TheProdigy

Hello all, just wondering if anyone can give me advice in how to start with creating some tunes, I've played around with music software in the past, but have no idea what equipment to look for. I'm on a limited budget so for now a real beginners set up would be alright, can you tell me what software, laptops and equipment to head for? Many thanks

You don't need any equipment, these days all u need is a computer, music software, monitors and a midi keyboard but the most important thing to have is a creative mind. I suggest getting reason, a good piece of software and unlike a lot of daws its not that expensive, don't think u need to get GBs of vst's etc try and limit your self to only a couple, as you get lost in going through all the sound presets. Buy a view sample packs for drums which specialize in the music u wish to teach yourself to produce. Learn abit about music theory. Don't go over board just get ur self a piece of software and learn the basics of it before spending money on the special stuff. There's loads of video tuterials on yt, I suggest searching on there for the future music pro producer masterclasses. Its gonna be a long process learning to produce is the same as learning to play an instrument. What music you wanting to make anyway......bit of the old ludwig van

ableton live, a macbook and a synth , that is all to start with goodluck

ps reason is a bit fiddly and you can't record audio on it for some reason, well the version I had (4)

I have used cubase, thats good, and logic very professional. But try ableton live mate it does it all and more, it is user friendly after the initial getting used to it.

proxi wrote:
Hahaha! Viddy well, little brother. Viddy well.

i use reason mostly, i do have cubase and fl studio but i try and use one program as much as possible it helps work flow in my opinion. so yeah thats what i suggest viddy some videos on youtube, get a music program learn the basics and just expirement thats what i did to be honest.

Hardware is irrelevant at early stages. Get a DAW, see how good you are. Then if you're going live setups, focus on hardware

What i found out was that to make electronic music you must use alot of samples. So, you need to listen to alot of different types of music in order to find the right samples. Watch tutorials on youtube and stuff like that. Learn with other people experience etc... You don't need to buy nothing unless you want something specific. I use 2 different programs: one to sample and the other for the sequencing, synths etc...

Gonga21 wrote:


yeah but you cant rely on samples thats not the right way to do things. i watched a few youtube tuterials when i first started but then i thought i can be bothered now im gonna do things my way, which is the right way to do it

Definitely go with Ableton, best program for me
Started on Fruity Loops, moved to Reason, and then Ableton
Watch some tutorials, plus its pretty user friendly

As for samples, the only ones I use are vocals and the only time I use sample drums is when its a famous loop like amen or funky drummer. Besides that I never use any other type of sample or loop because it is cheating. I hate loop libraries and avoid them.

Ableton Suite is a bit expensive, but you get everything you need to produce. And theres so much free vsts out there, especially if youre using a PC and not the dreaded Mac. Dont get me wrong, Macs are good and all but I dont respect their Nazi-ness when it comes to technology and suing companies left and right to try and monopolize the computer industry. A PC laptop is just as good as any Mac, if not better when it comes to a musician looking for free vsts etc. And the new Windows can take on Mac's OS.

As much as I hate Apple, that doesn't get in the way of how good their tools are; use what's best, and technically Mac's are better for audio as they use CoreAudio hardware and are much more stable.
That said, the price to efficiency ratio makes no sense, as they will RAPE you over and over again.

For that reason, I'll stick with my £400 4GB RAM 640GB laptop with Windows 7 as opposed to a £800 Macbook with lesser specs.

I too started with FL Studio, but I went on to Cubase, and switch between them both now.
Once again, they all do the same thing, so pick one, stick at it and most importantly, -study music- theory. The reason 99.99% of people producing music these days can't seem to get anywhere (despite nie sounding synths or melodies) is because they work from the wrong end...
Learning music first, and being able to lay down a whole track with a mere piano track, THEN look at what DAW's offer in the way of of sampling, effects and VST's.

Liam for example, understands keys and arrangements, and is/was a great piano player.
I learnt this the hard way, and still spend many hours fucking around with chords before getting 10 seconds of something that sounds decent. No doubt people here will disagree and say 'theory doesn't matter if it sounds good, go by ear' etc, but that's the wrong side to look from.
Take from the book of Hans Zummer, Gregson Williams, Liam Howlett and all the big producers.

That's my take anyways...best of luck!

Dont get me wrong, Apple does make good hardware. I've worked on both platforms. But what do you expect from a conglomerate that sues all competition out of existence when they can. I also read that they are quite wasteful and unfriendly to the environment. For a company that charges out the ass for its products, I would expect more from them. They were actually voted one of the worst polluting companies.

As much as they can make a good product, I just dont respect them enough. And like I said for a musician, theres so much free music based stuff that only works for a PC compares to Mac. My girlfriend/graphic designer is making a switch back to PC due to her frustration and a fellow musician/friend who yelled at me for not going Mac is buying a PC this Christmas.

I got my brand new Toshiba laptop with 16" screen, 6gb of Ram, 500gb of memory right out of the box shipped to me with an additional 3 years of protection for only $1100. Good luck paying those specs on a Mac. And my baby runs smoothly.

Gonna buy a computer, newegg.com is your best bet. Its where I got mines.