MarimbasaurusRex

Wow, someone remembers Montage! I taught and arranged for them for a short time after aging out. Excellent line with a bunch of players from Optimists, Crusaders and a few Bridgemen thrown in for good measure. I started like Gary in a baton corps in Erie, PA. And yes we hated Dal Demons cuz you guys always won!

OW.... They should have gotten and endorsement for Doan's Little Pills.

Had lots of "in step" problems with a band I worked with last year. The kids just weren't hearing the pulse well and didn't understand the importance of unity in the feet. So I taught them a little basics game that really helped. Set up a parade block and march a song around a track. When you see someone out of step, pull them out. The kids who are out can follow and watch the others and pull out any player they see out of step. It's a "last man standing" kind of game and the kids really got into it. The ones who make it all the way around the track are the winners. Then, everyone who was pulled out the first time starts another lap and the previous winners get to stand out and pull any players out of step. etc etc. After a few times through the drill, every player marched in step all the way around. This greatly helped their ability to play together as a unit and the results of one afternoon's work lasted throughout the season.

Look again. 15" floor toms are common and every manufacturer makes 15" heads in a number of styles. I would love to hear a 15" floater. With the high tension capability and the added meat of 15" I think it would sound great, but certainly heavy. It is true that there are no 15" kevlar heads, they were made back in the 80's when kevlar was a new thing and was being marketed to drum set players in all sizes, but not anymore.

OK, I got real curious why I wasn't hearing a benefit from omni mics in the wind when in theory I should, so I asked a guy who works on mics for a living. His answer was quite interesting and might be useful for anyone who records outdoors. In short, he said that any mic with switchable pickup patterns (card, omni, fig 8 on one mic) is not a true omni. The omni pattern is produced electronically by blending the signals from 2 back to back cardioid diaphragms, so it offers no wind benefit. A true omni is produced acoustically with one diaphragm and this type will better reject wind noise than a cardioid. I also asked what was the best, design-wise, for wind rejection and he said - omni dynamic, but it should be a dynamic with a diaphragm designed to take wind, some are not. He also mentioned that cardioid is often needed outdoors to reduce background noise and that the advantage of directionality can outweigh the wind issue, just have good wind screens.

Keep in mind that most condensers, like the AKG414, SM81, etc. will require phantom power. Not the most convenient unless you have portable mic preamps or want to carry a mix board around. Don't discount a GOOD dynamic mic, no phantom power required and it may even sound better, smoother, warmer, less critical, and just as accurate as a condenser, especially at a distance outdoors. I've not recorded a lot of drum corps. But, I've engineered a few hundred field recordings for Nonesuch and other labels. Typically, we carry a selection of Neumann condensers and EV dynamics, often recording with both to choose the final track later in the studio. About 3 times out of 5, the recordings using dynamics (usually the RE20 or RE15/16) were the ones chosen for release. It gave the mastering guys (Bob Ludwig) better material to work with. One might be surprised to find that quite a few really good field recordings have been made with the EV 635a (about $50 used, omni with no wind screen). If we had the benefit of recording in a studio, we would probably use condensers all the time, but under less controlled conditions, a good pair of dynamics does quite well.

My conclusion that condensers are more susceptible is from using them. I have both types of condensers and dynamics and will concede that there is a wind difference between cardioid and omni. But, in practical use, the higher sensitivity of the condenser is usually a greater consideration than pickup pattern. Put a dynamic next to a condenser, both cardioid or both omni, no wind screens, blow on them, and the condenser will frack faster and harder for sure. Not just respond, totally frack. It's the difference between white noise and a whack in the head.

Cardioid refers to the pickup pattern of the mic, meaning it's directional, but has no bearing on wind noise. Omni means that it picks up sound from all directions. There are both cardioid and omni patterns available on all types of microphones. Mics are either condenser or dynamic. The diaphragm of a condenser is a very thin membrane which makes it very responsive to the slightest movement of air. While this is often preferred in a controlled environment, the extreme sensitivity makes it almost useless in wind. The diaphragm of a dynamic mic has more mass and is attached to the magnetic element, making it less likely to be moved by wind alone, although a good windscreen is still essential. This is why most live vocal mics are dynamic, because of the singer's breath. Wind reaction is the same regardless of omni or cardioid pickup pattern.

If you will be recording outdoors in the lot, I would suggest something with a really good wind screen and probably not a condenser, especially if it will be hand held. Condensers are very sensitive to the slightest breeze or bump. First mics I would reach for in that circumstance is a pair of EV RE50's. I've done a lot of outdoor location recording and this mic always comes through like a champ. It's an industry standard broadcast mic (omni directional) with excellent wind screening, low handling noise, and a very flat natural frequency response. Just set them a few feet apart and you will have a nice stereo image without a lot of fuss. It will also take rather high sound pressure levels so those close up rim shots and power chords won't frack the diaphragm. Also, the Rode SVM is meant to be hooked up to a camcorder. What machine will you be using to record?

This piqued my interest so I did some searching and can't find any reference to any Mapex drums ever being manufactured by Tama. Do you know which models and when? Just curious.

Tama and Mapex have always been two separate companies, Tama from Japan and Mapex from Taiwan.

