Playing to a click track is a blessing or a curse, but I'm sure every musician or engineer has had to deal with it more than once. For a while I was burdened with one that would only give me 2 bpm intervals, which never seemed quite right, and trying to figure the tempo of a song was always a hit or miss event. Then my pal John Goodmanson turned me onto the $100 Tama Rhythm Watch. It stores tempos and stuff, which I've never bothered to figure out how to do, but it will also let you tap along to find out tempos. There are many uses. The usual printing of clicks to tape for whole songs or intros happens. Tap along to determine for if a song speeds up or slows down, though you'll find your reflexes contribute to a bit of iffyness. You can find out bpms for delay settings - you can even find the tempo and then pipe it into delays to set proper repeats (I've even run it into guitar rigs to set delays right). You can tap along during a take and then reintroduce the click during a quiet part of a song to hold the band together. You can even add a click to loops by tapping along and then printing to tape, stopping to rewind and punch in if it drifts a bit. All this and it features two click sounds, a built in mixer that can bring in off beats, waltz beats and an extra tone for the "one". I don't go to any job without it anymore...
Tools | No. 77
Batt-O-Meter battery tester
by Pete Weiss
Keith McMillen Instruments has hit the nail on the head with a very simple, yet oh-so-handy gadget that measures the voltage and remaining life of batteries. The Batt-O-Meter can test any 1.5 V...