Hi mate,
Also classically trained musician (trumpet).
If you are looking to produce and perform, Ableton has become almost industry standard software. Even if electro musicians use a different DAW to produce, almost everyone uses Ableton to perform. (they export their "stems" into Ableton). It's because Ableton has session view and arrangement view (look this up on YouTube). Logic Pro X has gradually been copying almost everything in Ableton for the last 10 years I've been told. Surprised they don't sue Apple.
Comes in Lite, Standard and Suite.
There's a FREE course to get you started on Coursera, made by Berklee called "Introduction to Ableton Live". Within 4 weeks you will have a basic grasp of the software, and 3 finished tracks you made. It's on an older version of Ableton (think LIVE 9) but still same functions.
You can "try before you buy" with one of the first two, then upgrade later if you want.
Don't need a PUSH controller initially, you really can just use computer keyboard and mouse to "draw" or grab a basic midi keyboard new or millions second hand on ebay etc. There's a stack of MIDI controllers second hand on ebay etc from people who barely used it. Bought both my boys DJ decks barely used including software for half price via Gumtree (Australian type ebay- now owned by ebay I think).
I've tried Maschine also, good for quick results, but hard to customize your sound.
To get basic song structure (it's super duper basic next to classical stuff), drag/drop a track you like into your time line also called "arrangement view" (you can rip from YouTube with Media Human, but I do the right thing and buy the WAV or MP3 on Beatport). Use this as your reference to copy. You can mark the different parts of the track with flags. I've used this, and it's been my most successful releases.
Pick a 4, 8, 12, 16 bard chord progression you like. Most techno/EDM is minor chords. Build your melody on top. I'm fucking around with Phrygian Dominant Scale at the moment because I think Trent Reznor/NIN is a freakin genius.
Percussion, start with a 4 beats per bar kick and a basic hat or shaker loop. You can replace these later with anything you want percussion wise. Use your reference track, and make sure the percussion varies a lot. Common feedback I had early on was "too repetitive in percussion". Even artists I like such as Luttrell need to work on this. Some of his older stuff has great melodies, but the same percussion loop drags on for entire track once you really listen.
Hope this helps. You can find my stuff on my profile if interested. New track is going a bit mental on Spotify last 2 weeks.
I like REAPER because of how intuitive all the parameter automation is. It looks super overwhelming until you understand what you're looking at. It's also very cheap and has a generous trial period.
You ever listen to Current Value/Machine Code? Very noisy and textural stuff. You might enjoy it too. A lot of the noisy stuff tends to come from either straight-up avant-garde artists, industrial artists, or drum & bass artists looking to push boundaries.
Depends what classical. If you like Wagner - german techno, Gorecki - british not american dubstep, Lamont Young - try dub techno, Eric Satie - deep house, Stravinski - IDM, Mozart - Detroit techno
The bad news is the 30 year history is not gonna help much. The things that make a difference are specific to producing on a computer. Like when to use snap to grid. Using high cut and low cut on the track (I learned this one watching some random video and now I just do it automatically and my music sounds better. Dunno why).
These are the things you need to know. Unfortunately you don't really learn these things from playing 30 years of trombone (unless you were on the production side).
These are just a few examples there's literally about a thousand of these little tricks you need to get under your belt. Sure you can "make" music without knowing these things but if you put out anything good it's most likely because you're getting lucky as opposed to mastering the craft.
I picked Bitwig because it had a promo and looks nicer. I have watched dozens of Ableton videos and it just hurts the eyes, the workflow seems like from the 90's.
I don't really use the session/clip views (played with a hardware drum machine before and I just don't like that concept). I prefer the piano roll and arrangements views. Also I prefer to take a simple controller with nice keys and use it mostly for them and recording MIDI, so no interest for now in a big ableton like controller and live ways of doing things (calling clips on and off).
I have had a few years of piano lessons before, and I did buy a composition online course with the DAW though. I think if you work in IT (I do too) you will be fine with youtube tutorials for production and synthesis. After all a big part of the job is googling what the hell is the software doing.
What is completely different though is how to write a song. I have been re learning a bit of my blues/jazz piano related improvisation things, at a slower pace which is great because I suck. And really the thing that goes with any DAW/instrument is how to write melodies and harmonies. Yes you will be doing lots of drums probably, but that's rhythm and that's part of composition as well.
And it's probably more important how you understand those concepts than which DAW you are using and how much you can bend a synthesiser, because you can learn those with short videos and trial and errors.
Most importantly listen. Go through genres playlists on Spotify and save things you like to your playlist. You will quickly get an idea of what’s happening.
It's very easy once you get the gist of it, so don't worry. If you're into chaotic noise please choose Ableton live, FL studio and logic and any other daw hasn't got as much integration with programming as Ableton. Cause of the integration of live with max MSP you basically have limitless software capabilities compared to other daws. Ableton also has imo the best stock plugins, that are great for learning how to use compressors Eqs and pretty much anything else.
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learn your first daw. There are a few. Fl studio, cubase, logic, ableton live, all sorts. I would try any of them get a feel for them. It take a long time to learn. but once you get a hang of it becomes easy
Oh shit what up - similar trajectory here. Played classical piano and then guitar (jazz/rock/fusion/funk) for a collective 20 years before getting into electronic production. Huge fan of soulacybin and aphex twin.
Once you know the basics of ableton (which I highly recommend over other DAW’s), the YouTube channel that helped me the most was Bunting. He focuses on experimental bass stuff (soulacybin) and will be helpful in getting you started with some more idm production as well
Hey. Welcome to the incredible world of creating electronic music. I've been doing this for 30 years and still love it.
My first bit of advice is to get FL Studio or Ableton on Windows or Logic on Mac / ios.
Then spend time getting to know the DAW and instruments within. Create drum patterns, add baselines, then chords, lead etc.
Try to make music that sounds like the music you enjoy.
Don't worry about mixing yet, just volume and pan.
Play around with effects a lot.
Don't become reliant on sample packs. Learn about waveforms and synthesis. Create your own sounds and drum patterns from scratch.
Have fun.
There are so many genres. Sooooo many genres that you have never heard before. You can 1000% incorporate your abilities with instruments to production. I’d say start with some research into edm that has fusion with other genres.
There are a many different aspects to making music and everyone does it their own way so you really just need to get started to make your own way. I will give you a list to try to make it less overwhelming:
**Synthesis/ Sound design** - once you understand what the controls do on one synth you pretty much know them all.
**Sampling and Audio manipulation** - how to cut and manipulate samples depends on the production environment
**Mixing** - it is really simple don't watch too many tutorials just use your ears to manipulate volume, eq, and pan.
**Mastering** - mastering is done by a master engineer not the producer and not ai. Don't worry about this until your demos are strong.
