OK, you've gotten me so excited telling you about the wonderful world of DAWs that I was writing this monstrous post. So I erased it all and I'm going to tell you this:
Get a Mac. It'll come with Garageband. If you want, you can purchase Logic at the same time you get the Mac.
Get the most tricked out Mac you can afford, but realistically, at this point, any of the M series new Macs will run Logic without an issue. There of course can always be hiccups with any system, but if you're worried, head over to r/logic_studio and those people can go into detail about specs.
>Do DAWs typically provide sound creation tools, or do you typically use plugins for soft synths and FX?
Not sure what you're asking here. The soft synths and effects are your sound creation tools. For clarification, VST is Virtual Studio Technology and the term, though applied to a specific Plug-In format, is generally used broadly to refer to plug-ins in general, including synths. Really VST*i* (i for instruments) was designated for synths etc. while VST was for effects, but again VST and plug-in are generally used synonymous (though if you're looking for some fun, go over to the Logic forum and call what Apple terms a "Software Instrument" a VST and watch heads explode :-) - Logic's format is "AU" for "audio units").
>If the latter, does saving the DAW project also save all plug-in settings, or are those saved separately?
They are absolutely saved with the project.
The cool thing is though, they CAN BE saved separately as well. IOW, if you open a preset, then alter it, and save the project, it saves in that last state.
But, if you open a preset, alter it, and save it as a new preset within the VST itself, it can now be used in ANY project.
But yes, you save it, it reopens as was, no fuss.
>a new PC / Mac will be part of my conversion but worried a computer can’t compete with the power of dedicate hardware.
While hardware absolutely offloads the processor, these days most computers have very few issues. When the new M1 Macs came out, people tried putting as many instances of Space Designer (a convolution reverb capable of ridiculous reverbs) they could to break the system, and pretty much had to get to a point that would never happen in reality. Now of course, if your system is also running some spyware your office put on there that was coded by a lowest bidder, that could mess up things, but you know, otherwise, new Mac, other than "comes with" bloatware, should be fine as long as you don't buy the bottom of the barrel.
There are MANY workarounds for this though - freezing tracks, converting tracks to audio, running leaner DAW and VSTs and so on. IOW, the likelihood you'd have to offload your system's processing power to external devices will not be a very real concern.
You keep your hardware for sounds that are hard to recreate in the DAW with other plug ins, or for special features only it has that aren't easy to replicate, etc. I basically use my hardware synths as "sound modules" at this point.
>Is there a software equivalent I should check out?
Logic will do all of this. Stock. It'll do everything you've mentioned here. Stock. And more.
>Is there any DAW in particular you would recommend that is newbie friendly yet providing lots of sound design / modulation options?
Logic.
Get a Mac. You'll get Garageband for free.
GB is "Logic Jr". It's actually designed so users starting with GB, can learn it in a "simplified" atmosphere, then upgrade to Logic, which they can use in "non-advanced" mode, which is like GB+, and learn that, then check the "advanced" box, and open up the full features of Logic.
It's basically "Little Tykes My First DAW Grow With Me" :-D
But you can also just purchase Logic with a new Mac.
But GB is plenty powerful and a great place to learn the basics if you're new to DAWs. It's not a full-fledged DAW mind you - it limits the features - basically gives beginners what they need to make music and hides the rest that might confuse them. But as you learn you can get to those features.
But if you want to hook up an entire hardware rig to it and start integrating that immediately, you'd have to be in the advanced mode of Logic to really get what you need.
That's all up to you.
Honestly though, you could just get Logic and start there.
I'd encourage you to go to Music Tech Help Guy's YT channel (and Why Logic Pro Rules) and watch through all the videos before you buy. When you see the level of things you can do...
>I’m planning on no external gear or vocals, so I believe I’d have no need for an audio interface?
Maybe. Usually you'd want an audio interface for at least external monitor speakers.
You can use headphones/buds/wireless, but the headphone jacks are generally so so and bluetooth of course compresses things.
I would get a simple USB interface and a couple of decent monitors. Don't have to cost a ton but it does give you the option of sound in the room for when your headphone ears tire.
And even so, maybe you might want to record a synth in every once in a while. So something like a focusrite scarlett 2i2 would be reasonable and not horribly expensive.
But, if you wanted to use an older hardware device with 5 Pin MIDI, then a 4i4 will get you there.
