First steps into music production and gear

[excuse me please]

Yep, here you can find freebies:

https://vst4free.com/

[schmerzschlag]

In my opinion Maschine is not really less to learn compared to Live, FL etc. There's not only the software but also the hardware to learn. Key combinations, shortcuts etc. I have two Maschines, Live 10 and FL and I don't think Live or FL are more difficult to learn. It's just different.
I'd suggest to really dive into the demo versions of the DAWS which are of interest to you. Really use up the demo time. See and feel which workflows click with you personally. When I started (again) I got really quick into FL, but I bought too fast. While I do not regret it, because there's nothing wrong with a lifetime license for FL, I find myself rarely use FL today. As others suggested: Check out free stuff, too. You'll soon enough find yourself in a position to throw money at developers.

[vitocorleone123]

If it does not matter which DAW to use, then why are people swapping their DAWs all over the place? "It does not matter which DAW you use" is the worst beginner's advice ever! Otherwise we would all use the same DAW, no?

Way to misread something, twist the meaning to try to make the point you want, and run with it.

Finding the DAW that works best for you is what matters most as far as DAWs go. This requires trying different DAWs ("swapping DAWs all over the place"). Once you find the one you like using best, stick with it for an extended time.

@passing bye - yes, if you need the support of a community, different DAWs seem to inspire different communities with different resources - but that doesn't make choosing a DAW that doesn't work well for you worth the wasted time and effort and frustration just to get templates, rather than learning to adapt things... choosing a DAW for yourself doesn't make other peoples' choices bad or wrong somehow... someone can easily make movie music in Mixbus32C or FL. Or Ableton.

Most DAWs come with loops, or you can pick some up free or cheap.

[excuse me please]

If it does not matter which DAW to use, then why are people swapping their DAWs all over the place? "It does not matter which DAW you use" is the worst beginner's advice ever! Otherwise we would all use the same DAW, no?

Way to misread something, twist the meaning to try to make the point you want, and run with it.

Finding the DAW that works best for you is what matters most as far as DAWs go. This requires trying different DAWs ("swapping DAWs all over the place"). Once you find the one you like using best, stick with it for an extended time.

@passing bye - yes, if you need the support of a community, different DAWs seem to inspire different communities with different resources - but that doesn't make choosing a DAW that doesn't work well for you worth the wasted time and effort and frustration just to get templates, rather than learning to adapt things... choosing a DAW for yourself doesn't make other peoples' choices bad or wrong somehow... someone can easily make movie music in Mixbus32C or FL. Or Ableton.

Most DAWs come with loops, or you can pick some up free or cheap.

Misread what?

[MK1]

If you plan on using Native Instruments and NKS then that constrains you to that line of controllers.

^I didn't understand this. If I wanted to expand from the Maschine at a later stage, do you mean I would always have to use NI controllers e.g komplete kontrol rather than something like the keystep pro (for example) ?

[thecontrolcentre]

If it does not matter which DAW to use, then why are people swapping their DAWs all over the place? "It does not matter which DAW you use" is the worst beginner's advice ever! Otherwise we would all use the same DAW, no?

No.

[imrae]

Aren't people worried Maschine will go the same way as Kore, and become an expensive plastic brick once NI stop providing updates?

[mattfourmat]

Honestly the best advice I could offer would be to get a DAW and learn how to use what it has. You do not need a bunch of software to start out, pick a DAW and learn it, Ableton, Reason and Cubase all have lite or cheaper versions for beginners. Maschine is also great too but you can definitely go with a cheaper option that has synths and stuff.

[Tricky-Loops]

Just wondering why I only read FL Studio and Ableton (and a few others) but not MULAB?

The modular synth MUX is one of the best modular synths out there and the MULAB is easy to learn and to use and I was very happy with it 12 years ago. And I assume it should be even better now, not worse.

I'm not affiliated with it in any way (I was only a user and I bought MUX many years ago), just wondering why there is so less love for it.

[pekbro]

Nothing wrong with MuLab, though currently it doesn't support VST3. I think many do not like
the way it looks. Most either love it or don't like it at all seemingly (or have never even heard of it).

[Tricky-Loops]

Nothing wrong with MULAB...Most either love it or don't like it at all...

Oh oh, the REAPER syndrome!

[Lusamars]

Maschine is a great way to start for sure with Solid integration within the NI ecosystem. It’s a good option..

Bitwig with also tremendous DAW, very fast modulations and easy to use. You can use the arturia stepbeat with the DrivenByMoss mapping, but again you would be reliant on Moss.

Third opinion and completely different but super super fun, Traktor 3 Pro with a killer mapping for a Xone K2. Yeah it’s DJ but the opportunity to create beats on the fly is incredible with resampling.

[Passing Bye]

@passing bye - yes, if you need the support of a community, different DAWs seem to inspire different communities with different resources - but that doesn't make choosing a DAW that doesn't work well for you worth the wasted time and effort and frustration just to get templates, rather than learning to adapt things... choosing a DAW for yourself doesn't make other peoples' choices bad or wrong somehow... someone can easily make movie music in Mixbus32C or FL. Or Ableton.

Why would anyone learn to adapt to anything when starting out, when he have a choice to actually get into something that will actually work for him the most from the get go and on the long run when he actually get's a grip on the whole thing, you aren't really making any valid points at all, especially in the thread where OP really doesn't want to do all that and gives you pointers about his preferred way of working and music of interest.

I tutored quite a few guys over the years and right now I'm tutoring someone, they are starting from blank state and have no clue about what they need to do or what works for them, they only can pick DAW based on what GUI they like the most at that point, so it's nonsense, also they can learn any DAW you put in front of them easily, but thing is to hook them up with choices that will make most sense for them on the long run, based on their interests, they reached for help, to make that choice easier for them, you can't choose the DAW for them, but at least you can give them more pointers than "Choose the DAW that works/speaks the best to you".

[excuse me please]

If it does not matter which DAW to use, then why are people swapping their DAWs all over the place? "It does not matter which DAW you use" is the worst beginner's advice ever! Otherwise we would all use the same DAW, no?

No.

Care to elaborate or trying to be interesting?

[Moe Shinola]

No matter what DAW you use, groovemonkee.com will get you up and running with high-quality MIDI drum loops you can string together to form whole songs. Just import the loops on your drum sampler track and you're good to go. They have loops in all styles, and bass loops, too.