dci72 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Electronics means more equipment to haul, more money, more setup and take down time, finding someone who actually knows how to operate the stuff, and praying that it doesn't rain all at the same time. No thanks. Good point,Piper. What's next? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melligene Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Frst off Iaam kind of new to this whole DCA thing, but not entirely. My first real drum corps show was when I lived in Syracuse and marched with the Lakeside Rangers 25 years ago. It was a DCA show..Brigs, Caballeros, Bucs, oh and the thirteenth man his name was Kegger. :-)This is my first year as a marching member ..and although I have been watching the shows here and there for a while, IMHO DCA is becoming DCI. Whether that makes you happy or sad is moot. However, look at the drill , music, instruments, of the top corps. I see electronics are inevitable based on the current trends. We will eventually use electronics to thrill the audience the way we used to use that silly little thing called a melody. The only real inhibiting factor being money. I love playing "G" bugles...You can pry my G Kanstul mello from my cold , dead, gloved hands...still there will come a day where it won't make sense any more to still be on G's Now that being said I think DCA should pre-empt DCI and go right to Pyrotechnics , cuz I mean for Christ sake nothing goes together like Jello shots and Roman Candles! Agree on the Kanstul "G" Mello. As far as Pyrotechnics.........Frontier Field 1996........Not so Much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Agree on the Kanstul "G" Mello. As far as Pyrotechnics.........Frontier Field 1996........Not so Much. I dunno, it looked cool on the video in Sun's Les Miz show. added some boom to our drum solo too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.C. Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Personal Opiniondespite serious financial and logistical questions, I've never been against a little electricity in the pit for equipment that was designed for it and traditionally uses it... that being said... if you open the door... to let the VW bug through - SOMEONE will drive a bus through even if they scrape the sides of the bus going through... Adding bass guitars that are adjusted and amplified to sound like Contras or synthesizers that are flat out amazing and can replace dozens of bodies - adding anything the artificially replaces performers is simply WRONG... period... end of discussion... This pretty much sums up my opinion as well. Thanks Tom! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.C. Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 Agree on the Kanstul "G" Mello. As far as Pyrotechnics.........Frontier Field 1996........Not so Much. I love my Kanstul G Mello as well. Kilts will be playing them for a while. Our matched set of Kanstul G brass is still less than 2 years old. Pyrotechnics is old news. The Spectacle City Mariners used them every show for many years in the late 60s and early 70s. (They used G bugles, too.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paralda Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 I could be wrong, but some Corps that moved into the " narration " craze a few years ago but must have concluded that this was as bad as the creative genius in the 70's that gave us strapping a large tympani to one's back and then parading around a field playing the tympani with the thing elevated skyward. It looks to me like tympani hauling and narration are like those ice cream flavors at Ben and Jerry's in their Vermont Hq. that didn't pan out well. They are now confined out back to Ben and Jerry's ice cream graveyard with the appropriate respectful gravestone maker and date of death. May Narration join Tympani Hauling in the Drum Corps graveyard and may they both continue to R.I.P. there. Well, tymp toms were the inspiration for modern bass drum lines, so they more evolved than died. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow_7 Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 The only synths I've heard this year were the Crossmen. It was very distracting to hear strings sounds from a drumcorps. I'm just going to assume that Cadets will produce woodwind sounds with theirs. And in five years when it's proposed to actually use woodwinds to backup the already synthed sound (in case of rain), it'll pass. <sarcasm> I'm for amps of pit gear. Mics, batteries, speakers, even combined, they're cheaper than a second marimba. Not that I think that any small corps would benefit from them. Drums basically double the decibels of a given group. Throw in a concrete stadium, or oversized stone building behind the performing group and even a couple dozen horn players can be drowned out by drum(s). Always nice to have a fan club, jeff. Haven't even read this place for almost three weeks, or been to DCA in three years and they're still talking about me. Gotta love being loved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBbabe Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 This discussion sorta reminds me of the day that Bob Dylan put aside his stringed folk guitar at the Newport , R.I Folk festival back in the early 60's and brought out a rock Guitar and plugged that sucker into a socket with some large speakers and all manner of hell broke loose from the folk music purists back then. Folk music is absolutely not to have a guitar " plugged in ". But Dylan was going in a new direction by '62 and he wasn't going to look back. And the Folk Music purists wanted no more to do with him and those new fangled rock guitars with that loud rock music and those protest songs on those plugged in rock guitars that would hit the national airways later in the 60's with Dylan leading the way or riding the wave depending on one's perspective. Yes but, he was still playing a guitar, not plugging the music into a machine. It's a lot different to have a machine play some difficult passages flawlessly than a real brass instrument. We have some real interesting arpeggios in our music for this year that I am sure are easily played on the machines, but reality hits when playing it on a brass instrument; intervals and fingering combinations make it a real challenge, definately more difficult than playing it on a "synth",which is as it should be in drum corps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 The only synths I've heard this year were the Crossmen. It was very distracting to hear strings sounds from a drumcorps. I'm just going to assume that Cadets will produce woodwind sounds with theirs. And in five years when it's proposed to actually use woodwinds to backup the already synthed sound (in case of rain), it'll pass. <sarcasm>I'm for amps of pit gear. Mics, batteries, speakers, even combined, they're cheaper than a second marimba. Not that I think that any small corps would benefit from them. Drums basically double the decibels of a given group. Throw in a concrete stadium, or oversized stone building behind the performing group and even a couple dozen horn players can be drowned out by drum(s). Always nice to have a fan club, jeff. Haven't even read this place for almost three weeks, or been to DCA in three years and they're still talking about me. Gotta love being loved. it's all in love dude. and seriously..amps would be fine. the problem is, you open that door, and many more get opened beyond it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBbabe Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 yep, me too,............Cadets and the crowd in Erie were silent for several minutes while the sound guy tried to re-boot,............cheif judge gives the signal,............DM does not acknowledge and several minutes went by,............isn't there a penalty somewhere for that? And so, if they don't get it fixed, do they not perform?? Then again, they might even have to do it the old-fashioned way - with just horns and drums (Horrors.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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