Looking for a gift for an electronic musician, or maybe a cool new toy for your music laboratory?
2013 has been a great year for affordable new gear for electronic musicians – so we’ve put together a collection of links for relatively inexpensive gift ideas.
Here are 10 electronic music gifts under $100 to check out:
- Korg’s Monotron line includes three synths at about $50 each, the Korg Monotron, the Korg Monotron Duo and the Korg Monotron Delay.
- The Gakken SX-150 MARK II Analog Synthesizer looks like a toy, but it’s a real analog synthesizer, under $70, and has been popular with as a platform for DIY mods.
- The Stylophone is a miniature stylus-operated synthesizer, based on the 1967 classic, and it’s available for under $25 at Amazon. It offers three sounds and can output through the built-in speaker or via an audio out jack.
- The Bleep Drum + MIDI is a $75 kit that lets you build a ‘rad-fi drum machine’, with sequencer, pitch-adjustable samples, and MIDI. It’s available at the Bleep Labs store.
- Gameboys can be purchased on the cheap, since they’re 20 years old and jillions were made. Add Nanoloop, though, and you’ve got an inexpensive lo-fi synth. Nanoloop pricing starts at 29 Euro.
- The modular documentary I Dream Of Wires offers 4 hours of hardcore modular synthesizer and electronic music action for $30 on DVD, $35 for BluRay at the Science With Synthesizers shop or at Amazon.
- The iConnectMIDI2+ looks like a standard USB MIDI interface – but it supports Mac, Windows & iOS, adds Audio passThru from one device to another, lets you hook up 2 computers at the same time and has sophisticated MIDI routing and filtering. Amazon has it for just under $100.
- Several companies offer DIY Eurorack module kits. The Mutable Instruments CVpal is a DIY kit that lets you build a USB to CV converter that can be used in a Eurorack synth or standalone. See the Mutable site for details. They are currently out of stock – hopefully these will get replenished soon. See also the Synthrotek store for their DIY Euro modules , Thonk for several DIY Eurorack modules and the EAR store for their Euro version of the Gristleizer.
- The Novation LaunchKey is a mini USB MIDI keyboard that works with your iPad or laptop that offers a 25 note mini-keyboard, 16 drum pads and 8 knobs. It’s available for under $100.
- The Bob Moog Foundation has a 2014 Calendar that celebrates 50 years of Moog modular synthesis. It’s $20 at the Foundation site and your purchase helps support their mission.
Let us know if you’ve got other suggestions in the comments!
The Leap Motion controller currently ships for free and a $10 Airspace credit, this is enough to get GECO MIDI for free. Giving you very expressive gesture control for only $80. Enter LeapHoliday2013 as promo code in the leapmotion.com store.
This may not be exclusively for electronic musicians but if you’re in need of a practice amplifier, the 15 watt Line 6 Spider amp has amp modeling and some effects included for $99.
I recently bought the CME Xkey for just under a hundred dollars. Polyphonic aftertouch and a low profile mean it’s perfect for portability.
How do you like its feel?
I’ve got a few modified Gameboys up for sale on eBay + other cool cheap electronic instruments too but the auctions are ending very soon!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/321258094387?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649
🙂
Arturia minilab is the best $100 ever spent
Talking about kits… Thonk just released a very small but really cool sping reverb module for the Eurorack format, in kit form. Also costa less than $100 even if you have to add your own reverb tank or brick.
http://www.thonk.co.uk/
You can get the Novation Launch Control for around 100 bucks!
Bleep Labs Nebulophone… Bleep Labs Nebulophone… Bleep Labs Nebulophone…
Korg DS-10 for Nintendo DS.
Don’t forget about patch cables!!!! (or music cables of any sort for that matter)
IK Irig stuff. I kinda like the Irig pre so far. Well for the 30 bucks it cost me anyways.
Just bought CME X Key pro …Works like a charm n turns a lotta heads too. 🙂
For someone who likes DIY, a Monotron and MIDI IF kit can make a cool cheap micro MS-10, especially after adding a few simple circuits (single transistor VCA, 555 LFO, passive filters, etc). Still under $100. Then another Monotron for a 2 osc synth…