gbass598
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Posts posted by gbass598
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7 minutes ago, CVSoprano said:
I have not read through the (now) 18 additional pages yet, so if someone else beat me to this point, my apologies...
When I consider "auditioning students" versus "casting performers", this is why I roll my eyes at the phrase "casting performers": performers are paid, students pay.
I'm confused? Don't they "perform" all summer? They are performers regardless if they are paid or not.
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2 hours ago, Mello Dude said:
Sad news. I am fairly confident they are not going to be the last corps that goes through this. The cost or touring and competing is WAY over the top and should be addressed. Obviously there are management issues that also need to be addressed but this constant which corps can out spend the others needs to be looked at. Before all the people that try and take over every thread chime in, I am not talking about going back to the 60's nonsense. Professional sports have price caps, there is no reason that an activity like this shouldn't also be more "regulated" and somewhat even the playing field. There is ZERO reason the corps need 2 equipment trucks. With electronics (which need to be more regulated into fair territory) and amplification there is ZERO reason to have 6 marimbas etc. The effect of just nerfing an equipment truck is HUGE with what costs are today. Creativity comes from making more from less...not more with more.
This is an interesting take. Why have 12 mellophones, 9 snare drums? 18 trumpets? All that stuff costs money. (And not very much when it comes down to it after it gets returned to the sponsor and resold each year) Less people means less equipment and less buses. Not sure why singling out the front ensemble as being too much is effective or necessary.
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34 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:
That’s not why there wasn’t a Madison Jr. Scouts. The corps director of Capitolaires was arrested for being a sex offender and they and the Jr Scouts were merged in 1995 and became Capital Sound.
I guess people remember what they want to remember. I call that selective memory.
And as part of that were they separated from the Madison Scouts Organization? Scouts took over Southwind shortly after. It seems Madison distanced themselves financially in 2003. Both Capital Sound and Southwind left competition after 2007.
In any event, Madison discontinued having a feeder corps a number of years ago. I'm assuming because it wasn't financially viable for them any longer.
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2 hours ago, 2muchcoffeeman said:
And darn few of them have even a single cadet corps, let alone two. Even if the critique that the Rennicks poisoned SCV's relationship with its cadet programs is true {citation needed}, the result (no local feeder corps) is identical to just about every other perennial World Class finalist.
I mean there is a reason the Madison Jr Scouts and Phantom Regiment Cadets don't exist anymore. There is a reason YEA sold off the Crossmen. If I'm not mistaken, I think (correct me if I'm wrong) the Blue Stars that exists today was actually originally the Blue Stars Cadets that were able to continue after the original Blue Stars folded.
Running a drum corps is hard in today's environment. Running 2 national touring corps is insane. I don't know how the Colts can still do it. I don't understand how hired teaching staff can become the whipping boys of this but Paul Rennick bringing UNT people to SCV is no different than Colin McNutt bringing UMASS people to Cadets when he taught there or Boston today. It's no different than Roger Carter getting a bunch of Broken City guys to march Bluecoats. The players follow their teachers. That is today's enviroment. Heck, when I marched, Phantom Legion was more interested in what Glassmen were doing and would come watch us in the lot because the guys who taught Phantom Legion were taught by Lee Beddis like we were.
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1 hour ago, TenHut said:
Almost everyone my age who I marched with BITD and still talk with have completely left the drum corps activity due to the change in direction, awful, weird, goofy uniforms and prop madness. The drum corps activity has done this to themselves. When fans no longer enjoy a product they stop attending/buying. Companies just don't completely abandon their tradition and legacy for obvious reasons, but that is exactly when every drum corps has done.
Bad decisions from the corps, and bad leadership and decisions from DCI and here we are.
There are bands from the 70's and 80's that still make their living on what they did in the 70's and 80's. Journey is a prime example. Those bands exists for people who like to live in nostalgia. Nobody cares about anything new they make.
There are also people who like 70's and 80's music who enjoy things made in the 2020's too.
