Finally, somewhere to put your drink that isn't next to the board.
122 reviews · 4.9 average · 98 verified purchases
Steadi Labs LLC — Scott Rodriguez, founder. Veteran founded.
3419 E Chapman Ave #411, Orange, California · hello@steadilabs.com
“First time I have ever ordered from Facebook feed. Very easy. Happy with product.”Steve Butler · 8 August 2026
The console, the boom arm, and the laptop already claimed the desk — your drink gets whatever's left. A low, wide base holds it steady in that last strip of room, clear of the faders.
Keep it off the board — from $14.95Ships free · 90 days on your desk to prove it holds · Molded in Orange, California
Will it fit next to the interface? A sticky note answers it — the test is below ↓
How it goes
The desk was full before the drink arrived.
Every inch of a recording desk already has a job — the console, the laptop, the boom arm, the mic — and the drink you can't skip has to find whatever's left over, a few inches from a hot mic that hears every bump.
Whatever's left after the console, the laptop, and the mic take their share is a couple of inches at your elbow — right in the gesture zone, right next to the keyboard.
The arm needs a wide arc to bring the mic in and out of position, and anything sitting in that arc gets clipped the next time it moves.
It's the one surface that's actually flat and clear, so a cup lands there — directly over the faders, the pads, and every port that has ever regretted meeting a liquid.
Guests bring their own drinks and don't know your desk. Their takeout coffee, sweating and unlidded half the time, has to go somewhere, and the mixer is the nearest flat thing.
The overflow spot — casters, power cords, and the reach that pulls you off-mic to find it in the dark under the desk.
Nobody's had a real accident yet. But the drink has never had its own spot either — it's just been quietly relocated to whatever's left, session after session, until relocating it stopped feeling like a decision at all.
Sound familiar
The mic hears these moments too.
The mouth clicks start, and your water's parked behind the boom arm's clamp. You reach past it mid-question, catch the arm with your elbow, and the thud rides straight onto the track.
They set their sweating iced coffee down on the console, dead center between the faders — the only clear surface they could see. You spend the segment watching the ring it's leaving instead of your levels.
Headphones come off, the coiled cable drags across the table, and it clips the half-full can sitting next to the interface. The spill lands after the episode, but right on top of the gear.
DAW open, waveform up, coffee cup at your elbow. One gesture at a bad edit and the cup is against the keyboard.
Your water got exiled to the floor when the desk filled up. It's dry-mouth through the segment, or dead air while you duck off-mic to find it by the casters.
The 3-inch question
There's already a sticky note in the room.
lands in here
A square sticky note: 3 inches, exactly — same as the ceiling of what fits at your elbow.
The classic square is exactly 3 inches on a side. That's a fact about sticky notes — and it happens to be the exact ceiling of what fits.
Stand the cup or tumbler on the note right where it'll actually live during a session — next to the interface, not on a clear table somewhere else. Look at the base, not the rim.
Base sits inside the square? It fits. Hangs over the edges? Too wide. A tiny footprint lost in the middle — under 2 inches? Too narrow.
No calipers next to the gear, no guessing before the guest arrives. One sticky note, on the desk you're already recording on.
Will it fit my cup
The bottom inch decides what stays on the desk.
One rule covers everything on this list: a container base 2 to 3 inches across settles in — there's a floor here as well as a ceiling.
- Water glass fits
- Open water bottle fits
- Stanley 40 oz tumbler fits
- Slim energy drink can, 16 oz fits
- Sparkling water can fits
- Coffee mug, handled handle in the way
- Camp mug, no handle fits
- Takeout iced coffee cup fits
- Flip-cap gym bottle fits
There's a floor as well as a ceiling — under 2 inches the base sits too loose to grip. The handled mug is the one honest no on this list: the base fits fine, the handle just lands where a fin needs to close.
The full fit database — Stanley, Red Bull, Yeti, and 30 more, with sourced base measurements →
The trick, explained
Built for a desk that's already full.
