Starting off.

[Narvosa]

Hello, I am a long time pianist and vocalist. I have several songs that I have written on the piano but I do not feel like they fit my voice or my style too well. So I was looking into starting to get into electronic music with a great interest in trance tracks with my type vocals.

I have looked around a bit and a lot of people say all you need is the software to get started (Do not know if this is true or not, just from what I have read). However with my pianist background. I enjoy the more hands on feeling of music. I would like to know what equipment to help me get started for producing some tracks. Everything from soundcards to synths. Any and all help would be fantastic!

[Rmonik]

Well, it's up to what you prefer really, but software really has the advantage of being cheaper and much, much more flexible than hardware recording.

I suggest watching Dave's vid on starting a studio. An absolute minimum i'd say for production is a decent computer, a soundcard and some monitors (although i've seen people pull off headphone producing very well). And of course a piece of software. (Reason, Reaper, Ableton, ProTools, Cubase, Logic, Nuendo, Sonar, FL Studio, ...)

If you wanna go hardware, you will need a lot of hardware synths, a mixing desk, a 16 track recorder, some outboard FX. That will cost you a few thousand bucks. The best way i've found, is just using software with a lot of MIDI pianos and controllers. And you can always choose to hook some synths up to it too.

[Narvosa]

Thank you, I watched his tutorial and it helped me out a lot. I am going to start messing around with reaper and get familiarized with it. I think a midi piano would be the best given my experience with piano works. Perhaps later on when money allows I can get some more hardware. Thank you for your help!

[Rmonik]

Do you have an electric piano right now? if so, there's a 90 percent chance you can use it as a midi piano.

[Narvosa]

Sadly no I own a grand piano in my living room which is primarily what I use to satisfy my musical needs.

[Ethell]

Narvosa my background is being a metal music guitarist for like 9 years, and then I chose the path you did a month ago. Stick with Dave's tutorials and feel free to ask anything, Rmonik is the all-rounder helper here he got before me like always.

If you ask what I did, well i bought a 25 key Akai MPK midi controller, but since i'll be playing with the band on stage, I will buy a 88 key midi controller. Probably 88 key controller will do the magic for you, you can go for heavy weight key controllers if you want more like a piano feeling but I'd go for the cheapest, because in electronic music midi controller is just a start and you'll need hardware according to what you want to do.

My advice would be Reason for flexibility of making sounds and easy usage (it seems scary at start but no worries after a couple of Dave's videos it'll be all clear), a soundcard for recording real instruments (for guitars and the other instruments needed to be recorded via microphone i'd recommend you focusrite saffire 6 pro) and Ableton/Logic/CuBase for mixing&mastering. Stick with the softwares and a midi keyboard till you get the basic idea, then you'll make your own way probably.

Hope it helped!

[Narvosa]

Thanks guys! Helped me a lot so far. I ordered the saffire and the oxygen midi keyboard recommended in dave's tutorial. I will check out Reason next pay check. Until then going to mess with the free reaper version. Will keep everyone updated and ask if I need anything!

[runemopar]

I hope we help you get you on your feet properly, but you don't need to wait for the paycheck for Reason, you can just go to http://www.propellerheads.se/download/ and get the Reason Demo for your respective operating system. It will function like the full version minus the fact you cannot open projects... But you can save them and use the program fully besides that which makes it great to go along with Dave's tutorials!

I think all of us that started off in Reason are a bit biased, but I honestly feel that Reason is the best program to start with out of all of them, since it is basically the whole package (and more), giving you a very good idea of the possibilities before going into other software.

[J4P4S]

Thanks guys! Helped me a lot so far. I ordered the saffire and the oxygen midi keyboard recommended in dave's tutorial. I will check out Reason next pay check. Until then going to mess with the free reaper version. Will keep everyone updated and ask if I need anything!

Also have Saffire 6 & Oxygen 61. Although I'm a big fan of the Saffire, I'm not (longer) such a fan of the Oxygen. And I don't even play piano. You'll be annoying about the plastic low quality keys. Better save up for something better like the Akai MPK* (* = numbers of keys you prefer). It's sturdier, with semi-weighed keys (correct me if I'm wrong) and some drum-pads (MPC style).

Also love how you have a Grand, kinda jealous right now. Haha

[Narvosa]

I love my grand, it is so beautiful. Definitely gives you that big epic feel when playing it. I could have never afforded one but I got it in my grandfathers will so Its kind of a keepsake.