Standalone audio recorders are useful in all sorts of situations. Whether you need to record a business meeting, take a few notes on the go, or hum some chords for your speed-metal band’s newest hit-in-the-making, an audio recording beats written notes, hands down. And if you frequently find yourself capturing video on an iPhone or other pocket cam, you can greatly improve the audio quality of a home movie by capturing external audio and syncing it to your video with editing software.

Macs and music go hand in hand. Whether it’s crafting songs in GarageBand or listening to your favorite new tracks in iTunes, tons of music flows through our Macs. So a decent pair of speakers can do wonders for your desktop jamming, and Blue Sky’s new EXO2 monitors bring studio sound home for both musicians and fans.

The EXO2 is the successor to Blue Sky’s well-regarded EXO 2.1 (naming conventions be damned). It features a similar configuration—two satellite speakers, a subwoofer, and a small preamp for tweaking the sound. The EXO2 supports inputs from XLR/TRS connectors, RCA, and 3.5mm stereo cables. If that means nothing to you, this system probably wasn’t made with you in mind.

When we saw the Producer USB microphone on the front of the Avid Vocal Studio packaging, we did a double-take--we bought that mic from an online clearance outlet last year, and for half the price of its current incarnation. But here it is again, headlining a software combo that promises everything you need to create voiceovers, podcasts, and multitrack musical recordings in one tidy package.