Hey man! Thanks for sharing this here. Very recognizable for me with ADD/ADHD.

Just to explain my post. You mentioned your ADD and burnout and I felt the urge to tell you my story. For me is creating music now like painting with all different kinds of materials you can imagine. But before a process to perform 100% accurate combined with fun and expression having many years lessons playing trumpet. Perfection can be a trap in music production having ADD is what I experienced. I started using cubase about 7 years ago having no knowledge about producing at all, digital and with very holistic software like cubase which is capable of creating professional productions so the sky is the limit man! At that moment I started I just was knocked down because off a pretty serious burn out. I went back to my old passion, music.

For a fresh start, I would advice you:

Start watching YouTube (Dom Siglas and Chris Selim, Talking Leaf) or to producers like Jonas Aden and many more young enthusiastic producers (me m46)to learn about cubase or creating songs or other tracks. Mary spender can has nice videos to get inspiration from. Avoid marketing videos 😉 and do not buy all those plugins they offer because most of them are in some way or are already included in cubase. You don’t need extra😉 for now. And if you buy them only do that when they are at exceptional sale up to 80 % and sometimes even more 🤷‍♂️😲🤫🤪😃 Read the plug in reference to get some insight on the plugins and what they are capable of. Avoid the use of to many plugins per channel even though they are so much fun 🤩 to play with. Play with the software and use the samples included to have fun with it on audio tracks and sampler tracks. Play with the chord pads and the chord track and create in an easy audible way your first nice chord progressions. You can drag the chords in an instrument track and it will play it.
Play with retrologue synth to find out how a synth works. Watch some videos about gain, eq and filters, gain and compressors.

Most important is to have fun and know that sometimes it can be frustrating not to be able to create what you had in mind. Just doodle/ draw some sound in midi and audio. You can save your best ideas as templates to use them as starting point for your next doodles or projects.

You can use the voice recorder from your iPhone to record audio and import those recordings on your Mac book and import in your projects. Do not hold it in your hand. A microphone and an audio interface are useful for recording your voice or other sounds and to connect an electric guitar or a piano for example. Midi controllers like mixers, pad controllers or midi keyboards can be connected to your computer by usb. Finding the right controller is a very personal thing I think but what didn’t work for me were controllers that only control a bit of a process and those I didn’t use. And for mixers for me only motorized faders work

If you like to play with real recordings you can subscribe to remix contests like SKIO and have multitrack projects to experiment with.

I personally love to play with my micro studio but have had ADD hyperfocus moments and lost myself in learning fast which is possible because of all the info on the internet and watched everything I could find about the WHOLE SUBJECT which is very huge and asked for a lot of ear training and knowledge or experience in writing chords melodies and rhythms. Sound engineering knowledge and experience learning from videos which are a great fun to watch on the couch, toilet etc and it was addictive to watch and I wanted to try everything I’ve seen. My head became crowded because of my new hobby and my ADD. With zero experience, just be patient and have fun learning, creating, doodling. For me Cubase feels like a musical instrument as well by itself. Depending how you use it. Discuss with yourself if you have the time to learn two “instruments” in the same time. With your mouse you can draw your thoughts on the piano and drum roll. Or use some of the included I read the manual completely to understand the terms and know my options within the software. This is pretty useful. You don’t have to learn everything at once. Google them later.

Just enjoy and surprise yourself with your new hobby. This was my experience and I love my hobby although I (had to accept that) after many years I ‘m still not good at it but I love doodling with sound and expression my thoughts in sound. And now after trying 7 years I begin to be able to translate my thoughts into midi and be able to mix a bit. I’m not still not good but will become better. Am happy with own progression and expression abilities. But don’t lose yourself in leaning day and night and focusing on the best results directly from start …