2000 - 2010 , what have we learned?

[audiodb]

Pits sound much better micced...esp due to the use of of softer mallets that make the bars sound so much better to my ears.

How fortunate for your ears. To my ears, the natural sounds of percussion instruments are far preferable to their artificially-colored, distorted replica blaring from PA speakers.

Miccing the vocals makes it possible for great shows going back to Crown's 04 singers, Cadets drumspeak in 05, their solo singer in 06, the 07 show...great stuff. Cascades Airborne Symphony was another great use of a micced vocal.

Suffice it to say, I would rather hear brass and percussion than some designer trying to create his own Lincoln Portrait moment, or even a sincere attempt to blend singing with drum corps instrumentation....because, IMO, electronically-amplified sounds do not and cannot blend with field brass and percussion. And don't get me started on the frequent and severe failures of amplification systems that have destroyed the standard of excellence drum corps used to achieve....

Synths in general have been well integrated into shows. Low end synths enhance the overall sound of the corps.

We'll just have to agree to disagree here, as I believe the exact opposite to be the case.

[audiodb]

oh trust me, DCI is not totally to blame here. but they are also not totally free of blame either Mike.

Another voice of reason....thank you!

[audiodb]

Unkown truth??? They refused to compete someplace that was not providing them with the best experience for their marching members.

Well, at least you acknowledge the boycott of DCM.

[audiodb]

Is it still an unknown truth that the regional circuits were killed by DCI (the internal meetings with the executive BoD ... whereas, they refused to compete in the circuits in order to kill attendance, then took over the circuits in order to take the best venues (Don't worry, we'll fix things and then hand it back when it's in better shape), then handed the circuits back to the original organizations ....... with ZERO left to work with). It was a systematic termination/demolition of those organizations ........ it had nothing to do with competitive environments.

I guess that is an unknown....because as I understand it, DCE and DCW voluntarily merged their operations under the DCI umbrella. Granted, I imagine "voluntarily" applies only to the corps that had voting rights in DCE and DCW....but these weren't hostile takeovers.

But before this devolves into full-fledged salination of old wounds....there's no reason DCI couldn't (re)establish the regionalism that existed in the first half of seasons prior to 1997, and/or re-establish annual regional championship events, with or without regional divisions that have their own governance. It should not be necessary to recreate three or more separate circuits to accomplish that....nor would it be efficient. Whatever advantages regionalization might have could be achieved by regional divisions under the DCI umbrella.

Rather than continue to rehash the past, I'd prefer to see you focus on making and refining your case for this change....particularly because I suspect that the corps themselves (at all levels) are currently focused on national touring, and it will take a lot of persuasion to change that focus.

[WOOHOO]

you're right they have...if you take away how many corps there were in 2000 vs 2010

At least the quality of the shows have increased exponentially since 2000 as a whole. Compare 12th place then to 12th place this year

[audiodb]

If the cost of an amp pushes a corps to fail, they had larger issues than A&E, financially. Those are not big ticket items.

Excuse me? $10,000 is not a "big ticket item"? Perhaps the most affluent corps out there actually think that way (though I'm not making that assumption), but for those corps who run on smaller budgets, $10,000 is not a trivial sum.

[JimF-LowBari]

At least the quality of the shows have increased exponentially since 2000 as a whole. Compare 12th place then to 12th place this year

Thought #1: As you have less corps and less people, the talent level would go up. MLB toyed with the idea of disbanding two teams because the talent level was diluted. Only thing that saved the NHL from the same mess (well an even worse mess) in going to 30+ teams was the European/Russian players coming in.

Thought #2: With less and less shows, the only way most people can see that a corps is to arrange a vacation around a regional or Finals.

[WOOHOO]

Thought #1: As you have less corps and less people, the talent level would go up. MLB toyed with the idea of disbanding two teams because the talent level was diluted. Only thing that saved the NHL from the same mess (well an even worse mess) in going to 30+ teams was the European/Russian players coming in.

Thought #2: With less and less shows, the only way most people can see that a corps is to arrange a vacation around a regional or Finals.

Yes. Okay. Right on.

[JimF-LowBari]

Excuse me? $10,000 is not a "big ticket item"? Perhaps the most affluent corps out there actually think that way (though I'm not making that assumption), but for those corps who run on smaller budgets, $10,000 is not a trivial sum.

Sure $10,000 here, cost of other new items there, it's just small additional costs and add up... add up... add up.....

Guess DCI never heard of the fable about the bird(?) that wanted a drink of water from a half filled jug. Bird kept dropping pebbles in the jug until the water level got to the top. Moral: Lot of little things can add up to a big result.

Now substitue pebbles with expenses and jug with corps budget...... and substitute to the top with overflow/bankrupt

[audiodb]

I agree with most of what you said .. until you got to the end part. The problem is that DCI SHOULD be concerned with promoting the interests of the activity as a whole.

Yes. But....

From my perspective, DCI is the corps ....

....some of whom are member corps, and some aren't. That is a problem.

If the whole activity were DCI member corps, then DCI would promote the interests of the whole activity.