First thing you will need to get are samples!
I suggest you go here - great free samples, - lots of drum&bass oriented stuff:
rhythm-lab.com
use the right column to get thru the categories.
To start with there are 2 paths you could take, depending on how comfortable you are with making music -
- if you're really just beginning, you could get some drum loops and synthesiser loops and have a play with layering them - check the drum loop, music loop, and construction kit areas. This is a fun way to get into things, but youre gonna want to move on from here as soon as youre ready, because nobody likes the guy who calls himself a producer and only uses other peoples loops!
- if/when you're confident enough to start making your own stuff from scratch,
check out the drum kits section for single drum sounds, and the 'single sound' section for single synthesiser sounds. - also since youre into drum and bass, get some breaks from the drum loop section, and learn to chop them up into individual drum hits to rearrange them.
Some other tips:
- Read the manual.. then read it again a week later after youve forgotten everything. Always keep it beside you while you're working till you know things inside out.
- Find stuff you really like, and study it.. this is something I never used to do - I was all like "Nah man, im just going off raw creativity, i dont want to sound like anyone else"... This is not so much about creativity though, as learning techniques - there are certain 'rules' - not so much rules of 'how to write a song' - but rules of what things work well on human minds.. that are best learnt, and then broken by choice.. rather than breaking them because you dont know they're rules...
- Learn what the effects do to a sound - not just, how it sounds - but like, the reason it does that. Wikipedia is great for this, eg:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlangingSamples.
