Turnadot

Troopers just went on after Bluecoats two nights ago and it didn't hurt their score at all, contrary to the popular opinion before the show as the same thing was said before that show. When they still received a nice score the argument was "It was their home show and the show didn't have a full panel, so it doesn't count. Let's wait and see what happens in Denver." Then in Denver, the Troopers score climbs a tiny bit higher, even though this was not their home show and there was a full panel of judges. They had no advantage in Denver, so the judges must have just scored them too high three nights in a row. It seems that the possibility that maybe theTroopers have improved the last week is not even a possibility. I can assure you that the members of the Troopers will not be the least bit intimidated as they step on the field in San Antonio, and I fully expect them to bring it. I have no idea where they will place in San Antonio, but regardless of where that is, they will be back at it on Sunday practicing as hard as they can to improve their show and give drum corps fans around the country the best product they can.

Just like Star of Indiana and Carolina Crown...Drum Corps nation is quite happy you are not a judge.

Cadets beat Bluecoats in brass once and Bluecoats beat Cadets in brass once, but they were both at the beginning of the season.

When I signed up at the start of the season, it was well known that the DVR function would not be available. I can understand your frustration if you signed up before that was announced and then you had to pay the same price for a lesser product. However, it would be poor business practice to allow the DVR function if DCI's lawyers felt they could be sued by this, as something like that could easily result in the end of DCI.

Speaking of timpani, some corps have eliminated timpani and are playing the timpani parts on the DTX.

Sure it can, because of the number of live shows on the computer you get to see. If you are in Alaska you can still watch a show in Iowa, without the expense of traveling to Iowa. Of course it's not as good as seeing a show live. That doesn't even seem like something that anyone would have to debate.

When you consider the cost of going to one show, it's really a pretty good deal if you are able to watch at least a few shows. The sound and video quality has been pretty good since the third show, if it's not, then it's probably on your end. The biggest complaints are not really DCI's fault, but due to copyright issues. Hopefully some of these issues will get worked out or improved.

If you take away their last show score, the Trooper score tonight was about the same jump in points they have consistently been getting all season. In my opinion they were just scored too low in Dubuque. They should have had a 72-73 in Dubuque.

So essentially you end up paying twice, when you only get to watch it once.

Nope, the way it's been going so far after the last corps performs, you usually get 30-60 minutes that you can go back and replay but that's it.

1 Bluecoats 2 Blue Devils 3 The Cadets 4 Carolina Crown 5 Santa Clara Vanguard 6 The Cavaliers 7 Blue Knights 8 Phantom Regiment 9 Boston Crusaders 10 Blue Stars 11 Troopers 12 Madison Scouts

7-15 are too close right now to make that call, and some of these groups go up or down a point or two each contest. This is the week most groups will try to make major changes to improve their position. I think by Atlanta we may see one or two of these groups on the rise and one or two on the decline. Some of the shows have more point potential than others, so I think it depends more on which design teams are able to enhance their shows the most.

The Bari from Blue Stars

Star of Indiana 1992 - Amber Waves

It's a little hard to judge based on the fact that Cadet's speakers were louder than the brass at least on fan network, but it seemed to me Cadets were not on tonight. I have no clue how Cadet's brass can be anywhere close to Crown. Crown should be a full point over them in brass.

Does anyone know how to turn up the sound. I listen on my headphones and my headphone and computer sound is all the way up but it still isn't that loud.

I think enhancing the low end is almost a must now since finals are in LOS. The tuba sound does not carry all the way up to the 600 level seats as well as the trumpet timbre does. Also, I think when performing indoors, you could never have enough tubas to fill up LOS when playing backfield. To fill up LOS and create a different effect and timbre for the corps backfield requires a good pad bass patch. I also think when done well, having a pad bass playing an octave below the tubas gives a wonderful full sound to the group and adds some great overtones. Balancing a keyboard in a new environment every night is very difficult. Even if a corps has a practice day in the stadium that they will perform in that same night, the stadium accoustics will be totally different that night when it is full of people. It is a unique skill to be able to select to right patch and volume for the keyboard player. When done well it can really enhance the overall sound of the group, however when not done well can destroy the whole show of even the best groups. I feel the keyboard player is the single most important person in the corps as they can impact the overall show more than any other single person. This is still a relatively new addition to drum corps and I feel the importance of finding the right person to tech the synth player is highly undervalued. Like it or not, the tech for the synth player is more important than any other tech on the field. I prefer for the synth to be felt and not heard, unless being used for a special effect, but sadly many do not go with this philosophy.

Bloomington, IN was the best finals ever.

I didn't predict they wouldn't make finals, I just said it was a possibility. Right now I would predict 11th, but still a month to go. I was excited to hear First Circle and it just let me down. Maybe I will like it better when I see it next time, this was my first viewing and it wasn't live. No way they have one of the best mello lines though, not even close.

LOVE SCV's show, especially the two company fronts. I think they have a chance to pass BD if they can clean up their marching. Blue Devils - great execution, but not my kind of show. I like the music ok but too many solos and not enough marching for my taste. Crown - I think Crown is your new DCI champion unless the changes Cadets make can pass them up. Not a fan of the narration/speaking/singing though, I think the show would be better without it. Blue Knights - not a fan of this show. I thought especially the beginning took way too long to develop, it seemed like a bad high school band show to me. The mellophones seemed to really struggle. I could see them not making finals even.

