Amplification

[Some Random Drummer]

Improper for indoor playing maybe, but obviously proper technique for outdoors, if it worked. When it was decided that instruments like marimbas were to be used in drum corps, it ought to have been understood (and apparently was for about twenty years) that either these instruments wouldn't be distinctly heard when the rest of the corps was playing (you might think of them as condiments and garnishes for a meal) or that special methods would be needed. So new skills were developed that since 2004 have been lost.

I know, I know, this cause is particularly lost. (J.R.R. Tolkien: "I do not expect 'history' to be anything but a 'long defeat'".)

Obviously I agree with you about the prerecorded stuff.

Kckempf is correct. The technique pioneered for outdoor front ensemble playing before amplification was not only different than indoor technique, it was damaging to both the instruments and the performers themselves. Obviously instruments can be replaced, but when your playing technique can, over time, do serious damage to tendons and ligaments in the wrist that you need to play percussion for the rest of your life...I'm not sorry to see those gone. A number of my percussion instructors marched or taught DCI in the 80s and 90s, and those who were in the front ensemble nearly all have some pretty serious damage to their hands that makes it difficult for them to play as well as they used to.

You are correct in saying that it ought to have been understood that the instruments wouldn't be distinctly heard. A marimba isn't meant to be heard cleanly at a distance of more than a few dozen yards, and even then only if it is the only instrument playing. Place drums and brass behind it, and it has no chance. However, the activity evolved to demand that they do be heard cleanly at a distance, which spawned techniques like eye-ball level, full-arm four mallet strokes, twisting the forearm using your elbow/shoulder to generate volume on lateral strokes, rather than the much safer (and less damaging to the marimba, as well) technique of a wrist motion, and also the use of mallets whose weight and hardness were totally inappropriate for the style/volume of the music being played, which severely damages the instruments.

I'm not saying that these techniques didn't achieve the desired effect, I'm saying they achieved the desired effect at the expense of the instruments being played and the people playing them, and so I for one am glad that amplification is being allowed in the front ensembles. Either that, or the activity needs to evolve to recognize the limitations of rosewood/synthetic instruments and change accordingly, and I'm not so sure those changes would be for the better, either.

[kckempf]

Now if we can just stop them running around the field...

I can't say that didn't enter my mind. With the right technique, that shouldn't be damaging to the performers. Playing the marimba obscenely loud, though, is a different story.

[Fran Haring]

2009... when the Blue Stars used the recorded quotes from Roosevelt and Truman in their WWII "Factory" show... I thought that was a great example of the well-placed use of that type of stuff. Because the quotes, IMO, certainly enhanced the theme, and they were stand-alone... not played over music.

I'm pro-electronics.... but I'm with a bunch of other people on this thread. I can do without the "pre-recorded stuff competing with the music" attempts.

I hope the one poster earlier in this thread is correct... that corps right now are in the "let's see how much of this stuff we can use" phase, and that it eventually becomes more limited or goes away altogether.

And one of these days I'll find a better word to use than "stuff."

[kickhaltsforlife]

2009... when the Blue Stars used the recorded quotes from Roosevelt and Truman in their WWII "Factory" show... I thought that was a great example of the well-placed use of that type of stuff. Because the quotes, IMO, certainly enhanced the theme, and they were stand-alone... not played over music.

Except you couldn't understand a single word in the oil can....

[boxingfred]

I like the "Good ol Days" When corps Sang and spoke their own lines, not that prerecorded junk!

[skywhopper]

Those parts ruined Blue Stars 09 for me...

[THeShadeOfNight]

I like the "Good ol Days" When corps Sang and spoke their own lines, not that prerecorded junk!

In the "Good ol' days" didnt you get penalized for singing?

[Jeff Ream]

the problem boils down to this:

a majority of the judging community is afraid to "go there"

call someone out if narration is lame. call someone out if balance is an issue. i mean really make a statement.

At any show I have ever attended, if balance is an issue, it isn't adjusted, it stays that way the whole show. Yet rarely do you see a score that shows it was acknowledged.

and when it comes to vocals that interfere or just suck, you won't see a statement made.

I see it in indoor too. People don't understand what's involved, and don't want to go there because people with more knowledge...or worse, think they have knowledge...will go off.

it's like the brass caption in any circuit.....they'll just tenth you to death as opposed to truly make a call.

and until the electronics world is fully understood, and people truly call it out, you won't see a change.

[kickhaltsforlife]

I have always wondered if these staff members at the sound boards actually know what they are doing. I know a thing or two about a soundboard... and would love to get up close to see some settings. To properly run that board, you have to know what every knob and dial does to the sound coming out of the amps. And then you need someone in a proper listening position who can give you actual instructions of what to change. All I have ever heard from the box is "turn marimba 1 up, and turn vibe 2 down" or "turn synth 3 up" (AHHHHHH!) there is much more than volume control that needs to be done. I'd love to hear what a corps would sound like with actual sound professionals, who know a thing or two about outdoor amplification and large arena amplification. And then they should educate the judges.

But they shouldn't need education on things like balance and blend. If you can't judge that, then get out. And that honestly is the biggest problem. GROW SOME. Use your musical knowledge that actually qualified you for being a music judge, and SAY SOMETHING. Write it down. The score should reflect it.

[Cardman]

I hate all the pre-recorded garbage that corps play these days. I can't think of many examples at all where I was okay with a sample or sound effect that was coming from the synth. It's ruining drumcorps for me, personally.