Dubstepforum.com

I have never used any music production program. I have no idea what I am doing at all. However, I do have music in my head and some great ideas. So any and all suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated. So far, this is my progress into the journey of music: I now have Ableton Live, and Serato and am going to get Pro Tools as soon as I upgrade the memory on my Macbook Pro (currently my only computer). I have been told that my first purchase should be some type of controller, and a decent pair of monitors. I have not figured out anything about either of these programs, and the online lessons on the Ableton website are very fast and confusing (I believe they assume one already has previous knowledge, unfortunately for me.)

Thank you for your time,

Moondoggie

Moondoggie wrote:I now have Ableton Live, and Serato and am going to get Pro Tools

that's some expensive kit for someone who has no idea what they're doing.

Recessive Trait wrote:

Moondoggie wrote:I now have Ableton Live, and Serato and am going to get Pro Tools

that's some expensive kit for someone who has no idea what they're doing.

^^ This


I'd learn as much as you can about Ableton before upgrading to PT. Check out YouTube for some 'dubstep Ableton' videos which might help get you started.

Books are good too, go to a barnes n noble, they have a few books on ableton. also if you go to their magazine section they have this Ableton starter mag or something like that, its like 20 bucks, its a good start.

wub wrote:

Recessive Trait wrote:

Moondoggie wrote:I now have Ableton Live, and Serato and am going to get Pro Tools

that's some expensive kit for someone who has no idea what they're doing.

^^ This

That ^^

I didn't find Ableton hard to get around especially, in fact when I peeked at Reason the interfaces seem to be more "clogged" up with different programs specific to the DAW. Ableton has quite a simplistic layout imo but then I haven't used the rest...

why the hell do you need PT?

Luckily for me I go to school for Television Production, so I was able to use government grant money to get this stuff. To jsills: I do not know if I do need it or not, like I said, I am but a humble student who knows nothing, that's why I'm on this site. Thank you for the information regarding the Ableton Starter Magazine and Ableton videos on youtube. Much appreciated. Does anyone know of a good cheap controller for use with Ableton? Or just decent, cheap equipment anywhere on the web. Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Moondoggie wrote:Does anyone know of a good cheap controller for use with Ableton? Or just decent, cheap equipment anywhere on the web. Any guidance is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Akai APC series are designed specifically as Ableton controllers;

APC20 - http://www.akaipro.com/apc20

APC40 - http://www.akaipro.com/apc40

If those aren't really your thing, I also did a round down of a few different controllers for differnt price ranges here;

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.p ... 4#p2135933


In terms of buying online, I recommend http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/

Why in the name of formant filters would you need Pro Tools if you already have Ableton?!?!?!

Serious, forget about that shit, you have no need for it.

Do you play any instruments? If not (or indeed so) I would get a midi keyboard and start noodling around on some melodies with the inbuilt synths and stuff.
Get some good sounding melodies and worry about noises later.
The Axiom 25 is good, as is the Akai MPK 25 these will give you a keyboard and other knobs and pads and stuff to play with.

Also check out the inbuilt Ableton tutorials, they can guide you through a lot of the basic stuff.

Okay, seriously you guys all rock thank you so much, valuable information means a lot to me. So this is what I have gathered so far from reading what you all have told me and researching on my own: 1. I do not need Pro Tools. 2. I think I'm settled on getting the Akai APC20 and the Akai LPK25 Keyboard

These seam to be easily compatible and decently priced and made to work together. Thoughts? Reviews?

One more question I found these Headphones:

Audio Technica ATHM40FS Precision Studio Headphones

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT ... 923&sr=8-5

Thoughts? Are they any good? Better for a similar price?

I'm also just starting out, don't worry about fancy equipment just yet. Learn your way around your DAW like the back of your hand, watch tutorials and read through the "Want to make Dubstep? Start here!" thread. Learn to walk before you try to run Good luck man!

Moondoggie wrote:Okay, seriously you guys all rock thank you so much, valuable information means a lot to me. So this is what I have gathered so far from reading what you all have told me and researching on my own: 1. I do not need Pro Tools. 2. I think I'm settled on getting the Akai APC20 and the Akai LPK25 Keyboard

These seam to be easily compatible and decently priced and made to work together. Thoughts? Reviews?

One more question I found these Headphones:

Audio Technica ATHM40FS Precision Studio Headphones

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT ... 923&sr=8-5

Thoughts? Are they any good? Better for a similar price?

I'm not really qualified to comment on the headphones but I thought I would just mention that novation's keyboards are the absolute tits! No experience with the Akai's but I hear a lot of people recommending them to beginners on here so they are probably decent but if you can afford a novation nocturn I would highly recommend it as I went through a few midi keyboards that either broke or wern't fun to play before I got my nocturn and now I LOVE it

(sorry if I'm overcomplicating things for you)

Also, don't need to worry about this until you know music production is definitely something you wanna get into but when your thinking about buying some monitors there is a great thread on it somewhere in the production bible which I believe is now called something like "Wanna make dubstep? Start here!" in a sticky at the top of this page. My personal recommendation for monitors that are both affordable and sound great are the 'Samson Rubicon 5A/6As'

I've been wanting a nocturn for a few months.