Tips, let's see. I've only been at this for a little over a year myself, but some things I've learned in that time:

Work on something every day. I know this from taking time off. I find I get better and better at putting tracks together the more contiguous time I spend at at. But then something else will distract me, and I'll be away from it for a few weeks, and it's almost like starting over. Some advice I need to be better at taking myself. You're just starting out, you won't be making the hottest stuff anyone has ever heard, so don't worry about perfection. That's where I always bog down.

You mentioned "vocalizing" your ideas. I would do the same thing, and then I got the idea to actually record those ideas. I got a voice recorder app for my phone. So now, no matter where I am, when an idea hits me, I just beat box it into my phone. Then I later pull out the wave file, and import it as a base track, so actually build the real parts around.

EDM doesn't have a lot of complicated melodies, so a 3 or 4 octave keyboard is enough. But what you'll really want are lots of controls, knobs, sliders, pads, they'll all be very useful "playing" the progression of a track.

If you're going to be entering remix competitions, which I recommend you do, Melodyne is the software to have. I just discovered its power not long ago, and wish I hadn't shrugged it off as just another autotune program. True, it can tune and adjust vocals, but that's just where it starts. This software is insane. The last compo I was in, I gave up because I hated the condition of the stems provided by the original artist. Many of them had two or more instruments in them, and I only wanted to use one of the parts. I loaded such a track up into Melodyne and was able to actually remove one part completely and cleanly. I didn't know such technology existed. It can also turn an audio file into MIDI, crazy. They have 3 (or 4) different levels of the program, "editor" is where you want to end up, but buying in at a lower level doesn't mean losing any money. Actually, if you buy the lowest, then the middle, and then editor, you save $2 over buying the full version outright.

Don't worry too much about your audio interface, if you haven't picked one up yet, just something with ASIO drivers. You don't need an ultra high-end DAC, because you'll be distributing your output digitally. A good ADC will eventually be useful if you start recording vocals, but don't worry about it until then.

If you haven't read it, check out the Dance Music Manual, by Rick Snoman. So much good info in that book.


That's all I can think of for now.


Pioneer PDP-5020FD, Marantz SR6011
Axiom M5HP, VP160HP, QS8
Sony PS4, surround backs
-Chris