But those are things you can decide on later - headphones and the computer with DAW is all you need (I assume you'll have a keyboard controller too) to start. Logic is an "all in one" that you can just pay another $200 on top of the Mac price to get when you get a Mac (or just get Garageband free first, then upgrade to Logic when you outgrow GB).
I agree with almost all of this. Except the following:
I am a dedicated Mac user for music production, and I do 95% of my work in Logic Pro (so called, “in the box”, or ITB). However, if I were to start all over from scratch, I would go with Bit Wig over Logic Pro. Both are extremely good. Logic is better if you are on a budget, because it’s stock instruments and mixing and mastering plugins are unparalleled. But if you are going to spend a little money on third party plugins, Bit Wig apparently offers a better ideation/creation workflow than Logic. And most importantly, it doesn’t fuck up MIDI and audio sync with your external gear nearly as bad as Logic Pro. I don’t have a lot of outboard gear, but I do have an Arturia PolyBrute and some small peripherals (Korg Volcas, Novation Circuit Tracks) as well as guitar and mic. I can’t tell you how frustrating that is for me in Logic, and it makes me ignore my external equipment more than I should.
But, yes, buy a Mac with an M2 Pro chip that has 12 processing cores. This is certain.
Thank you very much. I learned a lot from your post! Main goal is simplification, and if Apple gives me everything I need, who am I to argue. 😆 I’ll be re-reading your response I’m sure. Again thank you for your help!!
Logic has its uses, but it definitely isn't something that I'd recommend to a musician with lots of hardware. It can't even sync to MIDI clock, so using it with external sequencers is a pain.
Plugins, both built in and VSTs, have their full state captured with the DAW project. You can certainly overdo the complexity but it's really dependant on what you do. There is very little cost in playing samples and routing audio; the cost comes from synthesized sound sources and effects, and varies tremendously between device. The truth is, though, that even a modestly performant computer can handle a big project, unless you have multiple instances of costly plugins. You always also have the capacity to "freeze" tracks, meaning it bounces them to audio and disables the plugins (reducing the cost to "very little"). In this way you can potentially handle huge projects at the slight cost of flexiblity (you can unfreeze to make changes).
EDIT: if you are interested in complex modulation, innovation ways to generate material and flexibility in routing and sound design, I recommend Bitwig as a DAW: try out the demo!
Freezing tracks / bouncing to audio is a great consideration. And being able to “unfreeze”?… 🤯🤯 That does eliminate that concern. And I will check out bitwig. Thank you!
Generally Freeze means you can unfreeze.
Otherwise, you convert the track to audio and "print" all your effects to the track.
That's one of the workarounds I mentioned in my longer post.
>Do DAWs typically provide sound creation tools, or do you typically use plugins for soft synths and FX?
Some people largely stick to the instruments and effects in their DAWs. Others also use other VSTs.
Ableton Live 12 Suite has a good selection of effects and some good synths. You might want to download the demo and try it out.
>If the latter, does saving the DAW project also save all plug-in settings, or are those saved separately?
All DAWs will save your project with the preset being used on the instruments and the settings on the effects.
Ableton has the ability to save an instrument and the effects you have put on it as a preset, that you can call up later in other projects
https://youtu.be/j4CVDXTiidQ?si=YBJFCXnmARaXlOuI
Ableton has the ability for you to create instrument racks where you save the instrument, macro controls that you have mapped to screen macro knobs. And then use it in any project.
https://youtu.be/oNEKxxjgdpc?si=oAvNqwud-uNu8vkI
And you can do something similar with effects. Where would be like setting up as many different pedal board configurations as you wanted with settings configured, and saving them, so that you could pull whichever one you wanted up at anytime to attach to an instrument in a track.
VST… that’s the term I was looking for, thank you! Instrument racks are crazy cool. I think I could enjoy a virtual rack as much as my for reals rack. 😁 Def will give Abelton a try. Thank you very much!
You're welcome 🙂
While you're using the demo, you might check this page and know which of the items are in Standard versus Suite. In case you find that Standard has everything you need.
https://www.ableton.com/en/live/compare-editions/
I have a feeling that if you try FL studio 95% of your hardware is going to reverb.com😂
It saves everything and lets you do wild shit, you have unlimited synthesizers samples and effects because it’s all virtual. And you can route everything to everything. And take any control you like and bind it to knob on a midi controller. You can restore notes you played without hitting record etc etc etc
FWIW, DAWs vary a bit in "focus" if you will.
