We are the music makers - producers?

Hey Skully. Sorry for the late reply, I've not been on here for a while. I'm going to give you some thoughts that might or might not be suitable - it's very hard to know what your son would take to or connect with - but this is what I've found to be useful in my own experience.

First off, don't get Logic, it's barely any different to Ableton (both great though, and I use Logic regularly). The Roli stuff, for me, is indeed a bit gimmicky. I assume you mean the Seaboard? You get a bit of extra manual modulation (with sliding your fingers and stuff) but you lose a lot of the fast playability and feedback of a normal keyboard. Or at least, I found I did. It felt like playing a wetsuit full of pencils to me. The Roli blocks stuff - I wouldn't bother. Expensive and definitely gimmicky.

So, I think the thing is, when you're starting out making music, the thing that makes your music interesting and develops your own 'voice' is the sound of you learning and exploring your instrument - finding the limits and experimenting with getting around them or making it do things it wasn't really designed to do. If you start on a DAW (like Ableton or Logic) you will not find those limits. A DAW is very safe and very powerful and there are so many available sounds and presets and effects and so on, you will just keep adding things that sound "fine" and never even pushing one of those sounds to its limits. It also doesn't help that the sound design interface is deeply unmusical by default (mouse & keyboard).

Ableton Push is great but only addresses the interface bit.

I think something like an acid box / groovebox might be a good idea. The TB-03 is great but it really only does that one sound, and if he isn't into that sound then it won't get used for long. I would suggest having a look at the Korg Monologue. I feel like it's a modern 303 in lots of ways… sounds really good, and the sequencer especially can get some great stuff happening really fast, and I think that's something that might be a "wow" moment after dealing with Ableton. Plus it's got a keyboard and a cool little oscilloscope that shows the waveform, and it can do microtuning stuff that Aphex Twin helped with. You can also pick them up for about £200 new, which is a bargain.

I think something like that might also help with learning synthesis properly - simple layout, one knob per function, etc.

Alternatively, a sampler can be a really creative and inspiring tool. You can start with anything and get to somewhere completely different. I have a Teenage Engineering OP-1 that I don't use for finished tracks, but for coming up with sounds, and ideas for tracks, it's amazing. Really creative. Expensive though. Their new OP-Z is also interesting but doesn't actually sample (yet). Korg Electribe sampler is fun and ok but a bit awkward and I think your son might find it unnecessarily limiting in terms of arranging tracks.

An Elektron Digitakt is probably the most interesting affordable hardware sampler (I won't mention the Octatrack, it's a crazy rabbithole), though it is still expensive. Sounds great though, and does so much, in a really interesting way.

Another thing to think about might be the Armin van Buuren or Deadmau5 MasterClass.com courses. When you're learning electronic music production, the frustration mainly comes not from the gear but your own lack of knowledge. I've not taken any of those courses but I have heard that they're quite well-produced.

Alternatively, a soundcard / audio interface and a good pair of monitoring headphones will also help improve things because he'll be better able to pick out what's happening in the tracks he likes, and better hear what it is he's doing in terms of mixing, EQing, etc. Let me know if you want any recommendations on interfaces or headphones.

Anyway, sorry for the essay, hope it's not too late and that you find your son something that helps him progress and have fun with his music.