I took me 7 years to realise I was destined to become a music engineer instead of a producer. As part of those 7 years, it took me 3 years to become proficient at engineering mixes, and a further 6 months on top of that to become proficient at mastering. These days I only engineer (mix) and master music.

Of course I realise I'm nowhere near exceptional at mixing and mastering yet, but I'd say I'm definitely a long way there. The 6 months it took me to get good at mastering would've never been possible without the 7 years of composing prior to that.

Of course it's different for everyone, but I think 5 years is a fair amount of time to get proficient at composing, mixing or mastering.

I started using Reason during late 2001. I'm hyper-critical of my productions so I'm not sure if I've made anything truly professional yet, but I guess my first professional-sounding track was the 2003 remake of 'Imagine'. That came about in July 2003, so that's about a year and 8-9 months I guess.

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Al Azar - At The Edge Of Tomorrow (A Retrospective) 16 tracks for FREE!

I wouldn't bog yourselves down with all that time! My homie skillet, who's in college, and has been producing for about 8-9 months with FL alone, has just started to achieve that pro sound (well that's after I bashed him hard for it heh). But he actually came out with a real original melody, he made a few prototype tunes, and then boom he had it. I haven't spoken to him for a good two weeks, wonder where he is...

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Started at the end of 2001, and I guess achieved a professional enough sound to get signed at the end of 2003, so 2 years. One year later, I'm a lot better, and will only continue to get better as well, so I guess it truly depends on what your definition of "professional" is.

Oddly enough, I found that the less I produced on a day to day basis, the better I got. When you're at it for 8+ hours a day every day you tend to get locked into some type of sound, which may or may not be a good thing. By taking frequent breaks I give myself a fresh perpective on production and I can look at my old unfinished tracks in a different way, which is usually quite beneficial. Good thing I don't do this for a living, else I wouldn't be getting very many cheques =P

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"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading."

I've benn working for a year and I am totaly satisfied....

been working 9 hours a day

I agree that patience is definetly the key to success while having the ability to keep an open mind with your own criticism, but more importantly, with the comments of others that hear your work.

Your desire to grow will directly reflect the time it takes to reach your goal...

Some may reach that "professional sound" quicker than others... but the most important thing is that you enjoy doing it and that you have a passion and drive to improve yourself. I STRONGLY belive that you CANNOT get into production as a career path... you need to make music because you love creating something new and original...

If your intentions are to make money and make a record, you're bound to fail... If you truly love the art-form and devote yourself to perfecting that art, money and success will surly follow...

About 4 years and I am just starting to become comfortable with my sound.