Yes sir, creating the finished product? 1 to 2 Weeks, I respect you... But then I always have? I guess I just obsess over "the process?" 
 
For me, I have ADHD about it? I want to plan each track, then record each track, then in the end make them all play nice? I'm probably just not as good at it as folks who do it more quickly. Not saying that any method is superior. I wrote a song called "It is what it is..." (great song) The process? It's something we all have, and it's different for all of us. That's what makes it cool... We all do the same thing? But we all do it slightly differently? It's pretty cool... 
 
Especially the savants? People like Scotty? (no disrespect) most of us play? Some of us play some things very well. "Fewer are considered at the top of their game..." But the process fascinates me. How do we go from nothing to something? Where "something" is your finished product. It's magical...
 
It starts off as an idea? And ends up with something (hopefully) that people can say, "damn... I really enjoyed that!" It is like magic. I'm sorry, I wax on about this every so often. I'm just always in awe of it all. I think we should not lose sight of how incredible it all is.
 
What we do, "all of us?" It's amazing.. And it's magical. People go to factories, they work on assembly lines? People lay bricks... They weld? We "create?' We create something from nothing? And when we do a good job? People listen and say, "just damn! I really liked that!" And that is something from nothing more than an idea... And "THAT" is what I'm talking about, "right there..."
 
I get misty about it? It's not just what I do, and my process? But in general, "what you do?" And "the creative process?" To me it's a miracle, and we're all miracle workers...

Unless I'm on vacation, I only really focus on music during the weekend. Composing and tracking usually take me about 4-6 weekends. Mixing is another 2-3, depending on the mix.
 
Once in a while I will turn on the DAW after work during the week, but it sucks me into a space-time distortion every time and, when I'm tired the next day, I always say "never again".
 
Regards,
Dan
 

wow!
 
i just wrapped up two songs, that i started recording 4 years ago!!
 

 
the biggest pain in the ass is >>>>TIME >>>>>>>> = 0.
 
for me, the way it usually works is,  i steal away an hour here, a couple there...
and on rare occassion, i might get an entire 4-5 hour session in...
so, when i do that, like i did this past friday and saturday, i focus on one element..
in this case, vocals.
 
i knocked out two songs, with a total of 22 tracks of leads and harmonies, in about 8 hrs total.
mixed, trimmed and tailed, etc....
 
 
so, back to the answer, it would be hard for me to ever come up with a realistic amount of time for a given song.
 
i HAVE done an entire song in a single day, tracking wise...
the "Bats Brew (melange de la chauve souris)" song, was tracked in a day, not counting the drum tracks, which i did not record.
 
i also used a shure sm57 for every track (sans drums) on that song, so it was the benchmark of simplicity for me.
 
song example link:
https://app.box.com/s/6bmrm4beelhjuftdwb9z
 
 

I've taken as long a few weeks and as short as one day.  My solo stuff (The Lindale Project) isn't particularly complex and I am far from a perfectionist so that helps as well.  Distant Towers tunes are another story.  Since Tom does the lion's share of work on those, I'll wait to see if he chimes in on this topic.  Now that I have some songs under my belt with DT I have experienced songs that just seem to fall out of me as opposed to those I have to really massage into life.  It is an interesting process to say the least.  Good topic.

"I get misty about it? It's not just what I do, and my process? But in general, "what you do?" And "the creative process?" To me it's a miracle, and we're all miracle workers..."

I'm not sure if I get misty eyed about this subject, but I certainly agree with you about how fascinating that it all can be. I often will just sing something completely out of the blue, while trying out different chord patterns and wonder where the heck that just came from. Then I find myself scrambling for a pen or a recorder to get it down before I loose it.

I used to think, well if it is really that good, I won't forget it. After I forgot one to many of them, I decided I better start getting them written down somehow, somewhere.

We are all of us "artists." And therefore, "special..." Don't you forget it! It's magic...

it's been a while since I've done anything except live playing/singing.  I don't think I've recorded anything in about 2 years.  and I've been absent from this songs forum for about the same time.  I have missed some of the great music from some of you great artists here.
 
I do have a couple of things in the works now, tho!  hope to share with you soon.
 
the process for me is different each time.  it really depends on the song.  I have one song which took me a year and a half to finish from concept to recording/mixing and calling it done and I've had some songs which fell into place in a couple of weeks.
 
I'm sure if I were paid to write songs for a living, it would be...about the same...hopefully the duration of all of them would reduce since I could spend more time on them, but I'm sure there would still be some which took a long time and some which roll out easily.

The Band19
What we do, "all of us?" It's amazing.. And it's magical. People go to factories, they work on assembly lines? People lay bricks... They weld? We "create?' We create something from nothing? And when we do a good job? People listen and say, "just damn! I really liked that!" And that is something from nothing more than an idea... And "THAT" is what I'm talking about, "right there..."
 
I get misty about it? It's not just what I do, and my process? But in general, "what you do?" And "the creative process?" To me it's a miracle, and we're all miracle workers...

I agree with you Robbie, it's all pretty "magical" to me, too. Nothing to....something. And that something is sooooo personal a lot of times, it takes a lot of courage, when you think about it, to create these things then put them out there for people to love....or hate.
 
As for the original question, it varies for me. I've done songs in a day (where the lyrics just kind of write themselves, which is another kind of magic) and the music came easy because it was simple.
The stuff I've done lately has taken several weeks to a month because I'm collaborating with other people and sending tracks back and forth, they have to find the time, I have to find the time, etc.
And like you said, I don't play a lot anymore so I have to work up to doing my guitar parts, and I'm never happy with them, there finally comes a time when I have to say "Enough, I'm not going to get it any better no matter how many times I do it."
 
Can't wait to hear your new one Robbie!

A couple of evenings are the usual time to make a song - but in colabs it always take longer time - like four five weeks or so.