so then you have actually written songs? arranged?
even if in the "wrong" genre it should put you around a million light years ahead already.

many beginners have little if any music knowledge, meaning they have a hard time analysing why they like what they like, structurally, musically. so its a kind of long journey where many end up with four bar loops and may eventually even give up, or just never get anywhere else than chasing new sounds.

in your case I would advice to download a free version of studio one or ableton, the simpler the better. and make songs with the provided vst instruments. choose a edm track you like put it in an audio track as reference, and copy its structure and sound as much as needed.

don't stress the "sound" and don't stress over making it a perfect copy, its just to keep you on the right path. then, you know, make tracks, intro, verse, chorus etc. (and don't get into chasing-vst hell)

in case you play keyboard even if little I can also say many of the best "edm" smashes and anthems were written in pianos (virtual or physical), a piano will tell you the truth even with simple melodies, if its shit it will be shit even if layered with a hundred vsts and fx

so, once you have a decent amount of skeletons, like at least 10 decent ideas I would contact a seasoned edm producer and present your tracks to him/her, a friend or a friends friend and take it from there. that will get you started for real. you will be rocking like a champ in around a year, feeling you making progress fast.

what I wouldn't advice is to try to become a songwriter, producer, mixer engineer, sound designer all at once from the get go

.

 

Last edited: Jan 5, 2020

where do you start?

the power button maybe ?

 

I think you'll can do nearly every genre in every daw .
They just tools to notate musical ideas to be as simple as that and process them. So this my D... is bigger and better than yours is just annoying.
Ableton from Intro (which is more a toy than a tool ) to standard (which is something you can work with) to suite (which is heavy pricey but very nice stuff). https://www.ableton.com/de/live/compare-editions/

I think Bigwig is very cool special for EDM.
But if you'll know your DAW (Reaper) you'll can save time and work with that.

But important thing here is. You'll need to learn a new instrument ... the Synthesizer. (Even if you know how to play keyboard.)
I don't know which is the best for you. There are so many good ones.

Even in freeware there are gems like
surge
https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/
ModulAir
https://www.fullbucket.de/music/vst.html

etc.

The bands you'll like use

https://equipboard.com/pros/grimes
Hardware

Roland JUNO-G Workstation Keyboard
Roland Gaia SH-01 Synthesizer
Roland Juno-D Synthesizer
Roland JUNO-Gi Synthesizer

Software

kontakt 5 player (6 successor)
Native Instruments Massive Synth (Massive X successor)
reFX Nexus 2 (3 successor)
Sonic Charge Synplant

Software I think interesting for electronic music

Synths :
Allround
Semi-modular ( still high level complex but nearly flexibly ans versatile as the modular ones )

VPS-Avenger (I don't like the company but the synth is great )
https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/4-Synth/3201-Vengeance-Sound-VPS-Avenger-Synth
Zebra 2
https://u-he.com/products/zebra2/
alternative :
MSoundFactory
https://www.meldaproduction.com/MSoundFactory (similar to Zebra2 more effects more synthesis but some kind different sound )
Synthmaster
https://www.kv331audio.com/

Modular (complicate but it´s the holy grail in thermes of flexiblity and versailty )
Cherry Audio Voltage Modular
https://www.pluginboutique.com/deals/show?sale_id=4839

Wavetable
Serum (don't like the company )
https://xferrecords.com/products/serum/
alternative for low buget:
Vaporizer2
https://www.vast-dynamics.com/?q=products

Vocoder:
VocalSynth 2
https://www.pluginboutique.com/products/4413

Tools
iZotope Stutter Edit
https://www.pluginboutique.com/meta_product/2-Effects/53-Multi-Effect-/2086-iZotope-Stutter-Edit
Used for something like this.

Beat
iZotope BreakTweaker
https://www.pluginboutique.com/meta_product/1-Instruments/7-Drum-Machine/2093-iZotope-BreakTweaker

Hardware:
NI Maschine/Akai MPC
https://www.akaipro.de/mpc-studio
https://www.native-instruments.com/de/products/maschine/production-systems/maschine/

 

First. Step One. You have to start by listening. You must analyse. You have to break down the elements of what you are hearing.Train your brain to isolate the kick drum. The snare. Hear the bass. Pull it apart in your head, is it a deep pulsation or is it a sharp cutting sound?
You can't proceed to the second step if you fail step one. You cannot produce electronic music if you cannot reproduce electronic music.

 

Hi,

It is quite a big subject "where to start" but I would say first of all, identify the kind of electornic music you like (that seems to be done) and listen to a lot of it. I mean A LOT, and don't just listen to it, get yourself some time for listening to be your primary activity (you probably know about this with your music making experience already ). Identify the things you like, the things you don't, what you would have done differently etc. Listen to other genres too. Analyse the arrangement, which is most times similar to classic music, but can also be a bit confusing.

