MusicPlayerNetwork.com Forums Featured Craig Anderton's Sound, Studio, and Stage What is in your music travel kit?

I'm visiting my sister on her farm, 6 hours from my house. It is a two week visit so I brought a lot of music and hobby items. Problem is, the older I get, the more I forget. For example, I brought my favorite travel headphones, Sennheiser PX-200 ii. And I brought my favorite beatbox/music workstation, the Roland MC-707. Too bad the headphones will not plug into the MC. I don't have an adapter with me. This is not the only issue that I am running into this trip so I think it is time to build a travel kit for electronics, music and photography. So far the items on my list are

1/8" to 1/4" headphone adapter
1/4" to 1/8" headphone adapter
USB cable
USB to mini USB cable (cables are much easier to find than the correct adapter that I need)
USB to micro USB adapter
USB charging hub
MIDI cable
HDMI cable (for when I want to connect my laptop to a TV)
Surge protector with 10 foot cable and USB charging ports
Batteries (AA and AAA)
SD Card
Micro SD Card
A pack of narrow velcro strips for tying cables

Can you think of anything else?

Edit: added items.
Flashlight
Guitar picks

It would be much easier to make suggestions if we knew a few minor details.

What does "a lot of music and hobby items" mean?

What are you creating and what happens to your creations? Are you recording/photographing? Studio/Environmental/Catch-As-Catch-Can/Improv?

I take an acoustic guitar with tuner, picks and a strap in a padded gig bag with backpack straps - and a Tascam DR-40 with a 16gb SD card and some extra AA batteries stuffed into a pouch on the gig bag. Done.

A flashlight.

Well, ummm,

I already have a drawer there with drum sticks and a practice pad, crochet and knitting supplies, jigsaw puzzles and puzzle books, etc... I also have an acoustic guitar in a closet there. For travel I sometimes take a variety of drones, yoyos, finger boards, cameras, drawing supplies, Rubik's cubes, books and various craft supplies. This trip I brought an iPhone, two iPads, a MacBookPro and a Windows computer. Along with the Roland MC-707 I brought a Keystep Pro. I pack heavy.

I have almost a compulsion, when I go anywhere, to load a self contained stereo amp and a 1/8" stereo to dual 1/4" Y cable. Also my beater Chinese guitar and harmonicas, and a zippered bag of assorted Radio Shack connectors and whatnot.

I forgot 2 things. A spiral bound notebook and a writing utensil.

We're all different, part of the joy of going elsewhere is the freedom from all the stuffs.

Perhaps I'll show you. This is my "travel kit", which sadly hasn't seen much traveling lately.

^^^ Sir Ken, I truly enjoyed that! Thanks for sharing.
I listened all the way through, some fabulous sound evolutions present themselves.

Wow, thanks. That was some fun experimentation, just trying to get a handle on a new pedal. So glad you liked it. It certainly was fun to record.

I have seen Rainbow Machine recommended on one of the YouTube guitar pedal channels that I subscribe to but had never really heard it used until I watched this video. Nice. I had the OP-1 for a while but never really clicked with it so I finally sold it. Still have all the little TE devices.

I don't feel I am extracting the full potential from the OP-1. I am getting some cool sounds, but I don't have any decent range of control over it, and really need to be more consistent.

The Rainbow Machine is such an amazing pedal. I absolutely love it. Hopefully my video sort of shows it although I am mostly messing with the Fabrikat.

This also has some Rainbow Machine, and I start manipulating it more during the second half of this drone piece.

Travel?? What is this “travel” to which you refer?

My understanding is that people used to get in their vehicle and go to places hours away. Some even took these modes of transportation called planes and trains for even farther differences. They used to travel for both business and pleasure. I have these books and magazines that describe this phenomenon. My understanding years and years ago, prior to February 2020.

I've had sooooo many friends fly to Florida over the past 6 months. I stay away from them.

My travel kit is a RAM 1500 and we do a pretty good job of filling it up when we go to a gig. Out first gig of the year was Jan 20 and it went real well. I try to have a variety of extension cables and a backup cable for nearly everything. Even if my backing track system goes down we can still perform our sets but if we lose an amp the show is probably over.

I'm sitting here 6 hours from home staring at my MC-707. I thought I had forgotten the power supply, then found it. Started to use it and found that my headphone jack is the wrong size for the phones that I brought. Lesson learned. I should have brought the MC-101 instead. It has the same headphone jack as my MacBookPro, AND it will run on batteries. From now on the MC-101 will be my travel music box.

I always took a box of adapters when I was gigging. I also made project that was just a metal box, with every type of connector in the world paralleled together Saved my butt more than once.

My OP-1 has been a fun travel synth, as a more tactile alternative to my iPad, which has also served well as a music platform for travel.

But now i have a Roland MC-101, which bundled with a Keystep 37 would take a bit more space in my luggage than the OP-1 or iPad but has a bit more versatility than the OP-1.

I did take an airline flight once with electric violins (main and backup), OP-1, mixer, and FX pedals for an out of town gig. Stuck the backup violin in my suitcase, brought the main one with me onboard as a carry-on. The dumbest mistake I made was to pack the mixer and FX in a cheap case that was most definitely not flight-ready. The case got dented pretty good - just goes to show that the Mackie and the Eventide H9 can take licks, and keep on tickin.

Yamaha THR-10 amp.

The beauty of it is that you get a tiny, portable fairly-flat stereo playback system connected to an amp with knobs, and it connects via USB to rock-solid Yamaha drivers (that "coincidentally" also work with Steinberg UR interfaces). Loud enough to use with a soft drummer. Separate volume control for monitoring, plus a headphone out.

1 box = amplifier, low latency audio interface, stereo monitoring. Also can run on batteries.

Since 2014, this is what I bring when I travel:

- Mac Book Pro laptop (with Reason, StudioOne and a bunch of instrument and effects plugins).
- Korg MicroKey 37 controller, w/USB cable & carry bag (a re-purposed ukulele gig bag)
- Sony MDR-7506 headphones

And that's it. I've written a few songs on planes and trains.

I also have an Echo Firewire interface, but I don't need it when I travel unless I'm recording people.