A wide, low footprint holds full contact across the desktop instead of balancing on a narrow ring, so nudging it takes more than one careless pass with an elbow.
Flexible fins hold the container by its bottom inch, so a jostled cable or a swinging boom arm can't send it sliding toward the console.
Bump it mid-take and the low, wide base rocks, then lets the drink settle back down instead of letting it keep going — the difference between a rattle and a retake.
Why this
Three reasons it survives a live take.
Steady on a hard, crowded desk
The wide, low base and the fin grip aren't a workaround for soft surfaces — a hard, flat desktop is the strongest case for them. Full contact across the desk instead of one narrow footprint means a stray elbow or a swinging boom arm moves the drink a little instead of sending it toward the keyboard.
Grips what's actually at your desk
The water glass, the travel bottle, the can, the guest's takeout cup. Cans and bottles slide on; cups and tumblers drop in through the fins and get held by the bottom inch, so a bumped drink doesn't skate.
Doesn't fight the arm for the edge
It isn't clamped to the one edge the boom arm already owns, and it isn't wired into anything. It just occupies a few square inches — host side or guest side — and moves the second the setup does.
The alternatives
Compared to what's already on the desk.
| A clamp-on desk-edge cup holder | The Podcast Cup Holder | |
|---|---|---|
| Fits the edge the boom arm needs | Wants the same edge the boom arm's clamp already owns | Sits on the desk itself, host side or guest side |
| Slim can to 40 oz tumbler | One fixed ring — swallows a slim can or shuts out a tumbler | Fins flex from a slim can to a wide tumbler base |
| A boom arm swinging past | Anything parked in its arc gets clipped, holder included | Resists tipping, settles back down |
| Giving the guest their own spot | Needs its own edge, and the guest's side may not have a spare one | Set down anywhere on their side, no edge required |
| Desk space it takes | None — the ring hangs off the edge, clear of the desktop | A few inches on the desk itself |
| Moving desk to closet booth | Unscrew it, find a matching edge, re-clamp | Packs flat, sets down wherever there's room |
| Cost | Another purchase to justify | One small piece, already sized for tonight's session |
They want the exact edge the boom arm already owns, and the fit is conditional — clamps cap out around 2 inches of desk thickness and fight lips or skirted edges. The fixed ring runs roughly 3.6 to 3.95 inches across, so it either swallows a slim can or shuts out a real tumbler. Most of what's written about them online is affiliate copy that never met a loaded desk.
The maker's own instructions limit the grip to non-porous, flat surfaces — which rules out the fabric and rubber mats covering most recording desks, plus textured wood. And it only protects the one it came with; the guest's can and your tumbler are on their own.
They stop a condensation ring and nothing past it — zero resistance to an elbow knock or a dragged cable. A desk mat actually works against a suction-base cup, which needs the bare desk to grip.
Broadcast's real answer, and it doesn't survive a home setup: dry mouth is a genuine on-mic problem, so the water has to stay close. People bring it in anyway, which just moves the risk to the floor or the console top.
A lid shrinks the mess, not the tip. A tall insulated tumbler is top-heavy, a straw or flip lid still lets liquid out when it goes over, and the tumbler itself still slides across a hard desk on a bump — which the mic hears whether or not anything spills.
Why more than one
Two identical iced coffees. Whose is whose?
A two-mic setup means two drinks, and takeout cups from the same coffee run look identical under ring-light glow. Host and guest both set an iced coffee down near the console mid-session, and by the time headphones come off for a break, nobody's sure which cup is whose.
Build your set
Give everyone their own.
Pick a pack, then give each one a color — so nobody has to ask which drink is theirs.
The shop
Small runs, a few miles from the mic.
The maker is Steadi Labs, a small veteran-founded company in Orange, California. It's injection molded in small runs, and nothing about it travels far — the mold, the material, and the color runs all sit within about three and a half miles of the shop. The people who make it read hello@steadilabs.com themselves — no hold music, no dead air.
From the reviews
What buyers say.
Recent reviews of the Steadi, from every room and rig it lives in.