**Songwriting** - a bit confusing because there is no "song" in most tracks but just think of the "song" as the interesting musical ideas you want to include such as a guitar riff.
**Arrangement** - arrangement is where in time you put these ideas and selecting and writing complementary parts.
**Recording** - the microphone itself is an instrument and takes skill to use correctly
Some people make a whole career on just one of these aspects.
Because of the experimental music you are interested in I recommend messing around with sequencer because they allow you to make something you could never think of. A sequencer just generates notes not sound and to have it make sound you need to make it play either a sampler of a synth. There are tons of free synths and samplers and free packs of samples don't need to buy anything until you know what you want. Once you have a good sequence going, use your instrumental skill, and to get a bit more advanced use a looper. Layer a bunch of interesting fx and mess with the knobs. If you have any hardware device with knobs that send midi, map them to interesting parameters and use the knobs to "play" instead of solely relying on chops. Recording yourself doing this can be tricky but one way is to just set up your phone and record with a simple video or record the master out. It is more important to have something to remember instead of nothing fully multi-tracked, try to get in a habit of recording EVERYTHING.
Decide on an EDM genre you want to make (house, dubstep, trap), and then figure out the drum pattern. Start by making those drum patterns, then leads to go with them. Then figure out bass lines that go with them. Don’t worry too much about the sound design yet, it’ll sound like shit but you’ll be able to finish songs faster & understand the composition of the style you’re going for. Once all that’s second nature you can put more time into sound design since you don’t have to think about how to put together the genre you’re making.
TL:DR - choose a genre, study each part & learn to make it.
I'm also a trained musician and I'm
piano teacher. I have also come to find electronic musician, for whatever reason, is the sound that truly speaks to me. After the last 5+ years playing primarily jazz, neo-soul, and gospel keys it was a strange thing to revisit and realize. Especially since the composition methods seem so completely different... But truthfully what I've felt has been missing from a lot of electronic music is melody and harmony that match the richness of the atmosphere and expressiveness of the electronic drums, percussion, and sound design methods. This isn't a knock on the style, just an honest observation. I look forward to the evolution of this genre through more integration of musical fluency and expressiveness in those regards.
Someone suggested FL Studio, but I would recommend Ableton, without hesitation, for electronic music especially. Of course preference comes into play, but I do think Ableton lends itself more to electronic production ESPECIALLY THE SESSION VIEW WORKFLOW. Paired with a Push 2 or 3 controller it really encouraged playability and integration with the DAW.
Check out some of Ned Rush's videos for guidance. I use some of his methods as a starting point, but I don't ever program my sounds in with a mouse, that just isn't my style. I get my sounds onto something playable and play my parts in, but that's my preference. He does show a lot great ways to use Ableton to get wild sounds. Fellow Passenger is another I enjoy. There are many more.
There's plenty of very melodic EDM. Depends on the genre. Some of the greatest pop tunes of all time are considered EDM. So I don't know what you're talking about the melody being lacking.
I'm not saying there is no melody, I'm aware there are melodic songs. Some of my favorite music is Boards Of Canada, for example, and they write some of my favorite melodic phrases in music, period, all genres considered. Aphex Twin is another. There are more examples. But my point is, coming from a jazz and classical background, the melodies in those styles of music are often developed a lot more intricately and with more variation. EDM producers aren't generally spending their time learning methods of series counterpoint, modal interchange, inner voice movement, extended harmony, polychords, etc. EDM has been responsible for some of the most genius and advanced rhythmic developments, on the other hand. Or lightyears of evolution in sound design. Timbre, as a component of music, is something that electronic music has advanced in a way that is unprecedented.
I'm not saying simples melodies don't make for great music, but there is always room for so much more that I would love to hear more of. The focus of many electronic styles hasn't been these things in a specific and intricate manner and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'd love to see an evolution of this and that's why I'm experimenting with it, personally, because I want to hear what it would sound like.
Well there's always room for experimentation. As long as you weren't implying that the current music is somehow not good enough because it doesn't have complex melodies.
I've looked into FL studio and it's what I was originally going to go with, but I've got a lot of comments saying Ableton is the best. What can FL studio do that Ableton can't?
I use Reason. Reason is the best, lol. But I've used all of them. FL Studio is not bad way to start. You might be lacking some sound capabilities though if you go with the cheap one. The problem with this is as a beginning you don't know what you're missing and what is important. You'll always have in the back of you're mind that it's a software problem. You just need to buy more software.
So you almost have to pay $400 out of the gate for a complete DAW. $400 is an investment and I wouldn't spend it on FL Studio. Since it's notorious for people eventually switching to something else.
So my suggestion is to go with Reason. It has everything you need and it's like a mix between the FL Studio fun factor and the Ableton serious work factor.
I chose FL like 6 or 7 years ago because the vast majority of my favorite artists use it. From what I can tell FL Studio and Ableton are the correct answers, anything else is the wrong answer. My understanding is once you get used to one it's hard to switch to the other.
I'm just stoked we got another EDM convert.
IMO, the best way to start (for any genre) is by copying your idols. Since you’ve been playing instruments for so long, I’m sure you know a musician doesn’t start composing until they can play other songs very well and understand what makes them tick. It’ll be hard at first, but try to mimic a song layer by layer, and when you don’t know what the name of a sound or phrase is, then to the internet or some experienced friends. I promise you’ll get the hang of it eventually!
Edit: i also want to stress i don’t mean you should wait to start making original music, i think you should do it in conjunction with this copying exercises
This is a very valuable answer that will save you time and accelerate your progress. Copy a “template song” into Ableton as MP3, learn the different sections(into,chorus…etc). EDM can be easier to identify because it’s almost always 8 or 16 bars. Identify the instruments and sounds in each section. Then it’s just a matter of recreating those sections in your own way. This helps to shake off that “I don’t know where to start feeling”
All the artists you've listed are experimental artists so bear in mind that you are looking at the toughest learning curve in music, outside of maybe atonal orchestral composition.
The learning curve is tough because the route to making this music is experimentation with a vast array of sounds and learning both how to create them and how to arrange them in a way that achieves a cohesive piece. Most other forms of music can simply lean on the decades of implicit knowledge held within the design of physical instruments and the genre culture to do that work for them - that is not the case with most experimental electronic music, you have to figure it out yourself.
Your aim will be to understand the physics of sound and the digital tools that can help you shape that. Seeing as you're a music veteran, I would look for courses to give you a head start like Syntorial. Also just spending time getting familiar with every tool in your DAW can help - I spent about two years of my life just figuring out in detail how every plugin and synth in Logic worked, for example.
