Starting to actually get into producing need help!

Hello everybody, i am 22 and have been in love with music since before i can remember and ever since i hit 13 i have always dreamed to be a producer, well rapper but now my passion is more into creating the music, besides i would want to put my own lyrics to my own music.

So i know i have a long road ahead, i have always tampered with ableton, garage band, and a lot of the other generic or cheaper ones. About 6 months ago i bought a MIDI keyboard, probably not too decent, $200 from cash converters. Anyway i want to be dedicated to a good forum, have done some looking around and this seems to be like a good one and want to start my journey with djtechtools!

My main influences are hip hop but i am deeply into alsorts of dance music; dubstep, deep house, trance, dirty, anything with a good bassline i love and would eventually get into or have that sort of music in my style. More into hip hop, i love dirty rap beats, like all the ones in 8 miles underground scenes, some of my highest rated mcs are well since a young age but wider variety now eminem started it all.. A tribe called quest, de la soul, run DMC, Del, Andre 3000, beastie boys, Too $hort, Kendrick Lamar is one of my new favourites aswell as Q-tip, snoop, dre, NAS, Jay-Z, i could keep going but this is probably has nothing to do with it at all, probably should have this as my bio haha. But i want to have a bit of all these styles in mine, i just want to make music that i like and hopefully others will too.

Now i dont know where to start with music production applications or my flow with music or starting to properly learn the keyboard and understand how pitch and tempo and everything works getting everything into sync. When i use ableton i have 1000 questions to ask and it frustrates me because it puts me off my dream, this is why i want to join this forum because the help in ableton live is useless and doesnt apply in every scenario. I just want maybe a link to a good guide that will start me off and also to learn keyboard, and maybe some advice, i would google all this and i have but i go off stupid advice and everything is completely different. I wont ever quit on this so i want to do it properly.

Thanks Everyone that reads and/or replies

youtube. Seriously. There are so many tutorials on youtube for everything. Start off using presets of the instruments in your DAW and just get experience recording patterns that you like. It wouldn't hurt to take piano lessons at the same time to get the basics. Use preset loops or drum racks until you figure out how to get more advanced with drums. You can keyboard and mouse click all your notes and drums into the piano roll just to get started. Once you've got this stuff down, arrange your song based on the clips you've put together - you can also start using effects on your tracks at this point. Next comes mixing...ouch. Finally mastering...ouch.

You can learn more about music theory once you have the fundamentals again, via youtube. You can also start looking into synthesis modeling, subtractive, FM, additive, etc.

But for now, just take it simple - baby steps. Just start throwing musical "ideas" into clips on your DAW, whether melodic or beat-based. And start learning how to play piano. I suggest a real-live person with lessons, but you can learn via youtube or online as well - you just won't get any feedback as to what you may be doing wrong. Learn scales, musical keys, etc.

Berklee College of Music runs a truly excellent, free online course called Introduction to Music Production. The next session (6 weeks) starts on April 28th, and it is the perfect way to get started.

You have 1000 questions but you haven't ask 1... lol

First, learn how to use the software (ex; ableton, if that's what you plan to use). So ya, learn it. Look for tutorials that make understand the software. Don't get ahead of yourself and try to make music without knowing what you're dealing with.

Second, learn how the instruments work. Plenty of youtube videos out there. I don't mean look at "how to make this sound." I'm talking about tutorials that explain what each knob does. Find 2-3 instruments that are really popular for the type of music you're making. I would stay away with the instruments from ableton, they sound shitty compared to other ones. My favorites are Massive, ANA, Omnisphere, Microtonic, and Punch.

Third, learn the plugins.

Fourth, start making music, and when you have questions, ask, research for specifics. You'll always be learning.

Having had the dream for 9 years and the tools for quite some time as well my advice is: start now. No pain, no gain my friend.