Hey everyone, complete dubstep/techno NOOB here! Need help!

[NovakDjokovic]

Hey everyone, I recently was listening to some friends techno/dubstep music that they made. I thought it sounded like it would be a cool hobby to add to my life.

My question is, how do I go about starting to make music? I just want to make it for myself. What devices? Programs?

I don't want to spend money on a "most advanced" new software out there, just enough to make some nice tunes. Preferably $400 and less for the whole package! (buying new)

Basically, I have no idea on how to start making music! Any help would be appreciated!

This is an example of what kind of music I would like to make.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV8eiSA4vqc

[paravrais]

There are some threads stickied at the top of this page dude, titled something like "want to make dubstep? start here" you should check them out and they will show you everything you need to know.

Quick heads up, the bare minimum you need to start making tunes is just a DAW which is the actual program you make the tunes with, but if your serious about getting into this hobby I HIGHLY recommend getting a midi keyboard too.

The most affordable DAWs are FL studio, Reaper, Renoise and maybe Reason so check all them out and demo them. If your willing to spend a bit more I highly advise ableton because real cool people like me use it :p

As far as midi keyboards go, check out the M-audio website and find their cheapest one. They are built like shit but if your not gonna throw yours about it should work fine (I threw mine about and it went el fucko)

EDIT: fyi the tune you linked isn't techno OR dubstep XD just thought I'd mention that lol

[Basic A]

Day one : learn the musics terms, genres, traditions, ethics, values, major players, history, history makers, ect, and get a vast respect for it all.

Day two : worry about making it.

[Perfecture]

I love technostep

[RazeMusic]

dont forget a pair of monitors, you can get very good monitors at cheap (ish) prices these days if you look around. and also was that $400 for a whole setup? because if it was, like mentioned before all youre going to be able to buy is a DAW and a midi keyboard. for just under $1000 you could probably get yourself a DAW, midi keyboard, a smaller pair of monitors, an audio interface of some sort and a relatively cheap mic (which would let you sample yourself etc). With prices going up all around for different reasons it might end up cheaper to buy all that in 1 lot rather than in dribs and drabs and paying multiple sets of shipping charges or risk of no stock another time. only if your budget allows it though...

[Basic A]

dont forget a pair of monitors, you can get very good monitors at cheap (ish) prices these days if you look around. and also was that $400 for a whole setup? because if it was, like mentioned before all youre going to be able to buy is a DAW and a midi keyboard. for just under $1000 you could probably get yourself a DAW, midi keyboard, a smaller pair of monitors, an audio interface of some sort and a relatively cheap mic (which would let you sample yourself etc). With prices going up all around for different reasons it might end up cheaper to buy all that in 1 lot rather than in dribs and drabs and paying multiple sets of shipping charges or risk of no stock another time. only if your budget allows it though...

You dont need monitors because Breakage said you dont.

[phrex]

I thought it sounded like it would be a cool hobby to add to my life.

[Phase Down]

Since it seems like your really only wanting to make it for yourself, I wouldnt bother with monitors, seems to me your more looking at the fun side of production, get yourself a nice daw the one that you like most, look at the ones mentioned before as their the less expensive ones (yet they dont really have any major disadvantages, keep this in mind you can create whatever you want in whichever DAW once you know it)

Next some decent pair of headphones, I would suggest you look at the Beyerdynamic dt990 pro, their around £130 new, sit massivly comfortable and have a great response (and durability seems great too!) next and probably last(atleast until you realize you want to take this more seriously) I would get a little midi keyboard, as their super fun and speed up your workflow bad, also gives you the opportunity to learn abit of keyboard and play in some great melodies, make sure you get one with a few knobs and faders as their nice to play around with to record automation clips and that sorta thing.

[stereotactic]

Read the stickies at the top here, download some demo's of DAW's if you can, Google (or whatever search engine you use) every single term you don't understand, get yourself a good book on production... doing a lot of research is unfortunately a bare requirement for making tunes, there is a lot to learn.

Understand concepts > put concepts into practice.

I use Logic, and used Cubase before that. Other programs that are popular are Ableton, FL Studio and Reason. Reason is popular because it literally is a studio in a box, so you will basically have everything you need there, the only drawback is that it is self contained, i.e. you cannot use VST's etc. For starting out though, it seems a decent program. I hear very good things about 5, I'm even considering a rewire.

Anyway, if you cn't find answers to a question just ask on here, enough knowledge. Make sure you try and find the answer first before asking though, lest ye be flamed at the stake.

[Basic A]

the only drawback is that it is self contained, i.e. you cannot use VST's etc.

I wish people wouldnt say this, thats not a drawback at all as far as I can tell, an effects an effect.

The only major drawback to Reason is all midi vs. audio.

[samkablaam]

the only drawback is that it is self contained, i.e. you cannot use VST's etc.

I wish people wouldnt say this, thats not a drawback at all as far as I can tell, an effects an effect.

The only major drawback to Reason is all midi vs. audio.

i dont get how that isnt a drawback? you are limited to the reason effects only right? sounds pretty limiting to me.

whats the sampler in reason? you can use audio in that i take it?

[Basic A]

the only drawback is that it is self contained, i.e. you cannot use VST's etc.

I wish people wouldnt say this, thats not a drawback at all as far as I can tell, an effects an effect.

The only major drawback to Reason is all midi vs. audio.

i dont get how that isnt a drawback? you are limited to the reason effects only right? sounds pretty limiting to me.

whats the sampler in reason? you can use audio in that i take it?

You cant track and record a session with a sampler, understand that when I say audio I mean something longer then 5-10 second loops or one shots or samples, know what I mean?

