TubaJon Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 In my opinion, too many top placing corps are rewarded for being top heavy in sound. The cavaliers (last 5 years), cadets (last decade), and blue devils (always) have been lacking the true balanced sound. Their arrangements and strengths rarely lend themselves to a full and balanced symphonic sound. The thing is that technically speaking, these hornlines usually have the better musicians. They sound great in warm ups with flashy space chords and articulation exercises but the talent doesn't manifest itself as a balanced brass ensemble. But I can't blame the BD hornline for lacking a balanced sound when the designers have the tubas music read "tacet" for 6 minutes of the show. ... And they won best brass?... *rant over As true as this is, just like your first 3 words, its an opinion. Some dont even like a balanced symphonic sound in DC.They just want to hear screamers, nothing wrong with that i suppose. Thats the beauty of DC fans if you want to call it that. But it is odd that the three corps you mention with a flipped triangle of sound are traditional front runners. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFZFAN Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 In my opinion Crown has a very good sound - not too hot on their musical selections but you can't deny the sweet sound. I think the Bluecoats, Blue Knights, and Madison sounded much more powerful and brought it better. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoyWonder1911 Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 (edited) Best sound... its easy to weed out the corps that are not in the "sounds amazing" category. I will say that the two best sounding hornlines are Crown and PR. If Crown played the literature that PR played it would be game over. But their arrangements are more progressive and less classical. They did extremely well with Mahler last year though. The best hornlines are taught (mostly) by Star of Indiana/Blast alumni. Madison will be improving drastically as long as Brad Green is there. He has made the same improvements for BK, SCV, and before Madison, the Blue Stars. So I guess this is my top list. 1.Carolina Crown 2.Phantom Regiment 3.Blue Coats 4.Blue Stars 5.SCV 6.Madison Scouts 7.Blue Devils (no round sound) 8.Blue Knights I'd have to totally disagree. The judges scored the brass on Finals night in the same order of placement for total score. How can you say Phantom Regiment has the 2nd best sound, when they placed 6th in brass, and you don't even have The Cadets in there??? and the Blue Devils (no round sound) what the heck is that supposed to mean? Phantom Regiment during championship weekend had so many tuning problems it wasn't even funny. In fact, they only scored 18.5 cumulative, taking 6th in brass, to Cadets' 19.1 in 5th place, which is a huge jump, if you look at recaps. How can you come up with this list, when the judges have far more experience and knowledge NOW about what makes a good sound than you will ever have until you are 80 years old. Not trying to intentionally be rude, but I think your list is arbitrary and totally opinion based, based upon bias of your favorite corps. And if you don't think the judges also judge the quality of sound coming out of the horns, then you're wrong. Oh - and btw, even though the Blue Devils are far from my favorite corps, I agree they had they the absolute best sound coming from the field last year. That is why they took 1st in brass in QF, SF and Finals, scoring 19.3, 19.3, and 19.8 respectively each night, from 3 different judges each night, and Phantom Regiment taking 7th, 7th and 6th. Crown taking 3rd, 4th and 4th. Edited June 4, 2011 by BoyWonder1911 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chaddyt Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 Overall, I'd go with Crown for me. BD did sound phenomenal last year though. I've always been a little in awe with Cavies smoothness. Bluecoats have really started to impress me over the past few years. And Cadets... I could spend a month straight just sitting in their warm-up arc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoyWonder1911 Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 One thing I never really understood is how a corps can have a "different sound". They are all human, they all play the same instruments. Maybe there are 3 or 4 different horn manufacturers that are used in drum corps, but how does that mean every corps has a different sound? Even staff changes around in corps, so it can't be staff teaching them to have a different sound, if that's even possible anyway. Really never understood it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baridon09 Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 I'd have to totally disagree. The judges scored the brass on Finals night in the same order of placement for total score. How can you say Phantom Regiment has the 2nd best sound, when they placed 6th in brass, and you don't even have The Cadets in there??? and the Blue Devils (no round sound) what the heck is that supposed to mean? Phantom Regiment during championship weekend had so many tuning problems it wasn't even funny. In fact, they only scored 18.5 cumulative, taking 6th in brass, to Cadets' 19.1 in 5th place, which is a huge jump, if you look at recaps. How can you come up with this list, when the judges have far more experience and knowledge NOW about what makes a good sound than you will ever have until you are 80 years old. Not trying to intentionally be rude, but I think your list is arbitrary and totally opinion based, based upon