New to producing.

I took a totally different perspective than using DAW. I immersed myself in analog gear . I researched what I needed and bought a lot of second-hand and used gear off of craigslist, and even used guitar effect pedals. I bought my first SM57 and started creating my own individual samples instead of downloading "packs" and tried to be as creative as individually possible.

This I believe draws a giant line in creating your own sound. Especially since all the samples belong to you, and all the ideas behind the track were YOUR ideas.

Later on, I used DAW to map things and set things up so my life would be 1000x easier when recording things through my crappy little mixer I had. I slowly upgraded my stuff and minimized it so I only had what was needed for the creative process. I was doing a lot of soundtracks, which isn't really DJ-able music, but it was definitely 1000% my stuff. I was also very against using cuts or presets at the time.

In short, this helped me IMMENSELY to learn the gear for exactly what it was intended to do. Later I applied these techniques to Ableton and FL8 and really enjoyed the results of making dance music, which is what I do today.

I know a lot of people would say this is a waste of time, but believe about back in the day BEFORE fruity loops and protools. This is how most of the current "iconic" sounds were discovered.

Thanks a lot for your answer guys! Now about the laptop... I'm believeing on something like a MacBook Pro MD101LL/A, it has 2.5 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB Ram, will that be enough to properly produce music as a beginner?

Hey, so for starters, I'm not a pro lol

When I was at your stage (starting, being interested in producing) I went with Propellerhead Reason, which didn't last very long. I had no idea what I was doing or how anything worked so I looked for something more simple to use. The answer was Ableton suite, but that lasted me a couple of months. I actually learnt quite a bit, but I didn't like the interface so I tried Logic Pro because it's a pretty popular software for big well known producers. I haven't used anything else since. I love it!

I didn't use any MIDI keyboard for a long time, I used my computer keyboard, that's it. It was tough to get the feel of a melody but when you're starting off there's other things to worry about, like getting to know the program. I eventually got myself a little something that I also love! M-Audio Keystation Mini 32. I was debating between a 25 key or 49 key. 49 would be too big for me, no space, and I'm not a piano player. 25 was good, but 32 was perfect for my needs (I produce progressive house music). Start by asking yourself what you need, want, and are willing to pay and then start looking. For the record, my MIDI controller is nothing special lol It does nothing more than I need it to do.

So after you decide what you want, need, and are willing to pay, look around, but don't settle for anything. Watch reviews to see if it does the job for you and check out community s and ask people, but don't solely rely on peoples responses on community s. If I asked what people thought about my gear 80% of the people would believe it's garbage because it's probably garbage for their use, not mine.

Good luck!

I took a totally different perspective than using DAW. I immersed myself in analog gear . I researched what I needed and bought a lot of second-hand and used gear off of craigslist, and even used guitar effect pedals. I bought my first SM57 and started creating my own individual samples instead of downloading "packs" and tried to be as creative as individually possible.

This I believe draws a giant line in creating your own sound. Especially since all the samples belong to you, and all the ideas behind the track were YOUR ideas.

Later on, I used DAW to map things and set things up so my life would be 1000x easier when recording things through my crappy little mixer I had. I slowly upgraded my stuff and minimized it so I only had what was needed for the creative process. I was doing a lot of soundtracks, which isn't really DJ-able music, but it was definitely 1000% my stuff. I was also very against using cuts or presets at the time.

In short, this helped me IMMENSELY to learn the gear for exactly what it was intended to do. Later I applied these techniques to Ableton and FL8 and really enjoyed the results of making dance music, which is what I do today.

I know a lot of people would say this is a waste of time, but believe about back in the day BEFORE fruity loops and protools. This is how most of the current "iconic" sounds were discovered.

Sure. More or less any machine these days, except for bargain basement cheap ones, will be powerful enough to produce on.

If you can spring for the 15" MBP, however ($1799), you'll get not only a quad-core i7, but also the larger display. Of course you can still get an external monitor for the 13". Screen real estate is very useful.