Typically, between 2 minutes and 2 decades.
A lot longer than it takes me to masterbate.
this leads me into a long time wish 
count and save the songedit time (running renoise time with that certain song loaded).
For me it’s two to four hour sessions varying over a period of two weeks, where two days usually churn out most of the work and the rest is chiselling.
It depends quite a bit on the style of the music, though.
Pretty much this, for me. If I spend more than 3 hours on a song I may have reached the point where I must finish it, and have the drive to do so. But most of the time I burn out after 1 or 2. I also really don’t like ‘putting off’ finishing a song to the next day, so I’ll stay up as long as I have to to finish it, and then upload and never want to touch it again. Time spent mastering or fixing things is minimum.
So basically you should ignore this post entirely as I have the worst workflow and habits.
dont think so, i tried such stop/watch things also to record my working hours for other things, i always forgot to activate/deactivate it.
it would be better to have a counter which really reacts on loaded songname in editor / how long the editor runs with that loaded songname, and maybe stop counting time, if no key was pressed for a certain time (10 minutes for example). this value have to be safed ofcourse in to the song but keep merged if you just reload the song after you have messed some things up. its tricky to code such things.
I agree this feature would be a fun addition to see which songs I have spent more time on then others.
Well considering how many tracks I’ve actually finished, I’d say on average a song takes me about 5 years to finish. No, on second thought that should probably be about 10 years.
Early versions of Impulse Tracker had this secret feature (timer) that counted how long was spent working on a song… later on the corresponding fields in the .IT format were used for other more useful stuff.
Exexctly the same in my case. In time measures it takes from a month to four months roughly.
there is a plug-in on win and mac that but i don’t remind is name i have seen it on audiofanzine freeware.
to me it’s very difficult to say how time a song is making cause i create some samples from time to time i forgot their and when i make a song i search on my pretried samples in function of what i need so 
!!
When I have an idea, I can usually get as far as the first “verse”, sometimes the “chorus”. I always have difficulty thinking of a bridge or transition.
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Ah the golden question of ‘how long it takes to finish a song?’
I wish I had someone sitting next to me telling me I’d better stop now or it will never end. The truth is, that every piece has its own life, thus requiring more or (if I could request it) less of my time. I agree with Kyle here. My tracks have taken most of my life to finish. I’m sitting with a loop now and typing this!
Where is the Cobler that comes at night and repairs all the shoes?
I need him to finish my tracks!
Obvious answer is too long. Now, that I recently got my first pair of monitor speakers, it’s become lil bit less problematic. Before those monitors, especially big and boomy 170hz was a huge problem as mixes were way out of balance when listening elsewhere (of my headphones isolated inner world). That one I couldn’t correct with headphones as it wasn’t obvious. Now, it’s more than apparent.
So yeah, it’s not the composing that’s causing loss of time, it’s mixing and everything related to that.
That one thing I have truly learned, you really cannot mix things properly without some sorta studio monitors (addition to headphones).
Also, I’m rather picky for all sorta clipping and strangeness which might cause by different frequencies colliding. That alone have made me change the arrangements for dozen times to fix the problems (if eqing wasn’t option in my artistic vision).
To put things in concrete, nowadays initial composing takes a day, things after that… lifetime. So, next release I might not be here to live and see… 
When I start, and not think too much, I’d say 4 days to a week…3 hrs a day of working on a track(weekday)
composition and editing projects are NEVER completed. They are ABANDONED.
8 hours to finish a record ?! : )
Really ? Well then iam gonna shock u all then: it takes
5 minutes
to finish mine :PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
But seriously, it takes months for me to finish a track. To pick right sounds, generate new ones, to fiddle around with filters, constant add of the new channels and stuff, new inspirations, not to mention things like writer’s block…honestly.
I used to rarely finish songs, I just kept starting new ones, getting as far as a groovy loop or a “1 verse + chorus” state and getting stuck. This is not so much related to Renoise as much as psychology and my lack of practice in the ‘endgame’.
But this year I started doing WeeklyBeats so now by definition it takes me a week, tops 
Which actually translates into 4-12 hours per track, as I have very little free time, just like most of us.
http://weeklybeats.com/#/ilkke
Most of these are Renoise, others are Caustic3 (a reason-like app on Android) or defMON (on commodore64).
I found that NOT using VSTs makes me much faster, as I can quickly skim through sample folders and use the native DSPs to shape the sounds. Your mileage may vary.
I make techno, so fairly simple. once i have the sounds i like(takes me about a day to feel comfortable with what i got). Then about half a day to a full day to compose what i got into a full track 4 to 7 min worth. What is the most time consuming is making sure i am happy with the percussion and effects. I constantly change the kick and the hats for some reason if i am not happy with them.
I am still beginning though, 2 years ago i was complete noob at everything but i am getting there! 