Hello everyone!

Hello John; A Very Warm Welcome To Our Forum 🙂
I am So Pleased your first Gig went So Well; as Dancing and Screaming is Definitely What it Is About 😎
You have a Great Deal Of Experience in Production and I Welcome Your Input amongst Our Threads 🙂

That Experience and Memory will Stay With You Forever 😎
I use Ableton; FL Studio; and Reason in my Production; so we have a Very Similar Arsenal 🙂

Hello John 🙂
I use Ableton 8 Suite and Reason 5 almost Exclusively now for my Production; but I have Many ways of pointing you towards Tutorials on FL Studio that will help you depending on what your Questions may be 🙂
I have been in the House (and All it’s Variations) Trap for Years (and am Still Very Happy About It); but have Discovered Dubstep (Only) in the last 4 Months; so (as I just Love the Beat and the Bass); I have been Developing Tracks in that Genre :cool:; (but the 4 x 4 Kick Drum will Never Die :))

There is a Thread in Our Forum where I have been giving Instruction on Ableton; and basically Answering Any Questions; using Screenshots or Videos whenever Most Preferable;
If you would like to look at this Thread; I think you will find it Most Helpful 🙂

http://digitaldjtips.com/forum/threads/considering-ableton-for-djing.555/

But; the Most Important thing to Remember in House Music is Song Structure;
And so to Help You; and also others; I will Create a New Thread; which will Include the Elements of Song Structure;
And How I Set This Up In Ableton (just in case anybody else is interested :))

You can find the New Thread here:

http://digitaldjtips.com/forum/threads/song-structure-in-ableton-live.813/

But; in order to answer your Question about ‘How I Start’;
I Always Begin a Track with a Kick Drum; and Build the Percussion with Snares; and Hi-Hats (Open and Closed);
I can make these Drum Tracks in the ‘Impulse’ Instrument in Ableton;
But in 90% of cases I use Loops (and Cut Them Up to my Satisfaction);

Spending a Lot of time Remixing; I have found that by ‘Cutting’ Pieces Out Of Tracks; Sampled Vocals are Not as Difficult as I used to think they were;
Basslines I Do Find Difficult; but I either use VST’s like Native Instruments Massive; or Nexus 2

Yes; Nexus 2 is Excellent; Especially since I Discovered we can Completely Change All Sounds with their Arpeggiator 🙂

Johnnystorm, post: 5897 wrote: Thanks for sharing that with me, I did not know that lol.

You will be Absolutely Amazed the next time you get Nexus up and start Changing Some Of The Notes in the Arpeggiator John; it becomes like an ‘Instrument’ then; rather than just a Pre-programmed Loop Machine 😎

A belated “hello” from the management! Welcome along 🙂