Tupelo thought

[Murph]

OK, this review will not be "comprehensive", but it will be what I thought, noticed, and measured(with a dB meter from the 22nd row up, right on the 50).

Memphis Sound: 27 Brass (all brass counts are IF I was able to count correctly while they were on the move)

Very nice sound. Very good show. I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. They, as this point, just need to REALLY work marching technique. They spent most of the show around the low 80s on my dB meter and were peaking at 92.

Pioneer: 40 Brass. Fun show. I enjoyed the arrangements. The drill just didn't seem worthy of a DIV 1 corps. I was

disappointed in the amount of sound from a hornline of this size. They spent most of the show in the upper 80's and only peaked at 92.

Cascades: 57 Brass. I thought the corps did a good job, but I didn't really get into the show. I did like their drill. They spent most of the show in the upper 80's and peaked at 95.

Blue Stars: 72 Brass. The most staff of the night to sit on the steps beside me (very well mannered). These guys have a great show and musically are performing it well. The uniform design is awesome with the way it works in the drill. The problem is the lack of marching technique. Once this is fixed the corps could jump in placements. They spent most of the show in the low 90's with one peak of 97.

Glassmen: 70 Brass. Ok, I admit it. This is the first G-men show that I have ever liked. I really enjoyed their guard (I'm a horn person and normally would notice the guard, but they really grabbed my attention). Very nice soloists, nice arrangements, great sound. They spent most of the show in the upper 80's with peaks of 95.

Bluecoats: 70 Brass. This was my favorite show of the night. This corps is haulin' ### around the field WHILE playing. The hornline and drumline were great. I am not a narration fan, and there were parts that worked but I thought were not needed. However, the "right to remain silent" bit was awesome! It really made that part of the show. Bluecoats spent most of the show in the low 90's with peaks at 97.

Blue Devils: 70 Brass. I'm a BD fan and I will say that this is the first show I've liked since the 1900's. I was beginning to think that the y2k bug killed their ability to put out a good show. This is the cleanest show I've ever seen in July. They absolutely performed the hell out of that show. They spent most of the show in the low to mid 90's with a peak of 100. They actually hit 98dB when stretched out from 10 to 10.

[sdstar]

Fun review... thanks!

Taking the measurements at face value, for those readers who aren't as technically inclined, BD's 100 dB peak was twice as powerful as Bloo's 97 dB peak. When comparing decibel values, every increment of 3 dB is a doubling of power. So a value of 91 dB is only a 1/4 of the power of a 97 dB reading (6 dB--1/2 of a 1/2). Not being a sound expert, I don't know how that relates to apparent loudness since the human ear has some built in scaling functions. Perhaps Murph could elaborate? :)

[Medeabrass]

Fun review... thanks!

Taking the measurements at face value, for those readers who aren't as technically inclined, BD's 100 dB peak was twice as powerful as Bloo's 97 dB peak. When comparing decibel values, every increment of 3 dB is a doubling of power. So a value of 91 dB is only a 1/4 of the power of a 97 dB reading (6 dB--1/2 of a 1/2). Not being a sound expert, I don't know how that relates to apparent loudness since the human ear has some built in scaling functions. Perhaps Murph could elaborate? :)

Wow...thanks for the info...I thought it was an exponential thing. I really like the dB meter idea. Maybe this should be a requirement for all future reviews :).

[NeutralNovice]

Great review and very interesting, thanks!

[sdstar]

FWIW, one source I looked up said that it takes a 10 dB increase to get an apparent doubling in loudness.

But back to the review... once again, thanks! Very enjoyable!

[euponitone]

FWIW, one source I looked up said that it takes a 10 dB increase to get an apparent doubling in loudness.

But back to the review... once again, thanks! Very enjoyable!

The cadets have been using a decibel meter the entire year to measure themselves - i guess its helping :)

[k1001001]

Just to clear things up about decibels:

An increase of 3 dB (SPL) with an amplifier is an electronic doubling of wattage (or power) used. However, 3 dB is the lowest amount of change a human can notice. An increase of 10 dB would be apparently twice as loud to the human ear. So yes, 3 dB is twice the power electronically, but 10 dB is twice the power acoustically. I hope that makes sense.

Another thing is proximity to the sound source. As the distance between a sound source and the meter doubles, you lose 6 dB. So if you were 10 feet from the hornline and you measured 96 dB, at 20 feet you would be measuring 90 dB.

None the less, 98 dB from 10 to 10 is quite impressive. What row were you sitting on?

Edited July 18, 2007 by k1001001

[lotrodci]

Just to clear things up about decibels:

An increase of 3 dB (SPL) with an amplifier is an electronic doubling of wattage (or power) used. However, 3 dB is the lowest amount of change a human can notice. An increase of 10 dB would be apparently twice as loud to the human ear. So yes, 3 dB is twice the power electronically, but 10 dB is twice the power acoustically. I hope that makes sense.

Another thing is proximity to the sound source. As the distance between a sound source and the meter doubles, you lose 6 dB. So if you were 10 feet from the hornline and you measured 96 dB, at 20 feet you would be measuring 90 dB.

None the less, 98 dB from 10 to 10 is quite impressive. What row were you sitting on?

lol ... thats LOUD!!!

[no_itsnotadash]

That BD Encore must have been over 100db.... good lord that was loud!

[Murph]

Just to clear things up about decibels:

An increase of 3 dB (SPL) with an amplifier is an electronic doubling of wattage (or power) used. However, 3 dB is the lowest amount of change a human can notice. An increase of 10 dB would be apparently twice as loud to the human ear. So yes, 3 dB is twice the power electronically, but 10 dB is twice the power acoustically. I hope that makes sense.

Another thing is proximity to the sound source. As the distance between a sound source and the meter doubles, you lose 6 dB. So if you were 10 feet from the hornline and you measured 96 dB, at 20 feet you would be measuring 90 dB.

None the less, 98 dB from 10 to 10 is quite impressive. What row were you sitting on?

Ding-ding, we have a winner!

I was measuring this from the 22nd row (3 in front of the press box). There are many things that affects the readings and they are by no means scientific, but I thought it would be fun and provide tons of fodder for DCP'ers to argue about. ^0^

As soon as I get more time, I will upload my viewpoint pic and post it here to give a better idea of how loud that 98 from 10 to 10 really was. I couldn't get photobucket to work last night. I took a pic while sitting in my seat with no zoom and it gives you a good view of how far away I was.

I will make one additional comment about Memphis Sound. I listed their peak at 92, but they hit 94 on every big chord release. I did not count this because I was looking for hornline volume and on the cutoff of every big impact had a hit from all cymbals and big bass drums in the pit. It was great arranging to give a smaller hornline more impact and excitement.