I have a tendency to spill my drinks and have two cats. This is one of the best things I’ve ever impulse bought. It works. It actually works. It’s a heavy, wide enough base that it is actually stable. My “spot” in the living room is near a somewhat-cushioned fabric ottoman, which is where I usually put my drinks. It’s
Dixie · 2026-08-30Excellent!
Brian S. · 2026-08-27It’s great love it
gilbert a. · 2026-08-24I never knock over my water at night anymore!
Steadi customer · 2026-08-2198 of the 122 published reviews are for the drink base itself. The other 24 are about ordering, shipping and customer service.
Fair questions
You're probably thinking…
That clamp wants the exact desk edge the boom arm's own clamp already owns, and it only comes in one fixed ring size — loose around a slim can, too tight for a real tumbler. This sits on the desk itself, no edge required, and the fins flex from a slim can to a 40 oz base.
It's a small, veteran-founded company in Orange, California, not a reskinned listing — molded in small runs about three and a half miles from the shop, with a real desk demo instead of stock studio photography.
The language stays honest on purpose — resists tipping, holds steady, never spill-proof or unbreakable — and the demo shows an actual passing brush from the arm, not a staged shove. A direct hard hit is still a direct hard hit; a normal bump is exactly what it's built to shrug off.
Suction only grips bare, non-porous surfaces — most recording desks are covered in fabric or rubber mats that defeat it outright — and it only protects the one mug it came with. The guest's drink is still on its own.
It's a compact molded piece, not a bracket or a clamp arm, and color names like Off Air, On Air, Signal Blue, and Late Night were built for exactly this — it reads like studio gear on camera, not an add-on.
Worth knowing
Asked between takes, answered here.
Does it actually work on a hard, flat desk?
That's the strongest case for it, not a compromise. The wide footprint and the fin grip hold at least as well on a hard desktop as anywhere else — full contact stops a bumped drink from sliding, and the fins keep it from rattling loose when the boom arm swings past.
My desk is already full — where does this even fit?
It only needs a few square inches, and it doesn't ask for the desk edge the boom arm owns. Tuck it beside the interface, in front of the laptop, wherever there's a gap — host side or guest side.
Will a swinging boom arm knock it over?
This holds steady and resists tipping when it gets bumped — the low, wide base rocks and lets the drink settle back down instead of letting it keep sliding. It's not magic, so a direct hard hit is still a direct hard hit, but a passing brush from the arm is exactly what it's built to shrug off.
Will my tumbler fit?
Measure the base, not the rim. A base of 2 to 3 inches across fits — the 40 oz Stanley does. Handled mugs don't; the handle lands where a fin needs to grip.
Does it clamp to the desk or the boom arm?
No. Nothing clamps, tucks under a mat, or wires into anything. It sits on top of whatever desk you've got and moves when you rearrange.
Can I set one up for my guest too?
Yes, and it solves the actual problem — guests set cups on the console because it's the only clear flat thing they can see. Give their side its own spot and the mixer stops being the default.
Does it protect the console if a drink tips?
It holds the drink steady and resists tipping in the first place, but it isn't a barrier or a seal. It's not a sealed cup, so pair it with a lidded bottle near the board if you want a second layer.
How do I clean it?
Rinse it, wipe it down, or put it in the dishwasher. It's one piece of flexible material with nothing to take apart.
Who makes it, and where do I buy one?
It's called the Steadi, molded in small runs in Orange, California by Steadi Labs — veteran-founded and patent pending. Every order ships free from steadilabs.com, with 90 days to change your mind.
Ninety days of real sessions.
Run it through a month of real sessions. If it doesn't do what this page says — on your desk, with your cups — email hello@steadilabs.com and it gets made right. No forms, no fight.
Veteran-founded · Patent pending · Made in Orange, California
Keep the board dry.
The drink stays at your elbow, off the console, through the whole session — and the only thing the mic ever picks up is the take.
Keep it off the board — ships freeCheckout is on steadilabs.com — Steadi Labs is the company that makes it.