Belkin: TuneCast Mobile FM Transmitter

In that neurotic quest to listen to a fresh mix on as many systems as possible, I stumbled on a new one. You know, you listen through every monitor in the control room, then you burn a disc and listen on the boombox in the kitchen, the lead singer's Walkman, and the inevitable... the band piling in the car, listening through the speakers mounted inside the doors. Well, here's another way. The CD player on my little boombox in my studio died. Fortunately, the FM tuner was still working, and I had my handy Belkin TuneCast that's meant to send your iPod's output to a car radio. That never worked well for me, but here I had an instant radio station transmitter in my bag all the time, and I didn't realize it. So I just stuck the Belkin into the headphone output of my Alesis MasterLink and played the mix through the boombox situated just a couple of feet above the MasterLink. The sound was clear and full and I could match the output of the MasterLink via the headphone volume control to the level of other radio stations. This was almost a dream come true, as I've always wanted to have this facility. Now I don't even have to burn a disc or record the mix into the MasterLink to hear it on the radio. I just put the MasterLink in input mode and the sound comes straight from the console to the radio! Of course, you could still burn a disc and walk around the area you work and tune the mix in on any number of radios you can find. You just need a CD Walkman and the Belkin plugged into the headphone output as a source. An excellent bargain for a small radio station! ($39.99 MSRP; www.belkin.com)