Hey I’m looking for helpful from people in the know for someone who doesn’t know squat. I’m looking for gear to write some music for myself. I looked at a kijiji ad for a mk1 controller only to find that there is a hell of alot to it alot to remember.
I’m looking for advise for a novice on what equipment to buy when starting out. Both for budget conscious and especially when equating user friendliness. Pioneer CDJs seem so much easier to understand in terms of how to use vs the native instruments mk1. What sort of advice can u give I want to start writing.
Seems like you are looking into an awful lot.of stuff at once. Id either choose production tools or DJ tools, learn just the one set for 2-3 years then add on.
As for the DJ stuff I say don’t waste your time on controllers if you really want to gig. Pioneer XDJ 700s or a new Pioneer all in one will prep you for industry standard gear and are the most budget friendly options.
I wouldn’t go for Pro Tools if you’re starting out.
Have you used Garage Band? You really don’t need to spend a whole lot if you’re just starting out. FL Studio is geared heavily towards soft synths, plug ins, and working with a midi controller for writing tracks. Logic would also be good. I’ve never used Ableton but I hear it’s really easy to get in and start putting stuff together in. I think relic covered the basics tho, DAW, maybe a midi keyboard, headphones, and if you’re going to record stuff you’ll want an audio interface.
It depends on how you are with computers really. What ever you choose, you’ll still have to learn it. You can download free, but restricted versions of most the main DAWs.
I found that FL, has the best soft synths that come with it. and the best piano roll, but the mixer from hell, when it came to routing. I hated trying to use Ableton. A CPU hog, un-intuitive, and not easy to learn and remember. BITWIG on the other hand was much easier to get along with. Didn’t hog the CPU. Sandboxes the VSTs so if the VST crashed it didn’t effect everything else and gave you the ability to use x32 or x64 plugins.
Like I say they all have trail versions. BITWIG you cannot export or save a project. FL you can save, but not reopen a project, although you can export it. Ableton is a 30 day trial, but if you buy almost any new piece of production hardware these days, you get Ableton Live Light, which is a cut down version. (very cut down if I remember)
Having said all of that, my preferred weapon of choice for House Music is a good old Groovebox. All in one and much more fun.
i agree with IO that you shouldnt spend much straight away. if you dont already have a computer then you will need one obviously, but you can choose a cheap or free DAW to get a taste for where you want to go with music. that is all you need to get started.
you might find you want some samples to use, but they are everywhere for free.
spend some time learning the DAW and soon you will know what gear you need next. dont buy something unless you know why you want it.
Definitely agree with what everyone else said. generally speaking there is a few different routes you can go. When I started making music, I was all DAW focused with samples, and learning how to structure and make beats and melodies.
Finding some good samples is the best start, and there’s no shortage of free ones out there. In fact, limiting yourself in the beginning is arguably the best step forward because it forces you to learn and utilize things like editing tools, compression, reverb/delay/stereo EQ / panning and piano roll editing.
A sample is literally just a prerecorded bit of sound energy, and with the right tools you can shape it like clay to be whatever you want. Dabbling and doodling around is the best thing you can do when starting off.
However if you want to go the DJ route initially, that’s a different path and also helps to really learn song structure, sound processing, and will aide in learning to compose rather than puke noise out of a DAW (unless that’s what you wanna do, )
Take a crappy synth sound, chop it up, throw some FX/delay/reverb/stereo/phaser/flange, whatever the recipe is… and rearrange it with stretching/pitch to make something totally new and interesting.
One of my main toolbox tactics when it comes to remixes
solid advice.
when i started out i overloaded myself with samples and plugins because they were so freely available, which limited my creativity because i was too busy learning new plugins all the time.
limiting my library was one of the best things i ever did for creativity.
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