Noob here, where do I start?

[J.F.K. The Movement]

Hi all. Happy to be here. So to be somewhat brief I've never really been deeply involved in music. I did play the drums in school. I've fiddled around with some instruments in the past as well. However I love music. I'm always listening, I have a vast love of many genres. From rock, to dubstep, foreign pop, etc etc etc. I sometimes sit and imagine how songs could be better, or at least how I would like to hear them, what would sound good to men.

So I've come here because I finally want to start learning how to make music. Dubstep, ambient, etc. I'd like to experience it all. Now my problem.....I have no idea where to begin, what I'm doing, how to get my feet wet.

So I figured I could ask how to get started, what programs are good, what I need to learn. All the basics. I heard FL Studio was good. From what I've read it seems the producer edition is a nice choice, that it is good and easy to use. Again though. I'm a Level 0 Beginner and I would appreciate every little bit of help I can get.

Thank you all, I'm so excited.

Well I am new to this site so here goes nothing:
I also played drums in high school, and took piano lessons for as long as i can remember. But making music/beats was still for me a whole different world. In a sense. I started off just watching other people on youtube and connecting to local producers and bands to see how and what they were doing. I don't really have so much money to spend on books and lessons so, the do it yourself free way was just the way to go for me. Just go on youtube and search what it is you want to exactly learn. Or search FL studio begginer tips.
And to answer your question, FL STUDIO IS THE ISH!! Sorry for the lang. But it is a really good program. And you learn really quickly. They say Pro Tools is industry standard but i think thats just bs now a days. But the best thing to do is research and maybe try a couple out to see which one fits you the best. Good luck man!

[yairhol]

The 1st step in trying to help out someone who's only starting is to know at what level of knowledge he is at. For example, some people mentioned MIDI as if it was common knowledge to all. It is not. Does the original poster know what MIDI is? what DAW is? What's an audio interface? etc...
To the original poster, I would start theoretically by checking out what you know and don't know out of these basic tools (don't buy anthing yet):
1. computer: PC or MAC? Do you know what you want and why? Is it powerful enough? Do you have an idea of what powerful is in terms of a computer intended for music production?
2. Audio card and audio interface: Are you familiar with these? There all kinds in all levels. Get yourself acquinted with the terms buffer size, latency and more.
3. DAW. What is a daw? What are the DAWs available on the market? Do they need eLicenser? what are the costs of them?
4. MIDI controller: What is MIDI. What can you do and cannot do with MIDI. What is a MIDI controller. Do you know what size of MIDI controller you will need? (There are guitar MIDI controllers and Piano Keys MIDI controller). There are those with many knobs and those with very few. Some come with sound libraries, some don't. etc...

There's lots to read and know in order to make informed decisions on what you need and don't need.
When I started out a couple of years ago I knew nothing about making music on the computer. I spent the first couple of weeks reading this web site:
http://tweakheadz.com/posts/guides/

I found it extremely helpful.
Good Luck

[Monib]

DAWs/Equipment is great... But you should learn an instrument. Keyboard is good. Get books on how to play by ear, versus reading music.

screw that... Guitarists get more lovin' than a friggin' KB Player!

I know...