Namba Gear Blog by Woody Moran

10 Great Performance Tips For Singers

Woody — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:50:34 +0000

The following “performance tips for singers” are courtesy of Los Angeles vocal coach and professional singer, Teri Danz. If you sing, we strongly encourage you to go to Teri’s website, www.teridanz.com and sign up for her free monthly publication, The Singer’s Newsletter.

1. Command the stage. This is why your stance is so important. your body language and ability to stay centered, stay planted and calm tells you audience on a nonverbal level that you are in control of the stage. Always stand center stage when you deliver an important message (such as the top of the chorus).

2. Have reverence for what you are saying. Don’t throw away phrases and end notes. If you are dancing, stop to address your audience when you sing. There is power in the contrast between motion and stillness.

3. Don’t hide. Be present in the song. Even if you drift momentarily or get distracted, get back to the song as soon as possible.

4. Have an open body stance. Standing straight, shoulders down, head and jaw relaxed, and head straight forward, eyes open (focused on a point), arms relaxed and wide. Watch Bono, Jagger and Aretha to get the idea.

5. Open your eyes. It is NOT more emotional for your audience if your eyes are closed. Your audience identifies with you through your eyes, gestures and outward expression of your inward thoughts.

6. Remain calm. If there are mistakes, “Act as if” everything is part of the act. Don’t allow your audience to know that you have made a mistake, are having vocal problems, can’t hear yourself, etc. It is your job to be professional.

7. Get a vocal technique, and learn to stay on pitch so that you are confident in your singing.

8. Work out your set list. Have a song order and how it will flow, when you will speak, and what you are going to say.

9. That said, be flexible with your set list. Have alternatives ready to go in case you’re feeling congested & can’t hit the top end, or you get an energy going with the audience.

10. Get it down. Rehearse what you’ll be doing well enough to let go of it onstage.

READ RELATED ARTICLES: Musician Resources

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Namba Gear Congratulates Troy Castellano- Broadjam’s July Song of the Month Winner

Woody — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 19:08:02 +0000

Namba Gear is happy to congratulate Broadjam’s July 2008 Song of the Month winner, Troy Castellano of Harris, Minnesota. As a Broadjam Song of the Month sponsor, Namba Gear is proud to award Troy with a Kava Laptop Studio Bag as part of his Broadjam prize package for the song, “All Torn Up”.

Hear Troy Castellano’s music on Broadjam.

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Namba Gear Partners with HowAudio.com

Woody — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:06:09 +0000

I absolutely hate manuals. Let me say it again… HATE. Typically dry, boring, bad illustrations, written from a prototype hardware product or 0.9 software version that never includes the final fixes (no wonder they seem so poorly written). That’s why I was so happy to discover HowAudio.com, whos’ motto is, “cause reading the manual sucks.” Ha! I knew I wasn’t alone. HowAudio.com is dedicated to providing the highest quality, easy to use on-line, video based training for the audio recording enthusiast as well as the working professional, and they got it right!

If the time and energy required to read the manual has become your learning disability, kiss your “mental block” goodbye. Looking through the HowAudio.com audio titles is like being the proverbial “kid in a candy store”. And they are consistently adding new titles to their library to ensure that you have all the tools at your disposal to create the best music.

Is this awesome, or what!

Take a look at a few of HowAudio.com’s newest titles from the common to the esoteric:

What’s New in Pro Tools 7.4
Torq with Xponent
Building Your Own GTR FX Pedalboard
Cubase 4: The Essentials
Ableton Live 7
What’s New In GarageBand ‘08
Acoustic Guitar Miking Techniques
Preparing For Mastering
FM8 - FM Synthesizer-Native Instruments
Essentials of Podcasting
What’s New in Propellerhead Reason 4
Apple Logic 8
Miking Techniques for Drums (studio)
Analog to Digital: How to get sound into your computer
and the ever popular titles such as Drum Tuning and Maintenance, How to Relic A Guitar, and ProTools LE (a comprehensive tutorial just under 10 hours!).

Constantly being updated, HowAudio.com offers two simple ways to subscribe: $199/annually or $19/monthly. Both options give you complete access 24/7 to over 1200 tutorials on over 40 subjects. HowAudio.com also sponsors regular FREE podcasts available on youtube.com, myspace.com and on the HowAudio.com website.

Register Your Namba Bag, Get 1 FREE Month of HowAudio.com

Now get this, when you purchase a Namba Gear bag or backpack and register your Namba bag online using the UPC code on the hangtag, Namba Gear will give you a month of HowAudio.com subscriber service to check it out. Decide for yourself. If you are like us it is pretty easy to get hooked on the idea of getting the most out of your gear for what feels like a very reasonable price. Cudos to Joe & Thiel, the co-founders of HowAudio.com. Learning audio has never been so easy.

