How do I start?

ottostreet

Guys, I'm very interested in starting to learn to produce dance music.

I'm a competent DJ and a few friends of mine are making names for themselves as producers on the international scene. I'd love to learn how.

I am a complete novice, and I've no hardware beyond my DJ'ing equipment/laptop/hard drives etc.

Should I just get the likes of Fruityloops and get stuck in?

Anima

Its not the worst way to start, I say go for it. Ableton is another easy app to learn. Really you just need a digital audio workstation (DAW) that you're comfortable with because you'll most likely use 3rd party plugins anyway.

I'd advise you to start learning about synthesis and digital audio. Its not really enough just to know how to use a DAW. Soundonsound have lots of stuff, its a wealth of info!

Sky King

if you just buy and get stuck in you might find yourself getting frustrated that you can't get the sounds you want out of your head and into a tune.

In order to be able to do that you need a good grasp of the software. The quick n easy way is to do a course if you have the money... it's the quick fix you'll want cause lots of people spend ages twiddling buttons on synths and effects and no time actually creating music, which is what the name of the game is all about.

Not saying there's anything qwrong with teaching yourself using tutorials, forums and youtube vids, it just takes way more patience and effort on your part and it will be longer until you use your skills in a creative way to make a tune that doesn't sound like $hit.

I also recommend you learn music basic melodic music theory... what chords are and how a chord progression works to create mood in a song. I am always harping on about this and people still read it and go "yeah whatever maaaaan... music theory is for fags" but i can tell you that trying to make music without knowing music theory is like trying to undertake chemical reactions by just randomly mixing chemicals in a lab and seeing what happens. Both ways will probably get you results, but one way is fast and direct and the other way, while interesting will get you almost the same results, just in a much longer time and potentially melting your face off.

Oh and get yourself a mate who will give you decent constructive feedback.. Beware mates that tell you that everything you do is deadly (just cause it's you that's making music now and they are used to everything you do being super duper lame) and also beware assholes on forums who think they know it all and tell you that you don't.

THEY don't.

If they did they would be away in Miami or somewhere doing lines of coke off the tidy little asses of 19year old girls instead of stuck in front of their computer screens in this drab bland boring rainy $hithole backwater fkface fcking country whining out their mediocre lives through the medium of text at anyone who'll listen until they die cold and alone with nothing but the grey flicker of a computer monitor punctuating the ultimate demise of their miserable and pointless existance.

Sky King

Oh, and get a nice set of monitors if you can afford them.

hubiedubie

I found Ableton a great DAW to learn and use (I still use it despite a brief affair with Logic). Any of the popular DAWS will do for electronic music production so don't get bogged down on which is the best DAW threads as it's really whichever one you get on with best yourself.

If you do decide to go with Ableton, I highly recommend doing a course Keith from www.quantizecourses.com. He's an excellent tutor and you'll learn loads about Ableton and music production in general very quickly.

Sky King

And you can DJ with ableton as well.