Probably a tie between Sylenth, nexus, and Omnisphere. Spire too lately. And Kontakt! And yep, Ableton as the DAW. I started producing electronically back when I was around 14, and I'm 24 now. So it's been a while! I didn't starting doing "EDM" until I was about 21, though.
Late night delirious brainstorming
I have been known to answer specific questions on here if you have any ;-)
Sure!
I use a pair of KRK Rokit 5's. As well as the KRK sub. Know your room and your speakers! Much love
Cheers! There are some great libraries in Komplete. I end up using the Giant piano for soft moments and Alicia's Keys when I need more presence. Damage Drums is also an epic library. Studio Drummer as well; great for fills. Dillon from Eminence recently showed me 808 Warfare which is insane!
Sample packs - I love Pretty Little Sounds for loFi hits, and that kshmr pack on splice is about as good as it gets.
And yep! I record all sorts of stuff. There are guitar tracks layered into pretty much every song I've released. The Vale has a lot of recordings Nick (Varien) and I did of various household items clanging into each other.
For me the song almost always has to have a good melody/chord progression at its core. Otherwise I can't keep up enough interest to work on it for the time it takes to finish. Gotta be a song more than just sound design/drop. Altho I generally want all of those ;-)
Probably my most valuable musical tool. It's my voice and what I'm most comfortable/expressive with. Lately I've been super deep in jazz guitar studies. Expect to hear more of it in the tunes ;-)
Tough but prob pasta. Puttanescaaaa
Depends, but lately probably around 5 hours most days!
You don't need to necessarily invest in formal education, but I'd highly recommend spending a lot of time working on, and amongst, non-electronic music. Absorb the knowledge of other musicians around you. Learn what makes other music tick. I've been studying music w/ guitar as the forefront for about 12-13 years now. I'm a guitar teacher by day (got about 30 students) so I'm surrounded by this stuff constantly. I'm always trying to get out and jam with other musicians, sitting in on live shows with other bands and playing out with my own. It really does trickle into the electronic music for me, and you'll be seeing a lot more of that soon ;-)