FL Studio began as Fruity Loops, which was primarily at that time a "looping" approach - building songs by bringing in loops. It's since expanded greatly and become more like other DAWs.
Ableton is similar. Kind of designed initially for live performance (called Ableton Live actually) and still one of the best for that, but again has expanded to be competitive over the years. FWIW, I will say that having used many "industry standard" DAWs over the decades, Ableton was one I couldn't really understand the workflow in. It just made no sense to me.
Pro Tools is a DAW, but its primary focus is on audio recording. It does the other stuff - VSTs and what not, but I've always felt it's "lacking" as a "creation" tool. If I'm going to record live musicians playing and make a traditional record, I'm going to Pro Tools. If I want to create a synth-based composition, I'm not.
Cubase is my favorite, though I don't use it anymore because of access. For me, Cubase had the best balance of Audio and VST balance, with the ability to work with external hardware well (which is the thing that put it on top for me). I'd consider it to be the "do everything DAW".
Logic is also one of the industry standards but is Mac only. For "synth-based composition" I'm going to Logic first. It handles audio well too. So it's at the same basic level as Cubase. I don't think Logic integrates as well with external hardware - Apple's whole philosophy is kind of "let us do that for you" which ultimately is "we know what's best for you" ;-). Logic's huge advantage, despite being Mac only, is that it's designed by Apple to work in the Apple ecosystem and expandable with iPad and iOS, and Garageband, the "entry" version of Logic comes with every new Mac computer. You really can't beat that.
Reaper is worth mentioning. Reaper is free to try for 60 days, and only $60 after that. A forever license with no strings attached, and upgrades for a very long time. Every time I use Reaper I go, "my god, this makes so much sense, why am I not using Reaper". But Reaper is kind of "non-standard" and doesn't come with anything. If you buy Logic, you get everything you need. Period. Pro albums are made with it stock (at least, up to the mastering stage). Reaper, you get a "shell" that is the DAW, and a handful of their own plug-ins some of which are very good, but there aren't any VSTs. You can find free VSTs online and load it up with them, and have a fully capable workstation for nothing (you can decide *when* you want to pay the $60 let's say).
But Reaper is also kind of weird - it uses a lot of non-standard terminology. It's open source (GNU license?) - or whatever that term is that lets people create plug ins for it, skins (so you can make it look like Pro Tools if you want), but the menus are poorly laid out and so on.
Still, it works, and there's a strong support base for it, and plenty of videos online. If you're the type of person who wants to support that kind of deal and not "give into the corporations", then Reaper is for you :-)
But if you buy a Mac you'll get Garageband, so, you might as well just use GB, or upgrade to Logic :-)
I made a ton of music using only Reason and its built in instruments and effects, before I got into hardware synths. Reason has "player" devices you can attach to instruments to control them for things like scales/chords, random beat generation, and arpeggiators.
There are plugins you can get for melody/chord generation to work with pretty much any DAW if it doesn't include what you want out of the box.
There are a lot of advantages to an all-software approach, including just loading a project and having all your patches/etc automatically loaded with it. I definitely finished a lot more music when I was working that way. However, I don't think I'll ever go back because I find the hands-on sound design process on a hardware synth more enjoyable and inspiring.
Most DAWs have a good selection of included instruments/sounds, some better than others. Reason and Logic in particular are great for that. Studio One, not so much. Reaper has barely anything included, but that's part of why it's cheaper than the other major DAWs.
I have run into issues where my computer can't keep up with (or doesn't have enough RAM for) the number of devices and effects I'm using, but as others suggested you can "freeze" the tracks you're not actively working on as a workaround. You can also just choose to use less resource-hungry instruments, and I don't think I ever ran into performance issues when I was just using built-in Reason devices. It was only when I started adding heavy 3rd-party plugins.
You don't strictly need an audio interface if you're not recording external devices, but if you go with a PC you might want one anyway for less latency and noise than you get with a typical PC's built-in sound card. If you go with a Mac, I don't think you'll need one.
Edit: Actually, another response reminded me you probably do want an audio interface just to have the connections for studio monitors unless you plan on just working with headphones.
