if you think this is a stupid question and that the obvious answer is, "as long as they need to be," fair enough. i just wonder what people's experience has been in finding that out.

most of the records i used to play (nu breaks and acid techno) were 6 to 8 minutes long, so when i started writing my own stuff i aimed for that, but it seemed like the only way to stretch a track that long is to have an epic build/break in the middle and a rediculous intro and outro. but that didn't suite me. lately i've been more into banging out a single idea over 4-5 mins and leave it at that. am i lazy, or does techno just demand a different formula/style?