Loosely inspired by how much people seemed to enjoy a similar question I asked on Games about unappreciated titles. But answers don’t have to be media related (they still can be though).
No idea, if there is any guided path into this. Much like the other commenter stumbled into it via music production, I stumbled into it via composing.
Personally, I’ve mostly dicked around with SurgeXT and MilkyTracker.
SurgeXT is a so-called VST plugin for use in digital audio workstations (DAWs), which is what the big boys & gals use to make electronic music. But it can also be started standalone, as just a digital instrument. And then you can type on your computer keyboard to play your sound like on a piano. SurgeXT is powerful, it will overwhelm you. Still does for me.
MilkyTracker presents an old-school way of making complete songs, generally 8- or 16-bit songs.
It’s quite reduced in its features, which makes it a lot less daunting, and does allow playing around with waveforms for instruments rather directly.
Honestly, I don’t think, you can really make a wrong start into this field. Lots of modulation methods have been around since the 70s and 80s, which you’ll find in basically any music software.
Try to find something that’s fun to you, to do with those sounds, so you keep coming back to try out new things.
For example, I’m a musician, so somedays I do just jam out to myself.
But working towards a little 8-bit song and just trying to create pseudo-instruments is also cool.
If you do have fun with it, you can splurge on hardware, like good headphones and a MIDI keyboard, but you don’t need those to get into it.
