tylerdurden

The GE caption doesn't really have anything to do with how entertained you, as an audience member, are.

Blue Devils 97.300 The Cadets 97.250

They won't get to the slide ruler without consulting the oracle on the hill and giving a Magic 8 Ball a few shakes.

This is the first time I've been able to see Quarters in the theater. Every other year I've either been on tour or at finals live. The theater that I was at (Brooklyn Center, MN) is a fairly nice theater, and the broadcast went off without a hitch. There were a few moments where the broadcast glitched for a second, but that was it and was hardly noticeable. The crowd was decent, and more people came in towards the end of the night. I would say the theater was about 85% full. As for this review, it will be slightly more on my thoughts about each show rather than overall performance quality. You can't get the same experience and read in a theater over seeing the show live. Pacific Crest-I got stuck in traffic on my way to the theater, so I arrived about halfway through their show. The closer grabbed my attention, and had some good moments. The show was interesting, and played on the Vegas theme well. Madison Scouts- This is a way different show than what I saw earlier in the year. The changes that they made were effective, however I still felt like the show was disjointed. The biggest changes were in the drill and the perc book. New drill, and heavily watered drum parts. The intro of the show is amazing however, and is one of my favorite moments so far this year. Crossmen- This show really surprised me. I had heard the framework of their show from their program coordinator's website, so I had an idea of what the musical book was like. When I first heard the MP3, I thought "wow, this is pretty ambitious". I was right, and they pulled it off. It was one of the few shows that I could watch all the way though and not have a booring moment. The only downfall seemed to be that the drill design looked a bit over the member's heads, but was performed well enough to not be too much of a distraction. The pit is all over this show as well, with A LOT of exposure. Blue Stars- I'm a homer for this corps, being a former MM. I would love to see them in finals, but the show just seemed flat last night. I had seen the show a few good times before last night, and they had a lot of improvement design and performance wise each time that I had seen them. Last night however, it felt like the corps was not performing at Quarter Finals. The brassline sounded reserved, and visually they looked tentative. I still don't like the new uniforms. The visual movement which showcased the new uni was cool for the opener, but after 3 minutes of the show it looked like they used up every movement idea. After that, it felt like 8 minutes of the same thing over and over. The new ending was great however, and has a lot of velocity pushing into the last segment. Overall I think the show was designed well for the talent level of the corps, and had some really great moments. I really hope they can pull off a killer show tonight and grab that 12th place spot. FCO! The Academy- I've been really impressed with how much this corps has grown over the past few years. They performed well last night, however the guard and visual departments were severely lacking. They had a good hornline sound, but the book wasn't overly interesting to my ears. The drum book was a bit much. Spirit- New unis. They look cool up close, but from a distance (high camera shots) they seem to blend in a weird way. I was impressed with the new direction the corps has taken musically, and had a well written book for their level. The battery writing was good for their level, however I think the pit was under featured a bit. Great brass sound. Colts- The new uniforms are great. The red is very striking, and they picked some interesting shades that worked really well for an ensemble standpoint. The show sounded great, the hornline has really taken a step up this year. The guard characters were cool, but I think could have done a little bit more. Felt like an underdeveloped idea. The battery was dirty, and heard little from the pit. The drill was cool though, and was another step up design and performance wise. Glassmen- The intro to this show was great, however built up to something that never really happened. The original music from RW Smith was a good idea, but it felt like 11 minutes of the same musical phrase over and over again. I liked the jist of the show, especially the guard integration. It felt like an incomplete idea. Also, I don't remember a single thing the battery did...Very buried. Boston- With a Picasso show, I was really excited about seeing this. Knowing what Boston does with props, I thought I'd be really hit with some great visual work. The guard came out with easels, and I figured they'd have a big reveal with them at the end. Didn't really happen, and the easels blended into the grass and were hard to see. Musically they had some great moments however, and the battery had some notes. Blue Knights- Eh, felt like a recycled show. The visual layering was cool, but again felt like a re-hash of 2002. The hornline played well, and the battery/pit were featured a lot. SCV- I really like this corps. The show designs of last year and this year are interesting and innovative, and done well. The best part about the show this year is the drill design. Pete Weber is doing some really cool stuff, and I think he could be the next really big name in drill design. Hornline sounded fantastic, and the battery's playing some really hard stuff. Not the cleanest, but it was entertaining. Crown- I'll have to admit I wasn't the biggest fan of Crown. I really didn't like the shows of the past few years, and came into this one expecting the same. I was wrong. Very very very wrong. This is hands down one of my favorite shows of the year. Even ignoring the performance quality, the design and GE of this show is insanely intelligent, fresh, and easy on the eyes and ears. The hornline sounded absolutely fantastic, and was one of the first corps of the night to showcase some very detailed dynamic control. The other plus was the percussion section. I'm a big fan of Lee Beddis' lines, and they made HUGE improvements this year. As for the vocals in the show, they served a good purpose for the overall picture. They were not distracting in any way. The only downside of the show was the drill. It was entertaining, but really looked like 8th place drill. I think if they could have taken a few more chances with the drill, they could have made a really big jump this year. Now I'm really looking forward to seeing Crown next year if they keep up the pace of this show design, Regiment- Ahh, Regiment. I had seen their show a few times earlier in the season, and saw a framework that left me really wanting more. They delivered last night. The corps looks great, and the new sashes and gauntlets are very cool. Their percussion section is amazing, especially the pit. The battery was exposed at all the right moments. It'll be a dogfight for the percussion trophy between Reg and BD. +1 for adding in the kick at the end. Bluecoats- This was another entertaining show. The first 2/3rds of the show were great, but I felt like I needed a bit more at the end. They have one of the best moments of the year with the "Drop your weapons" and "You have the right to remain silent!" vocals. Percussion is great, brass is great, visual seemed a bit lacking in execution. Too bad I never got a chance to see this live. Cavaliers- I'm usually a big fan of Cavaliers' shows, but this year left me a bit dissapointed. It felt like 2005 all over again, a show with excellent visual design and execution, but lacking in the musical department. The musical book was a bit boring, and never really hit me like they usually do. The guard was good, but I thought the uniforms were a little basic and bland with the suits. Percussion wise, Casella's book was great, but the battery was a bit dirty... Cadets- I'm not going to get into the penalty and booing debate, there's enough of that up in the general discussions. First off, this corps sounds amazing. Absolutely amazing. Way different musical corps from last year, and really took a step up. The arrangements were great, and was a new take on Blue Shades. However, I had a hard time piecing together the musical book due to the vocals. For the first half of the show, I didn't mind the vocals as much. After that, they became very preachy and annoying. I'm no amplification hater, but this was a bit over the top design wise. I don't mind a lot of vocals if done right, I just don't think this was pieced together very well. They had a great concept, but just got way too heavy at the end. Visually they moved great, but the design was a bit basic for me. Too many blocks, and not enough guard and percussion integration. The battery seemed way tamed down this year, and had more McNutt than Aungst sound. McNutt's great, I just enjoy the stock Aungst aggression. Blue Devils- I was a bit worried about this show after reading some reviews on here about it getting boring. I think those people were very wrong. This is one of my favorite Blue Devil shows, and is a very different sound from previous BD repertoires. Horns are on fire, perc's on fire, visual's on fire. Enough said. I really want to see this show again, and have a good feeling that they will be the champs. All in all, I had a great night. It got a bit long, since I forgot how long Quarters can be. However this is one of my favorite years, and will be definately getting the DVDs and CDs. Good luck to all the corps for Semis and Finals!