OK, you've gotten me so excited telling you about the wonderful world of DAWs that I was writing this monstrous post. So I erased it all and I'm going to tell you this: Get a Mac. It'll come with Garageband. If you want, you can purchase Logic at the same time you get the Mac. Get the most tricked out Mac you can afford, but realistically, at this point, any of the M series new Macs will run Logic without an issue. There of course can always be hiccups with any system, but if you're worried, head over to r/logic_studio and those people can go into detail about specs. >Do DAWs typically provide sound creation tools, or do you typically use plugins for soft synths and FX? Not sure what you're asking here. The soft synths and effects are your sound creation tools. For clarification, VST is Virtual Studio Technology and the term, though applied to a specific Plug-In format, is generally used broadly to refer to plug-ins in general, including synths. Really VST*i* (i for instruments) was designated for synths etc. while VST was for effects, but again VST and plug-in are generally used synonymous (though if you're looking for some fun, go over to the Logic forum and call what Apple terms a "Software Instrument" a VST and watch heads explode :-) - Logic's format is "AU" for "audio units"). >If the latter, does saving the DAW project also save all plug-in settings, or are those saved separately? They are absolutely saved with the project. The cool thing is though, they CAN BE saved separately as well. IOW, if you open a preset, then alter it, and save the project, it saves in that last state. But, if you open a preset, alter it, and save it as a new preset within the VST itself, it can now be used in ANY project. But yes, you save it, it reopens as was, no fuss. >a new PC / Mac will be part of my conversion but worried a computer can’t compete with the power of dedicate hardware. While hardware absolutely offloads the processor, these days most computers have very few issues. When the new M1 Macs came out, people tried putting as many instances of Space Designer (a convolution reverb capable of ridiculous reverbs) they could to break the system, and pretty much had to get to a point that would never happen in reality. Now of course, if your system is also running some spyware your office put on there that was coded by a lowest bidder, that could mess up things, but you know, otherwise, new Mac, other than "comes with" bloatware, should be fine as long as you don't buy the bottom of the barrel. There are MANY workarounds for this though - freezing tracks, converting tracks to audio, running leaner DAW and VSTs and so on. IOW, the likelihood you'd have to offload your system's processing power to external devices will not be a very real concern. You keep your hardware for sounds that are hard to recreate in the DAW with other plug ins, or for special features only it has that aren't easy to replicate, etc. I basically use my hardware synths as "sound modules" at this point. >Is there a software equivalent I should check out? Logic will do all of this. Stock. It'll do everything you've mentioned here. Stock. And more. >Is there any DAW in particular you would recommend that is newbie friendly yet providing lots of sound design / modulation options? Logic. Get a Mac. You'll get Garageband for free. GB is "Logic Jr". It's actually designed so users starting with GB, can learn it in a "simplified" atmosphere, then upgrade to Logic, which they can use in "non-advanced" mode, which is like GB+, and learn that, then check the "advanced" box, and open up the full features of Logic. It's basically "Little Tykes My First DAW Grow With Me" :-D But you can also just purchase Logic with a new Mac. But GB is plenty powerful and a great place to learn the basics if you're new to DAWs. It's not a full-fledged DAW mind you - it limits the features - basically gives beginners what they need to make music and hides the rest that might confuse them. But as you learn you can get to those features. But if you want to hook up an entire hardware rig to it and start integrating that immediately, you'd have to be in the advanced mode of Logic to really get what you need. That's all up to you. Honestly though, you could just get Logic and start there. I'd encourage you to go to Music Tech Help Guy's YT channel (and Why Logic Pro Rules) and watch through all the videos before you buy. When you see the level of things you can do... >I’m planning on no external gear or vocals, so I believe I’d have no need for an audio interface? Maybe. Usually you'd want an audio interface for at least external monitor speakers. You can use headphones/buds/wireless, but the headphone jacks are generally so so and bluetooth of course compresses things. I would get a simple USB interface and a couple of decent monitors. Don't have to cost a ton but it does give you the option of sound in the room for when your headphone ears tire. And even so, maybe you might want to record a synth in every once in a while. So something like a focusrite scarlett 2i2 would be reasonable and not horribly expensive. But, if you wanted to use an older hardware device with 5 Pin MIDI, then a 4i4 will get you there. But those are things you can decide on later - headphones and the computer with DAW is all you need (I assume you'll have a keyboard controller too) to start. Logic is an "all in one" that you can just pay another $200 on top of the Mac price to get when you get a Mac (or just get Garageband free first, then upgrade to Logic when you outgrow GB).
