So was the sound better in Indy this year?

[Jeff Ream]

i will say this...even with the roof closed, a bat flew around in there on two different nights. he really like Phantom Thursday

[Grumpy]

When quarters started Thursday, the sound was absolutely horrendous, tons of echo and was much worse than I remembered it being last year. Probably a couple of reasons for this, the primary one being that at the start of quarters, not many except some of us real "die-hards" are actually in our seats and watching the corps. Also, the infamous "curtain" that was up for Friday and Saturday was NOT up on Thursday. I recall hearing last year that the curtain couldn't be used with an open roof because it would blow around. I'm not sure when the decision was made to leave the roof closed, but I can bet it takes a LOT longer to get that curtain up/down than it does to get the roof open/closed. As more people filtered in later on during quarters, the sound improved a bit except for those god awful electronics...it seems as though they were the absolute worst this year, and especially inside it just makes it sound even worse. I was pleasantly surprised Friday to find that the additional curtains helped a bit, and it probably didn't hurt that there were more butts in the seats as well, especially right from the beginning. After Thursday, the only real sound issue I had at all was when the US Marines Drum & Bugle Corps were playing the finalists onto the field, from where they were located it seemed that the sound was getting lost-and I was in Section 240, practically sitting right on the 50 and I could barely hear them at times. A note to the stadium people, the "ads" on the jumbo trons that periodically play do NOT need to be at a volume level that is double that of the regular announcers (Potter & Crocker). FWIW, I would also like to find if there's a way or place that we can get quarters scores posted so that we don't have to bother our neighbors if we missed a score while answering nature's call or during INT, or in some cases Brandt couldn't be heard clearly and after his customary announcement/repeat, there's no way to find out unless somebody else caught it. Still curious as to what else was "tried" this year, but IMO they should keep working at it.

[JamMan]

Bass drums are lost unless a solo voice. In fact why strangers write breaks on puff mallets astounds me.... You can't hear them.

Bass solis are, in general, completely pointless. They're usually written without regard for the music, just a random, 10-second hiccup in the melody filled with too many low-end drums.

[Jeff Ream]

Bass solis are, in general, completely pointless. They're usually written without regard for the music, just a random, 10-second hiccup in the melody filled with too many low-end drums.

and when you cant hear them at all, you have an issue.

[ajwdad]

The sound sucked., Maybe not as much as last year, but it still sucked. And it will continue to suck for 7 or so more years. Isn't the new emphasis on visual much more pronounced with such an acoustical nightmare as Lucal Oil?? Who cares about music, let's just do visual... (for those of you needing an explanation, this was west coast sarcasm.)

[BigDale]

I had some fantastic seats. Section 340 for quarters and semis these were visually probably the best seats I had ever had. For Finals, I was in section 141. Therein lies the problem.

It was only by watching Finals down low that I was able to realize the extent to which the horn power seems to be lost. From up high, I really had no sense of which horn lines amongst the top six or so were most powerful. Just overall, I really find now that I was not able to hear the brass nearly as well as I should have or even assumed that I was in the third level.

Had tickets row 6, section 141. Really the best seats in the house were in 50 yd line lounge, just behind the stands. There was a delay on the video, but it was cool to watch it on the jumbotron. The sound was find down low, cool comfortable air and no mosquitoes.

[Appleknocker]

Quarters had a few issues with the speakers , announcements and pit were very inaudible and fuzzy.

Changes for the better must have been made with the curtains and settings for semis and finals,....there was a noticable improvement.

There really needs to be something done with adding more LOS staff to man the entryways to the seats,...people walking in and out during performances, talking, sitting in seats that they don't have a ticket for. The guards on level 5 were moved to another section because they were having so many issues with fans coming in and outon the lower level. There needs to be someone at every entry to stop people from coming and going as they please.

[slitzen62]

btw, I took care of the bat in the tunnel at the end of the show Friday night. And I have the picture to prove it... lol!

[Lead]

i will say this...even with the roof closed, a bat flew around in there on two different nights. he really like Phantom Thursday

DCI is always looking for new fans...

[ShortAndFast]

I thought the sound was improved this year. It was also better on Fri/Sat than on Thursday, so the extra black curtains helped and most likely the extra 10K bodies did too.

Sitting in section 240, this is still the weakest acoustics of any DCI finals venue I've been to. It's tolerable, and maybe the right trade off given the A/C, financial considerations, risk management, etc, but it's not ideal. Designers are going to have to learn how to adapt their writing to the venue. It's just a fact of life that some material that would sound awesome in Allentown or Denver or Kalamazoo is not going to work as well in Lucas Oil.