On a more serious note, modular music is an extremely interesting and growing area and just about every module is surprisingly expensive; I'm curious to how well this translates to virtual racks.
I want to get into music production but a barrier is that Omnisphere and FL Studio are $500 and have a super-limited trial version. As a grad student I'm not going to spend $500 for a piece of software I might be interested in using.
I would much rather have it be like software development where almost everything is free. And instead of paying upfront, synths / effects can make money by taking a cut of your revenue (I don't think that's like software development but it means synth producers still make revenue).
In fact, as with a lot of pirated soft/media the experience is superior. Licensing and DRM of music software is a headache - dongles, software centers and other bloat. Scene groups like R2R even optimize performance and patch out bugs in addition to cracking protections, making their releases superior than that of the original developers.
Otherwise have a look at Splice rent-to-own plugin licensing.
• Get Reaper. It’s a mainstream DAW, is fully functional, a free download, and only $60 to register after 90 days.
• Valhalla Supermassive for reverb: https://valhalladsp.com/shop/reverb/valhalla-supermassive/
• The VST fork of VCVrack for a modular synth: https://github.com/bsp2/VeeSeeVSTRack#downloads
I would get a keyboard controller with full sized keys and a 5-pin DIN MIDI out for just over $200, but that can come later.
One thing to avoid is the rabbit hole of concentrating on what gear to buy over actually making music with the gear.
No reason to get 5 pin DIN MIDI at this point; almost all devices offer USB MIDI and its as good as DIN MIDI in almost all scenarios.
[ EDIT: VCV Rack ] 2.0 will be out "soonish" which will offer an "official" VST (and if we're lucky, LV2 also) plugin, though at a price.
People's mileage will vary when it comes to the DAW. As the author of another (libre & open source) DAW, I get emails that vary from "Oh my god, I've used X and Y and Z and yours is so much easier to use and incredibly fast and reliable" to "how can you look at yourself in a mirror when you make such shit software". Reaper works for a bunch of people, but not for another bunch, as is the case for most DAWs.
DAWless setups are definitely a thing, and you need DIN MIDI to connect the keyboard directly to a sound module (USB can only be connected to a computer).
It is a $50-$100 extra investment to get a quality keyboard with DIN MIDI, but those quality keyboards come with better software and have a better build quality to them.
It’s a lot better to spend the extra money up front to get a keyboard with a DIN MIDI connection (e.g. an Arturia Keylab or Novation Launchkey) than to have something which will need a hacked together USB-to-DIN box (and I notice I haven’t seen any names of make and models of MIDI USB to DIN boxes which supposedly will always work) if they ever want to go DAWless.
Ableton Live Suite has a tremendous amount of tools out of the box and contains everything you need to make music with. Look for second hand copies on forums. You'll likely be able to pick a copy up for $400 or so. You could buy that and never buy any software again.
> And instead of paying upfront, synths / effects can make money by taking a cut of your revenue
Hahahaha, have you asked how much the average electronic music producer makes vs the average software dev? ;)
I imagine there are oodles of cheap DAW(s) that will at least let you sequence and mix everything together. Technically, I don't think you need a DAW, if you're just playing (though obviously that's a very limited use case). I feel like you could even record tracks into Audacity straight from the instrument
There are TONS of great sounding free VSTs and some very good cheap ones. Some of them can be gotten at a deep discount (though you're usually shelling out $50-100+), but the MSRP is something outrageous. I don't want to shill, but you can "rent-to-own" for zero fee now (don't know how many DAWs are available, but plugins for sure.
It doesn't HAVE to be expensive, though there's probably some stuff you'll inevitably be tempted to buy, as with any hobbies. Is dropping eg. $100-500 on a hobby once or twice a year "expensive"? It's also pretty easy to get into and buy things as you go. You really don't have to drop thousands of dollars on tons of software.
You don't have to pay a dime. Don't quote me on this, but I think there's a major free modular simulator that's pretty good. You could get some solid vintage synths, some drum machine/groovebox, and effects for like $50-80.
If you think about everything going into it that's a ton of functionality for your buck, especially compared with traditional hardware synths. I have $3-5k in my rig (plus I buy VSTs), and it's still relatively basic. I don't own a single high end synth, my most expensive would be considered midrange at ~$1200... ONE BOX ... you could buy so much fucking software for that, it's crazy.
BTW almost none of this is necessary for you to experiment and create. You need very little... like 1-5 vsts, some utility(s), and minimal plug-in. I encourage OP and anyone reading this to create if they have the urge. I'm 100% positive you can get into it at any price point. Paying more money won't help you as much as you think here. Much better to keep it small and master one box at a time.
>I would much rather have it be like software development where almost everything is free. And instead of paying upfront, synths / effects can make money by taking a cut of your revenue (I don't think that's like software development but it means synth producers still make revenue).
I have to disagree with you there. First of all, I don't agree with this generalization, as it seems very focused on your own background. There are lots of people selling software (including design tools), sometimes for outrageous prices, if it's sought after.
It seems like almost all software is sold. I don't know how this business model is supposed to work. This is how small to medium sized software companies work. They have to sell to as many people as possible TBH, because most of their userbase is going to make $0.
I think your frame of reference is out of wack regarding what stuff costs, because we're getting screaming bargains on soft things (eg. media, newspapers, ect.) This "everything must be" free attitude is really toxic and having some troubling effects. I think it would also be hard to prove what people are using, and enforce this. Even for recordings, but so much money is made live.
Wow, what a tirade. Sorry folks, but I wanted to get that out there.
Quality DSP from Xfer Records (Serum), Fabfilter (Many amazing data viz plugs and good sounding compressor, limiter, gate, multi band eq, saturator, etc), izoTope (trash2 distortion) etc etc etc have been worth every cent for their clarity and performance.
Carefully shop around for some of these and you will realize that money does actually buy real quality sometimes. But only sometimes. Most quality products has free limited demos that can be very informative.
Sometimes free/libre stuff is also amazing, like Dexed. And perhaps also Bespoke - I’ll definitely be trying it out, and sending $$$ if I think I’ll use it.
There are countless free VSTs that are very, very good. KVRAudio is a good news source for what's happening in VST World, both paid and free.
There are also numerous plug-in discount stores (Audio Plugin Deals, Plugin Boutique, Emmett VST Buzz, and others) that regularly sell mainstream VSTs at hugely discounted sale prices.
Free DAWs are harder to find, but you can get intro-level DAWs with enough features to get started for less than $200.
On a Mac Logic Pro is $199, which is a full-featured DAW with a solid collection of virtual instruments.
Ableton Live Lite (1 step up from intro) comes free with a lot of music gear. I had a bunch of licenses lying around because it came with my USB audio box, my MIDI keyboard, etc etc.
Also consider FL Studio. Unlike nearly everyone else it comes with free lifetime updates. Like Ableton, every edition except the cheapest has a ton of plugins to cover nearly every need. My license is almost 20 years old, and I'm still running the latest version. Easily the best money my broke-student ass ever spent.
That alone makes me want to donate.
Can it work as a VST plugin ?
I wouldn't mind feature bounties for a project like this.