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A Reprieve on A&E (Maybe?)


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12 hours ago, garfield said:

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To me.... this sounds like a GH who is struggling as of late in the realm of leading in the progression of design by talking about the current and future direction of DCI which is also somewhat grounded on possible disgruntled youth not happy with competitive placement while doing the hours of set-up tear-down grunt work each show.  However, based on his personality over the years, my intuition and gut tell me that if this was a 'first place' GH, his reluctant opposition towards the progressivism currently pushing the envelope would likely be flipped and more positive. But that is just a guess.

Edited by Stu
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6 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

The funny thing is the Bluecoats have actually reduced the size of the pit

I never view the SCV or BD pits and wish they were smaller. What they bring to the party is really off the charts! The over use of amplified everything in DCI is a FUBAR to my ears. Beyond spotlight mics on soloists, I want to hear these excellent brass and percussion ensembles in their 'natural' state. I imagine there must be more than a few talented Contras in some corps who are frustrated by the hyped bass synth which obscures a lot of the low end with crappy sound...."Synthnado" if you will. For my enjoyment as a fan, this needs to be addressed.

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13 hours ago, George Dixon said:

 

The Blue Devils have been using shotgun mics to balance brass sections across the field for three years now. Nobody seemed to care (or notice?). 

 

Bluecoats do it once this year in way that is not at all deceptive. They are actually bringing the audience in on the "trick" during the ballad (much like they did with the "pitch bend"), and they are the bad guys? OK.

 

As for Cadets amping their brass even though GH is complaining about it ... I'm not sure this is the case. I think they have struggled a bit to prevent the accidental bleeding of corps-proper brass and drums trough the choral section mics. I haven't seen them live in a while, but was definitely the case in the early season.

Edited by mingusmonk
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13 hours ago, jwillis35 said:

Big picture is that this is a difficult transition for many Cadets fans and alumni. It can't be easy if you have watched this corps from 1980 to now. They've had such an incredible run that seeing how things have changed is always going to be difficult.  You have a great director who has had an long and successful run, but in recent years there are many that feel he should step down or at least set the process in motion for who will take over next. I am not one of them, and would not pretend to be that way because I am not an insider, but like any leadership figure that comes to the end of their career there are often things that have gone wrong.  The program has hit more speed bumps than usual.  Some alumni and donors are simply not going to be patient. Others will.  Fans in general want to see their corps win or place as high as possible. It is a competitive musical sport, so I get that. 

If anything, I am encouraged that GH feels things may have progressed too far. I think they have too.  All these corps are getting too much goo in their sound. Many solos are starting to sound tinty and metallic because of poor microphone technique, setup, and mixing. The judging needs to start looking at the balances between pit vs brass and percussion on the field in a more serious way.  In the long run I'd rather hear someone be honest, even if it meant they were backtracking on things they previously said. 

Thank you for this excellent and well thought out response.

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17 hours ago, Liahona said:

The only reason GH is complaining...is because he was ONE-UPPED and didn't think of it FIRST!  ....LOL

 

although I do agree with the premise...

I agree with him, too.  But he was an active player in getting us to this point.  The "it wasn't me!" song and dance ain't gonna work with this wise old owl. 

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 . . .well, GH, you championed it. Gibbs and yourself wanted to "remove the shackles" from the design teams, and here we are.

There's no putting any of this back into a bottle; welcome to how a lot of folks felt in 2005. People took what you guys fought for and figured out how to effectively use it faster than you did.

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As tempting as it would be to call out Hoppy (and I will later), I’m just glad someone in a position to bring it up to the rules congress realize that it’s an issue. As far as genie in the bottle, I don’t think it would be too difficult to go back to the old rule of only allowing a few amped soloists or a 12 member ensemble. From what I can tell, the rule allowing for amping the entire horn line didn’t pass until 2016 and it was rather vague, saying anything on the field can be amped

Amping the horn line is gross, and who is it really for? Very few fans like it, it destroys seats in the stands and part of the musical education is being cheated by amps

 

 I weep at the thought of having to buy headphones for finals 

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