I'm basically fine with whatever. Though if it matters, here's the main things I'm looking for.
Here’s a broad overview of what I would do, looking back, if I was starting to learn to make music from scratch on a computer.
Since you're interested in a variety of styles, a modern DAW, rather than a software tracker or a hardware-based setup, is probably your best bet. If you're not familiar with any of them or with what you might need from them, any of the major current DAWS (Ableton Live, FL Studio, Reaper, Cubase, Logic, Studio One, Bitwig, etc.) should serve well. By the time you find yourself bumping against the shortcomings of whatever it is you pick, you're probably going to have a lot of transferable production know-how, and it will just be a matter of learning new keybinds. A few things to note:
- Ableton, FL Studio, and Logic probably have the most tutorials available to learn from
- FL Studio has a robust free trial
- Reaper doesn’t enforce their free trial time limit
- Ableton Live Lite is commonly included in the software bundles that come with audio interfaces and midi controllers
- If you're going to pirate, just grab Ableton Live Standard or Suite and rest easy, even the stock plugins will take you far
- If you do take the route of Reaper or Ableton Live Lite, you’ll probably want some additional plugins. I mention some synthesizers on a bullet point below, but I also recommend grabbing the synthesizers Vital, Surge XT, and Synth1. Oh, and the effects packs Kilohearts Essentials and/or Melda’s MFreeFxBundle. And Valhalla Supermassive Reverb.
Once you’ve got a DAW picked out, watch a few software specific tutorials to understand the basics of how the software works. There’s a lot you can do to customize your workspace and enhance your productivity, but I’d start with learning: how to navigate the interface; how to add tracks, work with samples and virtual instruments; how to use the piano roll to place notes and edit midi events; how to add effects to tracks and route audio.
From there it’s just making music. Don't worry too much about the theory of the thing. If it feels right for the scene, it probably is. Try to complete tracks, even if it’s short, even if it’s just copying 80 measures and adding minor variations until it feels like a song. Look up genre or style specific tutorials, follow along. Find tracks you admire and duplicate the arrangement and instrumentation. Learn to actively listen to music.
Some notes on the things that you mentioned specifically and a few other things:
- From what I remember, RE was scored like a mix between an action and a horror movie and it looks like most of the sounds come from a Roland Sound Canvas. You can find plenty of tutorials on both action and horror movie scoring/music writing. You can find virtual instruments of varying quality for the orchestral parts. If you dig the 90s crunch sample vibe, you can also just download Roland SC-88 or similar samples to play with.
- 80’s and 90’s synth emulations are popular and there are some great free ones: Cherry Audio Surrealistic MG-1, Dexed, U-he Tyrell N6, TAL Noisemaker. If you dig the sound, even if you don’t see a commercial use for it, learn to make some synthwave. If you like it and it helps you learn the tools, great. Same goes for anything else you like.
- Some kind of midi controller, whether pads, keys, or both, is pretty helpful. However, you don’t even necessarily need that because every DAW has the ability to use your QWERTY keyboard for musical note input.
And, in the end, if nothing works, just look up a tutorial on how to generate ambient soundscapes. Who needs music if you’ve got a strange wind blowing in and out of tune?
