HEY, YOU deserve it. Or maybe a friend or significant other deserves it. It’s the end of the year, and you’ve survived 2012— the Mayan calendar turned out to be just a calendar and not a Prophet of Doom, you’ve cleaned all the mud off your shoes from stepping in political campaign commercials, guitars are still cool, the music business is showing signs of figuring out some new directions, and it’s the holidays! Sure, your employer is too cheap to give you a bonus, but no worries—you can find yourself some pretty cool stuff for not a lot of bucks.

Following is a list of 22 worthy stocking-stuffers, arranged alphabetically by manufacturer; in recognition of what we’ll euphemistically refer to as “economic realities,” all of them cost $100 or less. To arrive at that price, we dispensed with the usual MSRP, MAP, “street,” and other weird numeric variants in favor of listing how much money you’ll actually need to buy something (excluding taxes). But it’s still a good idea to shop around—you might find some of these on sale. Happy holidays!

 

Gig Box
AMERICAN RECORDER TECHNOLOGIES
$30
americanrecorder.com
Talk about adapters: TRS to XLR, 1/8" to TRS, 1/8" to RCA, TS to RCA, RCA to XLR, dual banana plugs, rackmount screws, cable ties . . . you get the idea. Think of it as gig insurance for all of those times, when you’re trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. Or jack.

 

 

 

 

2 LED USB Light
MIGHTY BRIGHT
$15
mightybright.com
It’s a DJ favorite, but any time you need to work with a laptop under low-light conditions, this light . . . uh . . . shines. Just plug it into your laptop’s USB port, and two white, bright LEDs can light up the keyboard. It’s also great for illuminating the back of computers and other gear.

 

TriPad Mic Stand Isolator
PRIMACOUSTIC
$20
primacoustic.com
Primacoustic comes up with a lot of products that are so simple and obvious that no one ever thought of them before. Case in point: TriPad. Put these on your drum mic stands, and cut way down on vibration transfer. Cheap, cheerful, and effective.

 

Meteor USB Mic
SAMSON
$70
samsontech.com
USB mics are handy. USB mics like the Meteor with a fold-up stand, a headphone jack with volume control, and zero latency-monitoring are even more handy. And, if you want to strike up a lively conversation with TSA agents, just stick this cool-looking USB mic in your carry- on bag.

SM57
SHURE
$100
shure.com
Yes, it’s a classic mic. Yes, it’s been used on thousands of recordings. Yes, it handles abuse amazingly well. And yes, it actually is a $100 mic, so it’s Shurely worth having this baby (or the Shure SM58, its $100 relative) in your mic locker.

 

Home and Studio Guitar Keeper
STRING SWING
$15
stringswing.com
You want your guitar easily accessible while recording, but a guitar stand takes up space, and you don’t want to keep putting your axe into a case and taking it out again. So, put your wall space to use and hang your guitar. String Swing even handles headstocks with single or uneven heels.

iXZ Audio Interface for iOS Devices
TASCAM
$50
tascam.com
You carry your iPhone with you; now you can carry a way to record pretty much anything into it—the iXZ has XLR with phantom power (really), an instrument input, and headphone/line out. It also looks cool, and is small enough to fit in the average pocket.