Yes, but a call was made, even though it might have been an iffy call to make. It sets a bad standard.

No, DCI backed out of a decision.

Penalty is gone now....Hmmm.

I'd be all about that, except you'd run out of room on the DVD pretty quickly if you want high quality audio and picture. You'd end up with a bunch of DVDs with only a few corps on them, along with a pretty steep price tag. Maybe in a few years when the Blu Ray or HD DVD's become more standard.

I lost brain cells watching that.

Yes, the new stadium in Indy is being acoustically treated, along with having a retractable roof if I remember correctly.

Each case is different. For a well established composer, usually they will have some or all of the share of the copyright or publishing rights. If you're a newbie, the studio or producer will usually end up owning the music.

Unless I'm mistaken, I think Jay Bocook is one of the few people who have permission to arrange Williams' tunes.

I should have broken my post up better. I was not insinuating the person (or you) meant that, just answering with my personal 2/3 experience. Yeah, I took it as a present approach, again my bad. I do like the idea however of a sort of DCI training system or place to go for a specific corps other than an audition camp or two. Amen. More excitement and shakeups make for a better August. I think what it is, is that a lot of kids ignore the Div 2/3 level, and don't see it as a quality experience. There's something different to a kid who has his mind set on marching a specific and works like crazy for it, and another who just wants to march somewhere and keeps getting cut from the same random top 6 or so corps every year. I don't :) .

I dunno about anyone else, but I didn't march a Div 2/3 corps to go on to a Div 1 corps. I went to a Div 2/3 corps because I wanted to march in that corps, and I think that was the sentiment of the vast majority of the people I marched with. It's kinda insulting to view Div 2/3 in that light (unless it is a designated feeder corps). The idea of wide a "farm league" program just lowers and minimalizes the level of achievement a Div 2/3 corps can get to, plus making it look like a less of a quality experience.

