PercussionMafia

My best experience was in Seattle after the 2004 show. I got to play shopping spree on BD's Nate Alford's snare along with him. Ahhh, yes. . . good times.

Two different entities, IMO. But, there are still some problems with his reasoning. First of all, Abe and Glennie are mostly soloists. They don't have to worry about listening back or watching a DM. In those cases, technique very much DOES matter in order to keep the ensemble together. Dynamics matter because you are playing with people all around you and audience members at varying distances. Any top instructor (drum corps related or not) will tell you that PLAYING THE SAME WAY IS KEY TO PLAYING TOGETHER, especially with the short notes in percussion. Second, the comparing of the sound is not fair. When's the last time you heard Evelyn Glennie on the sideline of a football field, in the wind with thousands of people cheering? As we can all relate to, the sound quality of a football stadium will never be as good as say, Benaroya Hall. Thirdly. . . he called it marching band. <**> He was right about one thing. This is a junior activity and let's face it, not everyone in it is going to be a professional musician. Everyone is still within the first 21 years of their life and comparing them to some of the world renowned top mallet players is not a fair comparison. Believe me, Evelyn Glennie and Kaiko Abe took lessons on technique when they were that age. I know for a fact that Glennie began her musical experience in middle school band. There is also a fine line between finesse and "floppy hands". I wonder about his opinion on batteries because Travis Barker, Tommy Lee and others have publicly stated that marching band and drum corps gave them the tools (ie chops/technique) to do what they do today. I wouldn't ever call those guys "amateurs". EDIT: And let's not forget the root of the activity: The military, which=uniformity=everyone doing the same thing. While it has evolved from square formations for all 11 minutes, there are still some aspects today. Drum corps percussion, especially the battery, is all about cleanliness and in order to acheive that, everyone has to be on the same page. There are a lot of other things I can think of, but I believe you get the point. When that poster leads his "Glennie/Brown" style pits to a world championship, maybe I'll change my mind.

At auditions, it took too long to rotate everyone using carriers, so we used stands on all the drums. During purely musical rehearsals (no drill), whole line gets stands. Warming up in the lot, snares on carriers, tenors and basses on stands. Drill practice, well, obviously all on carriers. Snares are light enough to not require stands all the time. Unfortunately, snare stands seem to be in more plentiful supply than the other drums. The guys I play with are all pretty built up and experienced, so there are not a lot of endurance issues to worry about with "over-standing". If you do use stands, make sure to keep the body position relative to the drums the same as on carriers, or else the players will start playing too far up on the drum (been there, done that).

Oooooooooooo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) And one side can play "left hand traditional" and the other "right hand traditional" Which do you play? b**bs

Quad Logic is awesome. Not much more to say, but just wanted to back up what Mike said.

hehe. . . horn players b**bs If they're playing matched grip, the drums won't be tilted at all. They'll be like everyone elses' (or at least most of them).

I like Martian Mambo and DB, but Ditty is awesome too. 13th hour will always kick you in the balls. Funny thing is that MM sounds more "double beat" than Double Beat does. BTW, some of you may not know, but Scott told the crowd at PASIC, that that would be the last time anyone would hear Ditty from a BD line. They're retiring it. . . again. Of course, we all remember what happend in 2000.

Vibra-slap!!!!! b**bs

Well, as you said, Premier has been dying in the drum corps market, but some corps still use them (Cascades '04, for example). The biggest thing hurting them is quality of products and availability of parts. They tend to fall apart and becuase they're over in the UK, parts are hard (and expensive to get). For a corps on tour, this presents an obvious problem. With Dynasty growing and Yamaha and Pearl holding their strong ground, it will be hard for Premier to make a comeback. Plus, Yamaha and Dynasty also offer package deals on the horns they make. Premier (and Pearl, for that matter) don't have that edge.

MTX. . . . .

If you don't want the handle, just mount the block onto the butt of a broken/mis matched stick. That's what my tech does and it feels better than holding the bracket.

The Pearl S800WL and Yamaha SS735 are good snare stands for a marching drum because they're double braced and the Pearl has a wide base. You don't really need stadium hardware, unless you're not strong enough to wear a 13" drum for a couple hours in the stands. If you don't use stands in the stands (no pun intended), just stick with a concert-type snare stand. The Pearl is about $80 at columbuspercussion.com and the Yamaha about $73. You might be able to get that lowered, if you buy a few and it's for a school. Hope that helps, PM

That may be the case. I was just relaying info that was told to me by a guy I know who's a Remo endorser and is very familiar with the manufacturing process. Look, I can't really back up my claims, but I myself can't tell the difference for two reasons. One, to be able to hold the sound in your head of one line playing Black Maxes and compare it to another playing White Maxes, doesn't really work. Two, to be able to quickly determine the difference in sound between the two is not a fair contest because rarely will you have two lines that have the same drums tuned the exact same way. Choice of sticks and tension of the bottom head and snares will also drastically change the sound. My .02 PM

Yeah, nothing wrong with those one's from Ayala. That's actually a custom color that Yamaha dubbed "Ayala Orange" (or something like that). I'm not sure, but I think they held onto it as being a custom color for anyone to order.