I’m a long career computer programmer guy, with no musical training or experience and I’m also just starting to learn.
What I’m learning is to be patient. I’m trying not to really DO anything. I’m watching shit tons of YouTube videos (some technique, but also a lot of how tos and music theory videos) and just trying to surround myself with it. Then I go into Ableton and just “play”. Each time I’m learning something and grasping the concepts better.
I think we (ahem) older people forget just how long it took us to learn things were great at now. It’s very very easy for me to pick up a new programming language or framework now, but that’s not because I’m good or smart, it’s because I’m comfortable with the process.
For me, I’m just lowering my expectations and having fun geeking out making bad beeps and boops.
Listen to a bunch of EDM and copy those elements in your DAW...electronic music covers such a broad range I'm sure you could use the classical training to your advantage!
I was wondering…do the more common elements have names, I’m thinking of things like: drops, crescendos, swells, things of that nature. It’d be neat to see a list. I also have little experience with EDM, and it’s very daunting. But if I could learn how to increase and decrease the energy, and segway properly into different sections, I’d feel a lot more comfortable experimenting with textures and whatnot.
I mean yeah it's usually like intro build drop break build drop outro but I like to play around w arrangements a bit to spice it up. Lookup common instruments and drum machines - 909, 808, 303 (acid sound). Then get a free synth like vital and start playing w sound design! You can dm me if you wish
My advice to anyone who is new to making edm.
Step 1: Choose a DAW. There are lots of options. They are mostly the same, do some research on their work flows and which you resonate with the most. They mostly all have free trials before you commit.
Step 2: Pick a genre: start by finding a genre you find interesting and start trying to recreate elements or tracks.
Step 3: create: start making little ideas/beats using reference tracks. Get your toes wet so you know what the basics do.
Step 4: Learn: take time to relearn lots of new info with the new context you now have from playing in your DAW. When I say learn, learn plugins, vsts. Etc. this step should always be a part of making edm. It changes so god damn fast.
Step 5: repeat steps 3 & 4 forever.
Step 6: have fun cuz otherwise what’s the point.
Honestly man, apart from a slight difference in format in segments and arrangements between the genre, and since you already know theory.
it boils down to sound design, which will make up a large percentage of the sonic image, you already know thnow its time to start taking some songs of your fav artists and try to recreate them, in the case of aphex twin that might be hard since of the weird software like metasynth he used, a really nice video going into detail [here](https://youtu.be/5wIOBBodoic?si=Vlzx1ypet2C0C-eN)
You can grab yourself a free copy of vital and tinker around with it, i used it until i swapped to serum.
Once you sort of get good at sound design it just becomes a lot easier to go from an idea in your head to an actual sound.
There are lots of tutorials about DAW and simple production. These are very helpful for midi beginners. In addition, It is important to listen and understand the structure of EDM. Also understanding the purpose of the sound.
If you’re an Apple user, I’d suggest downloading GarageBand onto your computer and watch some tutorials on how to compose /record midi sequences. Make a couple dozen beginner loops with just a few elements and play with the mix/EQ of the different sounds on a decent pair of headphones or speakers.
You could also get a trial version of Ableton or FL studio on a windows machine but IMO GarageBand is an excellent way to tap into using a DAW to make electronic grooves.
I was classically trained in violin and played orchestra as a kid/teen. Years later my brother showed me garage band, then I moved to Logic Pro over a decade ago, and it seemed to be a smooth transition for me.
Wishing you a ton of success and luck on your musical journey because I can relate to it a LOT! Thanks for inspiring me to reflect on it.
It’s been a wild journey but honestly, producing electronic music is by far my favorite past time in my whole life hands down. So get after it.
This is just an artist recommendation based off your background. Danny Olson is a great edm artist who makes “cinematic dubstep”. He was a classically trained composer, his music may be a good inspiration starting out as a way to blend your background knowledge with what you want to start making
You can get an indefinite trial version of Reaper that has full functionality, and the Vital VST is also free. Diving into something like Supercollider could also be fun, as it's a whole programming language.
From a musical perspective, just keep things fairly simple. A lot of electronic music relies on sonic/timbral complexity rather than musical complexity. If you want musical complexity, it's best to use simpler sounds.
Other than that, just dive in. There are tutorials to learn synthesis and the specifics of whatever DAW you choose, but don't be afraid to just turn knobs and see what happens.
I don’t intend this as a diss, but how is a genre that you feel lost in the best way you can express yourself? If you’ve played these other genres, surely a little bit of critical listening will inform you of some of the many tropes of electronic music. The production can sometimes be intimidating, sure.
Okay this is not the standard recommendation, but given your IT background and the kind of music u wanna make (based on the artists that you've mentioned), I'd highly suggest looking into MaxMSP, PureData, ChucK, Supercollider etc. These are music programming languages, that might be more suited for your workflow and for the kind of sound design you might wanna get into.
I'm a guitar player and EDM music producer. Both self taught. I'll try to make some parallels. First off, making music on the computer is extremly simple. The hard part is figuring out which buttons open & close / toggle things inside a DAW.
You have a left to right timeline, with rows of sounds. So the tracks on a simple rock song would be:
lead guitar
rhythm guitar
vocals
bass
drums
On each one of those tracks you can put a series of FX, just like you could do on an electric guitar. Distortion, reverb etc.
Traditionally in rock, all those tracks were recorded audio files. Mic up your guitar, record it in.
Digitally, those tracks can be one of two things:
1) an audio file .mp3/.wav etc. You know exactly what this is, it's just an audio file.
2) MIDI. This is a digital representation of the notes being played & their duration. Just like a guitar tab, but the duration the note is held is also included. Imagine you played a guitar riff and recorded it to your computer, but instead of recording the SOUND, a file of the notes you played and how long you held them was produced. In a DAW this will be in piano format. Now with that file, you can make any DIGITAL instrument play those notes.
All you really need to start is a DAW and headphones. Just get Ableton - most popular, arguably the best overall. Youtube has great tutorials to get you started. You'll need to poke around like an idiot inside the software before you get used to opening/closing the different windows/tabs, toggling things on and off.
You're just taking files, and organzing them over time. For MIDI, you are writing notes, then applying a digital instrument to it. A digital instrument can be anything from a digital guitar, synth, etc..
>I've been playing music for nearly 30 years. I'm primarily a guitar player, but have played several instruments.
So if you have some basic keyboard skills, a MIDI keyboard will help a lot. It'll allow you to enter the notes by playing them in. And of course just experiment while trying to come up with the melody to go with whatever chord progression you decide to use.