It wasn't stated that way, nor was it intended that way. If I meant high school band contests, that's what I would have said. Regardless, in my neighborhood local marching bands were regularly hosting competitions in the 70's and I know that was common in many areas. I honestly believe that if it was possible to add them all up, competitive marching music events would be of about the same number then as now, especially if you count parades, there were millions of them and most were judged competitions. One thing that might put the modern day numbers higher would be the inclusion of WGI. Not certain if that can be classified as a marching music event or not, but it is in spirit. Of course WGI, or at least some type of CG competition, was happening in the 70's too. Again, I wish there were numbers to support it, but in my observation marching music participation in general is way down from what it was decades ago. I'm just speaking to the notion that competitive marching music is more active today than it was. In certain pockets, yes, but overall, not really.

Don't forget that marching band competitions were happening back in 1971 too, before bands adopted corps style. I don't know if there is any historical data on it but I would bet that the total number of competitive marching music events is less now than in 1971.

In 1973 many thousands of people said yes, that IS worth paying for, night after night. Tastes change, goals change, techniques change, instruments change. Different does not necessarily mean better or worse. If those 13 and under corps (Commodors 72, for instance) didn't exist back then, would we have today's BD? Probably not. If you don't want to pay to see them, that just means you don't want to support them. If you don't support the lower placing corps, how will they ever become higher placing corps? And sorry for the insult, but I felt one good insult deserved another. And I must say I'm continually amazed at the snobbery which seems to go hand in hand with drum corps participation.

OK, so.... for instance... the 73 Commodors... 12th place... horn line instructed by Jim Ott and Wayne Downey. But, yeah they really sucked, huh?

There is a world drum corps hall of fame that is broad based and separate from DCI. But, I'll 2nd the nom for Steve Rondinaro. Not only a solid and long time all around drum corps guy, he was also a beloved director of the Watkins Glen Squires for many years.

A more interesting comparison might be 1974 when there were no yard lines. Each era has it's own challenges. Try a high mark time at 180 for a while... or jazz run sideways... it's all hard. And to say everything was 8/5 in 1980 isn't quite accurate. Cavies and a few others were using 7/5 and 6/5 quite a bit.

Try stuffing the drum with foam peanuts. Just take off the top head and overfill the shell with foam peanuts then put the head back on. If that's not enough, try using rolled up fiberglass insulation. With either of those methods you will reduce the volume without affecting the playing response. However... if your 4 snares overbalance your horns in a small room, they will be just as overbalanced in a large room or outdoors. First thing I would suggest is having the drummers play in balance with the rest of the ensemble.

The G8 makes everybody else sit at the kiddie table and eat leftovers.

Ummm... Not quite... _________ From the New College Encyclopedia of Music - Arrangement - (1) The adaptation of a piece of music so as to make it suitable for performance by forces other than those for which it was originally composed. (2) A harmonized setting of an existing melody. Transcription - v. ARRANGEMENT _________ What is commonly called arrangement in drum corps these days is perhaps more akin to variation on a theme. Also from the NCEM - Variation - The process of modifying a theme, figure or passage in such a way that it is recognizably derived from the original. (I'll spare everyone a listing of the 9 standard forms of variation, but most of them fall into the current practice of drum corps "arranging" in one way or another.)

It can. But, you can't do that and play mallets at the same time. And the time it takes to switch back and forth can be problematic depending on the arrangement. Not to mention what cymbal straps do to your hands. My least favorite combination as a multi percussionist is cymbals and mallets, because the straps cut into and cramp up my hands and then I'm supposed to do crazy things with 4 mallets and have it sound good. Not gonna happen. Playing a cymbal with a stick or mallet isn't the same sound. Piatti is a brilliant tonal color that composers have preferred for centuries. They could have just as easily written for a suspended cymbal, but they didn't because the color and attack really work in an orchestral context. Personally, I would make the cymbal line choice based on the style of music being played. Orchestral music is meant to have piatti for most cymbal sounds. Jazz and popular music is appropriate to a stick sound.

I'll take a stab at this one... Complexity - A concert percussionist will spend about the same amount of time perfecting a good cymbal crash as a good snare roll. The complexity of good cymbal technique is extremely demanding, not to mention that it requires a tremendous amount of physical stamina in the field context. Notes - Sometimes playing more notes is actually easier than trying to find the E after 2 and having it line up exactly within the bazillion notes from the rest of the battery or a split melodic part. More is not always harder. One of the reasons we see fewer and fewer cymbal lines is because it's so very hard to do well. The bar has been set very high and it's hard to compete with the likes of SCV and others. I sadly cut cymbals from my HS line just because I couldn't get enough players who could do it well. And if it's not going to be done well, why do it?

Ludwig still makes machine tymps so you should be able to order cranks from them. Maybe call Steve Weiss.

Wow, very interesting. Technically, it's not a glock because the bars are threaded on cord. Percussionists would refer to that instrument as "song bells." But, what really gets me is that harness. When mallet instruments came back into play they were carried with straps. Whoever made that harness should have patented it and might have made a lot of money, because that's pretty much what Musser introduced around 1978 to replace the gangly straps.

If I could give a prize for most intimidating corps ever, it would go to Rochester Phoenix. First saw them in 76 when I was 15. Holy crap! They owned the place.