I want to make music - what do I need?

[Crellion101]

After listening to some Reason 2.5 music creator sample tracks I now fervently want to turn my basement computer room to a music creation area. Not full-fledge studio mind you, but just able to make tunes through a computer and a keyboard system. So far I have a 5.1 Logitech surround sound system and Audigy Gamer sound card. I know I need to buy a midi keyboard, but I'm not sure where I should look for budget instruments. Also I was looking at music creation software including Reason. My budget is currently $300 for the midi keyboard and have yet to decide how much to spend for the software. Can any of you guys out there tell me what midi keyboard I should buy, what music software is the best budget/performance, and what-not for a completely newbie like me?

 

[rbV5]

I can't really help you with the keyboard, but I use Sonar for recording and like it quite a bit.Cakewalk has a more budget minded Home Studio software that pretty reasonable for a little over $100 thats pretty powerful also. I'd be looking for bundled software with the keyboard for the best value. When I got my signal processor for my guitar, it was bundled with Cakewalk Guitar Studio which does 90% of what I need (already had purchased Sonar)

Musician's friend is where I get most of my gear (and Guitar World).

 

[BD231]

Fruity Loops is where you should start. You can get a illigal copy off WinMX which is actually limited in some ways due to it being a fake copy, but once you've gotten good at using that you guy buy the real thing.

 

[Sureshot324]

If you want to make electronic music, you should get either fruityloops or reason. I would recommend fruityloops mainly because reason doesn't have vst support, which means you can't use downloaded plugins like synthesizers and effects, you can only use the ones that come with reason. Don't get a sequencer like Sonar, Cubase, or Logic unless you want to make rock music or something where you're doing a lot of recording (guitar, vocals, etc.). All sequencers have demo versions you can download so check those out before you make a decision.

As for a keyboard, i recommend you just get a midi controller keyboard from ebay, which should be under $100. A midi controller keyboard is useless without a computer since it doesn't have any sounds on its own, but it will be much cheaper than a regular keyboard.