As far as businesses go, The Chase Bank you know today has roots in a company (The Manhattan Company created by Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton) that's purpose was to supply clean drinking water to the city. Banking was a secondary venture.
My point is that time will lead to things evolving. Not everyone will like it but you can understand that you can't prevent it. We change, organizations change. everything changes. Just know that your thoughts and feelings don't apply to everybody. I'm sure some fans left Van Halen when David Lee Roth left but they gained new ones with Sammy Hagar. Drum corps can be the same.
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1 minute ago, tedrick said:
What is the fastest rise to the top 6? Probably Star of Indiana, right?
Could the Rennicks do this with the Troopers if they went full time on their staff?I’ll say no because Paul and Sandi already have a hand in the percussion there and they are not brass, color guard or visual people.
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6 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said:
You have two alumni telling you to please reconsider this stance.
We're saying that where you pull talent from (staff and members) is at the heart of the issue... or rather, that one factor cannot be separated from the other both in regards to morale and in a very objective, financial way. Should where talent comes from matter? That's a justifiable question, but unless we're in those alumni, board and leadership meetings, our opinions don't matter much. VMAPA now decides what matters.
We're also saying it's really dang complicated... so trying to identify the one thing that did us in is pretty moot at this point. No one's even come close to my understanding of the problems yet so I'm just sitting back, SMH, wishing people would stop poking at the carcass. If you have the ears to listen to what alumni are saying, it really hurts right now and has for a while. Many of us have been ignored or dismissed when we have any variety of legit, verifiable concerns. And still many of us have legit reasons to be mad at outsiders/non-alum, like it or not. Can we have the grace to process, given that we're still not 24 hrs from the news breaking?
I've been through my own corps folding because of bingo operations failing. The heart of the issue is fundraising and having viable options to raise those funds and then being adaptable to those changes. Corps can do anything they want or need as long as it is within their means. You can pull members from many different places. Everyone does it. it's how you adapt when your "means" change.
It's easy to speak in hindsight but many organizations failed because they didn't have good money managers in place. SCV has had a lot of turnover in their management in recent years. I certainly would love to have faith that current management can right the ship. SCV was what hooked me on drum corps in 1991 even though I never auditioned to be a member. I just think blaming the teaching staff like Paul Rennick like I've seen mentioned is unfounded. He doesn't write the checks. He and the other staff are a victim of this just as much as the members.
I also seem to remember after 2018 that both BD and SCV announced that BDB and SCVC were going to be reorganized into local efforts and not attend DCI finals. Neither came in 2019. Covid happened in 2020. Neither corps did anything in 2021. If finances were that bad, was bringing SCVC on a national tour to DCI Finals right out of Covid really a prudent financial decision? Its amazing most groups were able to put 1 corps on the field last year and SCV and BD did national tours with 2. BDB is not coming this year.
I'm sure there are a multitude of reasons why it came down to this. Perhaps the revolving door of people running the organization and lack of a constant direction might be more to blame than out of state members and staff and holding satellite camps in other locations like every other top 6-8 corps does.
I wish the organization nothing but the best. I hope everything works out for the better and other groups take note to prevent these issues for themselves. I also have to be leery that starting a 2nd bingo night is really going to be the long term answer.
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I can't figure out why local talent versus talent that travels has anything to do with this issue. Kids pay their own fees and travel expenses to get there. In the band world, these are national touring groups who just happen to call a city a home base. The Cadets have moved a few times. The Crossmen have been labeled as everywhere from PA, to DE, to now TX.
20+ years ago there may have been more local members but kids want to be in the best and they find a way to do it. It doesn't matter if the SCV drumline comes from TX, CA, or Japan. None of this changes the fund raising issues that organizations have and none of it makes those members any more or less important than another. None of the top World Class corps are teaching members how to play their instruments. They are contracting people who are already extremely proficient with their skill sets. They all put the best possible people in their spots regardless of where they came from. Both BD and SCV stopped requiring members to move to CA in January over 20 years ago.
