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Amplification/Electronics: 2011 Season


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Fixed. Vocals of any kind in drum corps makes me gag, I've never one time heard it done in any way that benefited the program.

Agreed. After all, this is still looked upon, in general terms anyway, as a "drum & bugle corps." I hope the Cadets don't drag out the living room props and over due it again. Please, if you must have vocals, keep the singing to the bare minimum!

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I appreciate the detail of your answer, but I'm afraid my response is: so what. Can a solo tuba play at mezzo-piano on the field and have its particular tone qualities clearly heard? When it was decided to add those pit instruments to drum corps, it was known that there were limitations on how they could be heard. Who knew the pit players were secretly longing for the day they could add a trampoline to the high jump?

The most interesting thing to learn in the latest comments is that there was a concern about injury -- I did not know that. I've read a couple thousand posts on this sub-forum over the past eighteen months, and hadn't seen that mentioned before. (Possibly it comes up all the time in the percussion board, which I don't follow.) But there is a signficant risk of injury outside the pit, too. And the answer again is to accept that there are trade-off in the creation of all art, and either have more instruments each playing softly, or accept that the stadium isn't the concert hall, and not everything possible on the instrument can be heard outdoors.

I can see your perspective.

This same argument is used for any additions that happen to change the drum corp medium. That drum corps should be defined more by its limitations than its possibilities.

where do you draw the lines on limitations? frankly people could have drawn the line on limitations 100 years ago and drum corps would have never changed into the thing it was today or even 20 years ago.

*The risk of injury in the pit is a concern but I wouldn't say that amps are eliminating injury all together. But its in my opinion that if amps were still not allowed today that the injury rate in the pit would be even higher than it is today.

Just a thought: Limitations, Competitiveness, and Art all trying to work together to produce something enjoyable. No wonder DCP exists!

Edited by charlie1223
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LOL! Funny as heck, Michael.

I think it's safe to say that if you'd added a few photos of bikini-clad volleyball players my snare-drummer son would quickly learn how to play the marimba.

Of course, everyone knows that school programs that march battery percussion don't have any money left, and quickly come to look like your second set of pictures. tongue.gif (/sarcasm)

Well, first of all, are you planning on moving to Tarpon Springs? I've been there a few dozen times visiting relatives and friends. It's a beautiful place. The only this is, despite the fact that the kids in their high school marching band get a remarkable experience that is unparalleled by at least 95% of the marching bands in the rest of the country, their band has no battery percussion section.

tarpon_springs_-_springs_bayou_pier.jpgFL-TarponSprings6.jpgcapecanavarelkayak.jpgDSC00652.JPG

How the above photos would be viewed by a high school kid who wants to march in a percussion battery.

02bp-hulk.jpgslum-in-kolkata.jpgslum_nigeria_400.jpgtumblr_lcrbs6FWx41qbd1nko1_500.jpg

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LOL! Funny as heck, Michael.

:tongue:

I think it's safe to say that if you'd added a few photos of bikini-clad volleyball players my snare-drummer son would quickly learn how to play the marimba.

I couldn't find anything appropriate for DCP, but I did have a fun few minutes looking for something.

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Well, first of all, are you planning on moving to Tarpon Springs? I've been there a few dozen times visiting relatives and friends. It's a beautiful place. The only this is, despite the fact that the kids in their high school marching band get a remarkable experience that is unparalleled by at least 95% of the marching bands in the rest of the country, their band has no battery percussion section.

tarpon_springs_-_springs_bayou_pier.jpgFL-TarponSprings6.jpgcapecanavarelkayak.jpgDSC00652.JPG

How the above photos would be viewed by a high school kid who wants to march in a percussion battery.

02bp-hulk.jpgslum-in-kolkata.jpgslum_nigeria_400.jpgtumblr_lcrbs6FWx41qbd1nko1_500.jpg

That last building spells " Arts "... ( " A.... RTS " ). Lots of " artists " have cooked up some unusual and creative concoctions out of that building, I'd imagine.

