PamahoNow

1. Bluecoats 2. Blue Devils 3. SCV 4. Cavaliers 5. Crown 6. Cadets 7. Phantom 8. Blue Knights 9. Crusaders 10. Academy 11. Blue Stars 12. Crossmen

Congratulations to Mr. Cartwright and Mr. Moreno for joining the Regiment's Design Team, which will also include Will Pitts and Rob Ferguson ( and perhaps others to be named later). And, although I have not heard anything for sure, don't forget that Marie Grana Czapinski served as a visual consultant for PR in 2016; I hope she returns as well. And a huge THANKS to Bret Kuhn for all of his contributions to the Regiment phamily since he joined us in 2012. Enjoy your summers with the grands and take them to a drum corps show. It is interesting to note that Wes, Mark and Will already work together as the Creative Team at "beyond marching and music design" in Atlanta. There, I did it for you. Copy/Paste works fine.

And, here I was hoping for Gregorian Chant.

Thanks, I'm of the opinion that it's always easy to suggest who is moving up, without the corollary of who is moving down. If not, even here in August, we would have 15 (or so) in the TOP 12. There has also been much movement of staff with claims that they (the corps) will be moving up (or down). I'd like to know what you (not you specifically) think who is going to replace those moving up (or down). For example, I believe the top three, will be SCV, BC and BD (not necessarily in that order). And that Crown will be out of the TOP 3. I'm waiting for a while to figure out what "I think" with the TOP 12. I'd like us all, who want to make "predictions" to commit to "being Brave" and suggesting what they think may happen if their prediction comes through. ps, I'm sorry to hear that you think that my hometown Academy won't be there on Saturday night. I'm hoping you are wrong!

Be brave. Who drops out of the TOP 12, for the Scouts? Can't have one without the other.

Musta missed those quarter pipes. Which year was that?

One number that looks like OVER-CREDITING might be Finals Night Blue Devils Color Guard. Grant that they may have been the best that night, but 0.3 better?

Now had he/she had more faith in Academy and Blue Stars, and less faith in Spirit and Glassmen. We would have a winner. Or at least a plausible winner from 2006.

Right three. Maybe not that order, however. I'll bet it will be close all season.

I'd guess you have the top 3. I'm not convinced of the order. My guess is that we will again have a dog fight for the top spot, all season long.

Generally, observation of events are the beginnings of "scientific" data. If you merely meant that no one has run an empirical study (which is the collection of observations such as yours) and published it. Well, yeah. Drum Corps, may be important to some of us here, but I doubt that anyone could get a publishable paper (or better yet a dissertation) out of studying the reasons why young adult chose this corps over another. All we "got" are your observations and a few others who have opined that some of their friends are "put off" by (not the tradition of respecting others) by the manifestation of that respect. I'm guessing (as you indicate) some find what the Cadets do at retreat appealing and some don't. And some MAY make their decisions on where to march based on those feelings. As it was BITD according to your testimony.

Maybe I'm confused by what you say. First, you say that we have no data to suggest folks stay away from Cadets. (1) above Then, you say that BITD, some did. (2) above Seems like you want to have your cake and eat it, too. From what you say, there is at least SOME data, which you, yourself provided. Or have I mis-read your statement.

