Reply to DJing/Producing: Where to Start?

Hello all!

Excuse me for any noobish mistakes I might have made in this post. I don't have much experience with community s, yet I feel that my situation requires outside help.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you guys a little bit about my experience before I start firing away with questions. I have been an avid fan of EDM for about 1.5 years now, and I'm looking into taking that love for it one step further through either DJing or Producing. I have experimented with a light edition of the Virtual DJ software w/o any digital controllers/turntables/etc. for a while, making mash-ups and mixes. My favorite genres include dubstep, house, electro house, trance, and drum & bass; thus, these are the genres in which I would like to produce music.

My main question is this: if I want to eventually produce, is it smart to buy a digital DJ controller and then progress? Or is it better to buy the stuff needed for production? I am looking into purchasing a Traktor Kontrol S4 to DJ at parties, clubs, anywhere really since I feel that I have a good enough grasp on beat matching and mixing. However, I feel that I will grow tired of just mixing other artists' songs together eventually. I have done a little bit of research into the basics of producing. I know that I'll need a DAW (leaning towards Ableton since it's oriented for both live performance and production), a MIDI controller (such as the APC40 or the NI Maschine), and some VSTs (Komplete 8 from NI sounds appealing). Aside from this, however, I know nothing about where to even start as a producer.

How have you guys/girls learned to produce? I've seen stuff about online courses in producing dubstep, house, and trance, yet those are expensive and will definitely set me back for gear purchases. How do producers perform live? The way I've always defined "live" is along the lines of deadmau5, who has all his gear onstage and strings together tracks on the fly, or Skrillex, who runs his stuff through Ableton and then uses a MIDI (the M-Audio Trigger Finger) to manipulate effects/EQs/etc. I know some producers just DJ their songs (don't really consider that a live performance). What VSTs are best for producing respective genres? What exactly do the MIDI controllers do (as in, how do you use a MIDI controller for live performance and mixing)?

Obviously the biggest question here is just a matter of finances. As a high school senior (and thus someone who's financial situation is pretty dependent), I need to be very careful about doing my research and deciding which gear is best for the path that I'd like to take.

Thank You for any help/suggestions/etc. you can give me!!