The two loudest instruments in a corps are the bassline, and a properly tuned concert bass. They will project farther than any instrument on the field. Frequency wise, a bassline is sitting right smack in the middle of the timbre of the contras, euphs, and baritones. So it's no wonder that when the full hornline is playing, you don't hear much definition from the bassline. However, you can sure feel it. Going off of what Karl said, a lot of it is choice. You have to decide on the voicing of what is the most important part at that musical moment. That's the writing I enjoy the most (current and old Cavs, Casella era SCV, current Phantom) where the parts stick out at appropriate times. Also, the dirtier the bassline is, the less it will project....With proper tuning and technique, A clean unison at 9" will for sure project.

I'm an audio engineer, and do both studio work and live sound. I was also hired to come into a corps during the middle of last summer to solve some sound issues. Sound systems are not easy to operate. It's much easier for lets say, WGI, to manage sound systems over DCI. First off, most gyms are around the same size for a large WGI show. That's easy to fix for a member. You also don't have to worry about as many dynamic variables, since you don't have a hornline. It makes more sense to have a professional in there to take care of it. Why is it bad to have someone there with properly trained ears and mixing ability? Your average Joe Shmoe won't hear what most engineers can, and don't know what to do when problems occur. As for the comments about having someone on walkie talkies, why not? If I'm running sound for a live rock show, I have a good amount of time to test the system and do a sound check. I'm also usually not putting it and tearing it down in a time of a few minutes like a DCI show. So you take a look at the stadium before the show, and make an educated guess on master levels. When you get bodies in the stadium, the air temprature changes, and so on, you get some grey area. So it helps to have another staff member in the stands to tell you fine adjustments. The other major issue is the stadium power itself. The vast majority of sound system problems last summer came from the stadium itself, having either bad wiring or too much on one breaker. Sound systems take a lot of power, and need consistant and stable power to run right. Take it from someone with first hand experience. The problems are being worked out, and it is getting better.

MP3 is getting better, but it's still fairly "noisy" compared to some other lossy file compression formats. You can really hear it on the high end, up around 12-18k. I usually import CDs in as AIFF/WAV files when dumping them into iTunes. As for the internet versions sounding different, I'm sure they would due to a fast turaround, plus file compression so they can be reasonably streamed or downloaded.

Well duh. 75% of the stuff I master is rock, and about half of my mixes are some sort of rock as well. It irritates me to no end when I finish a mix and the only comment I get is "it's not loud enough". I think some of that is changing though. I've gotten quite a few big name CDs in the past year or so that's backed off on the hard limiting. Personally I think the DCI CDs are fine. I have no problem turning up my volume when I need to.

That all depends on the gear that was used. If I'm mastering using all analog gear, I'll let a few clips slide through because analog treats these kind of peaks in a more pleasable way. If I'm doing it all in Pro Tools, there's no way I'm letting anything past. Digital clips are quite nasty.

Sheesh, if anyone wants their stuff "louder", shoot me a PM. I'm a professional mastering engineer.

I assume so, I never read into any other reasoning why. It also takes the pressure off of the pit members/whoever to make sure it is running. When you mix live sound for any other purpose, it is essential that someone is operating the board to handle any issues, and to actually mix during the performance. You set general levels, and things always change due to air temperature, amount of people in the crowd, the size and shape of the stadium, any strange materials in the way (such as a huge concrete wall), and so on. Pit micing is easy, that usually has no issues if everything is running with cables and attactched mics. Those problems are easy to fix in seconds. When wireless mics come into play, it opens a whole new world of trouble. There is always the risk of someone being on the same channels as you, RF noise in the stadium, cell phone disturbance, and so on. Stadium power can suck as well. Some of the older high school and college stadiums have electrical issues, like bad and old wiring. With the lights on, the stadium PA going, and other electrical needs you can run into issues powering the sound system or end up constantly tripping the breakers.

Well, sort of. Higher frequencies tend to be more directional to our ears than lower frequencies, so our ears generally pick up on the highs first. Bass frequencies move slower in wavelength terms, not distance, and tend to scatter more than highs due to the ability to move around objects. Amplification systems can help shape that low end and focus it more, removing the subharmonic junk that isn't needed. When I run live sound in a new area, it takes a few hours to get the system tuned up and dialed in. You don't have this time when setting up for a corps, and have to run it on the fly. So there will be some errors, but over the past few years it has been worked out fairly well. The best idea has been to allow for a staff member to run the board during the show.

awesome show!! FCO

http://www.edrumline.com/features/history/...ray/gallery.htm Magic isn't on there, but you get a good look at those drums...

We used only dot books, however the section leader would get a copy of the charts when we were learning drill. We would all write down our dots based off of the chart, then draw in a little picture of the form if needed. In any case, we always had a field tech with the charts. If there were any form or route questions, they would be solved then.