Stage Presence

hello people

does anyone have any good advice on stage presence? im lead singer and lead guiatrist of a 3 piece punk reggae band. i'm busy constantly as i'm playing lead/rythm nd singing and ive been told i need to improve my stage presence. the only thing i can think of is to smile and make eye contact with the audience. any other tips please?

New Amp

hello people.

i'm looking to get a new amp. reason being i have a roland cube 40xl which i do like but i've now got my band off the ground and it is not loud enough to compete with a drum kit. alot of the gigs i'm going to play i'm not gonna be able to mic the amp so i need something loud enough to be heard over the drummer.

my band is very loud. we're a 3 piece but our drummer is a very hard hitter and we play what i call dub punk. we go from all out heavy fast punk/metal to chilled out dub reggae to drum n bass in one song so the amp needs to be able to cover cleans and heavy distortion. i use alot of effects as well. Ideally i want the amp to have 2 channels and no built in effects. i'm not over bothered about an effects loop. i also like the idea of having a separate amp and cab as we will be traveling a lot and i wont always need the cab.

i've never owned a valve amp but i'm very interested in getting one.

a couple of questions please:

what wattage amp do you think i need? ive been looking at some of the 15w valve amps you get these days such as orange tiny terror and vox night train but as my 40w amp isn't cutting it will one of these? Ive heard they will and i understand that the watts in relation to volume is different between valve and transistor amps but i'm not too sure.

if i did get one of these small valve amps what size cab would i need to play un-miced gigs?

is it wise to buy a second hand valve amp?

if i just got a head can that be put straight into a p.a or does it have to have a cab mic'd to do that?

can anyone recommend me an amp that would suit my needs? my budget is about 500-700 including the cab

thanks very much for your time sorry for so many questions

wayne

Some Advice Please

hello people!

i'm recording a 4 track ep at the moment with my mate on bass, both of us singing and programmed drums. were calling it the we need a drummer ep.

its going well but one song im struggling with cos of the tempo is too slow but my mate likes it how it is. if we play it live we play it faster and i cant sing with it that slow but at 10bpm faster i can.

so 2 questions please...

ive just discovered that i can change the tempo of a recorded song and changed it 10bpm faster. bingo! for some reason i didnt think it would work but it did. the song sounds fine but by doing this is it messing up my song because i imagine a computer doing that to it would.

secondly singing. im teaching myself to sing properley. just started. i'm a punk and sing like one. my band is punk and reggae and i can sing ok punk style but when i have to sing over a slow dub bit im not so good. any tips on approaching learning like this? particularly being in pitch. i am alone most of my practice and dont allways have confidence i'm hearing it correct.

thanks! i'm going to post my songs up here for constructive criticism in a couple days :-)

Tc Nova System Help Wanted Using Expression Pedal For Delay Time

hello people

can anyone who has a tc electronic nova system help me to set it up so that i can use the expression pedal to control the delay times. i often use my hand to turn the feedback and time knobs on my other delay pedals to get some crazy psychedelic sounds but i'm having trouble doing it with the nova system and an expression pedal. i can get it set up so the pedal is controlling the delay but its not having the desired effect. on the dd3 or dl4 its pretty simple

thanks

Gogol Bordello Style Lesson Request

hi do any instructors fancy doing a gogol bordello lesson request? something that covers the acoustic gypsy folk, punk and percussive aspects and anymore you can add in.

gogol bordello have really made a name for themselves in recent years and im sure plenty of people would be pleased to see a lesson like this :-) preferably a intermediate lesson thats a little challenging

cheers!