Most of the 'songs' or ideas ended up being a combination of a couple of things - synths and drums. When I say drums, I mean live drums, not softsynth drums or samples. I'm terrible on drums, but I find I get a lot more interesting ideas from actually drumming than I would from tinkering with midi notes or a tracker. Plus, with the studio finally free of other musicians (I stopped recording other musicians late 2017) I was free to keep the drumkit set up and mic'ed up, more or less permanently. I found a tom sound I really liked by lowering the tension on the head, making it into more of a kick-like sound when I hit it hard, resulting in the kinds of jungle-drums you hear here:
So I recorded drum ideas, and I recorded synth ideas, and sometimes they'd fit together and sometimes I'd end up recording a part specifically for a particular synth sound. People drastically underestimate the amount of time music takes to make. I can spend 3-6 months of free time, easily, on one song, if I like it enough to invest the time. There's mastering, mixing, getting the right takes, etc.
If you're the kind of person who's happy to loop stuff it's quite easily to string stuff together, but I seldom or rarely even repeat a midi bar. I sort of view it as mostly cheating, in a way, and sometimes it takes away from the humanity of what you're doing. Maybe I did this a bit in my early tracking days, some of which is in epsilon. Plus, all the interesting stuff happens on the edges, when you're stepping away from what you're familiar with doing - repetition is way faster than starting afresh every time.
So I was starting afresh every weekend.
But by the end of the year I had a couple of songs, and otherwise not a lot to show for it.
I wish you good luck with the Epsilon edition of Arcane Dimensions. ^.^
git gud!