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brichtimp

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Posts posted by brichtimp

  1. 5 hours ago, ibexpercussion said:

    2014 gets the nod from me.

    That percussion book was crazy good, the concept was there throughout the entire show (I mean how many ways can you "TILT" something?  Bluecoats: "Hold our beer while we "TILT" the sound as well.)  The thing a lot of people talk about is the "pitch bend" at the end, but they were "TILTing" the sound throughout the entire show.  A fun show that I still have not grown tired of watching or listening to.

    That 2014 Tilt show was one of the best, especially the  ballad. It wears well. A bit ironic that not until the very last night of the season were Coats able to score above the Cadets, which was the last time the latter landed in the top 3.

  2. 17 minutes ago, xandandl said:

    Congrats to C2 for a perfect 100 in percussion development.  

    Performance subcaption was just shy to keep the combination from winning percussion total again. As they say in Brooklyn, "next year."

    C2 brass and percussion both grabbed 2nd in their captions...impressive considering how strong Bucs were.

    • Like 1
  3. 10 minutes ago, camel lips said:

    Them pesky WORLD championships getting in the way with a NE good ole boy network . 

     

    What were they thinking traveling all that distance ??? 

     

    Skyliners should have started in November like the rest of the pack or else they would not be sitting on the sidelines . 

    Kidsgrove was quite awesome....they basically gave a marching precision and drill lesson to a bunch of corps, and the quality of their brass sound was quite fine, IMHO.

    • Thanks 1
  4. 19 minutes ago, MotoSurfBass said:

    Recaps were recently posted... Bucs score 99 or higher in all subcaptions except Visual Ensemble Execution (a 98), and both Guard subcaptions. Only outscored in both Guard subcaptions and Percussion Content (a 100 for Cadets2!!!)

    That's dominance, folks.

    EDIT: Here's the link.

    Bucs scored 19.8 to C2's 19.7 in Percussion....C2 also took 2nd in Brass......props to Bucs and C2.

  5. 20 minutes ago, George Dixon said:

    Congrats to C2 for another strong year in DCA. Finished in 3rd tonight with real surge during the last couple weeks of the season. A younger corps that has a great foundation to build upon in 2018!

    C2 Percussion came within one tenth of repeating as high percussion...so cool!

    • Like 3
  6. Everyone has a different history of drum corp fandom. Way back in my college days in So Cal, our most talented brass players enjoyed watching VK and Kingsmen (pre DCI), but did not see them as the north star for emulation in their playing. They were, instead, carrying around the latest CSO recording (Mahler 5, etc.) and looking to get that orchestral sound on the football field. Now, over the decades, my view is that the depth of quality brass and percussion talent in DCI has never been greater; and when I can hear it, undiluted by poor amplification, the musical satisfaction and enjoyment is great, especially with the incredible arrangements and creativity in the activity. That said, I believe there is something to be said for the iconic uniforms that helped define the top corps, and I dislike the idea of that apparent change. This year, SCV and Coats are a little too similar in that regard, but that's just me.

  7. 1 hour ago, Stu said:

    The inherent problem, though, cannot be fixed in DCI because the competition of moving corps on and off the field is so faced paced.  Rock concerts do very well with amplification in stadium venues; however their sound engineers take hours prior to the concert to go through multiple sound checks in order to get the acoustical mix correct.  The problem in DCI is lack of any time 'at all' during amplification set-up to do any meaningful sound checks.  Corps are lucky to even get stuff hooked up, let alone do a brief sound check, without getting a timing penalty. Thus in DCI we end up with the goo, the shrill, the weird mix, the boomy, the feedback, ad infinitum.

    Which totally justifies throttling back on the crap that is largely uncontrollable.

  8. 8 hours ago, Stu said:

    Ok, then it is just in the poor implementation of the technology, not the technology itself, in which you have an issue. That I agree with 100%. Every great commercial horn section I have ever heard has had at one time or another been amplified; from Tower of Power to Here Come the Mummies to even Boston and Chicago Symphony Brass. And they all sounded superb!!!

    The #### poor implementation is a root cause for a lot of this discussion, and with variables like wildly divergent performance venues and very short time allotted for set-up in competition, I think the 'adults' need to tamp down the bass synth and ampliified volume...seriously. When I view HD video up at the Berlin Phil's Digital Concert Hall, there are all manner of microphones being utilized, but it's primarily in a single venue where the production values have been expertly implemented over the past decade. The result is sound reproduction that does justice to that great ensemble. With DCI, we have to wait for a Blu Ray disc to hear what we couldn't hear well in the lousy acoustics of Lucas Oil, and the latter did no favor live, even to the famous Tilt pitch bend sequence....ymmv.

  9. 2 minutes ago, Stu said:

    Aside from the poorly amplified electronics I rather disgree with your accusation. BD, SCV, Crown, Cadets all still have incredible brass players and incredible percussionists producing incredible live music. They are augmented by things we are debating, but the audience is not being 'cheated' from the live extraordinary musicianship produced by extraordinary youth. Am I in favor of recorded dubbing enhancement, nope. But neither am I being cheated out if hearing great live music.

    Sorry that you did not understand me! The fact that the top corps these days have great young brass and percussion masters exacerbates my annoyance with their natural sound being distorted, corrupted or otherwise degraded by amateur-hour electronics and amplification. In my mind, go back and watch Felliniesque...for me, that's a positive example of what I want to hear in terms of sound quality...the micing of the soloists was superb, and the tutti sections featured excellent sound quality from my seat at least.

  10. Regardless of what one thinks about the relative balance of educational value and hyped visual aspects in the commercial world vis-a-vis DCI, I think the implementation of synth brass and poorly amplified electronics cheats the audience (including aspiring young players) out of the aural and visceral experience of learning what great brass and percussion actually sound like, which IMHO, is part and parcel of drum corps history, and an educational experience rarely obtained short of ponying up to hear the Chicago Symphony, et al. 

    • Like 2
  11. 6 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

    The funny thing is the Bluecoats have actually reduced the size of the pit

    I never view the SCV or BD pits and wish they were smaller. What they bring to the party is really off the charts! The over use of amplified everything in DCI is a FUBAR to my ears. Beyond spotlight mics on soloists, I want to hear these excellent brass and percussion ensembles in their 'natural' state. I imagine there must be more than a few talented Contras in some corps who are frustrated by the hyped bass synth which obscures a lot of the low end with crappy sound...."Synthnado" if you will. For my enjoyment as a fan, this needs to be addressed.

    • Like 3
  12. One design consideration that became obvious to me when viewing BD last night. Their voiceovers seldom (if ever) layer concurrently with the brass....nothing to get in the way of that beast of a horn line. IMHO, that would be a worthy objective for Cadets. 

    • Like 1
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