READ RELATED ARTICLES: Musician Resources

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Namba Gear Introduces the Best, Coolest and Righteous, Shaka Laptop Messenger Bag

Woody — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:20:12 +0000

The Shaka Laptop Messenger bag is named for the famous Hawaiian Shaka hand sign that, like many Hawaiian words, seems to enjoy flexible meanings; in this case “hang loose, good, cool, aloha, and righteous”. The Shaka bag embraces all of these adjectives, but triumphs when it comes to “flexible”. The bag was created to provide an optimum carrying solution for up to a 15″ laptop computer along with personal essentials. As you look through the bag, just when you think you have located all of the compartments and pockets, you seem to discover yet another one.

Wondering How To Carry Your Hand-Held Digital Recorder & Laptop?

The evolution of the hand-held digital audio recorder makes the Shaka bag a perfect solution for carrying your laptop computer along with a digital recorder and a small mobile audio interface. Or simply use the Shaka Laptop Messenger as your day-bag for personal items, which is also conveniently large enough to accommodate your laptop computer.

Lockable zippers for the laptop compartment provides extra security. A super thick shoulder pad softens and redistributes bag weight. The Shaka bag even incorporates a convenient carry handle and is available in Mayan brown, charcoal grey and olive green. We have road-tested this baby and are confident when we say, this is the flexible laptop bag that you will treasure for years, and wonder how you got along without it.

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Namba Gear Congratulates Darren Scott - Broadjam’s June Song of the Month Winner

Woody — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:48:04 +0000

Namba Gear is happy to congratulate Broadjam’s June 2008 Song of the Month winner, Darren Scott of Rochedale South, Australia. As a Broadjam Song of the Month sponsor, Namba Gear is proud to award Darren with a Kava Laptop Studio Bag as part of his Broadjam prize package for the song, “Here Again”.

Hear Daren Scott’s music on Broadjam.

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

Woody — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 01:37:26 +0000

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.

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?

Woody — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:20:11 +0000

As 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

Alesis 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

Woody — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:46:05 +0000

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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Namba Gear Releases Product Video SPOTLIGHT On The Big Namba Studio Backpack

Woody — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:57:17 +0000

If you are anything like our buddy, Dave, than we know that it helps to have a picture of how things work. Not that Dave is dumb, far from it, it is just that some of us are more visual than others (with Dave being exceptionally visual and occasionally visionary). You can show Dave specifications and give him explanations until you are blue in the face, but show him a 3 minute video and the light bulb goes on and you hear him say, “Ohhhh, so that’s how it works.”

Which was exactly what happened when we showed Dave our Video Product SPOTLIGHT on the Big Namba Studio Backpack. He suddenly understood what makes the Big Namba Studio Backpack so unique.

Captured by our friends and partners over at HowAudio.com, the video features Los Angeles recording artist, violinist, and sound designer, Laura Escude. Laura is also known for establishing the L.A. chapter of the Ableton Users Group.

We caught up with Laura in the back patio cabana of the Sierra Cup in Monrovia, CA. Laura was working on some tunes and takes the opportunity to show us how she transports her entire mobile studio using the Big Namba Studio Backpack.

Take a moment to check out the video. The video’s accompanying music is courtesy of Laura Escude entitled “Nabhidance”.

Check out the Big Namba Studio Backpack Video SPOTLIGHT

Check out the Big Namba Studio Backpack on YouTube

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Namba Gear Announces Jim Mouth’s Rose Bowl Sit-a-thon for Charity, July 7-11

Woody — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:34:03 +0000

Jim Mouth, my personal friend, a great drummer, comedian, and the “Super Stadium Sitter” is at it again! He plans to sit in all 92,542 seats at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, CA, the grand daddy of all stadiums, without stopping. He will commence at 10:00 a.m. on July 7th and hopes to sit in the last seat five days later.

The event is free and open throughout those five days and the public is invited to come out and watch and chat with the outrageous Jim Mouth, the holder of 23 world records. Jim expect to wear out five pairs of pants during those five days!

The Rose Bowl Sit-a-thon is sponsored by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! and all donations and pledges will go directly to the charity Outward Bound Los Angeles. Outward Bound’s mission is to help provide low-income at-risk urban youth nature-based education that promotes positive self-development, environmental responsibility and outdoor career exposure.

Jim’s many renowned and novel stunts have achieved national and international coverage. Included in those are such amazing activities as stuffing 280 drinking straws into his mouth at one time, crawling 25 miles on his hands and knees, simultaneously smoking 159 cigarettes, and playing the drums for two weeks non-stop.

He has already sat in all the seats at the University of Michigan’s stadium of the Big 10 and now wants to do the Pac10. Many of Jim’s stunts have been performed on behalf of various charities to raise public awareness and to bring in thousands of dollars for the needy.

Jim plans on going full steam for the first 48 hours, will take a 2 hour sleep break and start back up for the next 48 hours. We want to encourage everyone in the Los Angeles area to come out to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena along with the crew from Namba Gear and encourage Jim, as this is a huge endurance test for the human body & spirit.

READ RELATED ARTICLES: Tribal Drums

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