Exclaim! Holiday Gift Guide: The Best Music Gear of 2021

Including microphones, guitar pedals, synths and a portable vocal booth

BY Exclaim! StaffPublished Nov 30, 2021

Who says you need to leave the house to record a masterpiece? Home recording gear has never been more accessible, and if someone in your life is looking to join the ever-crowded field of bedroom pop producers, here's what you should get them this holiday season to help them stand out.

Shure
MV7X Podcast XLR Microphone


Whether you're a podcaster, musician or other type of voice artist, this dynamic microphone — designed specifically for the voice — offers great quality on a modest budget. 

Teenage Engineering
Pocket Operator Capcom Series


The latest in the Pocket Operator series borrows sounds from two of Capcom's iconic franchises. Street Fighter, a microsequencer and sampler, and Mega Man, an 8-bit sampler and sequencer, both come loaded with sound tracks and samples from the original games. Hadouken!

Decibullz
Professional High Fidelity Earplugs
 

Tinnitus is a musician's — and a live music fan's — worst enemy. As gigs ramp up again, these earplugs can help spare your ears from punishing frequencies so you can just enjoy the music, man.

Pigtronix
Space Rip guitar synth pedal


An analogue synth pedal featuring pulse width modulated sawtooth and square wave voices in multiple octaves, the Space Rip gives the future that classic analogue sound. 

Imperative Audio
Portable Vocal Booth


Perfect for singers, podcasters or players looking for a bit of sound isolation, Imperative's lightweight, portable aluminum vocal booth helps you capture high-quality audio whenever, wherever you need. 

Third Man Hardware x Elmore
Online Learning Pedal
 

This stylish foot pedal lets players effortlessly pause, rewind, fast-forward, speed up or slow down audio and video, making it the perfect tool to help master that new favourite riff. 

Way Huge
Atreides Analog Weirding Module


An homage to both the Electro-Harmonix Mini Synthesizer and the sonic weapon from Dune, the Weirding Module helps you discover the in-sounds from way out. 

Roland
Verselab MV-1


An all-in-one production studio capable of recording vocals, programming beats and everything in between. Added mixing and mastering capacity means you can take a song from creative spark to finished product. 

Korg 
ARP 2600 M semi-modular synthesizer


One of the most iconic synths of all time gets shrunk to about 60 percent of its original size. This semi-modular synth recreates the original's sound, while adding modern flourishes like MIDI compatibility.

EarthQuaker Devices
Astral Destiny reverb pedal


Featuring a whopping eight reverb modes, this octave reverb pedal also includes eight customizable presets. The length, depth, rate, tone and mix panel controls make the sonic possibilities virtually limitless.

Cradle 
The Prince plugin synth


The Prince software synth takes all of Canadian producer Frank Dukes's (Drake, the Weeknd, BADBADNOTGOOD) favourite sounds and sticks them in a single box. 

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