nukeme70

To retain some semblance of control, in regards to release dates, marketing, and such, most commercial DVD's (and console games) are encoded with a region setting. DVD players sold in a particular region (US, UK, India, China, etc.) will only read DVD's that are encoded with their own region setting. Some players can play multi-region discs, but you pay quite a bit more for those (licensing fees and such to the DVD alliance). Most DVD-ROM drives for computers are sold world-wide, so when you install a new one, it either has a default setting that you can change, or you have to determine at setup what region you want to set it as. Some DVD players can actually be hacked by simply holding down some combination of buttons while powering on - like the DVD-ROM drives, they are designed to be sold worldwide. Do a google search on your model and "hack" - that should bring up some advice (probably voids some warranties...). *-edit-* looks like I was slow on the typing - better explanation 2 posts up...

Don't know where you can get the DVDs you are looking for, but you might be better off buying and installing a DVD-ROM drive in your computer and setting it for Region I (or whatever US is) - I think you can change those settings 3-4 times before it locks you out, but it's probably a cheaper solution to have a dedicated US DVD drive than to track down and purchase a subset of a specialty set of DVDs that may or may not even exist...

down in the Marketplace section: http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/inde...howtopic=132406 might still be available. Not sure if this was a production contra, or one of the kitted horns that were built off the 2-valve horns. Good luck!

I've found the best way to repair a broken brace/part is to apply $20 to the local instrument repair guy. I ran across a local guy who has his own MDRSystem, and was just tickled to show me how it worked on my contra. For $40 and 2 hours of BS time, I got my braces repaired, dents removed, bell rolled, and valves adjusted. Plus, he's going to drop off my resume with his daughter to take to the HR department at her work. I think I came out ahead on the whole deal! But HornsUp's advice is probably more what you're looking for...

Seven years with three different corps - they kept folding on me! We did have one guy that aged out in 87 that marched for 11 years! Been marching DCA since 1995, and only had 1 fold on me so far...not looking to increase that record.

Maybe not THE funniest, but one of the most popular (at the time) was the Bluecoats offering of "Why Drum Corps is better than Marching Band" shirt. One of my favs that got stolen/lost over the years was my Phantom shirt from around '90 featuring Bart Simpson in a PR uni, holding a 2 valve sop and saying "totally radical horn dude".

Possibly an ophicleide? There was a guy that brought one to the TubaChristmas at Brenham, TX a couple years ago. His wasn't that big, but I don't think there was really a standard, and they came in different sizes. My college band had a historic instrument collection with 2 of them in it, both of them way different from each other. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophicleide This link has a pic of one that looks closer to your picture, though still not as big: http://www.contrabass.com/pages/ophicleide.html And another link - about 1/5 down the page there is a pic of a guy playing one that seems to be about 5'-6' tall. http://www.wcwband.co.uk/ophicleide.htm

I believe the first one was the 1987 DCM All-Stars marching in the Dallas Cotton Bowl parade. We met up at Star's facilities and rode their busses down to the housing site in Dallas, played through some corps standards (You'll Never Walk Alone, Stars and Stripes, etc.), then performed Kenny's version of Auld Lang Syne in the parade. We set up headgear from each corps for pics, see how many ya'll can identify!

I still remember the housing site that didn't have stalls on the toilets - just a long row of standalone thrones. That will shred any remnants of modesty you might have left by that time. Keep in mind - just as you aren't too comfortable being seen, the other people aren't there to be looking. You'll find that most guys keep their eyes up.

Also note that there are 2 sizes of Helleberg - the 7B is the student model and has a smaller diameter and smaller bore, the standard is the one that many of us endorse.

I have a Schilke Helleberg 7B, and compared to the "standard" Helleberg, it has a smaller diameter rim and a bit shallower cup - possibly smaller bore as well. My son just recently started playing tuba, and I ran a whole spectrum of mouthpieces past him, figuring I'd start him on the 7B, then later move him up to the standard. He liked the standard over the 7B, so it's back in the drawer. As far as the Dillon - one of our other contra players has a Dillon Chief and loves it. Unfortunately, it seems out of production. The thing is just plain huge. Large diameter rim, deep cup, and you can literally drop a pencil down the bore without worry of it hitting the sides. He's kicked around the idea of sending it off to Ziggy to have it duplicated.

The Helleberg is all I've played on since around '87, and I've never had any bad experiences. Nice deep cup and slight bite to the rim, but not enough to wear you out. I'd play all day back in jr. corps and not get tired. The rim is narrow enough that it doesn't feel like you are playing on a pillow, like a 24AW or such. If I were to make the perfect mouthpiece, at least for me, I would simply recreate the Helleberg in stainless steel and possibly give it a bit larger bore. I'd love to hear some opinions from those that are "in the know". From what I've seen, it doesn't seem to be the most recommended MP for most corps, but that could be a marketing aspect more than anything - I'm sure brass instructors love to have an entire section on the same MP, and if some company wants to provide that, I doubt there would be too many corps that would decline. I've seen many different manufacturers of the Helleberg, and in fact own ones from 3-4. I imagine that the patent (if there ever was one) has lapsed, and therefore anyone can get in on the action. So, for what it's worth, I give it all A's on volume production, comfort, range, and flexibility.

