How much time do you spend on making (ambient) music?

[Ahornberg]

I wish I could find more time beneath my job for making music.

Actually it's less than one hour a day I really do something like sketching out ideas, recording and mixing tracks.

[Ambient Mechanics]

I spend the best part of 5 to 6 days each week either producing new stuff or working on WIPs I've already started..though, strictly speaking, not all of those would be ambient tracks..but the best part of them are.

[GaryG]

Probably less than an hour a day for me too though often that's later in the evening and I'm prone to doze off while listening back to tracks... Really should try and shift my sleep patterns so I'm earlier to bed and earlier to wake, maybe the morning would be a better time to produce.

[Maharg]

Average around four hours a day.

[seismic1]

Currently around 10 minutes per day. Mainly sketching ideas. At the weekend I try to assemble something from the wreckage.

[Massergy]

5 to 6 hours a night, 7 days a week for the last dozen or so years. Take a few nights off each year. No children, a very supportive wife and uh..well...that nagging vampirism.

[DarkenedPines]

Most of my time is spent learning DAWs. Learning what does what. Recrding things on mic in various ways, then using my knowledge to fuck it up, see what things do/sound like. Sometimes Ill make a song here n there. Once in a while ill make an album out of the songs. My time spent comes in spurts. I dont work on music every day, or even every other day.
Sometimes itll be like, hours a day for a week or two, then I stop.
I guess its writers block or something. Running out of fresh ideas or inspiration. But the other part is being busy with work, school, and my kid and woman.

[aoVI]

I work in phases, like the moon. Although I don't schedule my work to the moon's cycle, I do tend to be inspired when there is moonlight.

Not all effort towards one's work need be actual recording. I might put rough mixes on in the background while reading/puttering/driving to see if anything bugs me, or rethink processes looking at the stars.

My kids are grown and gone, and I am divorced so a decent portion of my off time is my own.

[Ian Haygreen]

Usually, although not religiously, I spend 4 or 5 hours on Mondays and Wednesdays (the missus is on dialysis on those evenings). I don't work Fridays so I can spend all day mucking around with music and Saturday mornings/afternoons I have to myself as the missus does pottery then so I can spend quite a lot of time doing music. We don't have kids so that helps! Mind you, I'm an expert at distracting myself.

[Guest]

Months can go by without me making anything. I don't play any instrument anymore unless I am recording. I still compose pieces in my head and make notes to remind me but I tend to work in bursts a couple of times a year and that's about it. Lately I've been thinking of making a piece for voice I thought of a couple of years ago. I'm probably more interested in moving to writing for live performance rather than recording I think. I've spent a lot of my life making music but not listening to it. Now I am listening more. At the moment I am going through this boxed set in order http://store.harmoniamundi.com/speci...red-music.html

[Synthetic Aurality]

Maybe 3 hours an evening, sometimes zero. Weekends about 5-5 hours per day. Occasional breaks to do some 3D art or Photoshop work for album and track art (or 3D pinups, I love Vargas-style pinups, blush).

It's 8:23AM here and I have Tracktion open.. fired it up right after getting my first cuppa. I'll be in it off and on until about 6:30PM today.

No wife (divorced), no kids, no girlfriend, no life. LOTS of time for music and art...

[Sky High Diamonds]

Sporadic working on tracks. I like to leave long gaps and then have several tracks on the go at once. When the creative spark ignites I'm practically flammable. Son is a DJ studying electronic music so that helps. His washing, mass eating of pizza and excessive use of toilet roll does not interfere with my creativity. I'm a visual artist too & make stuff. I have no time for men who are not interested in music & art, currently single and loving having time to play and learn Cubase and Logic. :listening: It probably averages out at an hour a day including creative thinking and planning time & some procrastination time.

[Sky High Diamonds]

And I cannot deal with deadlines. I work brilliantly with deadlines in my professional paid work but give me a deadline in my creative schedule and the world grinds to a halt. No deadlines please, organic music making for me :mrcool:

[nadaRobot]

I try very hard to get a little bit of creative time in each day, although not always on ambient works (I have both prog and punk tendencies as well). Sometimes it's just practicing guitar for a few, firing up a DAW to try something, or actually sitting down to compose or produce. Now and then I'll do a few hours on a weeknight or sequester myself on a Sunday afternoon. My biggest impediment is that it seems to take me a while to get a good flow going, so short sessions aren't really that productive for me in terms of new output. I have to admit I feel a bit of envy for the folks who can devote large blocks of time to their craft.

[seismic1]

I managed 30 minutes today

I deal with deadlines constantly at work, so I prefer not to have to suffer their presence during my own time, but there can be no doubting their motivational properties.