DreamTheaterForums.org Dream Theater Fan Site

General => General Discussion => Topic started by: pg1067 on March 13, 2018, 01:11:18 PM

Title: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: pg1067 on March 13, 2018, 01:11:18 PM
My son will be 16 in a few months, and he announced a couple days ago that he was going to "clear out" his Amazon wish list and add some stuff he wants for his birthday.  Last night I looked at it, and I'd appreciate some input.

By way of background, my son is into hip hop and rap (he gets it from his mother, and I feel like I've failed as a parent, but that's a different topic).  He has also expressed some desire to get into DJ'ing and/or music production.

With that in mind, here are four items from his list:

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B077TLC1KQ/?coliid=I3GY76G2QIWZXF&colid=BHL6PKO9ZR6M&psc=0&ref_=lv_vv_lig_dp_it
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00WAR0IYE/?coliid=I3YT62UWQ66B2&colid=BHL6PKO9ZR6M&psc=0
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B002M8GBDI/?coliid=I2ORSD1CG8Z8Y8&colid=BHL6PKO9ZR6M&psc=1
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0116X17JW/?coliid=I1YUNDC7PC02V7&colid=BHL6PKO9ZR6M&psc=1

I haven't asked him about this yet, but I assume what he's going for with this stuff is to create simple backing tracks that he (god help me) or someone else can rap over.  If I'm way off on that, please let me know, but my bigger question is whether the particular items he has chosen will suffice for this purpose (or whatever his actual purpose is).  I don't mind getting him gear for this purpose (although not all of it!), but I'm not confident that he knows the right stuff to get and would rather avoid a situation where he ends up needing to replace something almost immediately or finding out that he also needs several additional things for these items to be functional.

Thanks for any input!
Title: Re: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: TAC on March 13, 2018, 01:16:31 PM
My son will be 16 in a few months, and he announced a couple days ago that he was going to "clear out" his Amazon wish list and add some stuff he wants for his birthday.  Last night I looked at it, and I'd appreciate some input.

By way of background, my son is into hip hop and rap (he gets it from his mother, and I feel like I've failed as a parent, but that's a different topic).  He has also expressed some desire to get into DJ'ing and/or music production.


I know this child, reminds me of my son, who turned 15 a few weeks ago.

He's always on some sort of music creator. I have him do my editing of uselessness, like the orchestra section of Illumination Theory.
Title: Re: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: Podaar on March 13, 2018, 01:18:24 PM
I was expecting links to Kleenex boxes, Jergens lotion, massage oils, and a subscription to Maxim magazine.

I really miss Sir Guitarcozmo!
Title: Re: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: King Postwhore on March 13, 2018, 01:24:42 PM
Electronica is the new music.  Instead of picking up a guitar, they pick up programs.


I was expecting links to Kleenex boxes, Jergens lotion, massage oils, and a subscription to Maxim magazine.

I really miss Sir Guitarcozmo!

I'll Facebook him and tell him you miss him. :lol  I'll be seeing him in May when we head to RoSfest.  We'll meet up for grub and suds.
Title: Re: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: pg1067 on March 13, 2018, 01:58:36 PM
I was expecting links to Kleenex boxes, Jergens lotion, massage oils, and a subscription to Maxim magazine.

Nice...I wasn't sure what to expect either.  His last list had a bunch of weird (to me) hip-hoppish clothing that I wouldn't buy him in a million years (which I realize makes me sound like my mother 35 years ago, but that's also another topic).
Title: Re: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: Stadler on March 13, 2018, 07:51:51 PM
My son will be 16 in a few months, and he announced a couple days ago that he was going to "clear out" his Amazon wish list and add some stuff he wants for his birthday.  Last night I looked at it, and I'd appreciate some input.

By way of background, my son is into hip hop and rap (he gets it from his mother, and I feel like I've failed as a parent, but that's a different topic).  He has also expressed some desire to get into DJ'ing and/or music production.


I know this child, reminds me of my son, who turned 15 a few weeks ago.

He's always on some sort of music creator. I have him do my editing of uselessness, like the orchestra section of Illumination Theory.

HAHA, I like that last part.  :)
Title: Re: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: TempusVox on March 13, 2018, 09:45:27 PM
You shouldn't feel you're a failure. Be happy he appreciates and is into music. I've accepted the fact that though our relationship with the band is I admit, different and special-- although my son and I have seen Rush perform about 18 times together, and Alex turned him on to a ton of cool music (when I told him-- it was meh...Alex tells him, he's a fan 😔), and he's into a bunch of his old man's music, he's still really into pop, and rap. I'm okay with that.

 My mother sang opera at the Met before I was born, and my old man was only ever into country and bluegrass; but I was encouraged to find my own path. When I was five, I was into Motown, the beatles, and Beethoven.