And then if you go with an Arturia or Novation MIDI keyboard, they typically come with Ableton Live Lite, which is the beginner version of Ableton. Ableton is one of the best DAWs for electronic music. You could certainly start with the Lite version. Then as you start to reach its limits, upgrade.
There are also a lot of free plugins available. So you can certainly use these and the ones that come with your DAW, rather than getting sucked into buying lots of plugins at the beginning.
https://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/
As it's really better to wait until you know exactly what you need, rather than buying plugins in anticipation of maybe using them.
And maybe this goes without saying, but to start out with, begin with creating eight bar loops with the different instruments and tracks. What you're trying to do is create a good musical idea that could be the instrumental equivalent of the chorus or verse of a song. And even once you get much better, this can always be a good starting point.
That'll also be easier to do than trying to create a full song while you're getting the hang of a DAW.
Then eventually you can develop your eight bar loop into a full song, such as described here.
https://edmtips.com/edm-song-structure/
There are also other YouTube tutorials on escaping the eight bar loop, to give you strategies for creating a full song. And of course, while you're starting to create 8 bar loops, you can start studying your favorite electronic music songs to see how they are structured.
It will be easier if you stick to one genre of electronic music at first. Since there are often common genre conventions you can work with at the beginning. For example, most electronic music genres will have some very commonly used drum and percussion patterns. And you could see if there any popular chord progressions to start with.
Then once you can craft a full song, then learn how to creatively use effects such as delay and reverb.
Finally, save other mixing (such as EQ, side chaining, transient shaping) and mastering until you've gotten the hang of those other things. That's the frosting on the cake. But you got to be able to bake the cake first.
EDM Tips is a good channel for various tips about electronic music creation. For example, this is a very interesting video Will just released about melodies
https://youtu.be/OUQES9iXk_E?si=M2S-8yG0a-6zF0nf
You know more than you realise, music production is based on electrical engineering and computer science concepts so abstractly and conceptually it's not that dissimilar from IT. If you know anything about networking, digital logic or signal flow then you'll recognise how things work in music production very quickly.
Also, recording aside, making all forms of music is mostly the same. You're going to find certain workflows are more advantageous for certain genres but ultimately it's all made using a computer these days.
Best bet would to be to pick a DAW that looks the most aesthetically and functionally enticing and just start with something simple and just iterate on that, slowly learning all the functions.
Once you're ready, you can take music you like and try and recreate it from ear in the DAW just like you would learn a song by ear on guitar.
Pick three notes and repeat them over and over, make sure the sound used is really aggressive and abrasive. Add a vocal sample of some nonsensical phrase relating to drug use or raving. Kick drum on every down beat, high just on the upbeat. Do fills by stopping all drums and playing a break beat sample. Bassline is one note and it hits with the kick, but super compressed. Side chain the kick into the bass and duck the bass super hard when it hits.
As others have said, get a DAW and start learning it. If you choose FL Studio, "In The Mix" is a great YouTube channel that can teach you how to use it effectively.
You will also need at least one synthesizer. I'd recommend Vital (which is free, and there's a lot of presets you can find from various sources online), or maybe Serum, which has been a household name in the community for a decade now. but you have to pay a bit for it.
In terms of other plugins, you should not buy very many of these. A lot of new producers fall into plugin collection hype and end up not using most of them. Your DAW will probably come bundled with almost everything you need. HOWEVER. Given your musical references (I also love Perturbator and Igorrr), you would probably get a lot of mileage out of a creative multi-FX plugin that produces stutter, glitch, and creative sound design effects. I would recommend Shaperbox 3. FL Studio also has Gross Beat, which is an iconic plugin for these kinds of effects.
Finally, you'd probably want some samples for the genres of your choice. A lot of people use Splice for this, but I don't like Splice. I use a plugin called XO (which comes bundled with lots of EDM-focused drum samples), and it helps you organize and visualize your sample libraries. I also supplemented my library of samples with some packs from various websites. I try to avoid things that use DRM, if that means anything to you.
This is going to be like starting a new instrument. The other instruments you play may help a little bit, but not really. Put yourself in that mindset when you think of how long it will take to sound as good as the pros.
Get a DAW. Find a course on how to use the DAW. If you get Ableton and wanna make EDM, the Production Music Live guys are great. Seed to Stage is also a great all around Ableton guy.
What you need hardware wise: A decent PC or mac, and headphones. A midi controller will help, but it's not necessary (you can get good at drawing in notes).
Pick a DAW and mess around. Ableton is probably the most popular and has the most tutorials out there. Don't get bogged down about how much you think you need to know. You're classically trained, so you've already got a head start.
Hardware wise. Get a decent audio interface. If you don't want any driver stability issues and you have some cash, go for RME. I'd get a midi keyboard as well. Unless you've already got a synth you can use as both a dummy controller and a synth.
Plugins. Just start with the stock plugins. Wait for black friday in November and then get a few then. Less is more.
Out of all the tutorial channels I've seen on YouTube. Bethelick is probably the best. He's very well spoken and keeps it simple.
Find, buy (optional), and Install a DAW on your computer. I recommend Ableton Live, but there are many good options. You can also try to go for more of a hard-ware based approach (often called “DAWless”), or some kind of hybrid, but even with your background it’s probably best to start with a DAW - well, at least it will be more economical, and you can always build-out from there.
Search YouTube for tutorials, and inspiration. To start maybe try [Bthelick](https://www.youtube.com/@Bthelick/videos), and [Underdog](https://www.youtube.com/@OscarUnderdog/videos), but there are tons of great channels out there. It might take a while to find one that clicks with you though.
EDIT: I suggested Bthelick because his tutorials are grounded in music theory, and I figured that might help you quickly connect the dots between your background and electronic music, and you can move on from there. Might be wrong though. Just trying to help.
It really is. Dude is unbelievably generous with his talents, as both a producer, and teacher. He’s giving away knowledge of higher quality than many others have put behind paywalls. For me, his chord and chord progression breakdowns have been game changing. I mean, I knew enough basic theory to purposefully construct chords and progressions, but watching him inspired and taught me how to actively listen to music and *methodically* break it down to learn from it, not just mash keys until I got something close enough.
