Equipment Roadmap for child into music

ectoraige

Just discovered this forum, hope it's the right one and that you'll indulge my question.

I've an 11-year-old who is always singing, playing guitar, picking out songs on piano,and uses his couch as a drumkit. He writes his own songs and music, and wants to do open-mics, go busking, and of course have a YouTube channel. I know given the opportunity he'd really get into producing his own stuff too. He's not really asking for much for Christmas so I'm trying to figure out what to get him that will stand to him whatever directions he takes.

Here's what he has at the moment:

• Epiphone AJ22-SCE-VS electro-acoustic guitar
• An ancient Peavey 15W combo-amp
• Yamaha YDP 163 Arius digital piano
• Sony walkman mp3 player
• Android tablet

With that he'll record himself with his walkman, playback with a USB speaker as a backing track, and record the end result with his tablet. Not bad for a 11-year-old making it up as he goes along.



Now the combo was for electric guitar so his Epi sounds very dull. I also have to recondition the pots on it as there's awful crackle. I'd love to get him a decent acoustic amp, and am considering a Marshall Cube-10GX which can be configured as acoustic, bass, or electric amp and takes an XLR input. I could stretch to a cheap dynamic mic too. Then he'd be able to play and sing in front of people.


I also have a raspberry pi sitting around that I was going to give to him that he can play around with Audacity, but it would only have a tiny PC USB mic to begin with. I know it's not much but at least he'll be able to learn the concepts.

My own experience is limited to running old eight-tracks in glorified sheds, trackers like Octamed, and doing bits of theatre tech, so I haven't a clue what's out there now.

He'll end up with a laptop in another year or two, once he starts secondary. I think the Yamaha can be used as a MIDI controller, but I've no knowledge of what software is out there and what he could do with it. I also don't know how he can make more out of his tablet.

How's this as a base to build from? What would you change or add over time? We can probably only spend €200-€300 max a year so where would you put your money?

Anima

A laptop and an audio interface would go a long way. With that and some software, he'd have all he needs to play around with recordings and make youtube videos etc.

An interface can be got for cheap enough on Thomann.

Stab*City

Yes a computer would be handy. Secondhand laptop and audio interface could be got for less than 200.