Starting Completely From Scratch

[Smutreich]

G'day guys n gals

I want to start making Harsh EBM/Aggro music and I'm starting completely from scratch here.

My music background is: hip hop emcee for several years and vocals in a couple of local blackened death and death metal bands.

I have no experience playing live instruments what so ever, but do play around on the keyboard and have a general sense of rythym/BPM thanks to my time in hip hop.

My process is: I know exactly what I want the music to sound like. I want to be able to take it from my head to the speaker with as little f'ing around as possible.
So, hardware or software... Or perhaps both?
What kind of laptop?
Mixers, drum machines, samplers... Need as much info and guidance as possible.

I'm after something like a starter kit. Something that'll get me producing my own music with a halfway decent sound and being able to build on it from there.

Any help would be appreciated. I love this style of music and for someone starting out it's hard to see the woods through the trees (I'm sure you can relate)

Cheers!

[DJ Warmonger]

There is no point in gathering tons of hardware for the beginning, unless you know how to use it. Get one good all-around controller like Push/Machine (integrated with DAW) or generic MIDI keyboard like M-Audio Code. Also, audio interface is needed to plug your stuff to the computer. It depends only on your budget and amount of hardware you want to plug to input and outputs.

Other that that, you will need a DAW. If you want to jam and record live rather than program synths, I recommend Ableton Live. Check if this is what you're after.

[Lejurai]

OR bitwig with novation launchpad. You can use launchpad with more daws more easily than push. Anyways.. I'd recommend that you get Reason (THE most stable daw). It has synths and samplers and it's easy to use, but you can dig deeper and deeper and it's endless modular fun. Need keyboard? Some m-audio is enough BUT! Nektar panorama is same to reason what push is to ableton.. But it has keys. And external soundcard for guitars and hardware synths and mics.. Maybe steinbergs ur22 or ur44? Cheap, sounds great.

[sbj]

If you're starting from scratch, then check out free stuff and demo
some different D.A.W's for the next couple of months.

Then you will know who - you - are and your choices will be
made from practical experience.

A good beginner D.A.W could be MuLab from MuTools:http://www.mutools.com/index.html

Theres a free demo and it is as simple or complex as you want it.

When it comes to plugin Fx's search KVR developer challenge.
http://www.kvraudio.com/kvr-developer-challenge/2014/

Some VERY nice freebies there.

Best of luck

[Zexila]

What's the budget for starters, so we can talk actual stuff?

Start with software for sure, nice MIDI keyboard, but have a look at hardware synth side too, tweaking stuff that way is fun, so something like Nord Rack 2x and Virus C, also Micro Brute and MS-20 Mini, that should give you plenty of fun and noise. (but not a must)

Audio interface should be on the list (Steinberg), also monitors (speakers, JBL, Yamaha), maybe nice cans too (ATH-M40...)

Anyways, these days, personally, if I were starting out, second hand Mac that can run Logic X would be my call, on a really tight budget, second hand PC with Reaper and bunch of freebies, MIDI keyboard, audio interface and cans.

Logic X is hard to beat in this game, only new Alchemy is worth the asking price, let alone everything else, crazy value for the buck, get that and you are covered software vise.

Mac's are pricier, so see what you can swing there, don't look at retina stuff at all, more something from circa 2010-2012, that should give you decent kick with stock stuff and little freezing here&there, again, Logic X is worth it IMHO.

Overall I would advise against laptops, would take desktop/tower for audio production any day

But than again, it would be good to know what's the actual budget, more about your vision, are you gonna sing too, do you need mic too and etc