[The-Fluffy-Kitty]

So you wanna start producing music on your computer? Awesome news, it's never been easier to get started than right now. Technology now allows us to make music on our computers for little to no budget. If you have a decent computer you already have the most vital piece of equiptment that you'll need.

What you'll need to get started:
Computer (PC/Mac and )
DAW (a.k.a Digital Audio Workstation)

Optional Items:
Audio Interface
Studio Monitors/Headphones
MIDI Controller
At the end of this tutorial I'll let you know the sequence I would buy these optional list items in.

Okay so the first thing you'll need to install on your computer is a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation.) Now there is a lot of them out there. I personally started with FL Studio and now mainly use Ableton Live Suite. However, not everyone wants to spend money. So below I've linked some of the top free DAWs (obviously there are more free DAWs you can find with a simple Google search.) If you want to buy, I'd do some research on the top paid DAWs or DAWs that your favourite producers use. If you are absolutely lost and want to buy, I would recommend starting with FL Studio, Ableton Live, Logic, Pro Tools, etc. Do your research and remember that the more you use it and familiarize yourself with it, the easier the DAW will become to use.

Some Top Free DAWs:
Cockos Reaper - https://www.reaper.fm/download.php
MU.Lab - http://www.mutools.com/mulab-downloads.html
Rosegarden for LINUX ONLY! - http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/getting/

Okay, so once you have your DAW installed and running on your computer, you are now able to start making music and learning. But, perhaps you have heard about VSTs (Virtual Studio Technology.) These can be both digital instruments and digital effect s. These are ideal for many producers as it does not take up any physical space and often does not cost as much as some physical gear. In fact some are completely FREE! I will link to some KVR lists of the best and most popular free VSTs below. And if you want to see even more options, I highly recommend using Google to find even more Free VSTs. Just download cautiosly and at your own risk. I recommend only downloading from websites that are fairly trusted. And if you have money to spend, there are a lot of high quality VSTs. Much like the DAWs, do your research and buy in accordance to what is used by your favourite producers and what is popular in the industry. I would recommend looking at Sylenth1, Massive, Serum, etc. (just a few of my personal favourites)


Some Free VST Instruments Resources:
https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/windows...st-popular

Some Free VST Plugins Resources:
https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/windows...st-popular


Installing VSTs to your system may be tricky at times. I recommend reading install instructions and watching tutorials on youtube if you having issues. Often you will install VSTs to a folder on your computer and then you'll have to redirect your DAW to this folder. This will likely be something you can do in a preferences/option menu. However, you should know exactly where to do this by either reading through the Help Docs/FAQs of your DAW or by once again using that wonderful Google search.

Now you should have more than enough to get started! You can also look into the use of samples and sampling (in fact here's a link to some free samples: http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/free...tis-627820) if that sort of thing is of any interest.

Another amazing tool is the amount of quality tutorials and content on youtube. It's a great learning resource and can help you focus on learning to do exactly what you want.  

Now as promised, this is the order I would buy the optional items in.

1. Get an audio interface and either studio monitors or headphones (this is practically vital to produce professional quality sound.)
2. Get a MIDI controller. (while not entirely essential, a MIDI controller can speed up work flow and also allow near realtime recording of VST instruments.)
3. Get either studio monitors or headphones. (I believe it is good to test your music on multiple types of speakers. Also, as we all have studios in different environments, sometimes monitors are more practical and sometimes headphones are more practical. We don't want to get noise complaints.)

I hope this tutorial on basic setup was beneficial to you. And best of luck on your music production journey.

[scam.]

To anyone looking at getting into it and not knowing what you’re looking at or not knowing where to begin.. that’s what everyone that hops into production feels. You just gotta learn and learn and you’ll be able to slap stuff to together in no time.

I’d also recommend learning basic music theory. Will help infinitely.