Newbie any help please!!

Also remember that while its cool to have a test run on a few programs, its a good idea to mainly stick with one or two, and just through trial and error you can pick up a LOT of what you need to know.

Key things to get to grips with are, you have a sequencer program, which is what you "build" your song in. Most software will let you lay out Tracks within your song. Tracks might contain audio samples, or loops. But in your case with the MPD24 specifically (which is a MIDI controller), you'll want to get the hang of MIDI track recording.

The general theory of this is, setup your sequencer software to allow MIDI input from your MPD24. Load a VST instrument into your song (whether it be a sampler such as Battery, or a synth vst), and then in your sequencer assign the MPD24 to control that VST instrument.

Then when you hit record, and the track position marker starts moving, you can hit a bunch of pads on the MPD, and your melody or whatever will be recorded in your midi track that you're working on, as a series of MIDI notes. When you play it back, these midi notes are sent to your VST instrument to generate the audio notes/sounds etc that you played eariler.

Doing this, you can fairly easily build layers.... a drum track, a bassline track, a lead synth track - etc.

This might all be too basic for you, but hope something there helps!