Affordable tools that are indispensible

Adapters for cables. I have a box full of them, all different kinds. Allows me to make things work on the fly at any time! I've also made special ones too over the years.

$30 Behringher Cable tester with tone gen!
audio tools Aylizer App for the iPhone !

www.radialeng.com/extc.php

This will give you a better explanation than I might, Wiz.

This, it's the size of your thumbnail, and doesn't affect guitar tone, so you can just leave it on. And, it's around $12.

D'Addario Planet Waves Micro Tuner.

I have been doing an old school blues record, a vintage sounding bluegrass one and a hyper modern pop thing as of late for three very different clients. I am able to use my Benado effects board, pedals like the Wahoo Wah and envelope, Electro Harmonix Cathederal reverb, Alairex halo and Little Walter Tube Amps spring reverb at mixing time and get it blended in seconds the way I want it. For the modern pop, I can do radical changes as I print for very effected sounds, shock and atmosphere. Getting to use (or re-use as needed) pedals that are high quality in the analog domain helps to make guitars step out in the mix just when I want them and still feel recorded live on the floor. Check out Sage Benado's new board here. His new design has a patch bay built right into the front panel of the board, so combinations with other pedals and my recording studio gear are endless.His overdrive and delay absolutely kill for doing this. The EXTC is so handy for dialing the amount of the effect and blend you want and moving on at a very fast pace. I wish I had bought them when the first came out a few years ago. My client and personal records would have been better for it. A good example is we recorded harmonica with a 15 watt Little Walter amp and the player in an iso booth with a Cloud ribbon to be able to have a clean harp sound and a nasty one. We were a little too conservative with the amp distortion at recording, so I was able to come out of the TT patchbay, into the Radial EXTC, send and receive the added distortion (Benado OD this particular time) and the harp became alive and owned the mix like it should. The reverb (Little Walter) that we used at recording time already sounded great and the added gain stage made it more present in the mix, which is what we wanted. 

Sage Benado's pedals:

benadoeffects.com/



Here is a Youtube vid for the Alairex Halo:




And a pic of the Little Walter reverb:

I'll add these to the thankful to have list as well:

www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/CBLD

I have three that keep my studio patch cables orderly and handy.




These guys are friends of mine and have all kinds of handy studio and live related things to improve your life. I have quite a few of the retractable xlr's and 1/4" cables. They have lots of their clamps for holding head phones, cameras, lights and just about anything you could imagine needing a mount for.

www.stageninja.com/

The only problem with that is acoustic instruments like banjos and mandolins slip tune all the time. Nothing would get done if everyone (6 guys tracking live) was passing around that tuner all day. I have Peterson Strobo Flip tuners in every booth. You can calibrate them together. Gonna check out the Tunebot now...

Ime Drum dial is definitely more useful, especially on a HQ drum, the tunebot is a bit of a spazzy pita sometimes, I have both.

Heh, I'm the exact opposite.  I had a drum dial for a while and just couldn't get good results with it.  The tunebot IS finicky sometimes, but mostly if you have the head unevenly placed on the shell.  It's a breeze otherwise.  I can also tune to specific notes, which I do.

Radial has had this module out for a very long time. They might have been the first in 500 series to release one. I am just late to the party.

I'm pretty sure Mike had the commercial unit, but it seems to have disappeared? I remember reading about that tuner, seems amazing when you read about what it does, i have a wicked hard time getting over the look of that box though! I'm a victim of modern packaging circumstance haha 

There's no way I could go back. And CHEAP....nearly free....