Gearwhore No More

My first post detailed my current assets with respect to equipment. But I also have spent a ton of time learning about pro-audio production. I know a thing or two about the following topics:

• MIDI - I don’t think there’s much I don’t know about it at this point.
• Audio signal routing - the difference between TRS balanced and unbalanced TS cables, etc
• Signal processing from a technical point of view. I was an electrical engineering student in college before switching to computer science. So I am comfortable with concepts like Nyquist’s Theorem, aliasing, Fourier transforms, spectral analysis, etc.
• Computers - I’ve been playing with them since I was in 5th grade, I’ve got a Bachelor of Science in computer science, and I’ve worked in the computer industry for the last decade.
• Synthesis techniques - I have a fair bit of book knowledge here, such as knowing what a VCO is, what a low-pass filter does and how subtractive synthesis works. But I don’t have very much hand-on experience.
• I am well-versed in the various styles of electronic music: DnB, Trance, Synthpop, Grime, Glitch, Hardcore, Acid House, Minimal House, etc.

What I don’t know:

• How best to approach creating a song. Should I start with the drums first, or the main hook? In electronic music, so much of the arrangement has to do with effects and production, so does that mean that those things should be given love early on in the creation of the track, or all at the end?
• How to use Logic, Reason, or my Andromeda.
• How best to physically set up my studio. I have some ideas here, but by no means am I confident about my approach.
• How to properly do a final stereo mix-down, or master a track. Or even if I should master a track myself vs getting a pro to do it.