I really enjoy synthwave and similar music styles and I'd like to learn how to create music like that. But I have no music theory background and I can't play an instrument. Are there any tutorials/books/courses for complete idiots like me?
Not necessary to play an instrument, you only need to "play" the sequencer although you would certainly need a MIDI controller just to input notes. Playing the piano of course would be helpful but it's not like you are going to play synthwave music with your 10 fingers.
For basic music theory I like Nahre Sol's book "The Elements of Music" which is affordable and basically all you need to jumpstart.
Your next best source are Youtube tutorials where people "reconstruct" the songs you like i.e. you need to begin by mimicking the music you like with the soft synths they use combined with some production/mixing techniques knowledge. Alice Yalcin puts quite a lot of stuff at Youtube. And what's not to love from other channels like Bad Gear, Alex Ball or DrMix! After some months you will become familiar to what the different synths are capable of doing and even recognize the sounds from other people sounds ("that's a Juno!" "that's an Emulator!" "that's a 909!") and you will build your software arsenal around that, maybe even getting some hardware that adapts to your preferred workflow.
Me, I'm a Logic Pro + Korg hardware workstation person but I may or may not spend most of my weekends TV time watching these Youtube channels.
Get some of the cheaper hardware and look up tutorials for the music style you want, no music theory necessary :)
The Novation Circuit is a good beginner device, not too expensive, and have a big community. Bunch of tutorials for all kinds of music styles on YouTube.
Most devices also help you with scales and whatnot, so you don't really need much music theory understanding, although of course it helps a lot. But that's something you can look deeper into if you actually like making music.
Get Ableton or FL Studio or Reaper for DAW, get Dexed as a free VST (or serum, not free), and search YouTube for "how to make synthwave with X" and you'll find a bunch of stuff.
The DAW is software that organizes all your instruments and melodies and so on into a project file and a VST is the instrument itself, more or less. So you work on a song in the DAW using VST instruments.