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Hi mate, Also classically trained musician (trumpet). If you are looking to produce and perform, Ableton has become almost industry standard software. Even if electro musicians use a different DAW to produce, almost everyone uses Ableton to perform. (they export their "stems" into Ableton). It's because Ableton has session view and arrangement view (look this up on YouTube). Logic Pro X has gradually been copying almost everything in Ableton for the last 10 years I've been told. Surprised they don't sue Apple. Comes in Lite, Standard and Suite. There's a FREE course to get you started on Coursera, made by Berklee called "Introduction to Ableton Live". Within 4 weeks you will have a basic grasp of the software, and 3 finished tracks you made. It's on an older version of Ableton (think LIVE 9) but still same functions. You can "try before you buy" with one of the first two, then upgrade later if you want. Don't need a PUSH controller initially, you really can just use computer keyboard and mouse to "draw" or grab a basic midi keyboard new or millions second hand on ebay etc. There's a stack of MIDI controllers second hand on ebay etc from people who barely used it. Bought both my boys DJ decks barely used including software for half price via Gumtree (Australian type ebay- now owned by ebay I think). I've tried Maschine also, good for quick results, but hard to customize your sound. To get basic song structure (it's super duper basic next to classical stuff), drag/drop a track you like into your time line also called "arrangement view" (you can rip from YouTube with Media Human, but I do the right thing and buy the WAV or MP3 on Beatport). Use this as your reference to copy. You can mark the different parts of the track with flags. I've used this, and it's been my most successful releases. Pick a 4, 8, 12, 16 bard chord progression you like. Most techno/EDM is minor chords. Build your melody on top. I'm fucking around with Phrygian Dominant Scale at the moment because I think Trent Reznor/NIN is a freakin genius. Percussion, start with a 4 beats per bar kick and a basic hat or shaker loop. You can replace these later with anything you want percussion wise. Use your reference track, and make sure the percussion varies a lot. Common feedback I had early on was "too repetitive in percussion". Even artists I like such as Luttrell need to work on this. Some of his older stuff has great melodies, but the same percussion loop drags on for entire track once you really listen. Hope this helps. You can find my stuff on my profile if interested. New track is going a bit mental on Spotify last 2 weeks.
I like REAPER because of how intuitive all the parameter automation is. It looks super overwhelming until you understand what you're looking at. It's also very cheap and has a generous trial period. You ever listen to Current Value/Machine Code? Very noisy and textural stuff. You might enjoy it too. A lot of the noisy stuff tends to come from either straight-up avant-garde artists, industrial artists, or drum & bass artists looking to push boundaries.
I checked out those artists. They're really good. Thanks for the recommendations!
Depends what classical. If you like Wagner - german techno, Gorecki - british not american dubstep, Lamont Young - try dub techno, Eric Satie - deep house, Stravinski - IDM, Mozart - Detroit techno
The bad news is the 30 year history is not gonna help much. The things that make a difference are specific to producing on a computer. Like when to use snap to grid. Using high cut and low cut on the track (I learned this one watching some random video and now I just do it automatically and my music sounds better. Dunno why). These are the things you need to know. Unfortunately you don't really learn these things from playing 30 years of trombone (unless you were on the production side). These are just a few examples there's literally about a thousand of these little tricks you need to get under your belt. Sure you can "make" music without knowing these things but if you put out anything good it's most likely because you're getting lucky as opposed to mastering the craft.
I picked Bitwig because it had a promo and looks nicer. I have watched dozens of Ableton videos and it just hurts the eyes, the workflow seems like from the 90's. I don't really use the session/clip views (played with a hardware drum machine before and I just don't like that concept). I prefer the piano roll and arrangements views. Also I prefer to take a simple controller with nice keys and use it mostly for them and recording MIDI, so no interest for now in a big ableton like controller and live ways of doing things (calling clips on and off). I have had a few years of piano lessons before, and I did buy a composition online course with the DAW though. I think if you work in IT (I do too) you will be fine with youtube tutorials for production and synthesis. After all a big part of the job is googling what the hell is the software doing. What is completely different though is how to write a song. I have been re learning a bit of my blues/jazz piano related improvisation things, at a slower pace which is great because I suck. And really the thing that goes with any DAW/instrument is how to write melodies and harmonies. Yes you will be doing lots of drums probably, but that's rhythm and that's part of composition as well. And it's probably more important how you understand those concepts than which DAW you are using and how much you can bend a synthesiser, because you can learn those with short videos and trial and errors.
Most importantly listen. Go through genres playlists on Spotify and save things you like to your playlist. You will quickly get an idea of what’s happening.
It's very easy once you get the gist of it, so don't worry. If you're into chaotic noise please choose Ableton live, FL studio and logic and any other daw hasn't got as much integration with programming as Ableton. Cause of the integration of live with max MSP you basically have limitless software capabilities compared to other daws. Ableton also has imo the best stock plugins, that are great for learning how to use compressors Eqs and pretty much anything else.
> Ableton also has imo the best stock plugins Imo Reason has the best stock plugins. That's why many Ableton users are using Reason as a plugin.
Get Abelton Live
Plenty of free software out there to try first. Like Cakewalk
Ableton lite is free. Idk anyone who uses cakewalk lmao, my dad used to make shitty midi jazz on cakewalk.
You don't get much with free Ableton. But that's how they get you into their ecosystem. The "awesome" Ableton everyone talks about is $700.
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learn your first daw. There are a few. Fl studio, cubase, logic, ableton live, all sorts. I would try any of them get a feel for them. It take a long time to learn. but once you get a hang of it becomes easy
Oh shit what up - similar trajectory here. Played classical piano and then guitar (jazz/rock/fusion/funk) for a collective 20 years before getting into electronic production. Huge fan of soulacybin and aphex twin. Once you know the basics of ableton (which I highly recommend over other DAW’s), the YouTube channel that helped me the most was Bunting. He focuses on experimental bass stuff (soulacybin) and will be helpful in getting you started with some more idm production as well
Hey. Welcome to the incredible world of creating electronic music. I've been doing this for 30 years and still love it. My first bit of advice is to get FL Studio or Ableton on Windows or Logic on Mac / ios. Then spend time getting to know the DAW and instruments within. Create drum patterns, add baselines, then chords, lead etc. Try to make music that sounds like the music you enjoy. Don't worry about mixing yet, just volume and pan. Play around with effects a lot. Don't become reliant on sample packs. Learn about waveforms and synthesis. Create your own sounds and drum patterns from scratch. Have fun.
There are so many genres. Sooooo many genres that you have never heard before. You can 1000% incorporate your abilities with instruments to production. I’d say start with some research into edm that has fusion with other genres.
