Derek Smith

I'd like to add a quick reply without being able to read the whole thread, so sorry if it's been mentioned already. I can only speak for the percussion section, but a lot of really quality Crown members in the past few years have been from the northeast. Crown is starting to get a pretty decent draw at UMass, where the vibe has always been Cadets Cadets Cadets (and formerly Crossmen). So yes, at least as far as percussion goes, there are very good players that have marched Crown the past few seasons that probably would have been at Cadets otherwise just based on their proximity. This year, the centre snare and the centre marimba both came from UMass.

I'm so glad you mention Jump. That was an impromptu thing we played in the pit, and were highly entertained by wailing on that thing to start every day (everybody would be warming up with random things on their own, then the section leader would start the Jump pattern, and one by one everybody would enter in with that until it was jammin). We thought it would be hilarious to start out one of the encores with it last year, and even got the brass in on it by playing low tones to add to the initial chaos.

I've checked out the fannetwork too and was extremely disappointed. They're obviously trying to save money on bandwidth by putting out absurdly low bitrate audio and poor res video, but it's making all of DCI look painfully amateur. There are literally dozens of fans uploading hi-res video taken with digital still cameras to popular streaming video sites every day, and the quality taken from these pocket cameras BLOWS the fan network out of the water. I was excited after registering to be able to plug my laptop into the TV and stereo and show my roommates the shows from this year, and the quality was embarassing. Literally could not understand what was going on in the shows from a video or audio standpoint. They should just ditch the fannetwork and pay a random fan 20 bucks to record the show on their pocket shooter then throw it on an official DCI channel on the YouTube.

Very interesting thread. I'm not a brass guy, so I can't really comment on the arranging, but I was in the front ensemble for the last 4 years at Crown, and I feel like I can comment on Klesch. He's one of the most (if not the most) well-spoken people I've ever met. I was always very glad when he showed up on tour for a while, and my impression of him will always be that he's the most intelligent (and humble) person I've ever met -- he made me feel smarter when I listened to him speak, and it was really a pleasure to be around him though I probably never had a real conversation with the guy. Anyways, I'm not trying to make him sound too much like the Buddha, but he's definitely a great guy and should already be in the hall-of-fame.

I couldn't agree more -- and i also agree with the above comment relating how this all also applies to cavies, as well! Very stagnant.

I think their body work this year is incredible! But they have been with the same choreographer, Jim Moore (who is awesome, btw), since at least 05... so I'm kinda surprised people are noticing what they've been doing right now?

Yeah! You know... as in "Scream for the cream!!!"

Too many notes! Just kidding... sorry you don't like 'em, though. I think they're playing some pretty tasty stuff this year, personally.

I'm inclined to agree. I think they've been doing a great job with establishing a "look" for themselves in the past couple years (since Andy Ebert came on), but the drill just has never really done it for me. The same drill may have looked a lot more pleasing with dark uniforms, though... but I've gotta give it up for the cream.

Ah wow! I'm glad somebody here (well.. a great deal of people here) has more knowledge of the older shows that I haven't seen as much. Now that I think about it, I may remember Beddis talking about that Cadets show. I'm definitely gonna have to go back and watch it a couple times. Thanks!

This year specifically, since the new staff change in 07, or just in general? I think the 07 and 08 books were great (executed extremely well in 07 especially!), but I haven't seen much of them this year.

Was that the only year Star marched 16 contras? I want to think that it is, because I remember hearing that that was the only corps ever to field 16 until Crown brought it back with the bigger numbers. And if I recall, Linkous aged out of Star in 92 and also marched contra, so there's definitely some contra love there.

In this year's show, the battery all plays in one tempo, then the basses drop out and start playing in a new tempo (while the snares and quads keep ramming in the old tempo) then the quads melt away and join the basses, then finally the snares melt out into the new tempo -- correct me if I'm wrong, but that's pretty new. Also, in last year's ballad (Clair de Lune), it was executed so well that nobody may have noticed, but there were several spots in there where different sections were playing different songs in different tempos on the field at the same time. (Everybody plays Clair, then the front ensemble and low brass melt away into One Hand, One Heart at a different tempo while the high brass keeps playing Clair in the original tempo, then the two tunes mix back together seamlessly -- one of the examples from that piece). I'm not sure, but I don't think that's ever been done before (I haven't seen it at least). Now whether you think either of those things make sense or not is up to you, but they did Clair beautifully (to the point that nobody would notice these multi-tempo effects without really listening extremely critically), and this year's melt away effect in the battery makes perfect sense combined with the visual program (the sections melting away join the horns playing, I believe, Promise of Living - the thing sweeps across the field). Just the first two examples that came to mind (from the last 2 years) of things they've done that are new (as far as I know).