I would put Troop over The Academy.

I love the Troopers show this year. I also don't understand the white in the sash, but I guess it looks ok from a distance. It doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the uniform though. I'm hoping if Troopers can clean up the marching they can get that 12th spot at finals, but I am not sure I have seen enough improvement in them since I saw them a few weeks ago.

I thought there was some sort of live chat for the FN.

Thoughts from the Evansville show: I wasn't really planning to do a review, so this is just what I can remember from the night. First of all - GREAT CROWD!!! One of the best crowds I have ever been apart of. It was great to have so many people at this show that has been absent for 5 years. The show was basically brought back because of the work of two people. We need more people in the world like them. Colts - It's really hard for me to remember much about the Colts as it was so long ago. I enjoyed them and thought it was an enjoyable show. Nothing really stuck out to me as overly good or bad. They seem to be doing well with what they have. Very nice for the first corps off the line. Intermission - Rain Delay - For quite some time Intermission was in 1st place at this show but luckily the storms cleared out and they finished in last place. Troopers - WOW! WOW! Man....WOW! Best Troopers I have ever seen. Favorite show of the night. Standing Ovations from the whole crowd. Wouldn't it be nice if every corps had a show designed this well? Drum corps would have a lot more fans. I just loved everything about this show. Great brass playing with in my opinion the best core brass sound of the night. I would mic the duet at the end as it was hard to hear some of it because the corps was playing so loud. I am a fan and will be rooting for Troopers to make finals. I think they possibly could be better than the design team imagined and would maybe be nice for them to add a little more difficulty in the book as the season progresses. Blue Stars - GREAT baritone solo!!! Loved it!!! Sadly, I didn't enjoy this show, it just didn't do it for me. They appear to have very good performers but I just didn't enjoy it. I was so hyped up after hearing the Troopers this one let me down. Electronics covered up the brass a lot from where I was sitting and too many electronic moments for me. I loved your 2008 show though. :) Sorry... Crossmen - This was a love/hate show for me. I loved many things in this show, but whenever you tried to tell the story and the brass stopped playing I got bored. Some great brass playing here, I would like them to play more. Very nice arm dark sound in the ballad. Spirit = POWER Holy Crap! Loudest corps of the night and it wasn't even close. A very entertaining and crowd pleasing show. Standing ovation! Some great brass playing with some very hard licks. If they can do these with a darker sound they will continue to rise in points. It would have been even more enjoyable had someone turned off the speaker that was not working well the whole show and if you cut out some of the electronics, some of them where not needed and took away from the show. One reason they are loud is because they park and bark quite a lot. They need to add some drill to a few of those standstills in order to move up or even stay where they are in the standings. Madison - Another crowd pleasing show! Standing ovations all around. I feel they steadily improve each year and keep getting better an better. I don't feel this show really needs any of the narration and would be better without it. I also felt like there was too much time the brass wasn't playing between, percussion, narration, acting, solos, etc. I would add 16 measures of brass in a few places. Second trumpet soloist is flat every time I have heard him. The preshow and ending are by far the weakest parts of the show and the 2 measures of trumpets near the end where everyone else cuts out I just don't get that at all. It is not working, please add the whole corps in there or change that somehow. I think the show would be more effective if they didn't try so hard to tell the story, but it is early and they are very good. I don't think they have the talent to break into the top 6 yet, but a very solid 7-8 corps and if they keep improving maybe they can be as high as 6th. I think the trumpets playing with a softer darker sound in the difficult passages would help a lot. Even with the rain delay a great show to attend all around. I enjoyed every group, and the crowd and myself definitely liked Trooper, Spirit, and Madison the best. I felt Troopers should have been much closer to 2nd then 4th however.

So, all of you here that thought this performance was so terrible...How many of you boo'ed Star of Indiana in 1993 and then applauded them in 2010? ...maybe you are just slow learners :) I think the critics here are missing the point. The point of this performance was to get middle school kids excited about music and drum corps. I think that mission was accomplished by DCI. The secondary goal was to have a nice performance for the crowd. I'm sure some people liked it, some didn't, and some were neutral. It was only a 3 minute performance, so if you didn't like it I doubt it ruined your night. Anyone that has ever been to Drum Corps Finals should know that they have a lot of stuff happen before the first corps actually takes the field, so if you don't like that sort of thing you can have one more beer before you head over to finals. Bands of America does this sort of thing all the time, so this was hardly something that had never been done before. The difference is that Bands of America fans are much more supportive of the students then Drum Corps fans are. I can't imagine a BOA crowd ever boo'ing a performing group or getting on a message board to state how terrible one band was. This group of middle school students practiced together for a day and a half. I have seen many drum corps that practiced the same show for a whole year that were terrible, yet I would never think of boo'ing them or getting on a message board to tell them how terrible they were. I wish the drum corps fans could celebrate the activity more instead of always putting each other down so much. I don't disagree that the vocal and piano were too loud and I am sure that will be addressed if this group performs next year, but that doesn't mean it was a terrible performance.