Making Music for n00bs

Do this if you want to produce electronic music on computer using software. hardwear is a whole different story. sorry for the long response, I am a nerd about these things.

Get ableton live or logic pro as your software DAW (digital audio workstation). ableton is all the buzz now and is used by most electronic artists. it is easier to make beats on the fly and then be able to play them live. Logic is great because it is more intuitive and easy to learn, has a lot of effects and features but doesn't have the live ability ableton does. I am a logic user and its great but I wish I started out with ableton for its live capabilities. I know logic really well and its awesome, so I just haven't spent the time to really become totally comfortable with ableton.

get a keyboard midi controller. midi stands for musical instrument digital interface, which is basically just plugging in notes on a virtual keyboard using software instruments such as synths, pianos etc. A keyboard will allow to play and record midi tracks and get creative. its hard to just plug in individual notes. a midi keyboard will help you have fun work fast. you just connect the keyboard with a usb. they make special keyboards that are meant to work well with ableton I know.

optional for just starting but things you should look into for future:
1. sylenth1 is my favorite digital synthesizer software plugin. it is what lots of pros use and sounds really good and is relatively simple to use. no need to get this right away. learn how to use the synths that come with whatever daw you get and then upgrade.
2. Flat response speakers (studio monitors) or headphones. many consumer headphones and speakers have manipulated eqs that will change the out coming audio signal. a flat response speaker or headphone will play everything truthfully, and not manipulate the sound coming through. this allows you to really hear what your making so you can balance everything properly.

#1 advice is to not worry and have fun making music. as soon as you get in your head about how your shit isn't good enough the fun and creativity dies.

#2 advice is to watch TONS OF YOUTUBE TUTORIALS! most of the famous electronic artists popping up now learned all their technical skills from youtube.

#3 Keep it simple. No need to know everything about everything when it comes to production. definitely learn basics but find sounds you like and stick with them and develop them further to develop your own style. don't worry what others are making. just do what sounds good to you.

^ That was a phenomenal answer, thank you so much.

I would add something in, but that^ pretty much covered it.

Its kind of like park skiing in that you suck for a really long time and while its fun the results are less than impressive. But if you stick with it you can get really good and its awesome.

If you decide to go with ableton check out sadowick on youtube, he has some of the best tutorials out there.

I Wouldn't rule out FL as your DAW, that piano roll is prime.

I'm currently running maschine studio and the included software with some expansions and an akai pro MPK249 keyboard and I love it. Pretty good starting setup for not a horrendous price.

At this point there is no DAW that is better than another. They all pretty much do the same thing; it mostly comes down to preference as all DAWs accomplish particular tasks differently. Ableton is very popular for electronic music, but that doesn't necessarily make it the best one. The best DAW is the one you're comfortable with. Hell, Tycho uses Reaper ($50) for studio and live (also Reaper is my personal favorite). The problem (or benefit, if you're me) with Reaper is that it doesn't come with a huge library of instruments, so it might not be ideal if you're just starting out and want to make some noise. Another thing to consider is Garageband. Seriously, it's more than enough to make a good track, and it's a good starting point that you can use to figure out what you like and don't like in a DAW before committing to "professional" one.


I would start with really cheap monitors if I were you (M-Audio BX5a). Reason being that monitors are only as good as the room they're in, and unless you have a pill-shaped dedicated room to acoustically treat, you aren't going to "monitor" the sound correctly, no matter what monitors you're using. Especially if you're making electronic music, I suggest spending more money on some nice open-backed headphones since they work well as "monitors." Later on you can find access to a proper room to fine-tune mixing, or learn how to mix on headphones (not ideal, but possible).

You can find any cheapo MIDI keyboard since they're all mostly the same. Sadly, it's damn near impossible to find one that doesn't have shitty keys. But if you aren't trying to play classical on 88 keys this shouldn't matter. Find a 49-key Akai or M-Audio and go to town!