The White Max you had had just the mylar (that plastic coat you mentioned) on the top whereas the Black Max you had had the mylar on both sides. That double-sided head is designed for doube snare systems (such as the MTS) and, yes they do sound different than the mylar-only-on-top Maxes. The mylar on the bottom protects the snares from chewing up the weaving on the head. Both heads can be ordered with mylar just on the top, or on both sides. All else being equal, there SHOULD NOT be a distinguishable sound betwen a White and Black Max, excpet for the problems encountered when in the sun, like mentioned earlier. The heads are made the exact same way, just the strands are died different colors. At least, I can't hear it.

What corps and year had drums that you drooled looking at (not necessarily literally)? My vote goes to 2003 Cadets and SCV. Those stained Pearls looked sweet with the uniforms, and the Cadets chromed out MTS snares looked great under the lights. 2004 BD also looked good, especially with the Black Maxes. On the other hand, 2004 SCV looked like garbage to me. The playing was sweet, but the drums themselves didn't quite do it for me. Your opinions?????

Not trying to be argumentative. . . I heard the black maxes absorb heat more (physically, that makes sense) and are a bit more problematic on tuning. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> True, but, in reality, I doubt you would notice the difference with the whole line playing. I was just trying to make the point that the White and Black Max are virtually the same (except for the color, obviously).

I've seen schools use trash cans. But that sounds worse than what you've already got. So. . . . . <**>

Evans MX all the way. I like the muffling system, but I feel it's better to put an extra piece of velcro in the middle of each piece of foam. Keeps it on better and also cuts down on some of that "buzzing" you sometimes get. Their projection and warmth of sound is just incredible.

Sweet!! I have that book too and it's a blast, even though I'm not much of a tenor player. I can see what you mean though about not being the greatest thing for a beginner. But, I would think that having the book in combination with some sort of instructor (maybe even Bill himself) would be ideal. The best part is putting together what you learn into one of the solos in the back. My favorite is Beatlicious. Have fun with it.

The difference in sound that some of you are hearing between certain corps, is a result of those corps' specific tuning styles. Most of the modern corps (assuming they are a Remo endorser) have a White or Black Max on top and a Falam Snareside on the bottom. Some exceptions are the Crusaders who use Tenduras and the Cadets and Cavaliers who use Ambassador snare sides. But the basic sound is the same. Most differences are in tuning. The need for a crisper head was due to the fact that licks were getting more complicated as the chops of players improved. Ever try playing Ditty on a concert snare? Multiply that sound by 8 or 9 and you can bet it would sound pretty ugly, especially on the field. Kevlar and fiber laminate (Falam) heads offer more rebound, can be tuned higher and cut through the brass better. The shorter tick of each note allows the outdoor sound to seem more separate. That's why horns are taught to make their notes more stacatto and less of a legato like you'd have in a concert setting (may be wrong about that - I'm not a brass guy). Switch back to what? They were using Black Maxes everytime I saw them and there is no discernable difference in sound between a Black and White Max. Perhaps you meant they started out on Falams because that would certainly force them to listen in better , although the heads do take some getting used to, due to their intense rebound.

http://www.scvanguard.org/audition_informa...equirements.php Take a look at the little note underneath the first paragraph. Personally, I don't think it's good or bad. It's just not something you'd associate with SCV. It just seems strange. BTW, that also (most likely) means, the tilt is gone.

Scott doesn't write, Dave Glyde does. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> They both write and they are both caption heads at the Blue Devils. Kinda like Jim Casella (arranger) and Murray Gusseck (caption head) at SCV. I was also referring back to the mid '90's when Scott became the Blue Devils Caption head for percussion (in 1994). I did not necessarliy mean just the last two or three years.

Crap ! Does anyone know how to save to vids to the hard drive? You used to just be able to "save target as" on the link to it, but now they have that intro video and that's what you end up saving. Anyone got any ideas?

If you want that tight, table top sound, go for Falams on both sides (bottom is a separate, snare side Falam model). If you want more of a crisp sound, without the tabletoppieness, keep the falam bottom, but go for a White or Black Max on top. Remember that Max heads are not designed to be tensioned as high as Falams (nor do they sound good up there) so don't crank the bejeezus out of them. The sound get's choked off when the're tuned high and they can/will pull. Crank it just to the point where it gets fairly difficult to turn, but not like you would with a Falam. The snare side Falam should be very tight, almost as or even higher than the batter head. That head shouldn't pull unless it's abused or defective. If putting on new heads, bring the tension up over a few days. Don't go cranking like crazy right out of the box. Give the heads some time to settle in and stretch. Also, if this is a Pearl FFX, make sure the bottom rim is aligned so that the snares go across the bearing edge at the flat spot. If not, more poopy sound from the bottom. That is a problem with the FFX, since nothing is attached to the shell. Also, make sure that the snares themselves are just touching the bottom head. If too tight, they'll also get choked off and you won't have any snare resonance. Adjust the strainers so that the snares are just touching. Also, make sure that each snare strand is in tune with the others. That can cause a lack of snare response. Don't put a Max head on the bottom - it sounds like #!#@$#@*^*^$%. I've never seen or heard a Falam batter on the bottom, but I don't think that would sound good either. Another consideration is if this is a high school line you're talking about, you may wan to go with Max heads for two reasons: One, they can hide the dirt better and two, they're a lot easier on the wrists. Most of the drum corps you see these days (including all of the top 5) go with Max on top and Falams or Rennassaince on the bottoms, if that's the sound you're aiming for. The rest is trial and error. Good Luck!