music

There is a lot of great, free software out there for music production. I use Reaper as my DAW, it has a “limited time” free demo mode but it keeps working after the demo period, just gives you a pop-up message when you load it. Then you can get some plug-ins, lots of cheap/free ones out there. Odin II is a great one for learning the in and outs of synth sound design (freeware clone of the Thor module in Reason), vital and serum are well regarded as well, there’s Dexed which is a super faithful, and free, emulation of the DX7. There’s a ton of drum plug-ins out there, I’d recommend one with the XOXO style pattern programming like the old Rolands that can do samples and drum synthesis. Initially, the only hardware I would recommend is getting a midi controller. I have a Novation launchkey that I like, the Arturia Keystep is also popular for electronic music production.