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DCIPhreak

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Everything posted by DCIPhreak

  1. There must be something with either your ears or your system, or maybe you have "smart sound" and you don't know it. My DVDs sound great on my 5.1 system. The softs are soft and the louds are louds. The DVD audio has never been better. PHREAK
  2. I am closing them off to jazz? I guess I am wasting my time each week after school in "stage band" rehearsal. They play with great style, and don't play past their best quality sound.
  3. Well, thats all fine and dandy if you want to teach your students to do that, but I will never allow my students to play past quality on their instruments. On a side note, isn't it funny that I was critical of more than one corps, but only one set of fans is getting defensive? Why is that? HMMM PHREAK
  4. So because regiments tubas overblew and had pitch issues, made harsh, angry sounds at the end of their show, we should accept it as being correct because two of the best tuba PLAYERS worked with them? That's stupid. Fact is, they didn't sound good at times. If they were taught the right sounds, they didn't use them in finals. PHREAK
  5. You might want to ask Shostakovich, Dvorak, Janacek, Bartok, John Adams, Stravinky, Beethoven and many other composers that very question. Have you ever heard the Chicago Symphony playing the Planets or Shostakovich 1? When those guys open up it is the loudest thing you've ever heard. And it's great. I doubt that any of the band clinicians that know so much about quality would ever say that "this is the wrong way to play" about these performances. Volume and quality playing can do and should exist together. Bad playing is bad playing, loud or soft. out, Derrick Sure they open up and play loud, but they do it with quality, they match eachother, and they don't play so loud as to alter pitch, like some corps do. And yes, some of these very good band directors would say that some of those "professionals" do play with bad sounds...and yes, they do.
  6. Thats funny. I didn't bash the regiment. I merely stated that you could in fact hear the problems. There WERE problems. THAT is FACT. Now if I would have said "####, PR sucked this year" THEN I would have been bashing them! PHREAK
  7. Some of you people kill me. I've read various comments such as, "almost offensive," "almost too loud," "almost out of control," etc. etc. etc... You remind me of the story of Louis XIV when his carriage pulled up precisely on time, and he huffed, " I almost had to wait!" Its called drum corps!!! Its supposed to be very loud. (By the way, the only thing I heard out of control during the Regiment's performance on Finals night was the audience.) Recently, someone sent an email to Elvis Costello, saying (paraphrasing, here), "I recently attended one of your concerts, and it was so loud! I felt like I was being assaulted all night! And at times there was distortion in the amps. I've been to two of your concerts, but I can assure you, this was my last!" Elvis' response - "Its called rock 'n roll...Bye, bye." Drum corps is a heart-centered, adrenaline-rush experience. As long as it hasn't been entirely castrated by all the wanna be concert band clinicians out there, its supposed to skate right on the dangerous edge of being out of control. Just like rock 'n roll. That's why the 2003 Phantom Regiment consistently connected with the crowds they played to like nobody else. And this mentality, my friends, is exactly why some HS band directors won't let their kids march drum corps until after they graduate. Unless, of course, they go to a corps run by those "wanna be concert band clinicians" who might actually be there to teach the kids something about making the right sounds with their horns. Why is loud good? Why can't it be Quality over Quantity?? PHREAK
  8. That might be the funniest thing I have ever read. These are in NO WAY representative of the real thing? LMAO PHREAK
  9. Ok, here is my review of the CDs. This is MY opinion, so if you flame, you just look stupid. You can, however, state your own opinion. :-) I haven't made it all the way through all three disks, but I will review what I have heard so far. Blue Devils: Hornline sounds pretty good. Drumline is very clear too, though it does expose some of the dirt. Love the first 4 minutes of the show, and the take five section, but some of it just seems sort of "the same" as previous years. I do think that the first minute backfield is too soft, and hard to hear on the CDs. The Cavaliers: I loved this show the first time I heard it, and nothing has changed. There are a few rough spots on the recording, but when your brassline has that kind of clarity, you will hear that stuff. The Ballad was beautiful and comes across very well on CD, and the third tune was the best thing in DCI this year. The Cadets: Fanfare was good, though there are lots of chipped notes..more than I remember from finals. Malaguena was good..the percussion makes it great. Rocky Point sounds good on the recording, but its no 1983. Good show, but I think brass wise they should have been third behind BD and Cavaliers. Phantom Regiment: They are very loud. The tuba intonation stuff is very exposed in the main hit of the Canon..almost offensive. Finals night, I thought they had the 4th best brassline, but now I think they should have been 5th. The Drumline is greatly improved and comes across well on the CDs. Santa Clara Vanguard: How did they not beat Regiment in brass? The drumline was amazing, and I think could have won drums. The show music very enjoyable to listen to. ESPECIALLY the tune with the rockin drum stuff. I haven't listened to anything else other than Spirit, and I really enjoyed that show. Overall, the quality of the recordings are good, but not quite as good as 2002. Maybe its because Camp Randall is just that much better. PHREAK
  10. I think that is the root of the problem when it comes to this review. Mystreaux doesn't like the Cavaliers...that is obvious. I would much rather have read "I am not a fan of the Cavaliers, and therefore choose not to say anything" rather than writing MORE on the Cavaliers as to why he doesn't like them than why he DID like the other corps. Its almost a guarantee that in any review of the Cavaliers, he is going to say 1)the music is not hummable and 2) they are scoring too high in GE music. When it comes to reviews, I feel that "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say it at all", ESPECIALLY when it comes to an adults criticizm of what kids are doing. Those kids chose to be there, they like what they are doing, and ultimately, this is a YOUTH activity, not the NBA finals. I personally would ask that anyone who writes a review, to remember to not say anything about a corps that might resemble something that would anger you if someone said it about your HS band (that you teach). Different activities, but they are all youth activities. Also, in writing reviews, I would love to see people keep their comments about a corps strictly to nothing worse than they would say to the corps director. In other words, if you have something to say in a negative fashion about a corps, imagine yourself saying it to the face of Dave Gibbs or Jeff Fiedler, and then see if you would still write it. To me, ripping the design of a show and praising the kids for their performance is still back handed. If the kids are performing well, they obviously are in to what they are doing, therefore enjoying the product on the field. As for Hester, bravo...he didn't say anything negative about a specific corps, just something negative about Mystreaux.
  11. Why does music have to be "hummable"? You know, the first time I heard anything by Schwantner, I didn't leave humming the music, but I sure did enjoy it. Same goes for the first time I heard Maslanka #4, Resonances 1 by Ron Nelson, and many other pieces, even Niagara Falls. But that certainly doesn't take away from the quality of the music. You should broaden your range of music, or at least learn to listen with some objectivity.
  12. Here is MY conspiracy theory... That was the year that someone came up with the bright idea that the top 5 corps going into finals would choose numbered cards that would represent their finals night order. As Madison's drum major stood there dazed and confused, not knowing which card to pick, one of the girls points to one, and VOILA, NUMBER ELEVEN. And number 12 went to the defending champion, who had no chance of winning that year. Of course, BD and SCV went on eighth and ninth. SCV should've won that year. Why does what card they picked matter anyway? Madison won semifinals too (by a larger margin than finals) and would have gone on in that place anyway. Change the position BD and Cavaliers went on, and you have the right order anyway. I think if the audience would have known that Madison won semis, the crowd response might have been even more nuts, and might have given them an even greater advantage (you know what that adrenaline rush is like when the crowd is going bonkers)...
  13. What are they doing that they did last year? I don't remember them pulling out any of last years stuff.
  14. I might suggest using a regular conn-helleberg. Why not get the right piece and make the right sound from the beginning?
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