Wanting to become a musician/producer + creative partner

YAS I've been wanting to so bad. Though I do get busy with school and work. I still make time for my art. I've been trying I'm finally finding my niche for now. But still need help.
For producing I'd say start off with whatever you can afford. Like for me I have FL Studio 10 which I got a torrent of a while ago and have been using since. I've also had 8 and 9 torrented from high school but those are long gone. So I'd say start with a program you think is easy to use. FL Studio is pretty easy. David Guetta, Martin Garrix and Afrojack still use it and a bunch of others do too.
For recording Audio, I'd say either Audacity (cause it's free) or ProTools (they have like a monthly payment plan that I just started. The best seem to be Logic Pro but idk how that whole thing goes. Watch YouTube tutorials and see which one looks easiest for beginners. For me it was Audacity but I already have a little experience in ProTools so I'm switching to that.
For equipment find a good microphone and headphones. I'm still searching for that affordable stuff but it doesn't look possible. Look for YouTube vids on how to make a mini home recording studio. There's a vid of an Asian guy who gives you specific cheap products that are good quality. I wish I could link you. He also gives stuff for vid production too.
That's all I can give for now. I've been producing for 6 years but vocals for like a month so it takes time. Find what you're good at. What made me better for producing is remaking instrumentals of songsand playing with the software to get the same sounds or similar. And I'm just a natural singer but I've never recorded so I'm practicing now lol

Some less-often-suggested DAWs to look into:

SunVox (I use this) - Free/$6 mobile app, probably works on a toaster, incompatible with VSTs, tracker-style grids of note and effect triggers (I personally always found this format to be the most intuitive), modular, fairly versatile.

Renoise (I used this years ago and then became bedridden and have only used phones since) - Free demo, ~$80? (relatively cheap compared to most DAWs), versions for major operating systems, tracker-style, quite powerful.

Reaper (I only know the name) - I heard it was free, I think it works on computers, sequencer?

GarageBand (I used this) - Just kidding.

I highly recommend FL Studio. Super easy to use, and despite getting a lot of flak in the production industry, it's one hell of a DAW (especially the piano roll feature) and plenty of accomplished artists use it as their main DAW. Some of FL's power users include Madeon and deadmau5. Audacity is fantastic for super minute details, as you can zoom into the waveform by, like, an astronomical amount Also, get yourself a few sample packs or learn how to sound design REALLY WELL. If you get a decent microphone (which I'll get into later), you can record everyday noises that you hear and toy with the pitch and timestretch to make completely new sounds. But there's really nothing wrong with sample packs despite stigma that surrounds them by snooty production "I've-been-in-the-game-for-forty-years-I-know-what-the-fuck-i'm-doing" elitists. I love, love, love Native Instruments sample packs!! Also from Native Instruments, I use a Maschine Mikro MKII to make workflow easier. It comes with the Maschine software, too which is handy for live performances if you don't want the popular-but-pricey Ableton Live. 

As far as hardware, it's bullshit, really. I mean, samplers are okay if you're doing a live performance or it makes production flow easier but you'll hear many artists claim that analog synths give a richer and fuller vibe but, once again, these are snooty production elitists who convince themselves they can hear these "differences" as a way to justify spending $2,000+ on a box with knobs.

Moving on!

Soft FX: TAL Reverb!! I cannot stress this enough. Best reverb I've ever used, and it's free! Also, MDA has a bunch of mini soft synths and FX that are basic and cute, but also effective. If you purchase FL Studio, you get a lot of the basics you need to produce music. That being said, Sytrus is the best from Image-Line. Massive is a lot of money but it came for free with my Maschine! It's versatile and useful for basses and even leads as well. Sylenth is also really great, but I only use the demo, so it's never in any of my finished projects. Guitar Rig is great for guitar FX, obvs. Oh, and for strings, use Philharmonik! And if you can't do Philharmonik, pick up a free version of DSK strings. Kind of annoying to work with (it's a fucking CPU BUST) but it does produce pretty good sounds.

As far as microphones go, Shure SM57 and SM58 are industry essentials. Essentials, I tell you. Shure, (<- haha see what I did there) you can spend $1000 on a mic, and the fact of the matter is, it will sound better than a $100 mic BUT it doesn't necessarily sound 10 times better... understand where I'm coming from? I might be a hypocrite - I shelled out on an Avantone CV12 and I regret NOTHING because that microphone fucks shit up. So good. Even though I'm not a Taylor Swift fan, the audio on Red is stellar. And she used that microphone.

I've never seen the need to empty my wallet on an audio interface, I use an M-Audio MobilePre II and it works fine. There are ridiculously expensive interfaces (*cough* Apogee *cough*) but it isn't super necessary as a beginner (also Apogee only makes interfaces for Mac). Monitors? I say, get yourself a pair of JBL's. They're probably the biggest bang for your buck. They run at $150 ea. (but you obviously need two, unless you're doing, like, no panning ever which is infeasible) but they're definitely worth it. But the most crucial yet underrated part of mixing environment is...

TREATMENT. Treat your room. Do it. Your monitors are USELESS unless you have at least a little bit of treatment in your room. You don't need fancy bass traps and you don't need to cover your entire room with foam... just... just do it.

(Good DIY treatment tutorial here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK7eBKSAXJA)

As far as headphones go, I'm not really an expert. I mix everything on monitors anyway, so headphones don't really matter to me, they're just a way to listen to the audio without disturbing anybody else IMO. BUT if you don't plan on getting monitors, you must get good headphones. And this means not Beats by Dre. While they're good for listening to music, they are extremely inaccurate with the bass being stupidly boosted. The whole point of monitors and headphones is not to give you the best sound, but the most accurate sound.

Production tips: finish things. Even if they're shitty, just finish them. If you get in the habit of finishing things instead of creating an 8 bar loop and pondering, you will be much more efficient. From friend to friend. This is probably the most important piece of advice I've written so far. It will save you years.

Do what you like. If you like it, it's good. Try and emulate your favorite artists, but never, ever, try to replicate a scene (i.e., big house) because soon, everyone will be doing the exact same thing and you'll be another  brick in the wall. Do your own thing, and if you like it, everyone will follow.

Anyway I hoped this helped, and good luck!!

I'd like to say that after posting last night I made a pretty stupid and painful mistake while working on a new music project. I ruined an instrument because its module chain looked very similar to the unnecessary one next to it that was taking up space, and only noticed long after I'd deleted it that the temporary one was still there and there was some odd silence at the end.

BUT IT WAS OKAY BECAUSE I HAD ALREADY MADE A BACKUP OF THE PROJECT AND I COPIED AND PASTED STUFF BETWEEN PROJECT FILES UNTIL IT WAS GOOD AS NEW.

Well, aside from hardware, everything is kinda free, because, y'know, the internet. (I DO NOT CONDONE PIRATING).

pixel is the real mvp. bae for life.

pixel I didn't know you made music, what's your soundcloud?