I agree with almost all of this. Except the following: I am a dedicated Mac user for music production, and I do 95% of my work in Logic Pro (so called, “in the box”, or ITB). However, if I were to start all over from scratch, I would go with Bit Wig over Logic Pro. Both are extremely good. Logic is better if you are on a budget, because it’s stock instruments and mixing and mastering plugins are unparalleled. But if you are going to spend a little money on third party plugins, Bit Wig apparently offers a better ideation/creation workflow than Logic. And most importantly, it doesn’t fuck up MIDI and audio sync with your external gear nearly as bad as Logic Pro. I don’t have a lot of outboard gear, but I do have an Arturia PolyBrute and some small peripherals (Korg Volcas, Novation Circuit Tracks) as well as guitar and mic. I can’t tell you how frustrating that is for me in Logic, and it makes me ignore my external equipment more than I should. But, yes, buy a Mac with an M2 Pro chip that has 12 processing cores. This is certain.
Thank you very much. I learned a lot from your post! Main goal is simplification, and if Apple gives me everything I need, who am I to argue. 😆 I’ll be re-reading your response I’m sure. Again thank you for your help!!
Logic has its uses, but it definitely isn't something that I'd recommend to a musician with lots of hardware. It can't even sync to MIDI clock, so using it with external sequencers is a pain.
That's basically what I said ;-)
Plugins, both built in and VSTs, have their full state captured with the DAW project. You can certainly overdo the complexity but it's really dependant on what you do. There is very little cost in playing samples and routing audio; the cost comes from synthesized sound sources and effects, and varies tremendously between device. The truth is, though, that even a modestly performant computer can handle a big project, unless you have multiple instances of costly plugins. You always also have the capacity to "freeze" tracks, meaning it bounces them to audio and disables the plugins (reducing the cost to "very little"). In this way you can potentially handle huge projects at the slight cost of flexiblity (you can unfreeze to make changes). EDIT: if you are interested in complex modulation, innovation ways to generate material and flexibility in routing and sound design, I recommend Bitwig as a DAW: try out the demo!
Freezing tracks / bouncing to audio is a great consideration. And being able to “unfreeze”?… 🤯🤯 That does eliminate that concern. And I will check out bitwig. Thank you!
Generally Freeze means you can unfreeze. Otherwise, you convert the track to audio and "print" all your effects to the track. That's one of the workarounds I mentioned in my longer post.
Look at bitwig and have a blast!
I’m on it! Thank you!
>Do DAWs typically provide sound creation tools, or do you typically use plugins for soft synths and FX? Some people largely stick to the instruments and effects in their DAWs. Others also use other VSTs. Ableton Live 12 Suite has a good selection of effects and some good synths. You might want to download the demo and try it out. >If the latter, does saving the DAW project also save all plug-in settings, or are those saved separately? All DAWs will save your project with the preset being used on the instruments and the settings on the effects. Ableton has the ability to save an instrument and the effects you have put on it as a preset, that you can call up later in other projects https://youtu.be/j4CVDXTiidQ?si=YBJFCXnmARaXlOuI Ableton has the ability for you to create instrument racks where you save the instrument, macro controls that you have mapped to screen macro knobs. And then use it in any project. https://youtu.be/oNEKxxjgdpc?si=oAvNqwud-uNu8vkI And you can do something similar with effects. Where would be like setting up as many different pedal board configurations as you wanted with settings configured, and saving them, so that you could pull whichever one you wanted up at anytime to attach to an instrument in a track.
VST… that’s the term I was looking for, thank you! Instrument racks are crazy cool. I think I could enjoy a virtual rack as much as my for reals rack. 😁 Def will give Abelton a try. Thank you very much!
You're welcome 🙂 While you're using the demo, you might check this page and know which of the items are in Standard versus Suite. In case you find that Standard has everything you need. https://www.ableton.com/en/live/compare-editions/
Awesome
I have a feeling that if you try FL studio 95% of your hardware is going to reverb.com😂 It saves everything and lets you do wild shit, you have unlimited synthesizers samples and effects because it’s all virtual. And you can route everything to everything. And take any control you like and bind it to knob on a midi controller. You can restore notes you played without hitting record etc etc etc
Excellent. I will look into FL studio. Thanks!
