jdheere

Alumni = think rainbow perhaps?

Go Lisa! I think these responses are hallarious! I can hear the jaws hitting the floor from all across the world! Oh, I'll see you at the Frontier open house meeting... I'll get a copy of those DVD's you're going to win then... hee hee! :P

When I heard there was going to be narration, I thought I wouldn't like their show. I watched the videos from Atlanta and really liked it. Not a bunch of props or anything. I did not like '05's speaking, honestly. However, this year's show is exactly right. The 'explanation' of a musician's (read bandnerd's) feelings/choices was magnificent. The 'inside joke' of running rehearsals was brilliant. My only complaint is that the show's ending isn't powerful enough. Tack the '83 closing minute on and you'll have it all.

Eh,? It was kind of 'cute' mid season. Whatever though...

I saw PR's show in Mesquite, TX on July 19th. It was the most emotional, beautiful and powerful show I think I've ever seen. I'm shocked at their scores/placements based on the raw GE factor if nothing else. I haven't seen any caption breakdowns for them yet and how they compare to anyone else. I personally loved the entire show, ending and everything about the show in mid July. I don't want them to change a thing. However, I do want them to do whatever they have to do to improve in the judges eyes and score better - that's the game, cool. I figured they just had such a difficult drill that the cleaning factor was biting them in the backside. Between PR and Cadets, either would be a winner in my book. I haven't seen Cavie's or Bluecoats show other than online and BD's show left me flat.

A new show - Pimp My Drum! Great job. Good choice on the dye and not using a pigment stain.

I'd like to see more consistency in the frame of judges comments. I appreciate their taking difficulty (drill design and non playing aspects) into account however using drill difficulties to affect the score is outside of the realm of their assigned task. A return to a tick system would water arrangements back to middle school book levels to inflate the score. The addition of scoring on difficulty along with the tick system would create way to much controversy. A perfectly clean, no tick high school book and a perfectly clean dci div1 book would be scored the same and striking a balance would not be prudent. Or maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about.

This should be a blast! Many new questions should be answered. How cool could it be to see the same if not better improvement this year than what record breaking improvement was seen from 05 to 06? The world is watching!

try going to the vic firth website www.vicfirth.com and looking for the dci in the lot videos. You'd probably get some good ideas from listening to those lines of atl least what you like.

I'm just sorry to see conditions like what we had be some people's first exposure to DCA, such as WorldGoneMad. I for one do not know all the details of what this person put up with all year but I will miss him, his wife, his boy, his musical instruments and the fun they all brought to our season.

See how my suggestion to the same got shot down in another 'bring all comments and ideas' thread.

OK, next question for ya'll to shoot holes in.... I infered from someone's post in this mish mosh somewhere that the front side of the stands this year is actually the backfield side and at some point the other side of the field will be filled in and larger to actually become the front/concert side. Wrong again?

Well THANK GOODNESS!!! Oh, I think, isn't db logrythmic in progression so higher numbers are multiplied sound volume rather than just degrees? "Why not just make 10 louder?" "But this one goes to eleven."

My wife marched in the Meadowlands with the Iowa Hawkeye Band in 1992 for the kickoff classic and says it's a horrible rumble mess. If you give everybody 15 db earplugs it'll probably work just fine.

The talk about improvements planned for PAETEC and Rochester sound like they aren't going to be ready for a few years. 2007 will be in the same city/park - OK, what will be ready? If talks are going on for moving the host city in 2008 and beyond, how about planning a more central locale? I vote for Arrowhead in KC, or Jerry Jones's new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, TX to be ready for the season and a superbowl in 2009. Perhaps Bloomington, IN or Normal, IL. I'd love to go back to Grand Haven, MI or maybe Indy in the dome. How about Three Rivers in Pittsburg (If it's still standing). RalieghDurham or Charlotte, NC? I guess I'm asking - why so far northeast?

As soon as I read the first post I began picturing the great footage of swooping through the corps formation - how cool!!! Then, seeing the second post, my dream vision went crooked and spinning for a second... I didn't even think about the guard work! How funny!

What about starting the events earlier? How about 11a.m. for prelims and 2 o'clock or so for finals. It's a weekend. Earlier start times would avoid fireworks conflicts. It would give those needing a head start home a better chance. Hopefully the temperatures would be more consistent. Food and souvenier vendors would probably also have an easier time. Those fun days just turned into very long days.

I'll come back to read all the comments later - just going to the end to post. I'd like to see the marching field lined closer to the stands. We didn't have a big wall to contend with so maybe bring the front sideline up to the soccer field edge (about a 15 yard difference?). There still seemed to be enough room for the pit, judge tables, cameras and other walkways if the lines were moved up where you could then get a better 'connection' to the audience. Sorry if I'm duplicating someone else's posts.

Wow... have you ever been to a dci/dca show? If you hang around the parking lot you'll learn a lot about tuning - everyone is different and they 'almost' all work. For basses, let the drums size and the head type give you the pitch. Crank the top bass until it starts to choke it's own sound then back it off a turn or so on each lug. Tighten the bottom bass until the wrinkles are out of the head and then one or two turns tighter. Everything else in the middle is just that, in the middle. Allow the drum to tell you when it's correct. Forget all the hertz and tuner stuff unless you have a specific part in the music where a bass part needs to line up with a horn part. I remember Phantom in '87 I think it was where the third bass had to be at 880 then they tuned up and down from there. With tenors, we'd always find a pleasing high note for drum one which would allow enough room beneath it's pitch for each successive drum to be a distant enough interval without drum five being to loose. The line should be tuned as close as possible. With snares, tuning kevlar and mylar are different ball games. With kevlar, crank the top head to get good playing rebound and the tone and response would come from the bottom head (again, kevlar or plastic) and the snares themselves. Each drum would be 'tuned' to be pleasing for itself and no worry would be placed on making each drum sound like each other. If you're playing clean, they will sound great anyway. Just turn knobs and have fun experimenting - don't approach this from the concert band angle. Field drums are all about loud and tight - not tuning to the orchestra.

Finals was my first dca show where I got to see any of the top corps. I kinda expected it to be more like dci in the explosiveness of the big guys. My seat was in the end zone. Not a great seat, far from the action but definately a fresh perspective. From my view, I was mostly entertained by the Cabs show. I felt they were the only 'consistent' corps of the night. Meaning, I don't know if dca corps change uniforms to fit the style of show for that year or if they remain consistent through the years, but the Cabs show looked like it sounded. Their spanish uniforms fit the music well. I was suprised by the CorpsVets drums being able to put out good sound - amazing what clean playing will do for sound quality. The class A corps could really sell their shows and communicated with the crowd well. I had built the whole thing up in my mind over this year and kind of expected more. I think a combination of feeling ill, poor seats, extreme fatigue and being cold left me a bit flat on the entire night. Now that I have a better idea of what to expect, I'm sure I'll enjoy next year even more. I wish we had finals night weather for prelims.

Got to it before I did! That was my answer - MONEY!!! I'd also think it's a regional thing even though it's growing rapidly now.

Leaving Dallas at 4 am.... so ....sleepy....

I like the idea of trying the recording with unidirectional condensers above the front sidelines and mixed with omnidirectionals closer to the pressbox. Maybe they already do this, I don't know... Ken? You out there?

That's OK, I think there were a few folks in there that didn't have Flammables down solid anyway. It was all about size that day. I don't have audio or video but would love to get my hands on some.

THANKS MIKE!!! It was cool!!!