Hello, I’ve been dying to make this post. Is there any good soul who would like to help me starting from scratch? I’ve always loved electronic music, I love making art in general. I want to use it as a new way to expressing myself. My go-to artists are ranging from old school Justice, to Skrillex, to the newest Apashe, Illenium, etc.
I’m really starting from scratch, I have 0 experience in music producing but I definitely always had a bit of rhythm in my blood.
Btw, I’m a 34 (soon 35) yo guy from Italy. Don’t know why I thought this was necessary info to post.
Anyways, thanks to everyone who has a kind soul and wants to help me embark on this journey!
If you have rhythm in you then I recommend starting with making drum beats.
Two options would be to either:
Start using a free tool that incorporated a piano roll type environment where you map out the beat using little markers on a timeline. This is tedious, but can be quite rewarding if you put the time in.
If you wanted something more tangible and were serious about your new hobby, pick up a secondhand unit called Native Instruments - Maschine. The Mk 1 will be sufficient for a starter, and you should be able to get quite cheap. This doesn’t make any sounds by itself, so you need the software and a computer. Find some free drum sample packs and dump them into the software and start tapping away while recording everything you do.
Once you have some beats you like the sound of then move onto creating some bass lines or synth lines with free VST plugins like mentioned above. We have a whole thread that people have posted all kinds of free plugins. Free plugins! - The Studio - IDM Forums
Once you have played around for a while, you will start thinking of more specific questions on what you want to do. Either look them up on Youtube or ask them here and we’ll be happy to help. Some may have already been answered here so you can use the search function as well.
It’s helpful to start this way before trying to emulate artists you like, but once you get those questions and start to get a good feel for what you’re doing, then emulating artists you like is also a great way to learn more complex techniques.
The first thing is to find the DAW (digital audio workstation) software you want to use and install it. Don’t worry too much about which you choose, they’re all okay to use, they all will do the job (in different ways), and you can always change later. I’d suggest looking at Reaper or the FL Studio free trial - they are both popular and have large enough communities that you can search online for how to do things and are guaranteed to get helpful results. There’ll also be lots of youtube tutorials for both of them.
You should not need to buy anything, hardware or software, to get started.
Most DAWs will come with samples and effects for you to play with. Use those to figure out how to make beats, basslines, whatever is in your head. There are plenty of free samples, effects and synths out there, and you can record sounds on your phone and use those to play with.
My biggest advice is to just start - download software, start messing around. After a few weeks, you’re going to understand more about it than we can write for you here, and you can start to make decisions about what you like and don’t. Maybe you hate clicking on all the little buttons on the screen and want to buy a hardware controller. Maybe you’re after a certain sound but don’t know what it’s called. Learn the basics and you’ll know what questions to ask.