Edited by BRASSO
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I have no idea either. The synth part was in there until before Allentown. I'm not sure on what part it was doubling, I was probably one of the farthest people away from the synth for the entire show, all I was remember was that it wasn't there at the end.

The synth part is plain as day on recordings I made of your corps over the course of the season....and the DCI championship recording as well. I don't know if you're just pulling my leg, or you really couldn't hear it from where you were in the drill (certainly plausible), and thus came to believe that it really had been pulled. Either way, a quick listen to the recording on as much as a decent pair of earbuds should bring you up to date.

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The synth part is plain as day on recordings I made of your corps over the course of the season....and the DCI championship recording as well. I don't know if you're just pulling my leg, or you really couldn't hear it from where you were in the drill (certainly plausible), and thus came to believe that it really had been pulled. Either way, a quick listen to the recording on as much as a decent pair of earbuds should bring you up to date.

If you say so man..... But I'm still convinced what you're hearing is another part in the pit, not the synth part. Remember, I was there when they removed it. Yes, it was there for most of the season, I will give you that. But it was NOT in at Finals. What you're hearing has to either be another pit part coming over the amps, or the brass. Sorry, no synth.

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The synth part is plain as day on recordings I made of your corps over the course of the season....and the DCI championship recording as well. I don't know if you're just pulling my leg, or you really couldn't hear it from where you were in the drill (certainly plausible), and thus came to believe that it really had been pulled. Either way, a quick listen to the recording on as much as a decent pair of earbuds should bring you up to date.

Yep. Just listened to it again on TFN and there is definitely something there.

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This is false. Many bands, professional performers in all mediums use microphones to amplify themselves and it does NOT distort the quality of sound. If you have improper equipment yes it can, but even decent equipment does not distort the quality of sound just the volume of the sound.

Good grief....are you serious? All microphones distort the sound to some degree. (Wow, would my job be easier if they didn't!)

Manufacturers of decent microphones will provide graphs that plot the mic's response as a function of frequency, and directional response. All microphones "color" the sound as a result of emphasizing or de-emphasizing certain frequencies....and the different ways in which they do that depending on where the sound is coming from.

Now, the mics are usually nowhere near the weakest link in the chain. Don't get me started on the speakers (although I think I already discussed them earlier here, probably in this thread).

What recordings are you listening too? show me one recording where my statement proves to be untrue.

That could take awhile. I don't know what recordings you have, or what kind of system you have for playback.

If your collection extends prior to amplification at all, you should at least have the 2003 finals recordings. So to start, take a corps from that show (Bluecoats, for example) and tell me what you observe in '03 vs. '04.

The quality of sound we get from today's pit because of amplification is extraordinarily better. (please see that I wrote quality of sound)

....in your opinion. And I don't expect you'll be changing that opinion. Just try to realize that yours is not the only opinion....nor the only vantage point from which to hear these things.

We had those instruments before yes, but the projection of these qualities of sounds was lacking. Do you know the kind of timbre a marimba has like when you roll a chord at mp?

Yes....and I'd like to hear it without the coloration of mics, or the resonant/node frequencies and directional effects of speakers, or the buzz/hum/pop of dirty connections or improper electrical grounding.

First of all, my post says little to do with volume of the pit. I said that "they don't amp the pit just for volumes sake" as my first line. There is always a balance that can showcase the unique sounds of the pit appropriately. I do not disagree with you that some pits may be "too" loud (when the the corps is playing). But that doesn't mean that we should get rid of amps all together! That just means there was a balance issue at the specific place and time that will hopefully be resolved by the end of the season.

No, it won't ever be resolved as long as ensemble balance is assessed from the press box. As I think you are aware, different sounds project in different ways. What sounds "balanced" at the most distant viewing point will not have nearly that same balance from row 15 of the lower deck.

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