I've been wanting to produce for over a year, but right now I'm still saving cash for equipment and occasionally buying records.

My question is this, what exactly am I going to need (hardware wise) to hook everything into my comp, what is a good synth to purchase, and what software is good to sequence everything, along with plug-ins for effects and stuff.

I like to be very educated on anything before I start it so I'm trying to gather knowledge. any help is greatly appreciated.

BTW, I'm more into progressive & tribal (IE Bedrock, Satoshi Tomiie) then I am into trance but I work with both.

Thanx again.

___________________
Underground until I'm underground!
Rob Noli ICQ 58688108
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for progressive you kinda use the same tools as for trance so that doesn't matter. If you have a soundcard that enables MIDI (most cards do nowadays) and you have a joystickport you're set. You need to buy a cable that you plug into the joystick-port and on the other end of the cable then there are 2 plugs, MIDI in and MIDI out (and occasionaly a plug where you can put your joystick in). A couple of nice sequencers are the following, Cakewalk Sonar (works with DX plugins), Cubase VST(works with VST plugins) and Logic.
None is really convincibly better than the others, making it much a matter of personal taste (there are programs out there that'll let you convert VST's into DX plugs). Same goes for synths, there is not one you absolutely need, no 2 studios are the same, and even if they are the same they will sound different. So try it all out as much as you can.

get any 1 of these --> Virus B, Virus KB ot the Virus Indigo

My suggestions for a synth are: Novation Supernova, Supernova II, Access Virus B, and Waldorf Q. I have the supernova, and I must say it is the best sounding thing I've ever heard. You could probably make ALL trance sounds with it, Bass, Lead's, Arps, Strings, FX. It's amazing. I paid $1800 canadian for it, used. You should really research to see what you need. My beast is expanded to 44 voice polyphony, 6 fx per sound, 8 multitimeral. If you get a Rackmount synth (which I suggest to save some money) then you need a MIDI controller Keyboard. I Have a beautiful Roland PC-70, it does the job, that was $250 canadian. I then use a device called Midiman "midisport 2x2" to connect MIDI to my computer through USB. tht was $130 canadian. Then you need the sequencer program, which I use Cakewalk 9.0 and it's great. But, u need a really powerfull cpu in order to make complex tracks. My pentium 400 mhz, 128 ram couldnt record 8 tracks of Midi, and 4 tracks of wav files.. so I had to get a new PC. pentium 4 1700mhz, 1024MB ram. now I've had ZERO problems with recording with this. You will probably need a program for drums, I use Reason. You could get a drum machine, I have a Korg ER-1, but I dont really use it for my songs, sounds too analog. Then u need a mixer. I have a stanton SK5, (with my tables) .. only 2 channels, so I'm gonna need a better one now. Probably a Vestax. I suggest a good sound system too, it makes it so much better to hear the quality of what you're actually making. I have a 400watt kenwood amp, hooked up to two 16.5" monitors and an 8" sub, and it sounds spectacular. that was a $700 sound system hooked up to my pc. I must tell you, don't get stuff at full price. Get it used off the internet (I recommend ebay. or www.djgear.com, very reliable) or get mad sales. paying full price is just to draining. hope this helps