First off a disclaimer.
Music is hard. It's an obvious but undenyable statement. I've been making music for around three years and I still have aspects that I completely suck at.
So I'm going to warn you here, you will probably suck at first. Which is completely normal. Everyone sucks when they start out. Anyone who says otherwise is lying or selling you something.
You probably already know that, but I'm not going to leave it unsaid here. I wish I heard that when I started out since it would have saved me a lot of frustration.
Now for actual equipment rather then advice from the worlds worst producer.
You're going to need a DAW(Digital Audio Workstation).
Which one you need depends on the genre you want to make so I'll list a few here.
Ableton Live: $431 (for normal edition)
It's the one that you might have seen already. It's meant for live perfomance but can be used as a more traditional DAW as well.
If you want to play things live buy it. Otherwise just go with any other DAW as (at least for me) they do things better than Ableton. (at least without live play)
FL Studio: $200 (for the producer edition)
This is almost the opposite of ableton. Great for planned music. Not as great for live perfomance.
But it's half the price and (in my opinion) has better UI so I would reccomend.
LMMS: FREE!
I would start here. From what I remember it's a bit janky but I used a keyboard(typing) so you might want to get a midi keyboard first. But chances are you won't want to want to spend money so this is what I would go with.
BeepBox:
LinkNot really a DAW but it's a fun way to waste a afternoon and a great way to start making music. Plus there's an expanded unoffical version called "Cardboard box" which you can use if you want more sounds to choose from.
Renoise: $70
It's what I use but since it's not really a DAW(It's a tracker which is a rabbit hole I'm not about to explain since this is already long enough). I can't say I would reccomend it for beginners. But I love it to death so take that for what it's worth.
Once you have your equipment(assuming you don't already).
I would start by learning music theory. Some people say that it's not nessesary and to an extent they're right. But it does help when starting out and can help you make more complicated music as you get better and better. At the very least you should learn what chords, scales and notes are. If you already know that then you should be decently good to go.
If you want to learn there are countless tutorials online. Google is your best friend for learning music at the start.
You will also need VST's. There are countless of them out there but there are some good free starter ones.
Vital - The best free synthiziser(that i've found anyway)
Spitfire Audio - LABS: good instrument sample library.
Kilohearts - FX collection: Pretty much every effect you will need for now. They're not amazing but they are good enough and it's free so why not.
Valhalla - Supermassive: Just get it. Defined my music style and is a miracle product. The best reverb out there for any price.
If you have any other questions feel free to ask. As you can probably guess, I love ranting about making music for extended periods of time.