Nothing here. Ignore

To continue on this theme Aaron Beck penned the following for the Bluecoats Alumni. Behind the Bluecoats 2016 Soundscape (contributed by Aaron Beck, 1995 Cymbals) A Broadway Sound Design on a Football Field. This is my 2nd year involved on the design team and this year we really wanted to step up our game and do things a bit more professionally. Before this year I would put Drum Corps Audio in the same world as your common garage band. The corps have done ok in the past but no group had the team to go past a basic setup. I would call basis as some type of mixer with 2-4 speakers to the front or side of the front ensemble. For the 2016 show we wanted to continue what we started in 2015 with the field speakers and push the envelope again. My goal was to create a multi-source system, around the entire football field, to allow Vince and the other designers the freedom to do anything they want. The support of David Glasgow to the entire design team is unbelievable. I’ve never seen someone be so supportive and willing to invest like David does. He almost never says no to the crazy ideas that the design team comes up with in the offseason. We are very lucky to have him as our Corps Director. We loved the field speakers last year and how we could locate sound to a specific area backfield. Vince Oliver had the original idea to spread out the Front Ensemble for the season. During Finals week last year, I drew up a sketch of the front ensemble and we did a little test on Friday afternoon in Marion, Indiana. It is amazing looking back that we tried this almost a year ago. To make this work acoustically I chose to do 6 individual speakers in front of the keyboards and instruments in the front ensemble. Our front setup is not a Left / Right setup, but rather 6 individual outputs of the console that match what is behind them. For example, the instruments in Keyboard Pod 1, only come from speakers 2 and 3. The drum set only comes out of speakers 3 and 4. Each speaker is delayed back 8’ so that the acoustic sound of the instrument matches perfectly to the amplified sound out of the speaker. Each cart has a Yamaha DSR 115 main speaker and a Yamaha DSX18 Subwoofer. The Field setup consists of 5 Main Speaker Carts spread from the 5 yard to the 5 yard line. Each cart on the field has a Yamaha DSR 215 main speaker and a Yamaha DSX 18 Subwoofer. In addition to the 5 carts we also have 2 Yamaha DSR 215’s on either side of the main stage on side 1 that amplifies 9 microphones located on top of the stage and 2 to the side. The payoff for the main stage has been huge and created a wonderful focus point for many parts of the show. The main mixer used on the show is a Roland M5000-C Digital Console. Most corps use Yamaha mixers but we knew we needed something with a bit more flexibility this year. The console is setup with 88 Inputs, 13 Matrix Outputs, 10 Sub Groups and 15 Auxiliary Sends. The flexibility of the console has allowed us to add In Ear Monitors for the Front Ensemble members. Each performer has their own mix and can listen to any of the inputs on the console during the show. With the console this year we added the ability to do Scenes or Cues during the show. This allows us to change input levels, panning, routing and the mixes for the front ensemble members as well as to balance and save settings during each part of the show. It is a huge challenge now to add the balance of electronics as an instrument during the show. I’ve read many post from others outside the corps that believes we have it easy or “cheat” with electronics but I believe it to be the exact opposite. It is much harder to balance the show with the electronics and the added cost, time and details to make it work are that much more challenging. We deal daily with issues the other groups don’t even think about. Extra time to unload and setup, 45 minutes to setup the system before each rehearsal, lost time for the kids during EPL dealing with more stuff, rain, broken cables, logistics of getting on and off the field, and I could go on for days. In the end we make it all work and seem “easy” because of the advance planning and great team we have working for the Bluecoats. I’ve worked in the Professional Audio world for almost 20 years and what we do with the Bluecoats in the world of Audio is no different than in my job with Cirque du Soleil. In the design of the system I tried to think of everything in advance to make our lives as easy as possible this summer. The System Design consisted of 12 Pages of Autocad drawings detailing every aspect of the system. We have as many inputs as I did on several Broadway tours, more speakers than most shows on the road, and we do it in all in less than 17 minutes. The count from Ryan Kilgore was we have 300 hands (150 Members) to set up the field in the 3 minutes and 15 seconds and it takes all but 6 of those hands. It is such a privilege to be back connected with the corps using my expertise to push the activity to new levels never seen on the field. I’m privileged to work with the best team in the world and I look forward to the rest of the season and the bright future with the Bluecoats! The Team (The Best in the World) * Tom Rarick – Percussion Designer / Composer * Vince Oliver – Electronics Designer / Composer * Aaron Beck – Audio Systems Designer * Erik Kosman – Front Ensemble Instructor / Sound Engineer * Brad Palmer – Front Ensemble Coordinator * Ryan Kilgore – Music Ensemble Coordinator * Nathan Bashline – Audio Intern

Guess the judge was in their pocket.

Wow

I thought it was the other way around.

Well, how about: Tradition wears a snowy beard, romance is always young. John Greenleaf Whittier

I was not watching, but will defer to you. But does not this prove that there was a general expectation of certain behaviors (which were violated from time to time). And that no such expectation exists today. Although it might be amusing ... appropriate or not.

Didn't Bluecoats win Vis Prof on Finals night?

Rumor has it that THE ACADEMY recruitment champagne may be so successful, that they may actually raise the dead! lol There, I fixed it for you. ;-)

I wonder about the "tradition" and the Cadets. I've watched the last three finals retreats. As each corps is announced we get a closeup of the designees of each corps who is receiving their award. And I have noticed that in 33 of the 36 cases, there were smiles on the faces of those receiving their awards. In 3 cases, I saw glum, frowns or completely unemotional faces. Is that a tradition as well? When that is followed without the members publicly expressing congratulations to the winners/other corps, the tradition of just marching out as the first opportunity seems to me to be a tradition which may be fit for a former time, but not today. It appeared shocking in 2014. And seemed to many to be less than honoring to the other corps. To just say "That's our tradition" may placate those who held to that tradition in the past, but it may not be what is appropriate today. Now if you want to say that the cadets waited around in the parking lot until after the encore to congratulate the winners in 2014 ,2015 and 2016 that would be one thing, but I'm guessing not. A few might have, I'll give you that. I would much rather see the unorganized milling around and seeing the Blue Devils and the Bluecoats working their way over to congratulate the Academy, than a staid marching out one by one. And in each of the last 3 years on the broadcast, the commentators emphasized how great it was to see the corps mingling and congratulating each other. This is not the 50s, 60s or 70s when all corps honored the same traditions. It is a new century and the MMs in each of these corps know each other, they may have marched DCI, or WGI with them. They do feel good for each other. Let them express it. It does not hurt anything. And, given the freedom to express it, they will. Tradition is an arrow pointing to the Past Innovation is an arrow pointing to the Future. PamahoNow edited: grammer

Tradition is the illusion of permanence. Woody Allen

You must be in tune with the times and prepared to break with tradition. James Agee

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse. Winston Churchill