For my sixth birthday, my mom bought me a steel drum; and three albums, "Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival", Pink Floyd- "TPaTGoD", and "Buddy Rich...The New One". I played the Hell out of those albums.

The point is, I fell in love with music of all types, and I've been into a ton of different genres at various stages my whole life. Be glad he's on his journey.

I will admit however, and I tell my kid...Most of the crap he's into, is horrible to me! 👎 but that's okay. ☺
Title: Re: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: Anguyen92 on March 13, 2018, 10:13:28 PM
I mean my parents pretty much grew up with traditional Vietnamese music and my mother watches a variety of Vietnamese musicians/performers on Youtube.  My older sister enjoys all sorts of modern pop music from your Backstreet Boys and Nsync and 98 Degrees (let's be honest, who here in DTF knows or remembers 98 Degrees?  I don't) to stuff like Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, etc. and then there's me liking stuff like Alter Bridge, Zac Brown Band, Ed Sheeran, Owl City, Dream Theater, etc.

I know for certain that if I have a kid and when he or she is 15 or older, that kid is going to like music that is way different than what I grew up with, but that's all right.  I would do my best to encourage that kid to do the best in terms of going to a lot of concerts of the stuff he or she likes as much as possible, because it's always a great feeling.

Anyway, pg1067.  That's cool if your kid wants stuff like a computer built to produce music and other hip-hop or rapping tools.  Maybe he might want to get into the art of producing music, and if so, I say slowly try to get him to understand how the nuts and bolts of it really works and research what tools can sustain that for a long period of time.  Who knows, maybe he might be intrigued of something that comes from the Jordan Rudess collections of funky (and sometimes awesome) sounding apps.
Title: Re: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: pg1067 on March 14, 2018, 10:46:15 AM
You shouldn't feel you're a failure. Be happy he appreciates and is into music.

I hope it went without saying that I was being facetious.  :-)  I'm happy that he is seemingly taking an interest in something other than sitting on his butt and playing video games.


Anyway, pg1067.  That's cool if your kid wants stuff like a computer built to produce music and other hip-hop or rapping tools.  Maybe he might want to get into the art of producing music, and if so, I say slowly try to get him to understand how the nuts and bolts of it really works and research what tools can sustain that for a long period of time.  Who knows, maybe he might be intrigued of something that comes from the Jordan Rudess collections of funky (and sometimes awesome) sounding apps.

Thanks, and I can only hope.  I'm happy to help further this interest but really want to make sure I don't buy him stuff that isn't what he really needs and may end up frustrating him.  I certainly don't have the knowledge about what he needs to get started, and he isn't always the best at thinking things through, so he might be inclined to say, "hey, this LOOKS cool and is pretty inexpensive," without realizing it's equivalent of the old $50 Casio keyboard I had when I was his age.  I'd also welcome comments along the lines of, "his list is pretty good, but he'll also need X, Y and Z if he really wants to do things right."
Title: Re: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: romdrums on March 14, 2018, 12:22:36 PM
You shouldn't feel you're a failure. Be happy he appreciates and is into music.

I hope it went without saying that I was being facetious.  :-)  I'm happy that he is seemingly taking an interest in something other than sitting on his butt and playing video games.


Anyway, pg1067.  That's cool if your kid wants stuff like a computer built to produce music and other hip-hop or rapping tools.  Maybe he might want to get into the art of producing music, and if so, I say slowly try to get him to understand how the nuts and bolts of it really works and research what tools can sustain that for a long period of time.  Who knows, maybe he might be intrigued of something that comes from the Jordan Rudess collections of funky (and sometimes awesome) sounding apps.

Thanks, and I can only hope.  I'm happy to help further this interest but really want to make sure I don't buy him stuff that isn't what he really needs and may end up frustrating him.  I certainly don't have the knowledge about what he needs to get started, and he isn't always the best at thinking things through, so he might be inclined to say, "hey, this LOOKS cool and is pretty inexpensive," without realizing it's equivalent of the old $50 Casio keyboard I had when I was his age.  I'd also welcome comments along the lines of, "his list is pretty good, but he'll also need X, Y and Z if he really wants to do things right."

He's off to a good start.  He'll need a good audio interface, a microphone, some headphones, and some studio monitors as well if he doesn't have those already.  Something like this will work well: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ScarlettSoloSG2--focusrite-scarlett-solo-studio
Title: Re: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: pg1067 on March 14, 2018, 03:10:03 PM
He's off to a good start.  He'll need a good audio interface, a microphone, some headphones, and some studio monitors as well if he doesn't have those already.  Something like this will work well: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ScarlettSoloSG2--focusrite-scarlett-solo-studio

Thanks!  I appreciate the input.
Title: Re: My Kid's Amazon Wish List
Post by: Elite on March 14, 2018, 03:18:01 PM
I really miss Sir Guitarcozmo!

yeah about that, where did he go?