CodePro

does anyone know who is on the judging panel for this evening?

Don't they usually live blog open class prelims? They announce scores as the show goes on, so it's usually pretty nice to have that. Where's the love DCI?

I think if its used tastefully and blended well it can be a nice effect. The problem is that it often isn't. Another issue is that they set levels for these synths from the box, so it may sound badly blended if your sitting on the 30 yard line 3 rows up but actually sounds pretty blended from the box. Seems like a lot of corps have been fielding smaller tuba lines recently because of this addition. I remember a few years ago when crown was touting 20 tuba players. Now the most we see is around 12-13. Seems like they are having one player (synth) cover the parts of a few people so they can add membership in other sections of the corps.

I think the reason why they haven't live streamed it in recent years is mainly due to the fact that they weren't making their money back on it. Hopefully if they get enough viewership this year they can get some more sponsors to put ads in between performances as another revenue stream and offset some of the cost. I think the problem they are going to run into with this is that they are charging so much for this that people are going to expect a really high quality stream without any issues. If anything goes wrong people are going to flip out, as they should because they spend a good deal of money on the stream. I feel like they should have just live streamed it for free this year with a single camera to see what kind of viewership they would even have so they could plan accordingly for next year. Also if there were to be any technical issues, its free so people really can't complain.

I agree. I would honestly be content with just a high cam of one or two of the shows this week with most of the top open class corps. DCI really doesn't have much love for open class, and I think that has a tickle down sort of effect. I've tweeted at DCI multiple times asking them to hype up the OC corps through their social media channels. I saw the first post from them about OC in a while on facebook the other day asking about finals predictions for open class and half the people said crown.

You do realize that each caption is scored by a different judge, and the captions are added up at the end to get the final score right? So your saying that every single judge (or at least a majority) on the panel is corrupt and is out for a particular corps. I think many of us forget how difficult it is to assess these corps when they are all competing at such a high level. Just enjoy the show and forget about scores. If you think the kids are getting hurt by the scores anyway you are very wrong. None of those kids are going to remember the number that they got at finals, they are going to remember all the awesome moments, experiences and memories that they collected while on tour. Also its not that Crown's percussion is terrible or anything. The level of playing at the top is just so high. Go watch some lot vids from Cadets, SCV, BD, and Bluecoats and tell me that Crown shouldn't be in the spot they are in now. You are my hero Also something to remember, These captions are only weighted half as much as they were in the past because of the new scoring system with double GE judges.

Saw some people post about this on Facebook. Looks like Raiders could use our help! I know none of you want to see another corps go inactive, last year was pretty bad for corps going inactive / canceling tours. Donate if you can! I hope Raiders can get the funds they need to make it out to finals this year. http://www.raidersdbc.org/home.php

It will definitely be interesting to see how this pans out when there is a full panel of judges. Does anyone know if they are applying the same double GE scoring for open class as well this year?

I think now that we have seen a pretty good sampling of all the open class corps, and as most of them are gearing up to go out on their tours. Now seems to be a great time to start the classic 'Finals Predictions thread' Plus I think it would be nice to stir up some conversation in this section of the forums. Here are my predictions: BDB SCVC 7th Regiment Spartans Genesis Gold Legends Music City Riaders Colt Cadets Les Stentors Blue Saints (hoping that I didn't miss anyone who is going to championships)