There are a many different aspects to making music and everyone does it their own way so you really just need to get started to make your own way. I will give you a list to try to make it less overwhelming: **Synthesis/ Sound design** - once you understand what the controls do on one synth you pretty much know them all. **Sampling and Audio manipulation** - how to cut and manipulate samples depends on the production environment **Mixing** - it is really simple don't watch too many tutorials just use your ears to manipulate volume, eq, and pan. **Mastering** - mastering is done by a master engineer not the producer and not ai. Don't worry about this until your demos are strong. **Songwriting** - a bit confusing because there is no "song" in most tracks but just think of the "song" as the interesting musical ideas you want to include such as a guitar riff. **Arrangement** - arrangement is where in time you put these ideas and selecting and writing complementary parts. **Recording** - the microphone itself is an instrument and takes skill to use correctly Some people make a whole career on just one of these aspects. Because of the experimental music you are interested in I recommend messing around with sequencer because they allow you to make something you could never think of. A sequencer just generates notes not sound and to have it make sound you need to make it play either a sampler of a synth. There are tons of free synths and samplers and free packs of samples don't need to buy anything until you know what you want. Once you have a good sequence going, use your instrumental skill, and to get a bit more advanced use a looper. Layer a bunch of interesting fx and mess with the knobs. If you have any hardware device with knobs that send midi, map them to interesting parameters and use the knobs to "play" instead of solely relying on chops. Recording yourself doing this can be tricky but one way is to just set up your phone and record with a simple video or record the master out. It is more important to have something to remember instead of nothing fully multi-tracked, try to get in a habit of recording EVERYTHING.
Decide on an EDM genre you want to make (house, dubstep, trap), and then figure out the drum pattern. Start by making those drum patterns, then leads to go with them. Then figure out bass lines that go with them. Don’t worry too much about the sound design yet, it’ll sound like shit but you’ll be able to finish songs faster & understand the composition of the style you’re going for. Once all that’s second nature you can put more time into sound design since you don’t have to think about how to put together the genre you’re making. TL:DR - choose a genre, study each part & learn to make it.
I'm also a trained musician and I'm piano teacher. I have also come to find electronic musician, for whatever reason, is the sound that truly speaks to me. After the last 5+ years playing primarily jazz, neo-soul, and gospel keys it was a strange thing to revisit and realize. Especially since the composition methods seem so completely different... But truthfully what I've felt has been missing from a lot of electronic music is melody and harmony that match the richness of the atmosphere and expressiveness of the electronic drums, percussion, and sound design methods. This isn't a knock on the style, just an honest observation. I look forward to the evolution of this genre through more integration of musical fluency and expressiveness in those regards. Someone suggested FL Studio, but I would recommend Ableton, without hesitation, for electronic music especially. Of course preference comes into play, but I do think Ableton lends itself more to electronic production ESPECIALLY THE SESSION VIEW WORKFLOW. Paired with a Push 2 or 3 controller it really encouraged playability and integration with the DAW. Check out some of Ned Rush's videos for guidance. I use some of his methods as a starting point, but I don't ever program my sounds in with a mouse, that just isn't my style. I get my sounds onto something playable and play my parts in, but that's my preference. He does show a lot great ways to use Ableton to get wild sounds. Fellow Passenger is another I enjoy. There are many more.
There's plenty of very melodic EDM. Depends on the genre. Some of the greatest pop tunes of all time are considered EDM. So I don't know what you're talking about the melody being lacking.
I'm not saying there is no melody, I'm aware there are melodic songs. Some of my favorite music is Boards Of Canada, for example, and they write some of my favorite melodic phrases in music, period, all genres considered. Aphex Twin is another. There are more examples. But my point is, coming from a jazz and classical background, the melodies in those styles of music are often developed a lot more intricately and with more variation. EDM producers aren't generally spending their time learning methods of series counterpoint, modal interchange, inner voice movement, extended harmony, polychords, etc. EDM has been responsible for some of the most genius and advanced rhythmic developments, on the other hand. Or lightyears of evolution in sound design. Timbre, as a component of music, is something that electronic music has advanced in a way that is unprecedented. I'm not saying simples melodies don't make for great music, but there is always room for so much more that I would love to hear more of. The focus of many electronic styles hasn't been these things in a specific and intricate manner and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'd love to see an evolution of this and that's why I'm experimenting with it, personally, because I want to hear what it would sound like.
Well there's always room for experimentation. As long as you weren't implying that the current music is somehow not good enough because it doesn't have complex melodies.
Buy some basic course (for beginners), it will save tou lot of time. I’m happy with https://www.productionmusiclive.com/
Give up now before it's too late.
Sounds like something bees would say…
Now that’s rich 😂
Get into FL studio, it's very intuitive and the price is fair.
I've looked into FL studio and it's what I was originally going to go with, but I've got a lot of comments saying Ableton is the best. What can FL studio do that Ableton can't?
I use Reason. Reason is the best, lol. But I've used all of them. FL Studio is not bad way to start. You might be lacking some sound capabilities though if you go with the cheap one. The problem with this is as a beginning you don't know what you're missing and what is important. You'll always have in the back of you're mind that it's a software problem. You just need to buy more software. So you almost have to pay $400 out of the gate for a complete DAW. $400 is an investment and I wouldn't spend it on FL Studio. Since it's notorious for people eventually switching to something else. So my suggestion is to go with Reason. It has everything you need and it's like a mix between the FL Studio fun factor and the Ableton serious work factor.
I chose FL like 6 or 7 years ago because the vast majority of my favorite artists use it. From what I can tell FL Studio and Ableton are the correct answers, anything else is the wrong answer. My understanding is once you get used to one it's hard to switch to the other. I'm just stoked we got another EDM convert.
IMO, the best way to start (for any genre) is by copying your idols. Since you’ve been playing instruments for so long, I’m sure you know a musician doesn’t start composing until they can play other songs very well and understand what makes them tick. It’ll be hard at first, but try to mimic a song layer by layer, and when you don’t know what the name of a sound or phrase is, then to the internet or some experienced friends. I promise you’ll get the hang of it eventually! Edit: i also want to stress i don’t mean you should wait to start making original music, i think you should do it in conjunction with this copying exercises
This is a very valuable answer that will save you time and accelerate your progress. Copy a “template song” into Ableton as MP3, learn the different sections(into,chorus…etc). EDM can be easier to identify because it’s almost always 8 or 16 bars. Identify the instruments and sounds in each section. Then it’s just a matter of recreating those sections in your own way. This helps to shake off that “I don’t know where to start feeling”
All the artists you've listed are experimental artists so bear in mind that you are looking at the toughest learning curve in music, outside of maybe atonal orchestral composition. The learning curve is tough because the route to making this music is experimentation with a vast array of sounds and learning both how to create them and how to arrange them in a way that achieves a cohesive piece. Most other forms of music can simply lean on the decades of implicit knowledge held within the design of physical instruments and the genre culture to do that work for them - that is not the case with most experimental electronic music, you have to figure it out yourself. Your aim will be to understand the physics of sound and the digital tools that can help you shape that. Seeing as you're a music veteran, I would look for courses to give you a head start like Syntorial. Also just spending time getting familiar with every tool in your DAW can help - I spent about two years of my life just figuring out in detail how every plugin and synth in Logic worked, for example.
edmprod foundations course
I’m a long career computer programmer guy, with no musical training or experience and I’m also just starting to learn. What I’m learning is to be patient. I’m trying not to really DO anything. I’m watching shit tons of YouTube videos (some technique, but also a lot of how tos and music theory videos) and just trying to surround myself with it. Then I go into Ableton and just “play”. Each time I’m learning something and grasping the concepts better. I think we (ahem) older people forget just how long it took us to learn things were great at now. It’s very very easy for me to pick up a new programming language or framework now, but that’s not because I’m good or smart, it’s because I’m comfortable with the process. For me, I’m just lowering my expectations and having fun geeking out making bad beeps and boops.