You should chose a DAW and stick to it for some time. If you started with Reaper then why not?
If you plan on making live performances some day though, I would highly suggest to start messing with Ableton Live. I used to play in a punk band and record some demos and stuff on FLS, and when I switched from punk to techno I decided to stay on FLS. 6 years later the switch to Ableton was a must : FLS performance mode is total shiet. I played some livesets with it but it is a total nightmare and totally refraining your creativity. So that meant learning a new DAW news shortcuts new ways to do things well, a "total" new way of approaching music making. Not a waste of time for general knowledge, but total waste of time in music making. And a pain in the a** too ;) Now with experience you can probably switch from one to another easily but first things first better learn one from A to Z

Also do some research about : _VST synths and samplers /_Hardware synths (very commonly used in electronic music and if you want to achieve some sounds, it's the fastest way most of times if you didn't learn about audio synthesis first) /_MIDI Controllers /_General audio gear.
Don't be afraid to read A LOT about those, and choose wisely between them. For starters (after buying and selling and buying and selling lots of hardware and general shiet, owning a soundsystem too) I would go with a little keyboard (MPK style) and a clip launcher or at least something with knobs. You might not see the use of it at first, but be sure at some point, you will want to record automations while turning the knobs and keys BY HAND, this is totally what brings life into electornic music (along with a lot of other things but yeah). You will totally want to map a knob to that cutoff and resonnane, and record your automation by hand. Also don't always go for the cheap solution. Prefer the used not cheap stuff. Also go for monitors right away. You will lose so much time making music on earbuds or desktop speakers. I mean so much useful time you could spend making music instead of wondering why your music sounds shitty anywhere else than your place ;)

Also learn about MIDI recording. Believe me at some point you will be tired of clicking everywhere. Especially if you're used to play on acoustic instruments. You want to play music, and clicking on a mouse to draw notes and lines is somewhat anti creative at some point.
You would also want to learn basic audio synthesis. Substractive, additive at least. How filters and EQ work. In other genres of music, those are tools, but in electronic music, those are essentially instruments too.

Samples are great, but samples somehow, even if they look like the easy solution and the fast solution, well, are not. Drum samples are a must though. But start right away by synthesizing kicks and sounds. You will save a lot of time Then you will want to use samples, but don't go the sample route first : I see a lot of beginners whose music is only made of samples. This is not good. You want to have your own sound, and that goes by making it with synths. Even for drums at some point. Samples will be useful when you know what you want your sound to be : otherwise you end up scrolling through millions of samples and never chosoe one : because none of them is what you have in mind. At some point you will use them again, because you will be able to make it yours with effects, warping and manipulating of all kind. But just using dry samples is a waste of time in the beginning IMHO

If you can grab some pro templates of projects, on the sister site for example, go for it and analyse the way people sculpt their sound. It can be very very instructive

You should also chose a synth, or two, as versatile as possible, and learn them. For nowadays general electronic music I would recommand a wavetable synth (Wavetable in Ableton or SERUM) and a substractive synth (Sylenth1 or so). With these you can achieve anything. Press them like a citrus. If you learn and master those two, you will master them all. Understand how they work, from oscillator to filter to fx. In the end, believe me, they all work the same and people who say "this synth for this kind of music" are liars. There is in the end only a few types of synths. What mostly makes the difference between them is the grain, the tone, the timbre you can find to it...

Don't go the VST collector route, thinking that pack of presets or that new synth or that shiet will make you more creative. Over the years I realised the most creative shiet is the most restrictive setup. 1 or 2 synths, 1 suite of effects : Delay, Reverb, Saturation, and so on with the classics. The d16 silver suite is great to start. Same than for synths : once you master them, you will master them all, but for starters you just need to understand their use and when, why, to use them.

Now i'm not saying "Don't have presets" like a lot of guys do, just scroll through them when you're not inspired or what, find something you like and tweak it. Reverse engineer it to understand. "How did he do that? How did he achieve that texture/saturation/reverb I love and makes it so different from others?"

Also remember that at some point all electronic music was made with analog/va/digital hardware synths, recorded through consoles, tapes etc... That was a big question for me "how do they get that sound". Every different piece of hardware has a grain to it and you can hear it on a final product. Plus as we all know the dusty vinyl sound etc... There is a lot of emulations to achieve this sound, that's just a hint. Remember it whenyou will find your music sounds too digital
Nowadays I make music with Ableton and one hardware synth, because that's the best of both worlds : the hardware sound and the power of a DAW!

I'll stop there because too much writing already, those are all good starting points that I wish I knew when I started making electronic music ! It was being a bizarre animal to want to do that back then.

Hope it can help and if something is not clear I'd be glad to answer questions !

 

best way to start electronic music(nowadays):

-use fl studio
-use only midi
-use heavy quantise
-use autotune
-copy other people
-call yourself a "producer" straight after 1 day
-clip everything with ozone 9 on every channel

i hope this helps

 

broducer*

You forgot to mention
-film yourself jamming to your own tunes live on facebook ))

 

May be this will help you...

https://www.helgoboss.org/projects/playtime/