and finally mastering. I know some musicians who take 2 days and others who take a month. It depends on the personality.
 
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