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Archive for July, 2008

Crazy AC/DC Headbanger Serves Fantastic Curry & Brilliant Air Guitar

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

This story definitely fits under the Namba Gear Tribal Drums (miscellaneous) category. For this episode of “Travels From A Musician’s Point of View”, I was attending the Frankfurt Musik Messe (Music Fair) with a business associate. After a couple of days at the trade show, and having tired of the traditional German food (pork; not that there is anything wrong with that), we decided to try and find an Indian restaurant for our dinner.

We went to the taxi stand and were fortunate to find that our driver spoke a little English. We told him that we wanted to find a really good Indian restaurant and he assured us that he knew the best place in Frankfurt, the food was fantastic, and that he even took his family to this restaurant. Great, off we went.

So this is what an Indian Head-banger looks like.As we entered the packed Indian restaurant, the smell of the curries and spices convinced us that we had indeed found The Promised Land. Traditional Indian decorations and the soft sound of tabla drums and sitar music completed the ambiance. The owner of the restaurant, complete with turban, came over to our table to take our order.

Maybe because our hair was a little longer (my associate’s hair was in a ponytail), or the Dave Matthews Band t-shirt I was wearing under my leather jacket, the owner asked if we were musicians. We told him that we were in town for the Musik Messe and were certainly in the music business. That was all it took.

Do You Like AC/DC?

Excitedly, the restaurant owner asked if we liked AC/DC. We both replied sure, they are a great rock band. Now the owner launched into an excited and animated description of the AC/DC concert in Munich that he had recently attended; how hard AC/DC rocked; how great their show was; etc. We tried to bring him back to the menu and our order of food, but now that he knew he had found some “fellow believers”, he dismissed our attempts and just said that he would serve us the special for a big discount. OK, that sounded good.

The owner left and was gone about 3 minutes when we noticed that the sitar music had been turned off. 30 seconds later… Highway to Hell blasted through the speakers at what had to be close to the maximum volume. The owner appeared from the kitchen in time to do a head-banger’s impersonation of a lead guitar player. I’m certain that our mouths dropped open, as this was just an amazing sight. We watched in dismay as we witnessed an Indian head-banger’s turban wildly bouncing to the beat as he thrashed his air guitar. The restaurant cleared of it’s customers almost immediately and within 10 minutes of AC/DC’s musical debut, along with the entertainment of the bouncing head-banger’s turban, we were literally the only customers left in the place.

We made great friends with the restaurant owner, who seemed oblivious to the fact that he had just run off all of his regular customers. And yes, we listened to AC/DC for our dinner music (although at a lower volume) and the food was indeed fantastic.

Got a good musician’s travel story? Feel free to share…

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Which MIDI Keyboard Controllers & Computer DJ Controllers Will Fit Into the Big Namba Studio Backpack?

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

The Ultimate Musician or DJ BackpackAs the Namba Gear designers were doing their research on the ultimate perfect size for the Big Namba Studio Backpack, they were also keeping in mind the current carry-on size restrictions of the airline industry. Although there is a standard, which is 22″ x 14″ x 9″ or 45″ total, every airline has their own size restrictions which can sometimes vary even within a single airline depending on the size of aircraft or the attitude of the check-in agent.

So we had to look at both the exterior size of the backpack as well as try to maximise the interior space to include the largest number of controllers. M-Audio’s Axiom25 was chosen as the measuring stick, because we knew that if we could get this “big boy” to fit and still follow the airline restrictions that we would be in good shape with most of the controllers on the market.

This lead to the development of the unhinging side on the large compartment, so that the backpack could open 180 degrees and the controller could actually be packed into a flat case.

Unfortunately, that did leave a few controllers unprotected and stranded on the sidewalk because they were just too big to fit our criteria for us to recommend them for the Big Namba.

The Korg25 is listed at 19.25″ inches long and although it is only .25″ longer than the Big Namba Studio Backpack’s interior dimension, it stretches the bag uncomfortably. The Novation XioSynth 25 which has on-board sounds as well as being a MIDI controller is a little wide at 12.54″. Likewise, the Stanton CM.205/CM.203 dj controllers are just a little fat at 4.29″ depth to recommend packing alongside your laptop. These Korg, Novation & Stanton controllers can be made to fit, just not with our recommendation considering the bag design. The Yamaha KX-25 at just under 20″ long and the Korg MicroX at 23.86″ long will not fit; don’t even try.

So what controllers do fit inside a Big Namba Studio Backpack?

KEYBOARD CONTROLLERS        

Axiom25 in the Big NambaAlesis PhotonX25
Behringer UMA25S
Behringer UMX25
Edirol PCR-M1
Emu Xboard25
M-Audio Oxygen8
M-Audio MidAir25
M-Audio KeyRig25
M-Audio Axiom25
Novation SL25
Novation ReMote LE x25 

DJ CONTROLLERS

Behringer BCD3000DJ
Feena
Kontrol KDJ500
M-Audio Xponent
Vestex VCI-100
Vestex VCI-300

Alternative Controllers

Akai MPD16
M-Audio Trigger Finger
M-Audio XSession Pro
Korg PadKontrol

The result is a backpack that will accommodate a majority of controllers and should still fit in the overhead compartment of most airlines, bearing in mind that each airline can change their minds about size restrictions and some smaller planes will simply not accommodate anything much bigger that a construction worker’s lunchbox. Sorry about having to include the caveat, but it is true.

So what did we miss? If you have a question about whether a particular controller will fit inside a Big Namba Studio Backpack and it is not on the list, please comment and let us know so that we can investigate.

Check out this product SPOTLIGHT video of the Big Namba Studio Backpack

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Namba Gear Congratulates Loren Francis - Broadjam’s May Song of the Month Winner

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Namba Gear is happy to congratulate Broadjam’s May 2008 Song of the Month winner, Loren Francis of Georgetown, Maine. As a Broadjam Song of the Month sponsor, Namba Gear is proud to award Loren with a Kava Laptop Studio Bag as part of his Broadjam prize package for the song, “I’ve Been Down Before“.

Hear Loren Francis’ music on Broadjam

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