And nah, I dont see that as a drawback at all, the vst thing, they've given you all the synths/effects you need in Reason, and thier quality...

Im just jealous because I want access to the effects/synths, but I NEED audio recording and handling, and I dont get both

[NRHc]

the only drawback is that it is self contained, i.e. you cannot use VST's etc.

I wish people wouldnt say this, thats not a drawback at all as far as I can tell, an effects an effect.

The only major drawback to Reason is all midi vs. audio.

i dont get how that isnt a drawback? you are limited to the reason effects only right? sounds pretty limiting to me.

whats the sampler in reason? you can use audio in that i take it?

You cant track and record a session with a sampler, understand that when I say audio I mean something longer then 5-10 second loops or one shots or samples, know what I mean?

And nah, I dont see that as a drawback at all, the vst thing, they've given you all the synths/effects you need in Reason, and thier quality...

Im just jealous because I want access to the effects/synths, but I NEED audio recording and handling, and I dont get both

That's why you rewire it with logic

[kolstrom]

Yeah, rewiring is the way to go. I do it into Live. Works great because you get the best of the Reason world with the functionality of all the VST's in the universe. Also, Reason is a really cool way to learn about hardware devices because it's all visual.
I would definitely recommend getting a decent pair of monitors. I monitored in headphones for a long time and my mixes were okay, but it definitely helps with creating nice EQ levels and a generally balanced mix. If you live with people who don't like noise though you may want to learn how to do all the audio production stuff in cans and then invest in monitors later.

And NovakDjokovic, congratulations on your win against Federer... I want to hear you make some sick tennis-step.

[topmo3]

just buy some soundsystem with a sub, like creative's cheapest one. mine is years old and it's still sufficent. then download (demo version, not warez) a daw and start downloading these bitches http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/ ... day-277953 and http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ ... ads-235814 unless you get fruity loops which has standard vstis and a few samples to get you started. then you actually understand how those work. don't worry bout the midi keyboard. i dont even really use mine, just paint stuff in the piano roll except, the keyboard is really handy for learning the basics of playing music in case you haven't got any experience. roll one up homie!

[bum robot]

ghosts n stuff is dubstep

[DJ Crackle]

the only drawback is that it is self contained, i.e. you cannot use VST's etc.

I wish people wouldnt say this, thats not a drawback at all as far as I can tell, an effects an effect.

The only major drawback to Reason is all midi vs. audio.

i dont get how that isnt a drawback? you are limited to the reason effects only right? sounds pretty limiting to me.

whats the sampler in reason? you can use audio in that i take it?

You cant track and record a session with a sampler, understand that when I say audio I mean something longer then 5-10 second loops or one shots or samples, know what I mean?

And nah, I dont see that as a drawback at all, the vst thing, they've given you all the synths/effects you need in Reason, and thier quality...

Im just jealous because I want access to the effects/synths, but I NEED audio recording and handling, and I dont get both

That's why you rewire it with logic

I tried rewiring into Cubase for a bit
but fuck, I hate having all reason's audio coming through the Rewire Stereo Mix (or whatever it's called). I reaaaally wanted to be able to work with everything in its own channel in Cubase. As far as I could find,the only way to do that was plugging all of my devices to the shit at the top and route everything individually. Except stereo devices required two channels each. And that was a hassle
Maybe I was just doing it wrong, but that's all I could figure out.

[paravrais]

I tried rewiring into Cubase for a bit
but fuck, I hate having all reason's audio coming through the Rewire Stereo Mix (or whatever it's called). I reaaaally wanted to be able to work with everything in its own channel in Cubase. As far as I could find,the only way to do that was plugging all of my devices to the shit at the top and route everything individually. Except stereo devices required two channels each. And that was a hassle
Maybe I was just doing it wrong, but that's all I could figure out.

It's simpler if you have a template set up of 10+ combinators (depending on how many instances of synth groups you tend to use in a track) routed to 3/4, 5/6 etc etc on the hardware mixer. That way it's all already done for you. If you got a template in Cubase which has the opposite (so audio tracks with the input routing set to reason then 3/4, 5/6 etc) then your laughing. All you gotta do is use reason like you normally would and do the monitoring, mixdown and external effects processing in Cubase.

[DJ Crackle]

I tried rewiring into Cubase for a bit
but fuck, I hate having all reason's audio coming through the Rewire Stereo Mix (or whatever it's called). I reaaaally wanted to be able to work with everything in its own channel in Cubase. As far as I could find,the only way to do that was plugging all of my devices to the shit at the top and route everything individually. Except stereo devices required two channels each. And that was a hassle
Maybe I was just doing it wrong, but that's all I could figure out.

It's simpler if you have a template set up of 10+ combinators (depending on how many instances of synth groups you tend to use in a track) routed to 3/4, 5/6 etc etc on the hardware mixer. That way it's all already done for you. If you got a template in Cubase which has the opposite (so audio tracks with the input routing set to reason then 3/4, 5/6 etc) then your laughing. All you gotta do is use reason like you normally would and do the monitoring, mixdown and external effects processing in Cubase.

The actual wiring of shit wasn't too bad. Fuck, moving wires around was always enjoyable to me in Reason. And enabling it with a click wasn't bad either. Just the fact that every stereo device took up two channels in Cubase. Am I some sort of retarded or something and was I doing that wrong the whole time?

[paravrais]

Hmm I don't use Cubase but that seems really odd to me. In Ableton each combinator was running through one stereo audio channel. There must be a way to do it, I can't see such a big name DAW not allowing for stereo channels 0.o