karuna

Tekk has always been a genuine Crown fan — even when they were overtaking his beloved Cadets.

I am quietly feeling quite good about these next 3 performances. Intangibles are aligning.

It's prelims day, guys. FEEL THE LOVE! https://streamable.com/2semu

Exactly. What's confusing MarimbaManiac is he's presenting his facts as if this were some neutral activity in search of the most amazing technologically enhanced product possible when in fact it's a competition where the participants will use the technology to highlight their strengths and erase their weaknesses. It's unavoidable. The loss of environmental challenges as a fundamental skill for each performer is being completely ignored. Now what used to be a measurable skill is now a setting on a sound board. The same can be said of dynamic contrast. Need that 2nd mellophone to be a bit louder? I'll just push this slider! And the best answer given to why this should all be done is because we can. Sprinters could go much faster if they all rode Kawasaki Ninjas? Science says they'll go faster. So it's a good idea right? Swimmers were wearing suits that made them so much faster that they made old times completely obsolete. And yet FINA outlawed them! Why? Because their use -- although technologically superior -- was detrimental to the nature of the sport. Sometimes enhancement is a BAD IDEA. Measuring how well human performers could manage the challenges of their environment is a fundamental part of what makes drum corps, drum corps.

Thanks for getting right to my next follow up. But don’t expect an answer. There’re both running from that one like it’s the plague. Far too interested in how and not all in why.

Maybe you should go read it again. Because that was only a small incidental part of the post.

Lol. SCIENCE!!!

Did you READ my post? Because it’s obvious I can read the recap. Sure they’re getting numbers. I know exactly what those sheets say and more importantly what their intent was and how they were used before the advent of mic-ageddon . Sure the GE sheets support the style. But the VA and VP sheets don’t — AT ALL. My point is that it’s just not supported by the sheets as they were written and understood at the time they were written. They are being “interpreted”. Interesting that this is the only point in the post you chose to respond to. Wonder why that could be? Easy to dismiss if you want just attack the poster instead of the post. As I said this approach is being advocated by a handful of designers who imagine themselves creating “Broadway” productions. That precise word is being used out loud to both the judges and the performers. And it’s a complete fabrication. And I could just as easily have SCV as Bloo. It’s not about the corps. It’s about the nonsense being propagated.

Except in the old days you could not dynamically adjust volume of the good players vs the average. Stop pretending things haven’t changed. They have — dramatically — and you’re well aware of it. Shotgun mics allow the sound tech to create dynamic impacts only a well trained brass line could in the past. Many lines struggled to play well at FFF. Now dynamics are literally slider on the board.

I still would love for someone to seriously look at the flag writing at brass impact moments. I think there's buckets of GE to be found there.

Interesting that the advocates for ultra-amplification try to turn the argument to "we just help the audience hear you" instead of addressing the true driver of this technological debacle: visual designers wanted it. Why? Because it "frees" them from the requirements of proper staging. No one wants to talk about that. Instead it's "reinforce" this and "audience benefit" that which is all a bunch of misdirection. Some visual designers have lofty aspirations to go "beyond drum corps" and create some pseudo-stage production. But reality hits that hard in the face. Stage productions have (wait for it) a real stage. They have lighting. They have a curtain. They have an actual sound system tuned to the venue. They have a real "off stage". They have an entire professional crew to handle props, lighting, sound. The list is endless. But a handful of designers aspire to the stage. On a football field. And they don't want to do "drill" because that's just not done on a stage. Therefore they want the "freedom" to place musicians wherever they like on the gridiron It's absurd. Blast! worked because it had all those things. It's painfully obvious some productions we see don't. And a lot of Broadway reviewers still slammed Blast! even with all those advantages. "It's the Bluecoats" sort of works but in fact the music completely carries this production (all hail Rarick and Thrower) . If you really examine the sheets carefully the show falls flat on it's face visually. Don't get me wrong -- it's entertaining and I like the show. But it's really not being judged properly on a set of visual sheets designed for drill. Nevertheless a handful of designers have convinced the judging community to creatively interpret the criteria to credit it visually. It's not about sound. And it's not about brass. And it's not about sound reinforcement. It's all about a few old guys who are in love with broadway and think they can bring it to a football field. And don't you dare tell them they can't! But in the process they've destroyed one of the most unique and difficult aspects of creating a drum corps show: environmental challenges. It took amazing skill on both the visual designer's part and brass instructors part to get brass instruments separated by 70 yards to play together. Now the sound engineers do it. Drum corps used to be the performers playing their instruments. Now it's playing stagehand, pushing a prop, and listening to a click track. Is that REALLY where we want the activity to go? I know I don't. Amplification has its place. The front ensemble certainly needed it. And I can understand there are moments when soloists perhaps need it. And I don't mind synths or electronic instruments. I don't want to return to bugles and marching bells. But it's already gone far beyond that. 80 brass players certainly don't need amplification of the full ensemble! It's downright silly. DCI needs to rethink this now. Because it's just going to keep getting sillier and sillier. </rant>

Want to mic someone? Plant them on the FSL. The whole number would work just fine.

But no one said anything about trying to duplicate an entire 80 person line with 30. That's a straw man argument. It's more about arranging parts so that some super technical stuff is being covered by your really strong players and the rest are 'supporting' their parts in a clever way. It's not hard to do and you WONT be able tell unless you're literally in the bell of every player in the line. Also... This whole excuse of "well the visual guys are putting are guys in ridiculous positions so we need IEMs and mics to pull it off" is complete misdirection. Visual designers need to be accountable for BAD STAGING. It's part of what makes great visual designers great -- right person at right place at right time. You're not freeing the visual designers: you're straight up making them irrelevant. Environmental demands are such a huge part of the activity. And with a single vote they were made irrelevant. It's sad. Finally... Anyone claiming things sound better amplified than acoustic is straight up lying. There's isn't even any room for debate on the topic. I'm behind mic'ing the FE. Whacking the marimba was not a natural sound. But brass needs no amplification. At all. And it's natural sound is far more pleasing than it's amplified, processed, narrow bandwidth, electrical sound. Want to mic a soloist? Put them behind a mic on the front sideline. Get rid of the rest (shotgun mics, wireless, all of it). If it's a step behind the FSL it's illegal. Want loud? Learn how to play loud well with good tone (not by turning a knob). </rant>

CrownDrums!!!!!!!! Holy crap !!! And I’m betting they have more room to improve than SCV. Crown is coming in to Indy smokin’ hot. No telling what can happen when the magic at UD and Avon takes place. WooHoo!!

No BD uses those shotgun mics for dynamic control but they’re not individually mic’ing half their hornline.

Hypothetically what if that brass line was suddenly scoring really well by choosing the strongest players to mic and then controlling the mix?

Crown definitely feeling this verb! dis·rupt /disˈrəpt/ verb 1. interrupt (an event, activity, or process) by causing a disturbance or problem. 2. drastically alter or destroy the structure of (something).

Let's Go CrownGuard!

Go Crown!

This thread is still rolling? Oh my!

Oh it's a wonderful year to be a Crown fan! Disrupting the inevitable by being excellent.

FTFY! anyway i'm getting out of this thread. as I said earlier, DCP is getting SPICY!