Newb here with quite a few questions.

Dripstep is on point. To add to that advice, I don't understand why you're so eager to keep spending money when you don't actually know what you need or why you need the things you're talking about. You already have a PC, copy of Traktor and two great controllers. About the only thing you really need is an external soundcard with the right inputs/outputs.

Spend some time reading and learning. Once you understand what a specific piece of gear does and why you use it you'll have a much better idea of how you can incorporate it in to your setup and whether you actually need it or not.

Oh btw, DAW stands for Digital Audio Workstation. It's the software you use for producing and recording music. Ableton is a bit of a special case in that it's been designed specifically for ease of use during live performances. Due to this it's very easy to make it work for DJing.

I know im jumping into this a bit fast, but its only because i started and then got sidetracked. I got way too much goin on in my life atm, but i have a lot of time to sit down and think about things, kill time, or do something productive.

I play a lot of guitar, so mainly i wanna be able to record covers of songs ive had. That and the same goes for a song on the piano i wanna record. I have a mic, a midi keyboard, and a full keyboard. Thats not what i wanna focus on yet, but i wanna save this knowledge or music or what have you.

What i wanna start learning to do is mixing music. So i wanna focus on using my midi fighter and my vci 100 with traktor since i have it already it. So is it well known that traktor is an easier platform to learn on than ableton?

Im not really gonna go all out, i kinda just wanna dip my toe in and check out a bunch of different things and then pick one to dedicate my time towards, and move on from there.

Thanks for the good suggestions, im gonna have to check that out. Do you think a 7200 rpm external hard drive will be good enough to keep my music on for mixing.

Edit:
Yeah i understand vermilion, im not eager to spend money tho. I just wanna make sure i know what i need. Im not about to go spend the money on sound cards yet. I already have everything i need as you mentioned. So the only thing i would need now would be a way to split the audio like i mentioned before. And i dont know how to do that with my current sound card and because i was told i should get an external sound card to split the sound i assumed either i couldnt do it with my current sound card, or it wasnt worth attempting.

Mainly i just wanna figure out whether i really need to buy this external sound card or not, and get some feedback on what im doing and what direction im heading or should be heading.

Clearly you can tell i have a passion for music, so i just wanna experience everything i can, i just hate being frustrated, and technology is very frustrating. For example ive spent 2 months doing research on setting up my new gaming rig and have been getting tossed back n forth over what seem to be opinions and not facts. In on ear i hear i should go take the left path, in the other im being told to take the right path, if u get what im saying.

Umm. What kind of timeframe are you allowing yourself to learn all this? You do realize it will probably take you AT MINIMUM a year or two to become proficient at all that gear...

I'd say step one is to identify what you want to do most, and then learn it.

Worry about combining it all way WAY down the road.

Personally I think you still need to do a lot of reading and or find a good mentor to start teaching you things from the very very beginning. From your post it seems you bought a lot of gear without any idea what it does.

Also, if you find traktor to be too challenging, with all the fabulous videos and tutorials out there, you are going to find most music production to fall in the area of "god mode impossible".

Music takes work, practice, and more work.

Good luck!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jay Wilde

Umm. What kind of timeframe are you allowing yourself to learn all this? You do realize it will probably take you AT MINIMUM a year or two to become proficient at all that gear...

I'd say step one is to identify what you want to do most, and then learn it.

Worry about combining it all way WAY down the road.

Personally I think you still need to do a lot of reading and or find a good mentor to start teaching you things from the very very beginning. From your post it seems you bought a lot of gear without any idea what it does.

Also, if you find traktor to be too challenging, with all the fabulous videos and tutorials out there, you are going to find most music production to fall in the area of "god mode impossible".

Music takes work, practice, and more work.

Good luck!

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Thanks i appreciate the post, but im allowing myself a good 20 years if need be. Im 21, ive loved music all my life. I know how to play music and sing. And i know electronics fairly well. I dont let anyone touch my computers, and i build em myself, plus ive never not built a gaming beast so i always have to be on top of myself.
I can use traktor i just need to read more about it. I was very put off when i did everything i was told by the blog and on the forums to the T and traktor didnt do what they said it would. Just some simple effect so i can tweak a sound or something. No one could figure out why traktor wouldnt let me access this feature, so since i have a back injury i kinda gave up on it for quite a few months.

I will always love my guitar but i dont see it as my main instrument per se. If i wanna pick up any kind of instrument and or get better at one it would be piano.

If im lucky i wont have to hold a job when im done with school. I have my mother and myself and as long as everything goes smoothly our properties will keep us better than afloat without either of us needing to hold a job. But i always gotta have a plan/back up plan to be safe.

That means ill be able to focus entirely on music with all the time i have. I wanna focus on learning to mix electronic music atm, ill get into hip hop later, man i love my hip hop XP. I really dont care how long it takes me, i mean i wanna learn as fast but as proficiently as possible. And if i wind up being 50 making music for video games that 13 year old kids play, ill still be one happy old dude.

Thanks for all the info guys, i think that just about answered all my questions and now i know where to start and where im gonna be headin. Lets just hope i dont run into another one of these brick walls as i like to call em.

Share with us. What's your plan? What will you start with? What short term goals do you have? Just curious.