Where to start?

[entheogen]

As this is my first post I' like to say hi to all the forum heads reading this. I've been listening to and mixing Dubstep over the last year, and I've been loving the forum for its community vibe, even though this is the first time I've got around to registering.

I'm not sure if my following question is an ignorant one but I see this forum as a source of upfront infomation concerning all that is dubstep.


I want to begin to produce dubstep but I've never produced before. Although I've wanted to, I've concentrated on film and video editing; I'm studying for a film and TV production degree, I work at a music TV company, I've been VJing for 4 years etc. etc.

I have been around music producers for a while and I have got a good basic understanding of what programs are used and what it requires. However, I'm not really sure where to begin on a practical level. I'm finding it particularly hard as I don't know any dubstep producers particularly. I live in the Harrow, not really known for its burgeoning dubstep scene.

I understand that Reason is a good program as an introduction in to music production as it offers a visual representation of the hardware it takes it's sound from. What are the limits of Reason. Can I create finished tracks in it? Logic looks really powerful to me, but also very complicated. I think it would probably take me a while to pick it up. What software would people reccomend for new producers is what I guess I'm asking?

On the hardware front I'm getting the new mac book pro when they upgrade the OS in January for use for VJing, as well as a midi controller such as the Kork Micro Kontrol. I already have a half decent pair of monitors. I understand that I will also need an external sound card? Can anyone recommend one in the £100 - £200. I may be able to get a discount, so suggestions a little over would be cool. Someone told me to make sure that I got one with a firewire output as opposed to USB as they'd had delay problems. Is this likely? Is there any other hardware I will need to get started?

Are there any general production books or guides anyone can reccomend?

Finally, I've been spending far too much money on records. Is buying Serato and downloading MP3s (as well as still purchasing vinyl) the way to go? I've seriously dented my pocket with the deluge of recent releases.

Thanks for any advice.

[parson]

there are loads of mp3 labels that cater to digital djs. its the future

as for reason, it works just fine and you can make complete tracks with it. its downside is that you can't use any kind of plugins with it (which is a huge deal really).

fruity is easy to learn and fully functional sequencer and you can use it as a plugin for something more complicated like logic or ableton or cubase

they all have a learning curve though so whatever you go with make sure you read up lots of tutorials and maybe go over some basic audio production things just so you know basic things like envelopes and lfos and compression and midi and i dunno

i'm high

[entheogen]

Cheers mate, I appreciate you taking your focus off getting high long enough to write that reply.

Can anyone else help me with the other questions?

Thanks again.

[dirty]

That is strangely similiar to my situation.

I'm my last year at uni studying a degree in tv and radio production.

I have just bought a macbook pro and am going to be buying reason 3 this week to start dubstep production and other audio for my video editing.

in terms of a soundcard I've got an Alesis IO2, its pretty simple and good value, definately a good place to start for a midi audio interface

http://www.djdeals.co.uk/prod-details.asp?AID=1061

Hope this helps, good luck mate

[d e a d b o y]

dont be put off by logic looking complicated, its easy to get the basics and it gets as complicated as you want it to be.

[hamilton]

You obviously have a grasp of music and technology.
You are apparently a DJ and VJ, so the softwares you currently use are probably quite similar in operation to most audio production software. Play with a few, find one YOU like and produce dem tunes!!
KORG microkontrol is an excellent input device for both Audio and visual software (as i am sure you probably know). And a Macbook is also quite reasonable for audio production. Most people on this forum work with far less...