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Will thunderous goo become less of a problem?


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94 members have voted

  1. 1. Will thunderous goo become less of a problem in the coming years?

    • Yes
      44
    • No
      50


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I should qualify that there is one circumstance wherein I would totally support thunderous goo... If a corps were to discover the brown note on their synth, and pipe that baby at full volume during finals, now that would be worth every penny of whatever DCI was charging for premium seats. :devil: Thunderous goo indeed!!

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yet many drum corps fans don't go to band shows, and traditionally never have like they would for drum corps.

Because fans go to see the best. Scholastic bands are the equivalent of the hundreds of little corps that nobody watched back in the day...though bands draw a LOT more than those shows did.

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I like having a low end synth part support the brass, I think it makes a drum corps really fill up a stadium with their sound. But it could go either way for me, I'm good with whatever =O)

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Because fans go to see the best. Scholastic bands are the equivalent of the hundreds of little corps that nobody watched back in the day...though bands draw a LOT more than those shows did.

Speak for yourself. I go to see drum and bugle corps, no matter the talent level.

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I like having a low end synth part support the brass, I think it makes a drum corps really fill up a stadium with their sound. But it could go either way for me, I'm good with whatever =O)

Funny thing is a little over decade ago corps could do that without amps.

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This is very simple: If the balance sucks, it sucks.

Any good conductor knows how to balance a full orchestra (a lot more voices than a drum corps). When you're conducting, you're constantly looking at the score, imagining the sound from the score, and checking that sound against the one produced by the musicians.

How many orchestra concerts have you been to where you can see the woodwinds playing, but you can't hear them? There are many possible reasons: 1) Another voice in the orchestra is tool loud. 2) The orchestration sucks. 3) Your own hearing isn't very good.

Fast-forward to a judge's responsibility, looking at a sheet, and listening to a show. He's supposed to be listening for examples of ALWAYS SUPERIOR BALANCE AND BLEND (for box 5; and 20 other possible things, depending on caption). ALL OF WHICH INCLUDE THE SYNTH.

Let's assume a judge DOES penalize a corps for what they feel is an unbalanced musical idea. Said judge goes to critique, and hears this from the corps' music people "But that's what we're going for!"

Now it gets tricky for the judge. Because if they are confident, they'll say something like "then you may as well not use the tubas, since I can't hear them." The Supreme Brass Staff Orators out there will say "We have no problem hearing them at all." (delivered fresh with condescending tone)

And maybe they don't! It's entirely possible that the staff people CAN hear something a judge CANNOT hear. The only way to know for sure, would be for the judge and the staff to listen to a rep with and without the tubas, all other things remaining the same. And what if they STILL disagree??

Seriously, now, can you imagine how much confidence a judge would need in order to stick up for what they're ACTUALLY hearing? That would take supreme self-confidence outside the realm of reality. And even if a judge DID have that qualification, then the same judge would have to learn to put up with the self-absorbed nature of the staffs of drum corps.

It's a very, very VERY difficult job, being a judge. This is why you don't hear about corps being penalized for synths. The synth (and A&E) adds an entirely new dimension to BnB that is still being worked out between judges and staffs.

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This is very simple: If the balance sucks, it sucks.

Any good conductor knows how to balance a full orchestra (a lot more voices than a drum corps). When you're conducting, you're constantly looking at the score, imagining the sound from the score, and

Now it gets tricky for the judge. Because if they are confident, they'll say something like "then you may as well not use the tubas, since I can't hear them." The Supreme Brass Staff Orators out there will say "We have no problem hearing them at all." (delivered fresh with condescending tone)

Killer post, especially the bold parts.

+1

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shame is, many of those corps mentioned sound like #### on the cd because of the low end overpowering everything

09 crown last sustained note of the show... all you hear is synth :thumbdown: that just might be my CD?

Edited by TubaJon
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I like having a low end synth part support the brass, I think it makes a drum corps really fill up a stadium with their sound. But it could go either way for me, I'm good with whatever =O)

I would much rather it be the Horniline, and the Drumline, and the Front ensemble (without amplification) be what fills up the stadium with sound. Not a computer, just my opinion. Lets just fix the problem instead of ignoring it. Why patch over your low end with fake low end, when you could have the real life genuine thing right in front of you?:rock:

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Ten pages in and the poll suggest nearly as many people aren't worried about this going forward as are. If I'm Acheson or Cesario reading this, I might not rate this "goo" much of a priority.

That projection happens to coincide with my personal view, which is this isn't much of a problem. I saw nine shows live last year and wasn't overly concerned at any of them. Maybe my hearing isn't tuned to that frequency. I don't know. I do know I can pick out most voices in most ensembles with ease.

Could it be this is more an issue with recordings than it is live? I'm asking.

HH

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