Can someone explain to me why the hell those against the clock videos are so successfull on youtube and all the other stuff with number or time constrains. Andrew huang writes 50 records in 1 day, some guy puts the most guitar pedals in a row and fact is chewing on against the clock which usually starts with a 4/4 kick and goes nowhere. There are other formats from fact like „in the studio“ which sometimes is really interessting. And don‘t get me wrong I love to watch the process of other people. But boiling it down to numbers, which is the least important part in music making seems kind of useless und uninspired to me. Who cares what you can do in 10 min? Shoulden‘t we care about who you are, what you do, how is one doing it, how long do you really need for a song or what do you do if you don‘t start with a boring 4/4 kick?
With few exceptions where you’re super inspired over a few evenings, unless you’re making very minimal or formulaic music, I feel you need at least a month just to put well-formed elements together, then it’s the case judging how well they flow, post production etc. I’ve never had good results from rushing it. Many great electronic tracks took 6 months or more, including minimal mixes where the author slowly decided between a multitude of different variations. The stuff you’re talking about is just entertainment videos
Has Andrew Huang ever had a big hit? He maybe successful with followers but in all the music hes ever created has he suceeded in producing a masterpiece? Nuff said. Its just another clickbait gimmick.
But followers is all you need in 2020 
It’s a job.
well it’s a quick way to get a window into someone’s creative process I guess. Like… no-one’s going to watch a 40 hour youtube video recorded over six months where the last 20 hours is just the producer crying and trying to get their sub to sound OK enough to abandon the track.
And for the Andrew Huang one… I mean, he just does fun things that spark ideas right? I mean, try and write 50 ideas in a day is not a bad idea, one of them will probably be worth spending the 40 hours on. (I guess youtube “success” is more set up for regular delivery of “content” rather than single documentaries that take a long time to make and edit)
I think anything that makes a bunch of decisions for you can be really useful to get ideas, whether it’s “I have to move on to a new idea in 20 mins” or a.n. other artificial restriction.
Which is sad. Big bands like muse have nice documentaries about their long process and its really interessting to see. But I havent seen those in the more electronic realm.
And no andrew huang music isn‘t my cup of tea either, pretty uninspired stuff. But I like him. Would watch it if he ever decides to really dive into a process. But he has so many countless stuff out that I think he doesn‘t care.
I would argue against all those tricks to be creative and come up with good ideas. But thats just me. All those strategies to to sparkle ideas are design thinking ideas. Whould argue you need to fiddle for hours and listen if you find something that connects to you. Shure could happen by setting all kinds of constrains and hammer out 50 pieces…but sonehow thats not what I mean
cool, I mean, there’s a million ways to come up with ideas - just saying some people find those ones useful, and that’s part of why the videos are popular I think.
Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin said Robert Plant wrote the lyrics to Stairway to Heaven on a cigarette packet in less than 10 mins. 
I think the human brain simply likes lists and numbers, also the attention span is getting shorter and shorter with each generation so people like fast-paced videos. But I don’t think it’s inherently a bad thing, many people like to work fast, some other will spend 3 years on a LP. Whatever works<3
And it took less time for them to copy the beginning from Randy Wolfe… Sorry, just some playful can of worms opening… 
Would love to see a 2-3 documentary on making a moderat record.
Trentemøller has a nice doku somewhere on making one of his last records.
On a more serious note, many people in electronic music have copied tracks or moods created by tracks. But because their execution is different they can often bring something new, or inspire something completely new.
I believe this happens in most areas of creativity…
I have a young family and very little spare time.
My process for creating and recording tracks makes against the clock look like a six month docu-drama.
Everyone’s got a different workflow. Some of my best tracks have been knocked out in less than 10 minutes. Now, granted, I’m not very good and I don’t make any money from music (well, £7.50 so far…), but I do think people attach too much importance on long-winded, super considered music production, which is cool if that’s your jam, but how long music takes to compose/arrange/record is not necessarily an arbiter of whether or not it is any good.
A lot of the against the clock videos are shit, but I’ve found them very helpful in the past, especially when I started moving away from using computers and into hardware.
Its not to say its always shit. The problem is the premise under which all those guys are showing their process. I bet few of them would go for speed. So its sad that all those formats have such a lame premise to begin with. Looking at the process from different people could in fact be inspiring and interessting.
4/4 kick is the main characteristic of a club/house/techno track
I don’t think that is what makes a track boring
it’s all the drums together and everything else around it that is what will make it boring…
Something with standard trap/hip hop rock whatever beat can also be uninspiring and boring…
I wouldn’t blame the 4/4 kick pattern.
Its also the most simple pattern you could ever create. So if 500 against the clock videos start with someone who shows how he installs his 4/4 kick…I would say thats boring…sorry😐
Like this?
Or this?
To be fair to Fact, they put out a lot more content that just AtC and a lot of it is excellent. How to make a Legowelt track was one of the videos that really helped me get my head around a lot of music production ideas.
Telekom have started putting out much longer, more in depth videos lately too.
Maybe you just don’t like house or techno music…
I agree, it’s not that we should be going for some meritocracy based on time. It’s just that I personally have found that I need time to iron out kinks that otherwise will annoy me two years from now. It tends to show when artists have thought things out, but it’s not universal, inspiration or just a case of pure balls can strike at any time. Noisia composed The Tide over 6 months and Diplodocus over one evening, they’re both good but I prefer the latter.
I’m also time constrained like you, so I have to work even slower, but I prefer to split things up rather than rush them to fit the time schedule. I will spend one evening making patches, the other shaping & writing drums etc. The actual multitracking tends to come in much later. That’s what I like about dedicated units like Digitakt, I can work out a lot of elements on a tight schedule without having to hook up and record anything.