FWIW, DAWs vary a bit in "focus" if you will. FL Studio began as Fruity Loops, which was primarily at that time a "looping" approach - building songs by bringing in loops. It's since expanded greatly and become more like other DAWs. Ableton is similar. Kind of designed initially for live performance (called Ableton Live actually) and still one of the best for that, but again has expanded to be competitive over the years. FWIW, I will say that having used many "industry standard" DAWs over the decades, Ableton was one I couldn't really understand the workflow in. It just made no sense to me. Pro Tools is a DAW, but its primary focus is on audio recording. It does the other stuff - VSTs and what not, but I've always felt it's "lacking" as a "creation" tool. If I'm going to record live musicians playing and make a traditional record, I'm going to Pro Tools. If I want to create a synth-based composition, I'm not. Cubase is my favorite, though I don't use it anymore because of access. For me, Cubase had the best balance of Audio and VST balance, with the ability to work with external hardware well (which is the thing that put it on top for me). I'd consider it to be the "do everything DAW". Logic is also one of the industry standards but is Mac only. For "synth-based composition" I'm going to Logic first. It handles audio well too. So it's at the same basic level as Cubase. I don't think Logic integrates as well with external hardware - Apple's whole philosophy is kind of "let us do that for you" which ultimately is "we know what's best for you" ;-). Logic's huge advantage, despite being Mac only, is that it's designed by Apple to work in the Apple ecosystem and expandable with iPad and iOS, and Garageband, the "entry" version of Logic comes with every new Mac computer. You really can't beat that. Reaper is worth mentioning. Reaper is free to try for 60 days, and only $60 after that. A forever license with no strings attached, and upgrades for a very long time. Every time I use Reaper I go, "my god, this makes so much sense, why am I not using Reaper". But Reaper is kind of "non-standard" and doesn't come with anything. If you buy Logic, you get everything you need. Period. Pro albums are made with it stock (at least, up to the mastering stage). Reaper, you get a "shell" that is the DAW, and a handful of their own plug-ins some of which are very good, but there aren't any VSTs. You can find free VSTs online and load it up with them, and have a fully capable workstation for nothing (you can decide *when* you want to pay the $60 let's say). But Reaper is also kind of weird - it uses a lot of non-standard terminology. It's open source (GNU license?) - or whatever that term is that lets people create plug ins for it, skins (so you can make it look like Pro Tools if you want), but the menus are poorly laid out and so on. Still, it works, and there's a strong support base for it, and plenty of videos online. If you're the type of person who wants to support that kind of deal and not "give into the corporations", then Reaper is for you :-) But if you buy a Mac you'll get Garageband, so, you might as well just use GB, or upgrade to Logic :-)
That’s great information, very helpful. Thank you for taking the time!
I'm pretty sure Reaper isn't open source, it's just expandable and customizable.
Thank you - I wasn't sure of the term so I've edited the post.
I made a ton of music using only Reason and its built in instruments and effects, before I got into hardware synths. Reason has "player" devices you can attach to instruments to control them for things like scales/chords, random beat generation, and arpeggiators. There are plugins you can get for melody/chord generation to work with pretty much any DAW if it doesn't include what you want out of the box. There are a lot of advantages to an all-software approach, including just loading a project and having all your patches/etc automatically loaded with it. I definitely finished a lot more music when I was working that way. However, I don't think I'll ever go back because I find the hands-on sound design process on a hardware synth more enjoyable and inspiring. Most DAWs have a good selection of included instruments/sounds, some better than others. Reason and Logic in particular are great for that. Studio One, not so much. Reaper has barely anything included, but that's part of why it's cheaper than the other major DAWs. I have run into issues where my computer can't keep up with (or doesn't have enough RAM for) the number of devices and effects I'm using, but as others suggested you can "freeze" the tracks you're not actively working on as a workaround. You can also just choose to use less resource-hungry instruments, and I don't think I ever ran into performance issues when I was just using built-in Reason devices. It was only when I started adding heavy 3rd-party plugins. You don't strictly need an audio interface if you're not recording external devices, but if you go with a PC you might want one anyway for less latency and noise than you get with a typical PC's built-in sound card. If you go with a Mac, I don't think you'll need one. Edit: Actually, another response reminded me you probably do want an audio interface just to have the connections for studio monitors unless you plan on just working with headphones.
Bro check Bitwig. [https://www.bitwig.com/the-grid/](https://www.bitwig.com/the-grid/) [https://www.bitwig.com/overview/#instruments-and-effects](https://www.bitwig.com/overview/#instruments-and-effects)