Free and affordable music production resources

This is all stuff I use or have used and still recommend as of publishing.

• Black Octopus Sound has a 1GB royalty-free sampler. This was my go-to pack when I was just starting out and couldn't afford anything.
• Sonniss has a huge collection of free and royalty-free sound effects built up over the years. They release a new one with GDC most years.
• The best bang for your buck paid synthesizer is Pigments. Arturia does regular sales. It does all the big kinds of synthesis: FM, granular, wavetable, even AM. Don't know what those are? You'll figure it out as you work with synthesis.
  • Arturia offers regular discounts on other stuff like V Collection and Analog Lab for people who own other stuff from the company.
• Komplete Start is a huge free collection of sampled instruments. I used it for most things when I started. The included Analog Dreams and Hypha cover an incredible range of styles all on their own.
• The Audio Production Deals subreddit has a steady stream of discounted music and audio goodies.
• LMMS is the most complete free DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). Reaper is the most affordable, and is fairly complete once you install Reapack and SWS.
• If you're in a place to invest more in your tools, you can't go wrong with Ableton Live or FL Studio. Try the demos and go with the one you click with. You probably don't need the most expensive version, and most music stuff is cheaper on Thomann. You can do anything with any DAW, but they all tend to have a kind of work they're best for either because of their design focus or industry preference. Ableton Live and FL Studio are the friendliest to learn and use.