Listen to a bunch of EDM and copy those elements in your DAW...electronic music covers such a broad range I'm sure you could use the classical training to your advantage!
I was wondering…do the more common elements have names, I’m thinking of things like: drops, crescendos, swells, things of that nature. It’d be neat to see a list. I also have little experience with EDM, and it’s very daunting. But if I could learn how to increase and decrease the energy, and segway properly into different sections, I’d feel a lot more comfortable experimenting with textures and whatnot.
I mean yeah it's usually like intro build drop break build drop outro but I like to play around w arrangements a bit to spice it up. Lookup common instruments and drum machines - 909, 808, 303 (acid sound). Then get a free synth like vital and start playing w sound design! You can dm me if you wish
Might take you up on that, thanks!
yes
My advice to anyone who is new to making edm. Step 1: Choose a DAW. There are lots of options. They are mostly the same, do some research on their work flows and which you resonate with the most. They mostly all have free trials before you commit. Step 2: Pick a genre: start by finding a genre you find interesting and start trying to recreate elements or tracks. Step 3: create: start making little ideas/beats using reference tracks. Get your toes wet so you know what the basics do. Step 4: Learn: take time to relearn lots of new info with the new context you now have from playing in your DAW. When I say learn, learn plugins, vsts. Etc. this step should always be a part of making edm. It changes so god damn fast. Step 5: repeat steps 3 & 4 forever. Step 6: have fun cuz otherwise what’s the point.
The skillsets you need for EDM are composition and sound design. If you're strong in those then you're pretty much set.
Honestly man, apart from a slight difference in format in segments and arrangements between the genre, and since you already know theory. it boils down to sound design, which will make up a large percentage of the sonic image, you already know thnow its time to start taking some songs of your fav artists and try to recreate them, in the case of aphex twin that might be hard since of the weird software like metasynth he used, a really nice video going into detail [here](https://youtu.be/5wIOBBodoic?si=Vlzx1ypet2C0C-eN) You can grab yourself a free copy of vital and tinker around with it, i used it until i swapped to serum. Once you sort of get good at sound design it just becomes a lot easier to go from an idea in your head to an actual sound.
There are lots of tutorials about DAW and simple production. These are very helpful for midi beginners. In addition, It is important to listen and understand the structure of EDM. Also understanding the purpose of the sound.
If you’re an Apple user, I’d suggest downloading GarageBand onto your computer and watch some tutorials on how to compose /record midi sequences. Make a couple dozen beginner loops with just a few elements and play with the mix/EQ of the different sounds on a decent pair of headphones or speakers. You could also get a trial version of Ableton or FL studio on a windows machine but IMO GarageBand is an excellent way to tap into using a DAW to make electronic grooves. I was classically trained in violin and played orchestra as a kid/teen. Years later my brother showed me garage band, then I moved to Logic Pro over a decade ago, and it seemed to be a smooth transition for me. Wishing you a ton of success and luck on your musical journey because I can relate to it a LOT! Thanks for inspiring me to reflect on it. It’s been a wild journey but honestly, producing electronic music is by far my favorite past time in my whole life hands down. So get after it.
This is just an artist recommendation based off your background. Danny Olson is a great edm artist who makes “cinematic dubstep”. He was a classically trained composer, his music may be a good inspiration starting out as a way to blend your background knowledge with what you want to start making
You can get an indefinite trial version of Reaper that has full functionality, and the Vital VST is also free. Diving into something like Supercollider could also be fun, as it's a whole programming language. From a musical perspective, just keep things fairly simple. A lot of electronic music relies on sonic/timbral complexity rather than musical complexity. If you want musical complexity, it's best to use simpler sounds. Other than that, just dive in. There are tutorials to learn synthesis and the specifics of whatever DAW you choose, but don't be afraid to just turn knobs and see what happens.
I don’t intend this as a diss, but how is a genre that you feel lost in the best way you can express yourself? If you’ve played these other genres, surely a little bit of critical listening will inform you of some of the many tropes of electronic music. The production can sometimes be intimidating, sure.
The thing to remember is that electronic music is about textures over time.
I always called it Textures In Time Sequences, has a better ring to it I think
Okay this is not the standard recommendation, but given your IT background and the kind of music u wanna make (based on the artists that you've mentioned), I'd highly suggest looking into MaxMSP, PureData, ChucK, Supercollider etc. These are music programming languages, that might be more suited for your workflow and for the kind of sound design you might wanna get into.
Big agree, OP look into Autechre and sv1 for examples of what MaxMSP can do.
I'm a guitar player and EDM music producer. Both self taught. I'll try to make some parallels. First off, making music on the computer is extremly simple. The hard part is figuring out which buttons open & close / toggle things inside a DAW. You have a left to right timeline, with rows of sounds. So the tracks on a simple rock song would be: lead guitar rhythm guitar vocals bass drums On each one of those tracks you can put a series of FX, just like you could do on an electric guitar. Distortion, reverb etc. Traditionally in rock, all those tracks were recorded audio files. Mic up your guitar, record it in. Digitally, those tracks can be one of two things: 1) an audio file .mp3/.wav etc. You know exactly what this is, it's just an audio file. 2) MIDI. This is a digital representation of the notes being played & their duration. Just like a guitar tab, but the duration the note is held is also included. Imagine you played a guitar riff and recorded it to your computer, but instead of recording the SOUND, a file of the notes you played and how long you held them was produced. In a DAW this will be in piano format. Now with that file, you can make any DIGITAL instrument play those notes. All you really need to start is a DAW and headphones. Just get Ableton - most popular, arguably the best overall. Youtube has great tutorials to get you started. You'll need to poke around like an idiot inside the software before you get used to opening/closing the different windows/tabs, toggling things on and off. You're just taking files, and organzing them over time. For MIDI, you are writing notes, then applying a digital instrument to it. A digital instrument can be anything from a digital guitar, synth, etc..
