We are a music technology blog, it’s holiday time, this was inevitable. I asked all of our contributors for their personal recommendations and compiled them together for your last-minute consumerist enjoyment. So here it is, our gift to you, a fabulous list of useful gifts that will suit all the controllerists on your holiday list.

VMeter - BANDESNACI

I bought a VMeter and it’s been a joy experimenting with it, as well as coming up with uses for it. The sensitivity on it is amazing and I came up with a routine of turntable-type scratches on the touch strip. It really has such a multitude of uses it could be considered a Swiss Army Knife among controllers.

 

TV B-Gone – Moldover

It’s a key-chain sized universal remote that turns off televisions in public places.  If you’ve ever found yourself in a bar, waiting room, airport terminal or any other public space where televisions seem to be on as some sort of “ambiance,” and wished you could just turn it off, now you can!  It is an incredibly liberating feeling to regain a little control from the media marketing monster.  I’m hoping Cornfield Electronics can produce a “Mobile Device B-Gone” to help combat the next generation of mind-numbing compulsively-motivated entertainment.

Radial ProAV2 – Justyn Myers

The venue you’re playing in more than likely has some sort of analog mixer with XLR, mic-level inputs. Your audio interface more than likely has some other type of output. The ProAV2 is the Holy Grail of audio adapters. It converts your audio interface’s outputs to balanced, mic-level signal and solves the problem of ground hum. It’s also extremely well made and sounds great!

 

Spudger – Shakey

If you read this blog, chances are there’s a hardware hacker on your holiday shopping list, or maybe you want to get some new tools for your own projects. A spudger is the perfect tool for prying open those pesky stock electronics. Warranty void if broken? Please, those little stickers are no match for the spudger! We all know there are user serviceable parts inside.

 

Max for Live – Nonagon

Has anybody mentioned Max for Live yet? While the spudger is great for hardware hacking, it won’t help you reprogram Ableton to work seamlessly with your latest hardware creation. That’s where Max comes in, it gives you the power to write patches that do virtually anything! And there’s plenty of free devices on-line to get you started. Max for Live is also 25% off through Jan 15th.

 

Launchpad – Phadedvision

Definitely would have to go with the Launchpad: Practical, lightweight and cost effective. It comes programmed as a control surface for Ableton Live, and if you don’t like the preset programming there are millions of other ways to use it. I mean, what couldn’t you do with an 8×8 grid of color changing buttons? The Launchpad is definitely a powerful tool.