We live in a world today where kids are getting wonderful educations in a variety of locations. Many successful school music programs, WGI groups, etc. A corps financial issues have very little to none to do with where membership and staff come from.
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10 hours ago, jameseuph said:
Probably Tresona.
I don't think Tresona is the issue. They seem to be pretty efficient at managing the rights process because they want the money as the middle man. The holds ups generally occur when a specific rights holder wants to be difficult. Some are extremely difficult.
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9 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:
ask Glassmen.
As a Glassmen alumni, the part about opening a 2nd bingo game sounds like a band aid solution that just won't be viable long term.
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So on Nov 9 I got an email from DCI saying the downloads were coming towards the end of November with audio of all of the Semifinalists. Here we are at mid December with nothing yet.
Who do we think is being difficult on licensing and holding up the process?
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I think some corps don't have winter camps and just do virtual meetings/video assignments until WGI season sends. At least for Percussion. I know color guard has done this for a number of years. Everyone shows back up in May camp before move ins.
I'm curious to know how move ins get adjusted if at all with the latest start. 6 weeks of rehearsal with no shows is going to be tough before tour starts.
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On 11/16/2022 at 5:07 PM, jwillis35 said:
I think I saw something a number of years ago where the Blue Devils worked with Spitfire Audio or some company like that on a brass and percussion library of sampled sounds that would work in any DAW supporting VST. I imagine some percussion writers may be using that library with some others.
Believe it or not, MuseScore -- which is a free notation program with some decent money investment -- has a nice marching percussion library of sounds that you can download as an add-on to the main program. The other one that is really pretty good is Concert Band/Marching Band ver 2 by Garritan. Most of the library is kind of cheap, but some of the sounds are solid and the marching percussion is really good.
https://www.garritan.com/products/
Not really sure about other marching percussion libraries. I doubt any of the DCI/BOA/WGI arrangers are doing their own sampling but some could be doing that. There are great orchestral, band, and jazz libraries out there. Cinesamples, East-West, Spitfire, Audio Imperia, Vienna Symphonic Library, Red Room Audio, Sonu Score, Miroslav and many more. Then you have libraries that combine multiple plugins featuring different genres and styles of sounds like Kontakt and their Komplete packages. They all have great percussion samples but most of those would be for pop, rock, jazz, orchestra, etc.
As for DAWs and who uses what. My guess is most of them begin their work on a notation program like Dorico, Sibelius, Finale, Notion, MuseScore, etc.
Dorico gives you the best of both worlds. It has some of the strongest and most advanced notation features but also lets you use piano-roll MIDI edit style and seamlessly works with VST plugs, an advanced mixer, and better bouncing of audio files -- much like a DAW. I would imagine it would be easier for them to work from a notation program first because of the complexity of percussion writing (especially from a rhythmical perspective). Starting the project in a DAW and then porting to the notation program would be a major pain when it comes to cleaning-up the notes and rhythms. But you never know. Some of them may have a good system for this.
Dorico, Sibelius, Finale, and a few others do offer SMPTE time code and time stamping so if they are writing a cue for a specific number of beats, or for a specific number of minutes or seconds they can do that. They can then export the MIDI file from the notation editor to the DAW and there they can add their best VST Plugins, mix, master, and bound a better mock-up of the music.
When it comes to DAWs I used to use MOTU's Performer (late 80s, 90s) and then Digital Perform. I then moved to Cubase in the early 2000s. I now mostly use REAPER and FL STUDIO.
Virtual Drumline was and still is the standard for marching percussion sound libraries using sounds from the 2004 SCV percussion section. The program isn't been updated in years but still an effective tool for battery and front ensemble sounds.
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On 11/17/2022 at 6:09 AM, wolfgang said:
Fwiw, I didn't hear of any ticket/line issues at BOA last weekend.
I don't know why but for prelims (and maybe semis?), only the east side gate was open. I think it was to force people to walk through the maze of booths.
