[LAU] Synths and sequencers for house/pop music?

[Ken Restivo]

My 10-year-old daughter has started to express some interest in music.

Somewhat predictably (and perhaps unfortunately too) she is into pop-star house stuff: Selena Gomez, Lady Gaga, Taio Cruz, Katy Perry, things of that nature. I know nothing of that style of music-- other then occasionally hearing it at the gym-- and I've no idea what tools are used to get those sounds.

She's got a rather ancient Debian ThinkPad  of her own, with a working sound card. And I've got her set up with the basics, including the zita-at1 autotuner which so far to my ears seems to be the the number 1 most important ingredient in this style of music.

Are there any synths on Linux which I could set up for her which are good for getting those kinds of house/techno/pop sounds?

Also, what might be a good, simple sequencer for this kind of stuff? I've used seq24 for years but I don't know if that's the right tool for the job here.

I'm trying to keep it simple, but if the toolchain requires lots of components, I could always write some custom glue in bash/python/whatever to make it easier.

If this is going to require a foray into VST-land, I might be up for it.

If it's not going to be practical without a Mac with GarageBand, maybe I'd want to know that too.

But if I can get something set up, it might help keep her occupied during the summer break.

Thanks.

-ken