danielray

Ray, Firstly, as a long time customer, I cannot tell you how much you have improved the many hours of listening I have done over the years. Many thanks for the incredible innovations and excellent quality. It was actually though Bruce (very indirectly) that I first come across your work. I happened to be at an event that Bruce was also at back in late 90's and he brought up DiAural in discussion. Very curious and fascinated, I began to explore a bit more about the company and tech behind it (Doppler-encoding distortion), which lead to me discovering Kimber Kable. My father was actually an early employee of Word Perfect, back when it was still called SSI and in the little building behind the Winchell's. It was at the height of the Word Perfect era that I ventured up to Odgen to see my very first drum corps show in the summer of 1986. That single event made such an impression, that I've remained just as hooked today as I had been as that 12 year old kid. To your original post, I do absolutely understand your concerns and quite frankly do share in some of these sentiments. I do also understand the possible frustration given how you have very actively supported the activity locally. I would, however, like to offer a bit of perspective and propose something of challenge. In perspective, sound reinforcement, electronic instruments, sampling, etc. are all very new to drum corps and the marching activity as a whole. There is much to learn and best practices to more consistently implement. Beyond this, there is the very unique challenge of coverage and balance in a scenario where there are new and radically different venues each day with no opportunity for proper sound check prior to performance. Given that drum corps is very much a not-for-profit activity and certainly small scale in comparison to other events utilizing sound reinforcement in these very same stadiums, there is not an ability to draw on the expertise of the top professionals in the industry and the activity is instead much more homegrown and self-taught in this particular area. There is a certainly so much still to learn regarding sound reinforcement and audio in general, but there are so many, so eager to know more. This is where the challenge comes in... Rather than walk away, what about becoming more engaged, but in a different way? You have a very unique understanding of this very topic and could make a genuine impact that could result in very immediate and tangible improvements in the balance and consistency of sound reinforcement within the activity. There is a very practical way to become engaged and influence real change here. During the summer there is the Amplify Marching Arts Audio Seminar produced by Lone Star Percussion. This is a seminar where some of the current thought leaders in the segment get together and share their knowledge, discoveries, and explore ways to continue to improve the overall quality of audio and sound reinforcement within the marching activity. We sponsored this event last summer and hope to continue to get even more engaged moving forward. I would like to personally invite you to be my guest to this seminar this next summer. I would be very curious to get your insights on how the activity may continue to refine and improve this aspect of the experience. I do believe that the activity as a whole would clearly benefit from knowledge and insights, as well as your unvarnished feedback.

Well, I counted one world class corps in bib pants in the lot this summer. Hats are also not as much of a thing these days. French horns and trombones have been used extensively. Front ensembles have been moved all around. Costumes have been used to create new visual effects (ex: Colts last summer). Corps started exploring pre-recorded announcements (ex: Bluecoats). DCI and several corps started outsourcing several aspects of operations, including merch. Um, this one also happened, but in a much different way. Anyway, if you want to know what drum corps will be doing in 2028... happy to share some unsubstantiated personal opinion. 🙂

Fascinating how two people can look at the same thing and have radically different thoughts. I wondered: 1) Did they rent or buy those? 2) I hoped they bought so that they could use to rent out to public in off season as a solid revenue generating opportunity. Addressing your third thought... it is not the job of high school band boosters to solve housing or food challenges. That is not their purpose and there are plenty of government and community programs to address these issues. This is like lamenting over the fact that Beyonce and Jay-Z bought a 13th new house for themselves when that money could be better used by NASA to buy weather balloons.

When kids are playing at the level Tarpon does, they have already done a fantastic job with the education part and are focused on performance. This actually has everything to do with music education, in fact, they've nailed it. Listen to their wind ensemble, their jazz band, and try to suggest they don't have music education absolutely locked. This is a program that is 100% about education.

I mean only this will happen within 3 years, not 20.

2.5 - 3 years.

Been ages since I've posted here, but this one got under my skin enough to feel like trying to remember my password. I also studied at Juilliard. This post instantly took me back, reminded me of exactly why I genuinely disliked the place. Seems you've never sat in an Eames chair, punched a Ferrari through a tight corner, or walked through a Wright house just as the sun was going down. These are emotional experiences, enabled by brilliant design and flawless execution. Using Wright as an example, you say you get Wright, but clearly... you don't. His work isn't about how it looks from the outside. It isn't even about how it interacts with nature (which is a distinguishing feature of most of his works). It is about how it is experienced, live, immersed in it from the inside looking out. Not sure what you studied or who you studied with there, but it 100% wasn't comp. The very first thing we were taught was that music is for the composer first, performer second and the audience is nothing more than a casual observer. We were told that if we wanted to write for an audience, that is fine. But what we'd be creating is not an art, but simply a product, and as a product its measure of worth can only be in sales.... and that we should be in business school instead... in fact, please leave now. I am being a bit overcritical here, as a Juilliard education does have its merits. Most Hardee's will start you out immediately as Assistant Manager.

I'm a big fan of C#... pretty much every project i ever built has been on .NET :-)

Pretty much. Creative Commons applies only to original works or the unique arrangement of a work, but not to the original work itself. So, the model is pretty similar to YouTube, where rights holders either request that an infringing work be removed or license the work/otherwise monetize it in cooperation.

A big refactoring/migration coming up. What's your language of choice? A lot of points to get involved.

Stu, my friend... don't see much reason to peel the onion. Every layer from start, to finish, to in between is well under control. Any contradiction may or may not be intentional ("Objects in Mirror May be Closer than Appear", "Caution: Coffee HOT!", etc.). Would love to hear your insight on the product and experience. A lot of work to do there, for sure, but licensing... a team that does this, experts in their field.... on it. :)

Been getting back into arranging as a bit of a hobby. Would be interested to see what you think of the MuseScore editor. Any suggestions to improve, let me know. BTW - current focus is radically improving marching percussion notation. Definitely some work to do, but aim is to be the best notation app out there for this segment... and free.

I cannot speak to whether that particular work may or may not currently be covered without a specific inquiry to those within the company dealing with licensing and legal issues, but as mentioned... As there are currently many millions of content contributors to the site, there are established relationships, policies, procedures and teams for all of this. I will not go into much detail here, but these issues are considerably different at such a scale and bundled, compared to one-off requests. Entirely different universes.

The basic premise of Musescore.com is that any work that is created and uploaded by anyone may be used by anyone else, anywhere else, for any purpose they see fit, including but not limited to downloading the source file and creating and distributing a new derivative work. Many online creative communities in other creative fields use Creative Commons licensing for their communities of amateur, but aspiring, creators. For the uninitiated, particularly in the context of the traditional publishing world, this may seem like an absolutely crazy idea... but hear me out. Musescore.com is for the aspiring composer or arranger, not the well-established professional composer (yet). Musescore.com is where you post your work, in progress, get feedback from the community in order to improve or enhance it. It is taking what was once an informal process of peer/mentor feedback and revision usually confined to university or conservatory composition departments, and opening it up to anyone anywhere in the world, at any level in the development of their skills. This is not currently the place for well-established composers to post any works they wish to commercialize, but hopefully engage as a community member and mentor. In the context of developing the activity as a whole, the opportunity here is not only to help inspire and develop the next generation of composers and arrangers, but to improve access to notated works for developing ensembles. One of the barriers for growth of programs like SoundSport, for example, is access to sheet music suitable for their ensemble's skills and budget. Pairing emerging ensembles with emerging composers/arrangers encourages the development of both. One other point of clarification, while Musescore.com is the community, MuseScore Editor is a free music notation editor (like Sibelius or Finale... but free), available for Windows, Mac and even Linux.