Hi and.... I'm diving in, help?

[Mcgr0wl]

Sup guys, i'm McGr0wl/ McG from youtube where I voice act for a hobby. I found this community after a MLP fanfic friend of mine introduced me to the show, though he was into fanfic, I was into the music. Don't get me wrong, I love to write, but when it comes to fanfics, i like to read more than write, so i'm here in the music. SRY if I posted in the wrong area XC

I'm 100% new, I saw the show for the first time a week ago and I luv it. Became a brony the next day, and now I want to make some music (electronic/Lyrical DStep)!

I have Sony Vegas 9 and FL Studio 10, I am familiar with Vegas (from dubbing and voice acting), not FL, so i've been watching youtube tutorials. I took piano and drum lessons for about three years each. I don't really know how MIDI works, but if it means that I can play music into my FL studio project from my keyboard, i must get that working.

I have a grand piano... but that wont plug in lol, so I do have an old Yamaha YPG-225, will that work as a FL Studio MIDI/controller? (I need to know cuz if not I wont bother buying a USB connector) I also have a USB microphone w/filter... if that means anything. I also have a simmons SD5k electro drum kit... but i doubt its connection abilities.

So for now I guess I just need to know if those things would connect.
Besides that, is there anything I may need in terms of hardware/software? So I need a mixer or controller? A different keyboard? Is FL studio 10 ALL i need?

TY for checking this out, and you'll definately see me post more questions later on as I learn.
-McG

[Facade]

i looked up your piano and its supposed to have usb midi though they didnt have a picture of the back so im not 100% sure it should work just fine as a midi controller
i also looked up your drum kit and it says it has midi out which im assuming is the classic midi style which you can just use a midi to usb cable and it should work fine
software wise if your gonna be making electronic or dubstep i would suggest getting ni massive
also can you tell us more about your mic?

[Unlimited Mana]

http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
This guide has a lot of information about hardware/technical stuff. It would certainly help you understand MIDI and connectivity.
Massive is good. You might want to hold back on buying it until you feel held back by FL's built in synths though. From what I hear 3xOSC and Sytrus are pretty handy.
FL should be all you need right now. If you've been voice acting your mic probably sounds alright, so a mixer/audio interface won't be necessary at the moment. I personally tend not to buy things unless I feel limited by what I have.

[Facade]

http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
This guide has a lot of information about hardware/technical stuff. It would certainly help you understand MIDI and connectivity.
Massive is good. You might want to hold back on buying it until you feel held back by FL's built in synths though. From what I hear 3xOSC and Sytrus are pretty handy.
FL should be all you need right now. If you've been voice acting your mic probably sounds alright, so a mixer/audio interface won't be necessary at the moment. I personally tend not to buy things unless I feel limited by what I have.

thats a very good idea xD not upgrading until you feel limited.... guess its time for me to get some monitors now all i need is money i dont have :/

[Unlimited Mana]

thats a very good idea xD not upgrading until you feel limited.... guess its time for me to get some monitors now all i need is money i dont have :/

I know the feeling. :<

[Facade]

thats a very good idea xD not upgrading until you feel limited.... guess its time for me to get some monitors now all i need is money i dont have :/

I know the feeling. :<

it sucks the worst part is finding a job in this crappy town

[Ed Viper]

http://www.tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
This guide has a lot of information about hardware/technical stuff. It would certainly help you understand MIDI and connectivity.
Massive is good. You might want to hold back on buying it until you feel held back by FL's built in synths though. From what I hear 3xOSC and Sytrus are pretty handy.
FL should be all you need right now. If you've been voice acting your mic probably sounds alright, so a mixer/audio interface won't be necessary at the moment. I personally tend not to buy things unless I feel limited by what I have.

It's true - don't upgrade until you feel like you HAVE to. FL Studio has an extensive library of built-in plugins, I suggest checking out Harmless in addition to 3xOSC and Sytrus, since it's a lot simpler and easier to grasp how it works, but still produces quality sounds.

I use Sytrus for just about everything, from basses, to lead and BG melody synths, to atmospheres...the list goes on and on. Once you get familiar with FL Studio itself, I suggest you try getting familiar with Sytrus (although it can be a bit daunting at first, the small plugin packs a large punch) so continue working with Harmless while you're learning it.

[Mcgr0wl]

Ah okay! Yeah my mic is just some 20$ USB Mic I bought at Fry's. I put it on a mic stand and put a pop filter infront of it it's "okay" for now I suppose. Okay cool. I'll look into Massive if I ever need more than FL. I'ma gunna ask my local Guitar store about my keyboard cuz ur right, the internet doesn't really give me detailed information about the midi specs of the old YPG-225.

Now I uhh.... Don't think I have a sound card, nor really good speakers. Will that be an issue? I have OLD "Creative CS120" Speakers, and a stock sound card :c Should I buy something in the sound department?

Then I have a set of: Sony X500, HP, and Skullcrusher headphones, I used to use them for gaming or MP3 listening.

Hey thanks guys,

[Legion]

I'd read this thread I started a while back while we're on the subject of what FL Studio includes: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2030

I'd pick up a couple of free VST's, definitely. But I'm going to back up that you should wait to buy stuff, though Massive should be a priority once you get around to it. There are some great free synths out there like Chimera and Trancedrive that I use all the time.

Edit: oh, and a soundcard isn't really a necessity, I get by fine with just my Razer headphones. I'm not sure how mics work, but if you can already record fine, you shouldn't need anything more.

[Mcgr0wl]

Oh lol okay noob moment... I looked up Massive, and I thought Massive was a DAW, I didn't know it was a pluggin compatible with FL studio! (Unless it IS a DAW and I was looking at some other type of Massive software O.o) (Yeah I had no clue what Massive was...)
In this case I can probably get Massive sooner than I thought.
I'ma call up my music store bout' my synthesiser/keyboard thingy now.

OH how bout' them controllers? Y'know, like this kinda stuff for example?
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audi ... -audio-i-o

No need?

[Unlimited Mana]

You should be looking at Massive by Native Instruments. It's a software synthesizer.
As for that controller, it won't really help you produce, but if you want to be a laptop DJ you'll need something like that.

[soup2504]

As much as I love Massive, I RARELY ever use it, simply because 3xosc offers more than enough for me. Almost everything I make has 3xosc in it somewhere, and once you know how to use it, it can be THE most helpful thing EVER.

[Mcgr0wl]

Ah, okay cool. Looks like my Keyboard may work, (havent tested fully) but i guess even if it doesn't, I wont REALLY need it then. Okay.

I guess then, lastly, I heard Ableton was better than FL as far as electro/Dstep goes.... then others say its just user preference.... All I wanna know is, which has more "sound" abilities? (So I can be as original as possible)?

Hey guys, thanks a bunch, you've been so great so far! You've helped me a TON

[Unlimited Mana]

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=223802
As long as you aren't using a real bargain DAW like GarageBand, they can all do basically the same things.
If you scroll down a bit in that link, you'll see a big list of good producers who use FL. It's a tried and true piece of software. If you like it more than Ableton, there's no reason to switch.
http://blog.soundcloud.com/2012/04/02/s ... d-ableton/
If you haven't tried Ableton though, I think this giveaway is still going on.