Duts

[drumcat]

I did read the arguements and I would beg to differ on tempo and staging demands. Listen to and watch drum corps of the 70's and 80's where vocalization was not allowed and you will see drill demands and tempos like those of today.

I think at this point we can all agree to disagree, some do not mind them, others do and each side has valid arguements for and against.

Umm... funny how duts were allowed about the time things got complex... I'm sorry, I have to laugh at the point about the 70's. Don't get me wrong; the individual demand of the performer was still very high. However, the ensemble demand was absolutely not. Symmetrical does not make it hard to do. It makes it hard to perfect, but it doesn't screw up the musical ensemble when the drumline is wearing out the 50.

If you're talking about the entire activity, and not an individual corps, your statement doesn't hold water.

[drumcat]

Think about it this way. If you have 18 different marchers watching the DM(that's 9 snares, 4 tenors, and 5 basses; fairly standard numbers), then there are 18 different interpretations of tempo from watching the DM's hands. Have you ever closely watched a conductor at 190 bpm? To get the level of precision required for drums is very difficult. Even though each player may be "right with the hands," there's still room for a person to be slightly behind or ahead of the beat. In the case of tight kevlar heads, the smallest difference can make something very dirty.

This problem is solved by appointing one person(usually the center snare) to watch and interpret the tempo, and then communicate through duts. A short, crisp "dut" is much harder to misinterpret than a conductor flopping his hands around.

As for saying that it was done back in the 70's...didn't corps generally have heads that were closer to animal skin than to kevlar? Those heads would generally have lower pitched, "fatter" sounds, right? The attacks could be a little bit farther apart than on kevlar heads, and it would still sound very clean.

The fault tolerance on plastic heads is greater, but not much. The greater difference is in the tension that is capable with the snare guts. Chain across mylar can only be so tight. Nylon can be much more taught, allowing for better articulation.

Historically, a snare drum had snares such that it was heard at a distance as though it were many drums. The practical improvement of nylon allows snares to retain a crushed, less-tonal sound while meeting practical tensions.

But don't slight the older drummers. They may have gotten a few extra milliseconds, but they also played on less-stable surfaces, specifically crappy carriers, or even slings.

The evolution has been such that the demand each performer must master is more focused on a complex musical and visual concept, and not trying to overcome inferior equipment.

[MikeD]

As for saying that it was done back in the 70's...didn't corps generally have heads that were closer to animal skin than to kevlar? Those heads would generally have lower pitched, "fatter" sounds, right? The attacks could be a little bit farther apart than on kevlar heads, and it would still sound very clean.

Yes, what we used to do is mount live animals on the harnesses and play on their skins. Not only did we get the sound of the sticks, but the noise the animlas made would cover any errors.... :P

[Carl306]

Duts don't annoy me nearly as much as your purposely misspelling all the numbers in the poll.

[madscout96]

Duts don't annoy me nearly as much as your purposely misspelling all the numbers in the poll.

wut u meen aye mispelt teh numbrz??

[Blueemrld8]

Duts = Drum Corps.

Drum Corps = Duts

They don't annoy me at all during preformances, in fact, they help to set THE MOOD.. :P

[HUGADA]

Well stated – a corps spends all this time on musicality and then kills it with a distracting dut..dut…dut on top of it, Which is also admittance to the lack of musicality – ability to individually keep time

I can hear it, so it should be judged

I agree. Duts is cheating. Isolated attacks were recognized in the "difficulty/demand" section of the judges sheet back in the day, (the name escapes me!) Taps in between reps of exercises bugs me as well.

[Fastone]

I agree. Duts is cheating. Isolated attacks were recognized in the "difficulty/demand" section of the judges sheet back in the day, (the name escapes me!) Taps in between reps of exercises bugs me as well.

Spoken like a true old-schooler. I don't know if I would call it cheating but, I personally prefer the unified breathing technique that was utilized on the East Coast in the late 70s- early 80's. Funny thing is even with taps in between exercise reps the attack is dirty at times, you would think it would be perfect all of the time. I can remember a time when you were afraid to breathe too hard for fear of getting some sort of penalty, we also at that time wore out the 50 yard line like it was our job. I was also around long enough to hit literally every part of the field at tempos that were unheard of when I was a kid. So that being said I understand the need for vocals. I would say the biggest thing that bothers me is when the percussion enters after a ballad and you hear Dut Dut Dut Dut, it completely ruins the mood imo.

Edited November 8, 2007 by Fastone

[MikeD]

Hmm...it's pretty obvious from reading this thread that 'duts' don't bother anybody.

[DrumCorpsFan27]

Hmm...it's pretty obvious from reading this thread that 'duts' don't bother anybody.

If nobody heard them, no one would be bothered. b**bs