Gear that makes Rocksmith easier and more convenient to play

[zxcv4321]

While I have only purchased a few cheap items specifically for playing RS, I have a couple of possessions that make playing RS incredibly convenient.  If you have any gear investments that you made that also supplement the game, please list them here.

From cheapest to most expensive:

Audio/video splitter: while I run my audio and video through a media box at home to reduce latency to almost undetectable, I needed one that I could use when traveling to play with freinds at other locations.  I found this afforable splitter box that takes in HDMI from my computer and outputs video HDMI and audio from a 3.5 mm stereo audio jack.  I get nearly the same performance on the road:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017B6WFP8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Footswitch for keyboard mapping:

There are a lot of CDLC where I want (or need) to switch to one of my programmed tones.  I found a PC footswitch that allows you to assign keys to one of 3 pedals in a floor unit that is very much like a pedal setup for guitars.  I have one footswitch mapped to change to any of the 3 custom tones that I have saved.  So far it is resonsive and durable, and keeps me from having to reach over to tap one of the number keys on the keyboard.  It is nice to be able to switch tones in RS by stomping on a foot pedal: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088BK2WLK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

Pitch pedal:

I want the versatility of a whammy bar but hate the sacrifice you need to make in tuning stability.  I got a "virtual" whammy bar that sounds like a gimic, but is suprisingly well made with no detectable latency.  The control unit is a stompbox that is like a better version of the drop-tune pedals, allowing me to drop or raise the tuning as a "virtual capo", which is great for both bass and guitar.  I can reliably go all the way down to B standard without touching the tuners.  The sound integrity is great, even on bass, and you don't have to have the whammy bar installed on the instrument to use the pitch pedal: the pedal is the control box that will work with any unit, where the whammy bar is just like an expression pedal that works with it.  Worth noting: once I go past drop C on the bass, the RS tuner struggles to find the right notes, but every song I have played in B standard on bass has tracked perfectly.  I just have to bypass the tuner for any song lower than C standard.  

Guitar with alternate tunings on the fly:

This guitar has been the best investment I have made in 30 years of having and working in a studio.  It is another that I initially thought was a gimic until I researched it and made the jump.  The JTV-69 allows for me to chaning to any tuning I want on the fly without adjusting the tuning pegs.  So long as you play at a volume that overrides the acoustic sound, the guitar sounds incredible even in the most dramatic tunings that would otherwise require different gague strings.  I have available all the conventional drop tunings, open tunings, lower standard tunings, 5ths tunings (like violin) and even one set to 5 octaves of E across the 6 strings.  There is a set of custom-program banks that I use so that I have two sets of 5 differnet tunings available from the 5-way selector switch.  This makes it so that I can immediately tune to almost every alternate tuning available in RS songs in seconds without touching the tuning pegs and altering the tension and string response, with exception for the tunnings that are a little sharp or flat from A440.  It has been a tremendous investment, and I no longer need a different instrument for each of the alternate tunings that I like to use.  While I don't use the instrument model feature for RS (I just use the Les Paul sound, so it sounds like a LP but plays like a strat), the guitar will also do a pretty good job at sounding like anything from a telecaster or rickenbacker to an acoustic or dobro.