bias of your favorite corps. And if you don't think the judges also judge the quality of sound coming out of the horns, then you're wrong. Oh - and btw, even though the Blue Devils are far from my favorite corps, I agree they had they the absolute best sound coming from the field last year. That is why they took 1st in brass in QF, SF and Finals, scoring 19.3, 19.3, and 19.8 respectively each night, from 3 different judges each night, and Phantom Regiment taking 7th, 7th and 6th. Crown taking 3rd, 4th and 4th. I consider myself to have been trained by those with a professional concept of what a good full brass sound is. I take what I have learned from them and form my own educated opinion. So clearly, just like every other post on this forum, my posts are opinion based. Anywho, I admit that I accidentally left out our beloved Cadets. Please forgive me. I would put them in 6th behind SCV because Vanguard gets a more balanced sound with more cleanliness. Also, my line up of best sound is based off of the last 3 years or so, hence my placement of PR. And I'm not sure where you are coming from asking what a round sound is. Its a way of describing a full sound with characteristic tone and blend. One cannot achieve a full "round" sound with out the low voices (tubas) as it will sound top heavy. That topic has already been discussed at length so I need not to dive into again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcpacheco Posted June 4, 2011 Share Posted June 4, 2011 BK. Blue Knights have consistently put out some of the fullest sounding hornlines over the past half decade or so. I couldn't care less where the judges put them, they are really the only corps my ears actually ring from on a consistent basis. AMEN !! I have been thinking the same thing for years, and when I saw them at Stanford last year, I knew it was going to be a solid season. Love BK !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triple Forte Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 One thing I never really understood is how a corps can have a "different sound". They are all human, they all play the same instruments. Maybe there are 3 or 4 different horn manufacturers that are used in drum corps, but how does that mean every corps has a different sound? Even staff changes around in corps, so it can't be staff teaching them to have a different sound, if that's even possible anyway. Really never understood it. While most hornlines sound pretty much the same there are some things out there that make some of them sound a little different. How many upper brass does corps A have vs. corps B ? This could effect the overall sound. Phantom Reg only marches euphoniums...no baritones...this effects their sound. So...there are some things that change overall sound.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TubaJon Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 (edited) While most hornlines sound pretty much the same there are some things out there that make some of them sound a little different. How many upper brass does corps A have vs. corps B ? This could effect the overall sound. Phantom Reg only marches euphoniums...no baritones...this effects their sound. So...there are some things that change overall sound.... And to add on to that, when you are talking about an activity where a bad stef off can affect your score, differences in sound, no matter how small they are, can turn out to be huge. One thing I never really understood is how a corps can have a "different sound". They are all human, they all play the same instruments. Maybe there are 3 or 4 different horn manufacturers that are used in drum corps, but how does that mean every corps has a different sound? Even staff changes around in corps, so it can't be staff teaching them to have a different sound, if that's even possible anyway. Really never understood it. Staff changes can make a HUGE difference in how a corps sounds! Every teacher has a different style of teaching. And they emphasize different things. Ill take what baridon09 was talking about earlier when he was talking about top heavy vs bottom heavy. You will find that a lot of folks, especially the ones that sit inside on chairs, and about half the corps will talk about a pyrimid/triangle of sound. and it is set up like this... .............trumpets ..........mellophones .......baris/euphs ....T u b a s and this is simply saying basically that tubas are the foundation of sound and that they should be the "loudest" all the way to the trumpest who should only be like the cherry on top, and should be the "softest". And other corps like to completely flip the triangle of sound. Depending on your taste, neither is wrong or right, but its 100's of little differences like these that contribute to the differences of sound you will find from one corps to another. Edited June 5, 2011 by TubaJon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrillmanSop06 Posted June 5, 2011 Share Posted June 5, 2011 One thing I never really understood is how a corps can have a "different sound". They are all human, they all play the same instruments. Maybe there are 3 or 4 different horn manufacturers that are used in drum corps, but how does that mean every corps has a different sound? Even staff changes around in corps, so it can't be staff teaching them to have a different sound, if that's even possible anyway. Really never understood it. Have you marched drum corps? It's all in the approach to the horn and the preferences of the staff. Plain and simple. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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