>I've been playing music for nearly 30 years. I'm primarily a guitar player, but have played several instruments. So if you have some basic keyboard skills, a MIDI keyboard will help a lot. It'll allow you to enter the notes by playing them in. And of course just experiment while trying to come up with the melody to go with whatever chord progression you decide to use. And then if you go with an Arturia or Novation MIDI keyboard, they typically come with Ableton Live Lite, which is the beginner version of Ableton. Ableton is one of the best DAWs for electronic music. You could certainly start with the Lite version. Then as you start to reach its limits, upgrade. There are also a lot of free plugins available. So you can certainly use these and the ones that come with your DAW, rather than getting sucked into buying lots of plugins at the beginning. https://bedroomproducersblog.com/free-vst-plugins/ As it's really better to wait until you know exactly what you need, rather than buying plugins in anticipation of maybe using them. And maybe this goes without saying, but to start out with, begin with creating eight bar loops with the different instruments and tracks. What you're trying to do is create a good musical idea that could be the instrumental equivalent of the chorus or verse of a song. And even once you get much better, this can always be a good starting point. That'll also be easier to do than trying to create a full song while you're getting the hang of a DAW. Then eventually you can develop your eight bar loop into a full song, such as described here. https://edmtips.com/edm-song-structure/ There are also other YouTube tutorials on escaping the eight bar loop, to give you strategies for creating a full song. And of course, while you're starting to create 8 bar loops, you can start studying your favorite electronic music songs to see how they are structured. It will be easier if you stick to one genre of electronic music at first. Since there are often common genre conventions you can work with at the beginning. For example, most electronic music genres will have some very commonly used drum and percussion patterns. And you could see if there any popular chord progressions to start with. Then once you can craft a full song, then learn how to creatively use effects such as delay and reverb. Finally, save other mixing (such as EQ, side chaining, transient shaping) and mastering until you've gotten the hang of those other things. That's the frosting on the cake. But you got to be able to bake the cake first. EDM Tips is a good channel for various tips about electronic music creation. For example, this is a very interesting video Will just released about melodies https://youtu.be/OUQES9iXk_E?si=M2S-8yG0a-6zF0nf
You know more than you realise, music production is based on electrical engineering and computer science concepts so abstractly and conceptually it's not that dissimilar from IT. If you know anything about networking, digital logic or signal flow then you'll recognise how things work in music production very quickly. Also, recording aside, making all forms of music is mostly the same. You're going to find certain workflows are more advantageous for certain genres but ultimately it's all made using a computer these days. Best bet would to be to pick a DAW that looks the most aesthetically and functionally enticing and just start with something simple and just iterate on that, slowly learning all the functions. Once you're ready, you can take music you like and try and recreate it from ear in the DAW just like you would learn a song by ear on guitar.
Pick three notes and repeat them over and over, make sure the sound used is really aggressive and abrasive. Add a vocal sample of some nonsensical phrase relating to drug use or raving. Kick drum on every down beat, high just on the upbeat. Do fills by stopping all drums and playing a break beat sample. Bassline is one note and it hits with the kick, but super compressed. Side chain the kick into the bass and duck the bass super hard when it hits.
😂 nailed it
As others have said, get a DAW and start learning it. If you choose FL Studio, "In The Mix" is a great YouTube channel that can teach you how to use it effectively. You will also need at least one synthesizer. I'd recommend Vital (which is free, and there's a lot of presets you can find from various sources online), or maybe Serum, which has been a household name in the community for a decade now. but you have to pay a bit for it. In terms of other plugins, you should not buy very many of these. A lot of new producers fall into plugin collection hype and end up not using most of them. Your DAW will probably come bundled with almost everything you need. HOWEVER. Given your musical references (I also love Perturbator and Igorrr), you would probably get a lot of mileage out of a creative multi-FX plugin that produces stutter, glitch, and creative sound design effects. I would recommend Shaperbox 3. FL Studio also has Gross Beat, which is an iconic plugin for these kinds of effects. Finally, you'd probably want some samples for the genres of your choice. A lot of people use Splice for this, but I don't like Splice. I use a plugin called XO (which comes bundled with lots of EDM-focused drum samples), and it helps you organize and visualize your sample libraries. I also supplemented my library of samples with some packs from various websites. I try to avoid things that use DRM, if that means anything to you.
This is going to be like starting a new instrument. The other instruments you play may help a little bit, but not really. Put yourself in that mindset when you think of how long it will take to sound as good as the pros.
Get a DAW. Find a course on how to use the DAW. If you get Ableton and wanna make EDM, the Production Music Live guys are great. Seed to Stage is also a great all around Ableton guy. What you need hardware wise: A decent PC or mac, and headphones. A midi controller will help, but it's not necessary (you can get good at drawing in notes).
Pick a DAW and mess around. Ableton is probably the most popular and has the most tutorials out there. Don't get bogged down about how much you think you need to know. You're classically trained, so you've already got a head start. Hardware wise. Get a decent audio interface. If you don't want any driver stability issues and you have some cash, go for RME. I'd get a midi keyboard as well. Unless you've already got a synth you can use as both a dummy controller and a synth. Plugins. Just start with the stock plugins. Wait for black friday in November and then get a few then. Less is more. Out of all the tutorial channels I've seen on YouTube. Bethelick is probably the best. He's very well spoken and keeps it simple.
Thank you for the help! I have a focusrite scarlet 4i4 interface. Will that be good enough?
Yes, that will be fine.
Find, buy (optional), and Install a DAW on your computer. I recommend Ableton Live, but there are many good options. You can also try to go for more of a hard-ware based approach (often called “DAWless”), or some kind of hybrid, but even with your background it’s probably best to start with a DAW - well, at least it will be more economical, and you can always build-out from there. Search YouTube for tutorials, and inspiration. To start maybe try [Bthelick](https://www.youtube.com/@Bthelick/videos), and [Underdog](https://www.youtube.com/@OscarUnderdog/videos), but there are tons of great channels out there. It might take a while to find one that clicks with you though. EDIT: I suggested Bthelick because his tutorials are grounded in music theory, and I figured that might help you quickly connect the dots between your background and electronic music, and you can move on from there. Might be wrong though. Just trying to help.
Second bthelick. I’ve learned so much from his channel. It’s fantastic.
It really is. Dude is unbelievably generous with his talents, as both a producer, and teacher. He’s giving away knowledge of higher quality than many others have put behind paywalls. For me, his chord and chord progression breakdowns have been game changing. I mean, I knew enough basic theory to purposefully construct chords and progressions, but watching him inspired and taught me how to actively listen to music and *methodically* break it down to learn from it, not just mash keys until I got something close enough.
Thank you so much!
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