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I am starting to get into electronic music production, and I would like to know what the necessary setup would be for a beginner. I am going to get a laptop soon, and I already have a Korg R3. I think I'm going to try and get my hands on a copy of Ableton, as that seems to be one of the best engines from what I know.

So I would have a laptop, ableton (or whatever), and an R3. Should I sell the R3 to get a midi controller with more keys and possibly a drum pad thing? Again, I know almost nothing about what is needed.

Also, I don't know about sound cards or interfaces for recording other instruments (i.e. guitar), or turnatables or anything.

I am sorry if this thread is redundant, I just have a hard time finding alot of information on here for people who know NOTHING. I figure it'll be easier to start learning once I actually get my hands on some of this stuff.

Thanks for your help (and sorry again for the lack of knowledge).

its all about midi controllers

faders (nanokontrol)
pads (nanopad or lpd8)
keys (lpk or oxygen8)

and monitors
m-audio or KRK or whatever you please

and get yourself a nice pair of headphones too

you are going to need an interface if you want to record quality vocals or take the audio processing load off of the CPU

otherwise you can just go with onboard and ASIO4All

peace

Start with a soundcard with ASIO support and a pair of decent headphones. When, a year later, you still enjoy producing tunes, consider upgrading your gear. Have phun!

Do you mean, "Have phOOn!"?

http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-AT ... B000OMKR8E

These are the headphones that I have, are they good enough for now?
Would an MPD24 be a good thing to have?

The best advice i can say is just to 'test the water' before diving in.
You can make pretty decent dubstep within the box with just a midi controller and a low end soundcard.
Once you have decided after 12 months that you want to continue, hook yourself up with the new goods.

Well my R3 can function as a midi controller, but it has no pads for drums, so that was why I was thinking about selling it and getting a cheap keyboard and pad device. Would a pad controller be necessary for making beats?

Which sound card would you suggest? I know virtually nothing about them. Thanks again.

nah you dont NEED drum pads, if you can feel you can jam a rhythm using the keyboard keys then that's all good. I find it easier to draw in most things even though i play piano... as far as sound cards go it depends on what your making your beats on, is it a laptop, macbook, PC or mac. Avoid firewire unless you have a texas instrument firewire card in your laptop, if its a ricoh firewire card they can be pretty poo. Theres a mountain of advice on soundcards about i have an edirol and it seems pretty reliable.

As has been said you dont need any soundcard, download the ASIO4ALL drivers to use within abelton (if thats what your using) those headphones look fine just.start making beats and then build up your collection bit by bit.

Good luck making tunes

You don't need anything to start other than a computer.
Many applications like logic have a built in keyboard that lets you use your qwerty keyboard to play music.
Press caps lock in logic for instance.
I know that live and fl studio have the same functionality and there are apps that will let you do this too.

Like Depone said, wait a bit and see if it sticks.

Like Decklyn & Depone (and others I'm sure)...

If you have a computer, you have more than you need. Give it a go... after all, without being nasty, I can guarantee amazing music has been done with less. So see if it is for you, and maximize what you have. When you find a limitation you can't overcome with creativity, then upgrade. Simple as.

Which laptop are you planning on getting, if it is a mac the built in audio will be plenty good enough.

Demo different software, maybe you will not like working with ableton.

Like others said you dont need pads, or keys for that matter, but a controller will speed up your workflow and give the software a hardware feel. Basicly keys and pads are the same thing, so it's not like you cant play piano on a pad controler, or drums on a keyboard. Having transport controls will save you tons of time. Twiddling knobs and pushing sliders is always more fun than just pointing and clicking a mouse.

Basicly just get into it with your puter and software, you will soon figure out what you need to make the experience more enjoyable.

Thanks for all of your help. And I was planning on getting a Macbook. As far as soundcards, is that just the computer's internal ability to process sound? Like a videocard right? It's not some external recording device, correct?

Nevermind. Research done on that. I still have no idea which ones are good though.

For an inexpensive interface/audio card check out the Presonus USB Audiobox. I have one and love it. It has a sturdy build quality and sounds great. It is also very affordable compared to other items on the market.

bcr2000, monitors, mopads, a shit ton of ram in comp, and a simple midi controller keyboard
edit: oh and books on your software choice, mags and a load of patience

^ the last one he said.

disco.infiltrator wrote:Thanks for all of your help. And I was planning on getting a Macbook. As far as soundcards, is that just the computer's internal ability to process sound? Like a videocard right? It's not some external recording device, correct?

Nevermind. Research done on that. I still have no idea which ones are good though.

Your macbooks built in sound card will be great to start with. But once you want to upgrade some equipment, go for an external audio interface. Firewire if available.
There are some limitations to some soundcards, such as:
IF you want to run / records using protools, you need digidesign interface, or even m-audio ones.

If your not into recording, a simple 2 in 2 out interface shall be fine.
Keep away from behringer.