Gift Ideas Under $100 for Music Producers
That time of year is upon us again, there’s one thing that gets harder every year: deciding on what gifts to give. Music production can be an expensive hobby, and practically no one’s home studio can expect to be graced this year with an upgrade like a new hardware synth, a new pair of monitors, or a new laptop – unless it’s Paris Hilton’s Home Studio, maybe.
But as it turns out, you don’t have to break the bank to get some new – and possibly life-changing – studio upgrades. For this article, we’ve traversed the internet to bring you a range of affordable gift options related to music production. Whether you’re buying something for the producer in your life, or you’re a producer wondering what to ask for, we’ve probably got you covered in our list of gift ideas under $100 below.
If you’re looking for more ways to be frugal and still score some great music production tools, check out our guides on Synths for Every Budget, and the Free VST Plugins You Should Actually Get.
In This Article
Gifts for Music Producers Under $50
Contact Microphones
Approximate Price: $24.99
Contact microphones pick up their vibrations by the motions of solid materials, rather than through the air like regular mics. They’re great for recording physical things, whether they’re regular things like real instruments (what?), or more creative stuff like boinging springs on a table.
The point is, contact mic manufacturing has become very cheap, so you can ‘pick up’ things like this eight-pack of contact mics for very little. If that’s not your style, give it a Google
Bowie Stylophone
Approximate Price: $39.95
The classic Stylophone reimagined as a David-Bowie centric object that pays tribute to Space Oddity – and its curious instrumental solo. This proves that the instrument doesn’t have to suffer from its past associations (we’re talking about dodgy music, what did you think?)
Music Theory Circle of Fifths Metal Sign
Approximate Price: $37
The circle of fifths is one of the fundamental building blocks of creating music, and don’t you forget it! Well, you won’t be able to forget it with this large metal wall-mounted sign. Get it here!
Sound Reactive LED Strip Lights
Approximate Price: $15
If you’re a child of the 90s missing your WinAmp visualizers, trying to recreate the club in your studio, or just someone who wishes their environment would get in step with their DAW’s tempo, these astoundingly cheap striplights will give you sound-reactive lighting – or just normal mood lighting – in any room. Get them here or find something similar yourself.
Toca Percussion Coconut Kalimba
Approximate Price: $20
This kalimba (AKA thumb piano) is claimed to have been made from a single coconut, and we don’t feel qualified to fact-check that, so we’re going to assume it’s true and repeat it to you. It’s made out of a coconut!
A kalimba can be a great little instrument to put your musical mind in a different space, and is a very cool project for some basic sampling.
Remember the kalimba player’s maxim: if it needs more than seven notes, it’s probably jazz.
Vintage Synth Trumps 2
Approximate Price: $9
Now here’s something worth nerding out about! This vintage synth-themed deck of Top Trumps cards was created by GForce Software, so you know it’s got synth geekery, passion, and high-quality printing.
Stuck for a game to play among your synth-loving friends? Revising for your degree exam in vintage synths? Want to check how many oscillators the ARP Odyssey had? Or just want to look cool?
You can get it here from Juno (and elsewhere). We’re not certain what happened to Vintage Synth Trumps 1, but we heard they sound far better and go for a few thousand on eBay.
Producer Books
Approximate Price: $30
Here at the Plugin Boutique Blog, we’re practically illiterate, as you can probably tell, but the point is that we tri. And you can tri as well, with these bokos about music prodcton.
What we like about these manuals is that they’re exactly not that: they’re not comprehensive sets of instructions on how to piece together a creative work using a formula – they’re general pieces of advice from one mind to another about how to live, work and thrive as a creator.
Some of the best books for music producers, in our opinion, include Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers by Dennis DeSantis; The Creative Act by Rick Rubin; Dilla Time by Dan Charnas; The Tao of Wu by The RZA; and Bass Culture by Lloyd Bradley.
Producer Gifts Between $50 and $100
Brian Eno Oblique Strategies Cards
Approximate Price: £50
Brian Eno’s creativity-inspiring cards can dust off even the driest creative cobwebs. It’s a deck of cards, each with a creative prompt written on it, giving you a fresh little challenge for your music making and putting you out of your comfort zone. It’s not solely for music producers, but it fits that role best.
Some of the strategies include things like “Breathe more deeply”, “Overtly resist change”, and “Discard an axiom”. That’s your free trial – you can get it here.
A MINI MIDI Keyboard
Approximate Price: $40-$80
A MIDI keyboard doesn’t make any sound itself, but it's used to play music through a device like a synthesizer, whether a hardware unit or on a computer. There are many sizes of MIDI controller available, and the smaller ones are often surprisingly cheap. This M-AUDIO Keystation Mini 32 MK3 is one such mini MIDI keyboard, but there are many others like it.
Some small MIDI keyboards come bundled with software, others add a few more features, while some keep it trim and slim down the price. You’re searching for a 25-key MIDI keyboard or a 32-key MIDI keyboard, if you want to pursue this one.
Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators
Approximate Price: $59 - $99
These small, calculator-sized devices from Teenage Engineering are called Pocket Operators. Each does a particular thing, such as the talking PO-35 and the drumming PO-12. They can be played individually, connected together, or wired to a larger music-making setup. Each is a great device to play with in its own right, and would make a great little activity for after Christmas dinner – and beyond.
Mini Drum Pad Controllers
Approximate Price: $59
Like the MIDI keyboards above, a drum pad controller like the Akai Professional LPD8 mk2 Mini 8-pad USB Controller can be a great way to boost a basic music-making setup into a more creative workstation. You’re looking for a Drum Pad Controller, but there’s no word like “mini” to differentiate these ones.
Otamatone Musical Instrument Toy Bundle
Approximate Price: $52
The Otamatone is a strange little musical instrument to learn, practice, and pull out to (sort of) impress friends at parties, but most importantly for this round-up, it’s a relatively cheap one. To understand how the Otamatone is played, don’t watch this video, it’ll make things even more unfathomable. To understand how the Otamatone sounds and what it can do, check out this Otamatone performance on Spain’s Got Talent. You can get one here.
Producer Gifts Just Over $100
Editorskeys Audio Editing Keyboards
Approximate Price: $80-120
Sit up and pay attention to this one, because getting your keyboard shortcuts right, and getting quicker at your chosen DAW, can save you a boatload of time and stop you getting creatively frustrated.
Editors Keys are custom keyboards ready to rock with the shortcut functions for most major DAWs. They’ve got Logic, they’ve got Ableton, they’ve got FL – they’ve even got Reason, Studio One and something called ‘Pro Tools’ too. Browse Editors Keys Keyboards here.
Handmade Noisebox - Etsy
Approximate Price: £95
It’s a box, with a load of metallic stuff attached to it, that makes cool noises. If you’re at all an experimental type of producer, you should certainly ‘spring’ for this one. You could really ‘turn’ this into something cool.
