Jump to content

Judging Amplification and Electronics


Recommended Posts

Sorry, I just think it's completely unnecessary regulation to add pages of rules to cover a problem that simply does not exist.

And by "pages", you mean, what, three sentences or so?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Clearly you've never sat in on a rules congress.

Ah, I see. It shouldn't have to be so complicated, but it would be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

I'd be interested in the views of those who have attended shows so far this summer as to whether balance and blend between enhanced and acoustic sounds has changed now that the adjudicators are using a reference book.

Watching/listening online or in a theatre environment will be more difficult to evaluate since the audio is grossly compressed for both, meaning that the difference between loud and soft is made minimal to provide a more even signal.

Do things sound different "live" this season, compared to the past few years?

Edited by ironlips
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Colts last night at Erie made no allowance for the size of the stadium, where there's very little room between the pit and the back of the stands. Their amplified voices were painfully loud at times.

After three shows this year, my overall impression is of, with one notable exception, say, 5% improvement in amplified/acoustic balance from last year, which saw 5% improvement from 2013, which saw 10% improvement from 2012.

The exception, and it's a doozie, is live amplified voice, which is much more predominant this year than last, and while I personally would always rather have everything live than prerecorded, those corps using this effect are struggling. At times the past two nights, the voice was both too loud and hard to understand.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I'd be interested in the views of those who have attended shows so far this summer as to whether balance and blend between enhanced and acoustic sounds has changed now that the adjudicators are using a reference book.

Watching/listening online or in a theatre environment will be more difficult to evaluate since the audio is grossly compressed for both, meaning that the difference between loud and soft is made minimal to provide a more even signal.

Do things sound different "live" this season, compared to the past few years?

just ordered your book. I thought things were mostly better this year. I'd love to know however what DCi judges are told when it comes to issues when they happen and how to address it

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not certain whether the DCI adjudicators have held a specific seminar about these issues, but judge coordinator John Phillips did ask me to supply copies for all his music people. This happened right after their pre-season conference, so the subject must have been addressed there.

I expect he and I will follow up in the next few weeks, and I may do some sort of group presentation or webinar for the adjudicators.

The book will at least provide you with the information to which they have access.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd be interested in the views of those who have attended shows so far this summer as to whether balance and blend between enhanced and acoustic sounds has changed now that the adjudicators are using a reference book.

Watching/listening online or in a theatre environment will be more difficult to evaluate since the audio is grossly compressed for both, meaning that the difference between loud and soft is made minimal to provide a more even signal.

Do things sound different "live" this season, compared to the past few years?

I think all groups have too much volume coming from the pit. It was worse in person than listening via stream, but maybe that was because of where I was sitting (17 rows up on the 45). I've always felt that pit instrumentation is meant to enhance the music, not take over from the horns as the primary voice. It may be that parts of classical music meant to be played on piano are being played by 5 pit instruments at once.

As a side note, the top volume level of horn lines is a lot less than it used to be, and it's not just the switch from G to Bb horns. We amped up the pit, probably too much, and the horns lost their top end, which makes for a problem. I listened to the final 20 seconds of 2014 BD over and over and I kept waiting for that extra gear from the horns, but it never came.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"... I've always felt that pit instrumentation is meant to enhance the music, not take over from the horns..."

...or the battery percussion, I might add.

You have put your finger on the primary issues: Balance and Clarity. In live sound applications as well as in mastering recordings, it's called having "transparency" in the mix, the quality of being able to hear everything that is being played without one sound masking the others.

After all, if something is inaudible, there is no musical reason for it to exist. If there is something in the mix you can't hear, don't make it louder, just strip away the things that mask it. If you don't wish to do that, it was unnecessary in the first place and didn't belong there.

These are some of the standards for professional sound reinforcement. Drum corps and the best marching bands aspire to these levels in movement and instrument mastery, but even the best are a long way from "professional" at the mixing console.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...