Below is a list of some of the essentials and non essentials you need to get started producing music.

To get started, all your really need is a laptop & headphones!

Computer: (Essential)

Whether you are running a Mac or a PC, a Desktop or a Laptop it doesn’t matter. The only thing that’s important is that you know how to operate it. So if you are more familiar with PCs - Use a PC. And if you are more familiar with Macs - Use a Mac. If you are starting fresh and money isn’t too much of a factor then I would recommend going for a Mac, and if you are on a budget I would go for a PC. As long as you can make a start on what you already have, simply use any existing computer. When it comes to Software for these machines (which we’ll get to later on) you may need to check that your computer has sufficient specs and the latest operating system to run the

required software. But most recent computers will cope with music production software with no problems.

Sound Card aka Audio Interface: (Non Essential)

Sound Cards or Audio Interfaces are a way of getting sound in and out of your computer at higher qualities. A lot of computers, both desktops and laptops have sound cards already built in and to start with you can get away with simply using the built in sound cards while you learn. If you want to do this you can plug your headphones or monitor speakers directly into the

sound card in your computer - which is most commonly a (3.5mm) mini headphone jack size socket like the ones that are in the side of most laptops.

If you are interested in getting a soundcard to start with here are two recommendations to have a look at:

Beginner: Native Instruments - Traktor Audio 2 $150 (USD)

Advanced: Apogee Quartet $2300 (USD)

BeginnerMusic Production

Equipment Guide

Headphones OR Monitor Speakers:

(Essential)

While both of these items aren’t essential, having one or the other is. It is extremely important that you can hear what you are doing and get an ac-curate representation of what you are working on in your studio and for this reason it is not recommended that you try to produce out of laptop speakers or similar. These types of speakers tend not to produce enough bass or bottom end for you to accurately hear what you are working on.

Headphones:

If you have an existing reasonable quality set of headphones, simply use those. If you are a DJ and have a set that you use to DJ with, those headphones would also be good enough to use. When you are looking

for headphones you just want something that has a reasonable bass response or bottom end. Here are a few recommendations:

Beginner: Audio Technica ATH-M40x $99 (USD)

Advanced: Sennheiser HD 650 $600 (USD)

Monitor Speakers:

Monitor Speakers are really not essential when you are first starting out, especially if you already have a good set of headphones. Monitor speakers can make things a little trickier when you want to work late at night and have close neighbours or roommates. If you do want to dive in and get some monitor speakers straight away they can be really great

to work on and hear your music out loud. Here are some recommendations:

Beginner: KRK Rokits $300 (USD) (PAIR)

Advanced: Focal Twin 6BE $4000 (USD) (PAIR)

Midi Controller Keyboard (Non Essential)

Midi Controller Keyboards although not essential to producing music can be a huge amount of fun and can really bring your music making to life. Within the music production software you can program in notes with your mouse and computer keyboard, but it is a lot more fun, musicial and creative, when you have piano keys in front of you that you can play on. You don’t need to have one of these to start out with but if you can afford one, here are some

I would recommend:

Beginner: M-Audio Keystation Mini $80 (USD)

Advanced: AKAI MPK88 $1000 (USD)

Software Digital Audio Workstation

aka DAW(Essential)

There are many different options when we are looking at DAWs. Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Cubase, FL Studio, Reason are just a few of the more popular names in an ever-growing market. It can be personal choice and they all do the job, but there is ONE in particular that is far better than any of

the others for learning on and also for making electronic music.

Ableton Live is the number 1 choice for a huge variety of reasons- mainly because it is massively powerful, easy to learn on and hugely intuitive for both beginner and advanced producers!

It is the go-to software for the majority of electronic music producers in the world and one that you will never grow out of!

For these reasons and many more, Ableton Live is our choice of DAW and the one we teach all of our courses on.

You can get a free 30 day trial of Ableton Live from:http://www.ableton.com/trial