Thanks for all the nice thoughts - it's definitely appreciated! We're going up there with our 3 corps goals in mind - Entertain ourselves, entertain the crowd, and maybe impress the judges. Stick around after Freelancers, we're pretty sure you'll enjoy the show! The management team left this morning around 4:00am for the trek to Rachacha - with a stayover in OH, they'll be pulling into town around 2:00pm Thursday - I'll make sure they see this before it gets buried in all the DCA coverage. Looking forward to the weekend, and meeting up with our new hornline members!

Any possibility that this or other DCA merch might make it to the DCAcorps.org website? I see that there are links to the audio/video sources, but no strictly DCA stuff.

Were they in judged exhibition? 33 < 35...

Sorry to drift a bit off topic here... Tom - is there any way or any future plan to organize those 1186 pics? Maybe a search capability? I love the fact that these pics are there, and appreciate that they are made public, but wow - the thought of searching through that many pics for pertinent ones is rather daunting! Thanks!

I remember years ago that Blue Knights had a dark blue T-shirt with the dot pattern on it. Star of Indiana sold hot pink shirts with the silver star on the front also - musta been '87 or so...

PM sent!

How's this for the flip-side... another niche musical activity is Pipe and Drum competitions. Granted, the audience for this is probably fractional compared to the fractional audience for drum corps, yet those that are passionate about this activity have just as much interest in their continuation and public acceptance as we do about ours. There only exists a limited number of tunes (other than novelty music that gets put together occasionally), and each and every one of those tunes is the exact same arrangement. A member of one pipe band can join with another and not have to relearn everything. One of the highlights of the competitions is the mass playing of various tunes at the conclusion by all the performers. Even with the musical constraints, these groups still develop individual identities and perform original shows, and still draw considerable crowds to their competitions. This is not an argument on why we need to have AS performed on an annual basis, I just wanted to illustrate that there are other activities out there that work within certain constraints and still flourish, without the need to constantly innovate themselves into a different activity. It's also an example to counter the argument that an activity needs to constantly innovate to survive. There are many more examples out there, this just happened to be one I am somewhat familiar with. I myself like much of the variety that drum corps has exposed me to. There is much music that I never would have heard if not for this activity, and some of it I end up liking and even seeking out...BUT, there seems to be more all the time that just leaves me scratching my head and wondering whose idea it was to put THAT on the field.

That works on some of the smaller horns, but the bigger ones - not so much. My college sousaphone (Conn 20K) was all brass and probably tipped the scales at around 30lbs or more...the thing acted as a giant radiator, sucking the heat from your body and distributing it back to the universe, laughing at you the whole time. There's no hope of warming up the whole horn - the best we could do was the localized heating of the valves with the hot-hands.

I've found from personal experience that a contra makes for a pretty stable camera platform - and being in an exhibition corps at a DCI show, I was actually able to record our entire show from the field at the 2008 ExSightment of Sound show. I know there are several other contracam videos out there as well. Strapping a camera to his chest seemed to make the sound a bit "truer" - a camera attached to the horn seems to pick up a bit too much of the lip vibration sound vs. true resonance from the horn - kinda like what it sounds like to yourself when playing your horn while wearing earplugs. But - having the camera attached to the horn gives you the advantage of not having to wear a bra!

Sorry - I guess what I meant by that was to see what gets performed by the major symphonies...here in Houston, yes, there are many pieces I've never heard of performed by the symphony, but there are also many many more that they perform that I am familiar with. These are the ones that I would be most likely to spend my money and time to go and see, which is why the symphony performs them. That is also why they pair these well known pieces with some of the more obscure pieces. I'm not going to look in the paper and say "Wow, HSO is performing Symphony for Glockenspiel and Washboard by Krysgyth - let's go!", but if it was on the same ticket as Lt. Kije by Prokofiev, I'd be likely to go, and it might turn out that I like the former as much as the latter, but it wouldn't have put my hiney in the seat on it's own.

Do a search on symphonyreps.com </sarcasm>, then ask why you see the same productions over and over...Beethoven, Copland, Stravinsky, etc...the same things pop up all the time. How about bigbandsreps.com... same thing. There's a reason they're called standards, and a reason that they're played over and over - people are familiar with them and people like them, and they've proven through the test of time to resonate with the fans and paying customer. Is there a group of fans/paying customers that prefer to listen to obscure pieces by obscure composers? Well of course there are, and that's what keeps those composers employed and composing. In 20 years, corpsreps might report that there are over 100 performances of these pieces, if they prove to be popular or effective as performance pieces.

It's a drum corps because that's how it was created. Somebody or a group of people said "I want to be a part of the activity known as drum corps, which is commonly accepted, and defined by rules, as having bell-front brass instruments, marching and stationary percussion, and color guard. Participation is voluntary and members are expected to commit considerable amounts of their personal time and effort to enhance the group." If this same group of people wanted to start an all brass marching group using the same criteria mentioned above, yet did not declare themselves to be a drum corps, then they would not be one. My HS marching band was based upon local drum corps, and was an all brass marching group. We did not declare ourselves a drum corps, and therefore were not one. Drum corps is many people working together for a common interest. Bands are many people with a common interest working together. In essence, bands exist for the benefit of the individual, whether it's for a grade or (if you're lucky) for money. Drum corps are completely volunteer organizations where the individual participates to be a part of something much bigger than they could possibly attain by themselves. From Websters: BAND : a group of persons, animals, or things; especially : a group of musicians organized for ensemble playing CORPS: a group of persons associated together or acting under common direction; especially a body of persons having a common activity or occupation

that guy is pretty awesome (in a disturbing sort of way) - do a search on the 'tube for "flaming tuba". We now return to your regularly scheduled thread...