Pt. I: How Various Sausages Can Be Made
God have mercy on the poor soul who encountered documentation other than this on how to install netbeans.
Replit, if you want to try your hand at coding. No installations required– just code in your browser. Serves as a great introduction to a skill that can have an intimidating looking entry floor.
Here is a DAW that is free to try (forever without reduced ability to use) if you want to give music production a go. I recommend you do eventually pay the developers, but out of kindness they have made this free to access and it will just remind you to pay for it when you boot it. You'll have to look for your own library of plugins for synths and MIDI instruments if that's your jam, but in every other regard it is a completely professional software that is especially dominant in the video game industry. Reaper comes fully equipped with an expansive array of stock pluginsa nd effects. If you don't have a MIDI keyboard and would like to see if that's for you, there is an option to enable your keyboard to send MIDI events so you can operate synths with a computer keyboard. Reaper is especially powerful for working on any recorded sound, mixing, and mastering. I can not recommend Reaper enough as a software.
If you do try Reaper or any other DAW and want your first cool sounding plugin, I recommend the BBC Symphony Orchestra plugin from Spitfire Audio. It's an easy introduction to downloading and using plugins. It's free, powerful, and can introduce you to making fun, listenable music for personal enjoyment and self expression.
I'm not just a student in Poland and America, I'm also a student at the University of Helsinki, and you can be too. I personally recommend their Introduction to Programming with Python module, which helped me get started programming. Essentially, you will be auditing a full length college Intro to Programming course, and there are many options. You can do it at your own pace any time. You can wait for the semester and do it remotely while having additional lectures, grading, examinations, and interactions with course teachers and peers. It's a huge repository of information, well structured, oscillates between confidance building and challenging, and will reward you immensely even if you have already done an intro to programming course elsewhere. Big thanks to the University of Helsinki for making these resources free to access, anytime.
Your attention is a commodity and you should treat it like one. There are very powerful algorithyms out there for hacking your attention and getting you to engage with content tailored to your (supposed) interests. If you're like me, perhaps you have at some point in your life found yourself wishing you didn't lose so much time to aimless internet meandering. Coldturkey will solve that. It is the only resource on this list which isn't free, it only runs on desktop, and it does come at a bit of a whallop to CPU. Regardless, it is an amazing trellis for gardening discipline on and I would thusly recommend it to anyone considering paying to dictate the terms of their reality. Despite the cost, if you consider the ROI of investing your time wisely, you'll find it quickly pays for itself. Use it when you find yourself procrastinating too much and quickly you'll find your discipline restored from your abstinance. Life is too short to waste time.
If you're on iOS, believe that limits breed creativity, and you would like to try multi track recording for the first time with a simplified, on rails introduction; let me introduce you to Otreus' StudioMini. Studiomini is a pocket four track recorder that upscales to any stage of the musical journey and level of experience. It will squeeze every drop of possibility from your phone mics (especially on iPhone+ with stereomics) and knows how to make your iphone's recording codec just right. It will teach you how to groove with yourself and train you to monitor what you sound like from outside your self and be a better musician.
StudioMini has a pretty great array of features: It keeps notes. There is an adjustable metronome and a number of static drum backing tracks. You can mix files in app and send mixed files and stems alike up and down with cable or wirelessly. You can also plug interfaces into it and use professional mics and interfaces. It's the best audio sketchbook for capturing and developing complex ideas on the spot and with this in your pocket you'll never have to lose a song idea again.
Note: I am honored to find while writing this and fetching links that the devs behind StudioMini liked my review so much they published it on their main page. I've been a huge fan of this app since 2016 and am glad I can still recommend it just as much in 2023. It's a testament to bulletproof design in function and UI. Thanks Otreus!
Representing Boston, here's a link to Matt Tytel's Helm Synthesizer, Cursynth, and many other projects. Matt Tytel is a powerhouse independent developer and musician who has made a really impressive range of creations, including my favorite free synthesizer plugin. If you like Helm and wish to try a professional, fully polished product, I would recommend Vital, a digital wavetable synthesizer.