[thirdsun]

I'd recommend selecting a DAW and learning it. Really learn it. We have countless great tools in music production available - it mostly comes down to how well you can handle them.

Personally, I love and recommend Ableton Live which features an easy to use interface, workflow, lots of options for experimentation and extensions, great and large community as well. Good choice for beginners and experts alike. Plus, with Ableton Push you have the option to get an excellent hardware controller that is tailored to your DAW, but it isn't something you'd need from the start.

Alternatively, you almost can't beat Logic on price considering its features and performance. I'd say it is more complex, but that's subjective.

Both Logic and Live (Suite version) offer a complete solution, including high quality instruments, synths and effects.

Hardware is optional, but a simple midi keyboard for less than a 100 bucks will help a lot.

[RileyKyeden]

I plan to switch to Ableton once I earn enough from music to pay for it, but that's because it's made for the kind of music I do. Everyone I know uses it, so it's easy to find advice and tutorials.

For now, Reaper and a few free VSTs will do. I find myself bumping up against the fact that Reaper was made for live music and its devs are understandably keeping the focus there, even though they do good work on the MIDI roll. They always nail down a few irritants in each release.

You'll go further and have an easier time if the community around your tools makes the same kind of music. Choosing tools mostly comes down to what you want to do. If you want to do electronic, Ableton is a good bet.

[thirdsun]

While I'm positive you know that, don't make the mistake of limiting Ableton to electronic music - it has obvious strengths in that department, but there's really no limit to the genre and style of what can be done with DAWs like Live, Logic and Co.

By the way, if Ableton remains too expensive for your taste, there's always Bitwig, which isn't quite as mature and has a much smaller, but growing community, yet it's very similar to Ableton's approach to music production.

[RileyKyeden]

I'll be sure to demo both when I get to the point where I can afford a switch.