SteveRodrigues

That's because beginning songs with DM vocalizations goes completely against the principals of the speed of sound, and it's a great way to cause a bad ensemble attack. Imagine that you put a Dr Beat on the podium facing the corps and asked the corps to follow the Dr. Beat all play unison on beat 1... What would the attack sound like to the audience in the front stands?... Not so good, since the dr beat sound from the podium is reaching the players in the back of the field later than it reaches the players in the front, making the players in the back come in after the players in front. That then compounds with the time it then takes the back players' sound to reach the front... and voila...bad sounding attack. Replace the Dr Beat with a DM, and you get the same effect. (BTW - What would it sound like from the back stands? A solid unison attack). There are so many intricacies to making the modern marching ensemble work cohesively despite challenges of distance and sound travel - some of which may not have been very prevalent prior to the 90s. Honestly, many marching band programs (and some corps) would benefit from a manual or book on these basic principals and methods. For example, I've seen more than a few band directors or instructors out there that can't understand why their front ensemble is always ahead of the rest of the ensemble, and only yell louder at them to "WATCH THE DRUM MAJOR!!!".... To get back on topic.... Dutting has certainly been abused or misused. But I truly believe most of the top level corps nowadays are making sure that Duts are not audible (It was MUCH worse in the early 90s). Some replace the Dut with a low grunt (mouth closed) when there is not enough ambient sound to cover up your 'standard' Dut. It serves its purpose, and still can not be heard from the audience.

Would anyone happen to know if the seats numbers at Allentown go up from the 50 yard line, or down? (specifically, Section G - are the lower numbers closer to the 50?)

That link re-directs to this: https://www.dci.org/manage/index.cfm?url=/m...a/video/stream/ it's the account information page... How the %$!@ do you get to the actual stream?

Am I missing something... I logged in, clicked on the LIVE Webcast Link on the top right, but all I see is the "Fan Network Account Information" page. How do I see the actual webcast??

There is slack when the head sits in the rim before mounting (this is what seemed odd to me). Tried with a couple of different type heads, but there's still slack. The shell is in good shape - no distortion there. And the rims themselves are also good (one is just the slightest bit distorted... layed it on a flat surface to check.... it was verry minor.) My thought is still that the rims were (somehow) made a bit to big for the heads... which I know is strange, because they are die-cast in what I'm guessing is some kind of mass-production... I have a call into Yamaha ... I'll keep everyone posted. Thanks!

Has anyone out there experienced this with Yamaha Tenors? It seems as if the hoops/rims are just the slightest bit too big for the size of the head, and what seems to happen (mostly on the 1 & 2 drums) is that the collar of the head seems to creep up from the lip of the hoop. We've tried to be absolutely careful to make sure the hoop is perfectly centered when placing it on during a head change, however after a small amount of time and head tension, the collar of the heads seems to slip out from the collar of the hoop/rim - and we have to remove all the tension from the lugs and reposition the hoop. Has anyone else had this situation? Any ideas/quick fixes? Thanks!!