You mention price range, what is your price range?
If you're just starting out, you need to find your optimal price/quality. Risk of not getting into it and have spent money for nothing (you can resell ofcourse) vs risk of having to upgrade after a while.
You need:
- A DAW. Do you have one in mind? Look up different DAWs on youtube or their websites usually hold promotional vids. Pick a few that you think you'll like, download their demos and try them out for a bit. Then eventually pick one and go learn that. Read it's manual. Lookup youtube tutorials. Google tutorials. Check our forum. Check beat making youtubes.
- A decent computer. Windows? You need at least 8 gig of ram, favorably 16. i5 or i7. Any video card will do, you can keep this cheap. SSD as Harddisk but a normal HD will do fine, SSD basically speeds up the loading DAW time and loading sample time. Also will speed up loading times in your OS.
- An AI. The steinberg ur has good converters and pre amps. Spending about 50 to 70 bucks minimum would be a good start. It pays to get an AI as it's latencies are better and better converters then a regular pc soundcard. You can obviously try it without an AI and just a regular soundcard. I wouldn't tbh.
- A midi controller makes things easiers. Not necessary. You can click with mouse and use your qwerty keyboard. I'd advise getting a midi keyboard. Are you planning on learning to play decent? You need at least 49 keys then, favorably 61. If you plan on playing good, you need 81 keys. Midi controllers is very personal. Some ppl like the feel of one and hate the feel of the keys of the other and vice versa. You need to go feel this for yourself in a shop. Or get a webshop with a proper return policy. If you're not planning on playing decent or good, just bash it a bit, 25 keys will do. I'd get a keyboard that also has some knobs and faders and pads. That way, you can get a long way with just one midi keyboard before looking to upgrade. The midi keyboard controls your VSTs. The midi keyboard itself can't produce sound. It'll produce a midi signal. Keyboards have different key beds like weighed vs semi weighed vs non weighed. Piano feel, synth feel, etc. Aftertouch ( after you hit the key, you can still control some influence by pressing harder to softer). Brands like novation, native instruments , akai, cakewalk, roland are a few I like. I don't really like the feel of the keybeds of M-Audio. I also have a subjective thing against M-Audio. So, don't always go on one persons opinion. I have a novation impulse 25 which would be good for somebody starting out but doesn't allow proper playing, 25 keys is limiting. Akai mpk mini is awesome but has small keys. It's a more on the road thing. If you know how to work it like coldman (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-fIQSu33-0) it's no problem, but it can be hard to start on it. Depending on your budget but a novation impulse 49, launchkey 49, alesis vi49, native instruments komplete kontrol 49 (expensive) would be a few that'd be very nice. There's tons more that'd be nice ofcourse. For every taste a board out there tbh.
- Headphones or monitor speakers. Your pc/daw will pass a digital signal into an AI or soundcard and that will translate the signal into the speakers or headphones to a hearable sound. Your AI has influence on the latency. That means, if you hit a key on your keyboard, the speed that it takes for the hitting the key to a hearable sound. Headphones can work fine, but they can't give you a proper stereo image. You need monitor speakers for that. For monitors, I like focal alpha, mackie m series, jbl lsr series. There's tons more again. The mackie cr series is nice and cheap. Use the search function on the forum, there's tons of good tips on the forum about all of this.
A pc , a DAW and a way for you to hear sound are absolutely essential. The stuff around it will make it easier for you to make proper music. If you don't have a good AI or monitor speakers, your music will most likely sound very different on other speakers. You need to learn your speakers and train your ears. Know where the flaws of your setup lie. If you have KRK rokits (which I advise against) you know your bass is artificially created and over represented on some frequencies. You need to correct for this. Best is to listen to your track on different systems, compare. Also, take a track you know very well, listen to it on different setups and then your own setup , compare.
Before you buy stuff, look up reviews online. Professional expert reviews. User reviews can't hurt either. Check on amazon for instance, they usually have a lot of user reviews so the outliers level out.
All this knowledge/theory is part of what you need to produce and engineer music. You can find a lot of this knowledge and theory online. Google it. Youtube it. Look for free courses on audio production and engineering. But, very important, use the search function on our forum.
I'd say put in some effort yourself in looking up info and looking up gear. If you have questions after that, you can post em here.