Saturday for Finals I walked right through the North entrance about 20 minutes before the show with zero issues.
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By 2028 we'll only have about 5 corps left that can keep up with the financial aspect anyway.
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2 hours ago, scheherazadesghost said:
The risk of uncontrollable bounce-back from dropped guard equipment is higher on artificial surfaces, I suppose.
On nachy grass it is greatly diminished.
Is silt film the same as what I called astrograss bitd? It seems most pro venues moved on from astroturf ages ago, which has the scariest bounceback. Id've sooner caught my sabre with my teeth than let it drop on that stuff.
Astroturf was basically concrete underneath. All the newer synthetic stuff has the ground up rubber "turf turds" underneath that get all in your shoes and socks. I have no idea between any differences in modern synthetic turf. I thought it was all the same.
One comment I read from a player made it sound like turf feels like running on concrete yet the high school I work with seems like a much softer field. I was on the field in Lucas Oil this weekend and didn't notice anything different. In any event, the NFL teams could choose to redo their fields in a period of a couple of months in the offseason and they would just need to schedule around already booked events. I see this is zero impact to BOA and DCI. If they switch it will happen in spring after football season ends.
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57 minutes ago, LabMaster said:
So they address an injury exacerbating issue and here you complain about another. It’s not that they are replacing one with the other. They CAN multi task. If only CTE were as simple a fix. Have you notice how different helmets are from years ago? Have you noticed how fewer practices there are for full pads/contact?
CTE is not being ignored.
3 hours ago, cixelsyd said:Why would the players want to distract from one injury issue by discussing another injury issue? Maybe they just want both addressed.
It's not that they want to address it that is the concern. It's that they think it has to be done "right now."
If anything deserves priority to be done right now, it's finding ways to minimize the risk of permanent head injuries.
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Don't they have more important injury issues to discuss in the NFL than ankle sprains? I feel like this is just a distraction from CYE and head injuries.
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1 hour ago, jjeffeory said:
....and there's the San Antonio Super Regional for BOA. Also, same in Utah, which happens to e Utah's State Championship. Go American Fork! San Marcos from California may be gunning for you though. It's always tough.
Utah's state championship was held yesterday at this same site.
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I don't know much about Music City's financial stability but I certainly hope they are writing checks with these staff additions that their bank accounts can handle. These guys certainly aren't coming cheap.
I think we've seen enough corps go belly up because they expand outside their means too fast. I'll be happy for them if this end up being successful but these are big moves in a rough financial environment for the activity.
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3 hours ago, corps8294 said:
Has Lee Beddis mellowed, at all, over the years? I used to hear stories about him being a hardcore a** kicker back in the early '90s. His reputation was quite intimidating during that era.
Having marched under Lee a number of years ago. The activity as a whole has mellowed but Lee still expects hard work at a high level. It just doesn't involve pushups or running anymore. I never felt demeaned by him back then but he is going to push you to be great.
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10 hours ago, DCFAN22 said:
Is Beddis still at Crossmen? He is listed as being on the design team and caption manager
8 hours ago, Dave Scott said:
If what I'd heard rumored is true, one of the current battery staff members is taking over as the arranger. I don't believe any of the 2022 Crossmen staff is going with Lee to Cadets.
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Corps used to play off after Finals retreat, leaving the field 1 by 1 after the awards, eventually leaving the champion to do their encore.
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On 8/31/2022 at 10:57 PM, Matthew Hines said:
I am a bass drummer from Muscle Shoals High school in Alabama, and I've been wondering if we are even respected, I mean we're not even audible even at full playing potential.
Yes, you are respected.
If you aren't even audible then that is a balance/tuning issue your staff needs to address. I can hear my bass drum section just fine in the context of a marching band.
2022 BluRay/DVD/Audio Cd
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
Ok, I'm starting to get impatient. They had to have been close to send that email out last month. I'd like something else to listen to and perhaps complain about than the other recent news.