Beginner EDM recommended equipment
Looks like Ableton has a pretty good monopoly. What are some alternative controller/software combinations to use?
Ableton does not have a monopoly… Lol. It’s just the best.
If you’re looking for good entry level stuff… Get an iPad. Lots of good apps for learning djing or production, and they are all cheap.
Traktor/NI contollers
Serato/Pioneer controllers
Demo Ableton, Traktor and Serato and see which one you prefer. After that you can pick a controller or hardware. And as Deejaesnafu said, Ableton doesn’t have a monopoly at all.
What exactly are you trying to do? Produce? DJ? Save the Princess?
A good marketing team … Lol
Depends on what it is you’re looking to do. For producing music, Ableton Live is great - awesome loop-based workflow, which works well for the bulk of EDM and just great fun to play around with.
If you’re looking to DJ EDM, Traktor or Serato are both heavy hitters - demo them both!
pioneer sb2 with serato is a classic starter setup
Honestly, everything is just a tool, and how you use it man. The biggest advice I can give you is to pick one or two things right now, and really just dive in. Ableton, ProTools, FL Studio, etc, It’s all just a different package. We can argue for days about which one is the most versatile or THE package to learn, but at the end of the day, it’ll be on you to learn your way around it, and eventually start to tailor it to work for you.
Controllers? Same deal dude. I’ve seen guys scratch on an S4 set, and it sound completely fine. Reason being, they had a particular sound they wanted, and they figured out a way to use their controller the way they wanted.
As far as EDM? It’s a pretty broad term, but I’d say get a simple MPK Mini, a basic producing package, and just lose yourself in it for a while. One of the best things to do after you feel pretty knowledgeable about your setup is to start re-creating sounds that you’re inspired by. Then take it a step further, and try to make your own progression for that song. Keep moving further and further off that baseline and you’ll end up growing in your own way and that’s awesome. By no means am I saying bite peoples’ styles, but definitely a solid place to start.
I didn’t get if you want it to DJ or to produce. If tou produce, Ableton/Bitwig (they’re very similar imo) and then download some demos of VST Synths and see what you like. I would recommend for EDM, Massive, Sylenth1, or in other ends, Nexus2