Introduction

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xlok3x

New member
Hi there!

I hope this is in the right section, I'm a complete newbie to the whole music production world..however I love music and its one of my passions and would love to get into it. I'm hoping someone can help point me in the right direction, I want to create electronic style music and I would like to use ableton live. I have no prior experience or knowledge but I'm really good at learning things fairly quick, I catch on easy so to speak. Also curious if there is any equipment I should get to start with, I am a Windows-PC user.

Thanks!
 
There's probably a million answers to these questions already, so I'll be brief.

Stuff to buy:
- Computer with decent specs
- DAW (sounds like you have Ableton)
- Audio interface, if you plan to use a microphone or want better monitoring quality
- Studio monitors (speakers) to hear your tracks
- Studio headphones, especially if you plan to record vocals or work at night
- A midi keyboard to record melodic elements
- A midi pad to record percussive elements
- Virtual instruments, if Ableton doesn't fully meet your needs (not sure since I've never used it)
- Mixing and effects plugins, if Ableton doesn't fully meet your needs (not sure since I've never used it)
- A microphone if you plan to record vocals or instruments, preferably a large diaphragm condenser that attaches to an XLR cable, not USB
​

Other thoughts:
- Make sure you love it - are you doing it for expected fame or because it's fun this week as an activity? If it's so fun that you lose track of time doing it, that's a good indication it's for you.
- You're going to make crappy songs at first. You have to make a lot of crappy songs before you can make good ones.
- Learning music theory and practicing the musician's definition of ear training will help you. Some keyboard/piano ability will help.
- Learning engineering techniques and practicing the engineer's definition of ear training will help you.

Good luck!
 
Thanks a lot for the information, I don't care for fame...basically just very interested and wanted to try it out. How much am I looking to spend to just get a "feel" for it, and I get i'll make crappy songs, I have a background in programming..you make crappy programs before you make good ones people can actually use lol so I can relate to that. Out of everything you mentioned...I have the DAW, good pc, audio interface..and 7.1 ch headphones..would that be okay? or do studio headphones have special features that I can't live without basically.
 
Studio headphones don't have special features. In fact, they generally have fewer features many (like me) would find gimmicky. Surround sound in headphones is a great example.

Closed-back headphones are extremely important if you want to work in a noisy environment, or if you're recording quiet instruments or voice with a microphone and need to hear your session. They block out sound to some degree, and this can be very important. I use the Sennheiser HD 280 Pro, for example.

Open-back headphones block very little noise. You can't work in a noisy environment with them, and they aren't suitable for recording with a microphone since the sound of the session through the headphones will bleed into the microphone. But virtually all the best sounding headphones are open-backed. They can be so much clearer and more detailed if designed well. For example, I use the AKG k702.

For tracking headphones, sonic integrity is a plus, but noise isolation is key. For headphones used for sound design, editing, or mixing, sonic integrity is key, and noise isolation is optional.


If you have any piano experience at all, getting an affordable midi keyboard (or USB equivalent) will really help with song development. It's so much more natural to compose with compared to clicking notes with a mouse. The keyboard doesn't need to have its own sound engine. Not at all. Just get one that acts as a big, dumb computer mouse, for you to play the performance into the computer to use the superior instrument plugins in your DAW.


If you're making electronic music, virtual instruments are essential. Does your DAW come with a percussion plugin? A synthesizer? A piano? Those are the basics, though there are many more you could expand to later.

And you'll need basic mixing plugins: EQ, compressor, reverb, delay, perhaps a limiter. You can get really fancy later, but anything should get you going.

If you have any headphones that sound decent to you, basic instrument plugins, and basic mixing plugins, you have enough to discover if you enjoy making electronic music. Just try it out!
 
As above but if you're set on Ableton (which is no bad choice) I'd think about getting a controller such as the Launchpad (there's the 'mini' if funds are tight).
Many of the Novation products are built with Live in mind.
 
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