Every year, you have to find a cool gift for the audio pro in your life…or maybe you’re the pro in question and need some ideas to give people because all they do is tell you how you’re impossible to buy for. Either way, here’s some possibilities.
Living The Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans
Mal Evans was the original roadie—the right-hand man to the Beatles, along for their wild ride through the 1960s and the years afterwards.
Joining the band’s inner circle as their road manager before fame struck, Evans was always there to make tea, move a crate, help pound the pianos for the final chord of “A Day in The Life” and much more, until he met a tragic end in 1976.
His survivors have opened the family archives to author Kenneth Womack, and for the first time, the story of how Evans essentially invented the roles of the modern roadie and personal assistant plays out in this new biography ($50).
Audio-Technica Sound Burger
We know plenty of tour sound pros who have a favorite vinyl shop in every city and use their precious days off to scrounge for records. We also know plenty of old-school cratediggers who are perpetually in search of the ultimate obscure record to sample. Both groups could really use a portable record player to check out what they’ve found, but those $30 suitcase-style turntables that you find in big-box stores? They chew up records with their ceramic needles, defeating the purpose of even having them.
Instead, grab a burger—specifically Audio-Technica’s Sound Burger ($200), the venerable audio company’s ultra-compact turntable measuring 12-by-4-inches. A-T has manufactured turntables and phonograph needles for decades, so if it looks vaguely familiar, that’s because it is: Audio-Technica made them briefly in the 1980s, but the CD brought about their untimely demise.
Now, with the vinyl revival in full swing, the Burger is back with modern conveniences like a rechargeable internal battery and Bluetooth capability, making for truly wireless portability.
Røde NT1 Signature Series Microphone
The original NT1 studio condenser mic put Aussie audio manufacturer Røde on the map back in the Nineties, and it has since become a go-to for emerging artists, podcasters and the like thanks to its distinctive sound signature, attainable price point and durability. The latest iteration is the new NT1 Signature Series ($159), which introduces some wild limited-edition colors in addition to the usual black. Inside is a R de HF6 large-diaphragm (1-inch) condenser capsule with a tight cardioid polar pattern for background noise rejection. It also carries over the analog circuitry of last year’s NT1 5th Generation model, which was upgraded at the time to deliver lower noise (4 dBA), higher SPL handling capabilities and a more appealing frequency response than its previous edition.
There’s plenty of excitement—and concern—about the quickly emerging world of AI music, but some insight into how we’ve handled computer-aided music in the past can help inform how we deal with it today. That’s just one of the reasons to check out Andrew J. Nelson’s The Sound of Innovation ($40) from MIT Press. It’s a heady history read, to be sure, tracing the origins of computer music in the 1960s at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA—perhaps tellingly pronounced “karma”). Drawing on first-person interviews with pioneers in the field, Nelson shows how computer music developed and intriguingly how we’re seeing its influence in ways big and small even today.
Shokz OpenComm2 UC Bone Conduction Headset
Everybody uses Bluetooth ear buds to get things done these days, but they’re not always convenient for audio pros because sound people often need to hear their surroundings, too. The Shokz OpenComm2 UC headset ($200) is a great solution for this problem; it lets you listen and communicate with others over Bluetooth, but uniquely, the headset uses bone conduction, feeding you clear sound while leaving your ears uncovered and unplugged. It shines in situations where you need to communicate, need your hands free and need to hear what’s going on around you. So, if you’re soundchecking at FOH in an unfamiliar club and wind up with the house engineer on your smartphone, you don’t have to put him on the phone’s speaker while you get things in order. Best of all, it can tie into two devices at the same time—a computer and a phone, for instance—and simply ‘knows’ which one to prioritize. I’ve used one daily for months, and it’s a winner.
Some Quick Hits
My Effin’ Life: Ever met a rock engineer who doesn’t like Rush? Me neither, so bassist Geddy Lee’s new autobiography is a safe bet.
Loop Earplugs: There are a lot of quality earplugs out there; these are among our favorites because of their low profile and varied noise reduction depending on the model.
Hackney Diamonds: That new Andrew Watt-produced Rolling Stones record is no joke. Their first album of original material in 15 years, it’s their best since 1981’s Tattoo You.
