I started from scratch with ableton and have worked my way up to make decent techno music. [0] I've watched a ton of YouTube channels on production and just fiddled around with every effect. It's best to start out with a basic loop you enjoy and then iterate on it [1], if you're not feeling it, put it aside and work on another loop and come back later. In my opinion the most important thing is to try and imitate the things you like because it reveals a lot about the music, which is a good learning experience, and additionally about your own way of hearing etc. It's also important to see theory as a sort of praxis, most of the stuff is empiric and after the fact, nothing really matters, but it's useful to know for when you're stuck.

[0]: https://m.soundcloud.com/someotherorder/of-necessity-absolut...

[1]: https://m.soundcloud.com/someotherorder/vile-break/s-e7EV6

From talking to professional producers I know, it takes roughly 10 years of practice to produce music that’s professional quality. Those stories you see of 18 year old DJ’s knocking out number one records? Most of them have been taking music classes since they were small children (or someone else is producing their music for them).

So if you suck at it, that’s normal. You just have to stick with it.

> Is there any good tutorial or course out there on how to evolve from making a thing create random noises to actual music?

Like anything else, you have to study it and do it a lot. I'm just starting myself. If you like book learnin', I read the book 'How Music Really Works' by Wayne Chase and found it very helpful in moving from making fun 10 second loops to actual songs. And of course learning an instrument (synths are instruments) is a whole separate task on top of learning how to compose music.

>Is there any good tutorial or course out there on how to evolve from making a thing create random noises to actual music?

I can't name any specific tutorial, but what you need to understand are the ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release) controls of samplers (and synthesizers), they're essentially sculpting tools for sound tones, and then the placement of these tones within a sequence, and expanding these sequences into song sections and an entire song.

If you want to to get somewhere quickly I'd start with mixing songs (DJ'ing) and then enhance those mixes with your own sounds, sections and later songs. Otherwise you'll need much longer until you're able to make a song, or get to something you're happy with.

Due to the ubiquity of music in our culture we're all experts basically, and hitting that bar is difficult if you start without a context like a mix that can guide your decisions.

Ableton is a DAW you could check out, it touches all aspects of music production and sound design and even DJ'ing, making it possible to approach production from different angles within the same program. Their learning resources are great.

Being familiar with programming could also help, because the way things are laid out and cascade is similar.

You might be thinking of a different korg product. The monologue is a pure analog budget monosynth. Which can totally do beat patterns using the onboard sequencer with a bit of clever motion sequencing.