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[AlgernonV]

I'm juggling 2 projects right now and I don't really have a deadline and I'm ahead of the gamedevs on what they're working on so sometimes I work on a track for 2-3 weeks at my own pace. Sometimes I think that if I finish them quickly even before the deadline, maybe I could look for other smaller projects.

How many projects do you work on at the same time and how much time do you usually spend on a track?

[Daniel Pellicer]

I normally spend on a track between 15 to 30 hours depending on the complexity, but I haven't done very big things anyways so I don't know.

Projects at the same time: normally 2 maximum (sometimes it was 3 but with very different deadlines)

[Jasmine]

The last two projects I had were fairly large, but the deadlines was never set in stone, and there was a period of time where we ALL kind of fell off the accountability wagon (time-wise), so I can't exactly gauge them.

Right now, I am working on a small and medium sized project. For both of these, I'd say I'm averaging a track every 2 - 2 1/2 weeks. I try to get out/work about 2 pieces per month per project. Granted, these pieces are 2 1/2 - 3 minutes long (and a previous piece I finished was fairly complex), so there's also that. If the pieces I were writing were shorter, I'm sure I would average more than 4 pieces a month.

[FelixArifin]

Personally, I know that I work ridiculously fast, and that if I sit still for too long I go slightly insane. So when it comes to small projects, I can juggle quite a decent few - I think I juggled four at one point? It all depends on how you work, and how comfortable you are keeping track of everything though.

-Felix

[Glyph]

I'm not a professional composer, I just make songs for my own games, but I feel like I should add some contrast: I usually only spend around 4 hours on a track. I feel like the short time is a culmination of my use of a tracker (at least for me it's much faster than something like FL), my preference for simplistic chiptunes, and making short, looping songs in general.

For reference, here's my most recent track. It took around six hours.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/536gtig8aeb5vey/Galaxy%20Genesis.wav?dl=0

[Kyle Preston]

I feel like the short time is a culmination of my use of a tracker (at least for me it's much faster than something like FL), my preference for simplistic chiptunes, and making short, looping songs in general

Exactly, style really matters a lot. If I'm working on a traditional orchestral score, with brass and strings and all, I probably spend at least 20 hrs per song. Chip tune (or emulated chip tune I should say), if you've got all of the sounds all booted up, you can crank those puppies out in no time.

Also, I'm very interested in the sound design aspects of instruments and I like building my own from scratch - this takes forever sometimes and if you fall down the same rabbit hole, you may want to set aside "lab time" as well.

It's funny though, sometimes it feels like the really good ideas are the ones that just blast onto the page in a few hours, regardless of style.

[MereMonkey]

For me, I give myself three days to produce a track, this includes any research or setup, composition, recording, and lastly mixing for in-game. After that I test in-game and see if myself or any of the team can think of anyway of making it work better. Initially I leave it for a while and move onto the next task, that way I can come back to it with fresher ears/mind.

Production size definitely changes the amount of time you need to complete the task, this could be anything from longer tracks to recording solo musicians. Again for me I like to work in threes for whatever reason, if the track isn't finished in those three days due to it being a larger composition/production I move onto the next thing. I seem to be more efficient that way.

I have yet to take more than two projects on at the same time, so I don't have must experience with this side of things, though I try to prioritise everything, planning is key here. What is needed first? Can I spend a week on project A and then another on project B? These are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself. You may be thinking, well what if both projects need content produced within a short time frame and the deadline can't be pushed? Umm... FLEE!!

No really what it comes down to is accepting that you will just have to move forward even though in your mind it may not be 'perfect' yet. The best you can do is to avoid this situation as much as possible, since at the end of the day you don't want things to sound rushed. It all comes down to experience to see how you personally can make it work for you, just like a lot of things, the more you do it the faster/better you will get at it.

If you are looking for a way to shorten the time it takes you to produce a track, I recommend giving yourself the challenge of composing music every single day (length doesn't matter, every little helps  ). Give yourself a time restraint to work within, this is the important part, just make sure it works within your daily routine. This could be anything from 10 minutes (one bar of music) to a couple of hours (full arrangement), it just depends on how much time and effort you want to spend on it.

Best of luck to you! 

[Jason S. Longia]

I tend to spend as much time as time as allotted to try to get the intended sound that tells me "okay, this sounds good"
this is obviously without time constraints, then I'd try to give my "best version". For me I always want to add more and more, trying to constantly one-up my previous work. 

I drink Milo, not coffee heheh.

[lil lantern]

Wow, this is a hard question to answer. Well, basically I make chamber and orchestral music for game. That takes lots of time to do. If the music does not match the game, I would change it totally. And it is very hard to start compose for the game in the beginning.  Once I get into the game, and the theme is settled, it would be really fast to compose a chamber track,  such as 1-2 days. And if it is a orchestral track, it can take several weeks for a track like 3 minutes.