Cadets Assault with Thunderous Goo

[danielray]

and finals attendance went down 13% from 08 to 09 and 11% more in 09 to 10.

The activity is more than one show. Also, attendance is becoming virtual too. Regionals and other focus shows are growing... have loads more potential though.

There is zero growth opportunity in catering to older fans. Focusing on this will come at the cost of generating a new fanbase. It makes no sense. Focus needs to be on attracting new younger fans.

[audiodb]

Bell front brass instruments are designed specifically to project a high volume of sound in one direction. Mallet instruments are not designed this way.

Frankly, some mallet instruments & mallets are not designed to project a high volume of sound, period. A marimba with soft mallets won't really be heard over a full orchestra's fortissimo in a concert setting. In that case, why should we expect to hear that over 100 field musicians at full fortissimo?

[Jeff Ream]

But they (the 90% of the audience) don't have these issues you allude to. That's my point. A cadre of complainers from DCP and a few of their friends have the problem. Most of the audience either doesn't hear what you're hearing or doesn't care. That's evident in their obvious satisfaction with the product. (By the way, have y'all watched

showing the audience perspective?)

I'll speak for myself now. I occassionally hear an electronic bit that I might have rendered differently. But these are consistent with accoustic balance (and style) issues I hear too. Not a fatal error. Not ruinous or a tragedy. Regular drum corps stuff that in no way makes this year's shows unenjoyable.

HH

if even 25% of the audience has the issue, it's too much.

let me repeat something to you.

this is an AUDIO/visual performance. There is more complaining than DCPers my friend. You can bury your head in the sand about this all you want, but it's there. I heardit live at the 6 shows I attended last year, and I made it a point to ask around if anyone was DCP posters. They weren't.

and if satisfaction with the product is so great, why is attendance down? if it was up, you know DCI would be crowing about it.

for an audio/visual performance, if anything over 10% of the audience has sound issues, IMO, you screwed up. And since we can't all sit in the zone of perfect sound, there IS a problem

[Jeff Ream]

Ahh, back to the conspiracy angle...

You know, if Hopkins really were this devious and manipulative, don't you think an evil genious of that caliber would have found a way to co-opt, or at least muzzle, the opposition? Surely the Machiavelli of marching, who thinks two steps and three moves ahead of the rest of us, wouldn't have missed that chance.

Or is it maybe that Hopkins gets it that this complaining cadre over at DCP really is inconsequential, that most drum corps fans are far more amenable to changes of this sort? Maybe he is that smart.

HH

well in many ways the opposition was muzzled. then that little DCI BOD revolution happened last year. Not that I buy into the conspiracies, but let's face it, Hop has admitted he shoots for the moon to get little pieces at a time.

[Jeff Ream]

The activity is more than one show. Also, attendance is becoming virtual too. Regionals and other focus shows are growing... have loads more potential though.

There is zero growth opportunity in catering to older fans. Focusing on this will come at the cost of generating a new fanbase. It makes no sense. Focus needs to be on attracting new younger fans.

true. But....DCI has released NO attendance figures for 3 years...and Finals week is the money maker show. The fan network doesnt seem to eb growing, and the last two years, reports are the theaters arent as full as they had been. I know the June show was maybe 1/4 the usual quarters crowd this year. Funny, the stands looked half full too.

You obviously dont understand business tho. In order to grow your business, you have to retain what you have an add on to it. The current DCI approach has shown they have gone your way...and lost paying customers as a result, while not gaining enough to replace them.

[danielray]

You obviously dont understand business tho

I guess not.

[glory]

The drum corps experience is full of compromises for the fan. Sit too low, you miss the drill. Sit wide and you might not catch the full brass impact. Sit too high or too far back or under an overhang and the sound gets lost.

At any show, a fraction of the audience is seated such that most of the elements fit as intended - accoustic or otherwise. These complaints about electronics are exaggerated in all respects but particularly in the suggestion that some significant portion of the audience noticed anything objectionable other than the fact that it involved electricity.

HH

[Grandpa]

The drum corps experience is full of compromises for the fan.

And your solution to this - is to add another compromise?

[glory]

No. My solution is to recognize that some fans are blowing this out of proportion. Because it's electronic and not accoustic, they're throwing tantrums as if their flavor of ice cream isn't in stock. Because their spoiled child behavior is hurting not just their own enjoyment but ours too.

In the hundreds of drum corps shows I've been to over the decades, I bet I've wished I were higher, lower, left, right or something nearly every time. In those hundreds of shows through the years, I've heard far more accoustic imbalance than I've heard electric imbalance (I know, the years ...). I've hardly seen any shows that couldn't have benefitted from my wisdom born of my preference (Garfield '87 being the possible exception).

So what? All the years, accoustic, amped or whatever, were on balance wonderful. I've never been to a championship I didn't love. Some I love more than others. But all I loved. And one of the reasons why is I never arrived at DCI with the preconceived expectation that I'd be seeing 1977 or 1987 again.

HH

[Grandpa]

No. My solution is to recognize that some fans are blowing this out of proportion. Because it's electronic and not accoustic, they're throwing tantrums as if their flavor of ice cream isn't in stock. Because their spoiled child behavior is hurting not just their own enjoyment but ours too.

Well thanks for all the personal insults. I fail to understand though how a post from me on this forum hurts your enjoyment of being in the stands. I had no idea you were so thin skinned.

In the hundreds of drum corps shows I've been to over the decades, I bet I've wished I were higher, lower, left, right or something nearly every time. In those hundreds of shows through the years, I've heard far more accoustic imbalance than I've heard electric imbalance (I know, the years ...). I've hardly seen any shows that couldn't have benefitted from my wisdom born of my preference (Garfield '87 being the possible exception).

So what? All the years, accoustic, amped or whatever, were on balance wonderful. I've never been to a championship I didn't love. Some I love more than others. But all I loved. And one of the reasons why is I never arrived at DCI with the preconceived expectation that I'd be seeing 1977 or 1987 again.

HH

The "wonderful" seems to be in dispute from many folks on this forum. It appears too that the area of the stands where the show will be balanced has shrunk considerably since the advent of electronics. This has been verified by some pro-electonic posters. "physically impossible" to widen that area, I believe one of them said.

I do not go to a contest expecting the bottle dance every time either, but I would like it to have some semblance of a connection to what has defined the activity since its inception. I see that connection strained to the breaking point. I'm going to Allentown with as open a mind as I can muster, but the comments on this forum by others is giving me serious concerns.