Thanks a million Kevin! I've read a couple of your play-by-plays here on the forums and they're absolutely superb!

I hope Crown reels it in after their free day they just had. A lot of young kids in that group.

It sounds to me like the people who were being rude to you handled the situation very unprofessionally. So there's a young man in the stands checking out the show and recording stuff -- obviously a big fan of the corps to have been there 2 days in a row, and somebody who looks like they could march in the future? That's not the way to get people to come and audition for your drum corps. When you're on the top for a long time, though, I guess you can get away with treating people like dirt, and you won't be hurt in November. I do understand that it was at the end of 2 rehearsal days, lots of changes being made, trying to teach all sorts of new stuff in a short amount of time can be very frustrating for the staff, I'm sure, but it's too bad a couple of ########## made the whole organization look ###### -- probably just a couple first-year vis. techs or something. A simple "hey man, we're going to have to ask you to leave if we see you taking video tonight, alright?" would have sufficed from what it sounds like. I would hope that something like this wouldn't have happened at the corps that I marched at, but there are always a couple ########## on the staff (probably anyhwere, I'd imagine) that don't know how to treat people -- and they usually aren't asked to come back the next year. Anyways, I don't know if I'd bother shooting Hopkins an email or not, but I do know that for all of the crap he gets, he's a very intelligent and reasonable guy and I assume would be ###### at whatever staff members were being out of line. I assume they weren't taking out their rehearsal day frustration on you in front of him, were they? He was surely off somewhere else? EDIT: Topic ended 2 minutes above my post, sorry haha

Agreed. Unfortunately people are rather quick to forget some incredible Cadets shows of recent years past. They'll have a great show this year when all is said and done, I think, but I still hope my old team beats 'em.

That's terrible!! God have mercy on that front ensemble and having to deal with a new truck mid-tour.

Agreed. I would be very surprised if something like this took any less than a matter of months, and obviously we don't have that much time left this season. I have no idea about the legality of rerecording the samples though and using their own Cadets recordings, but that may be the only way they can legally do these things.

The samples have to be performed in real time just like WGI as far as I know. So for example if there was a sample that said "Be Cool!" (or whatever with 2+ syllables), they would have to break up that sample into 2 different samples, "Be" and "Cool!". Those 2 samples would be mapped to 2 different keys on the synth, and the guy would have to strike 2 notes "in time" with whatever the "Be Cool!" is supposed to be in time with -- one syllable per key strike. It would be illegal to just have the thing be one clip where the whole thing plays after pushing one button. That's what I believe the deal is, anybody feel free to correct me as I'm only vaguely remembering reading the rule proposal once like a year ago. EDIT: relmquist, I noticed you expressed basically all of what I just mentioned a couple posts after the one I quoted, sorry!

They could always just use the samples without paying for the rights to them, then we could all have that entire section of their show with no audio (muted) on the DVDs!

I was talking about Crown (they're the only group I've seen live so far this year) who I know is working very hard to clean up a really difficult book (as well as doing innovative things that they may or may not get credit for -- for example, everybody rams at Tempo A, then the basses drop out and start playing something else at Tempo B while the snares and quads keep ramming at Tempo A, then the quads drop out and join the basses in the new tempo, then finally the snares (makes sense when you see it on the field, and is extremely cool)). I haven't seen Cavaliers or Cadets yet, so I cant' say much about what they're doing, except Cavaliers I imagine are doing more of the same from the past few years which hasn't been very impressive, and I bet Cadets are interesting with Colin writing the parts.

I'm psyched to see how well Crown did in percussion!! (especially since 3 guys were missing from the battery -- they must be working them to death or something ) Unfortunately, 4th/5th in drums (despite throwing down some notes!) isn't going to do it for them this year... then again if it's like last year's percussion program, they're frustrated with these jabroni early-season judges and are ready for the real guys that show up at the end of the season (Prosperie, A.K., etc.)

Vocal samples ≠ Narration

Other examples be ######, but if stepping over the color guard is wrong, then I don't want to be right.