kickhaltsforlife Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 I'm still all about live all acoustic performances... but I'll never get that again... 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Ok, cool. Thanks for the clarification. BTW, I kinda love the counting parts when the kids are doing it. Ballad narration, not so much. Same here, Marwan. The opening "counting" sequence.... really cool, meshed very well with the brass and percussion for so early in the seaason. But the ballad voice stuff... overcooked. IMO, distracts from that great brass line. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 If you're saying corps today are not taking risks you are far off the point buddy... Since I was responding to the point in his post asking "is it worth the risk" I fail to see how I could be off the point at all... 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kickhaltsforlife Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 Can I jsut say that the uniforms work. They aren't just a huge blob of cream that can never look clean. I do think they can afford to brighten it up a little bit. It's amazing how much smaller they look with the new uniform though. Drill.. I think Leon didnt go overboard. Still plenty of fun stuff. But a good mix. Not to much spread.. he used the field a little more evenly, and stayed in a little more... but you still get the good old field coverage at plenty of points. But the drill will be easier to clean this year. Still no easy task though. Can I just say I love the drum break all the way to the end of that movement. The brass runs to the end is gonna be a highlight for me this year. Pretty much love the show right now. Still not sure how I feel about the ballad. I think they could get creative and maybe leave the narration out. I don't think the show NEEDS the story with the theme. And the music is just beautiful. And they better be adding more counts onto the last big chord! Lol. I could use a couple more counts at the end of ASZ... but those can wait until Allentown or whatever. Lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 Well - sorry but I'm going to buck that trend. I've been a fan of Crown for the past few years but they sure lost me this year. Frankly I see this as a sellout to the Dada success (?) last year. The incessant chattering buries the incredible talent way too many times and goes from annoying, to intrusive, to really getting on the nerves. Horrible design for a fantastic corps. Well....except for (a) the original Dada music had not narration and (b) the original EOTB music does have narration. But except for that minor point-- absolutely -- Crown is just copying Dada. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted June 21, 2013 Author Share Posted June 21, 2013 (edited) Unfortunately, I think this is nuts. The whole point is that this is a live performance. Sampling voice is a gutless move, IMO. Particularly when you have a ton of pit folks standing around doing nothing and microphones sitting unused (or the money to buy mikes for everyone in the corps if necessary). Voice is no more likely to cause problems than any other exposed or solo element. Using samples to avoid risk is antithetical to the entire point of the activity. Would you prefer a sampled trumpet solo to the real thing? I don't think the sampled versions (of the actual performers?) has anything to do with avoiding risk. It's just a matter of practicality. The performers happen to be marching and playing their instruments at the time. I suppose Crown could have chosen to cut those performers from the hornline altogether and have them stand up front during the entire show -- even when there is no voice at all. As for gutless -- I think Crown's use of the live narration is already extremely exposed, difficult and risky. I fail to find any portion of the show "gutless". Perhaps if Crown avoided live performance in the most difficult parts of the counting, I might see the argument for 'gutless'. But they did just the opposite. The live performers are doing the most difficult parts *live*. Calling Crown "risk averse" is just...silly. Edited June 21, 2013 by corpsband 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 (edited) Well, sorry, but I'm going to buck that trend. I've been a fan of Crown for the past few years, but they sure lost me this year. Frankly, I see this as a sellout to the Dada "success" last year. The incessant chattering buries the incredible talent way too many times and goes from annoying, to intrusive, to really getting on the nerves. Horrible design for a fantastic corps. Well... except for (a) the original Dada music had no narration, and (b) the original EOTB music does have narration. But except for that minor point-- absolutely -- Crown is just copying Dada. I think the argument being made, wrongly or rightly, is that Crown saw that a show with a lot of sampled voice won last year, so they picked something that included sampled voice this year: give the judges what they want. Maybe Crown gets a little cover due to the source music having narration, but as someone else noted, it is quite possible that the source is no good! (Glass is hardly uniformly beloved by the judges of the classical musical world, i.e., music critics, though he has many admirers there.) Edited June 21, 2013 by N.E. Brigand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 (edited) Unfortunately, I think this is nuts. The whole point is that this is a live performance. Sampling voice is a gutless move, IMO. Particularly when you have a ton of pit folks standing around doing nothing and microphones sitting unused (or the money to buy mikes for everyone in the corps if necessary). Voice is no more likely to cause problems than any other exposed or solo element. Using samples to avoid risk is antithetical to the entire point of the activity. Would you prefer a sampled trumpet solo to the real thing? I don't think the sampled versions (of the actual performers?) has anything to do with avoiding risk. It certainly lessens the risk for those actual performers that they don't have to voice the piece live, doesn't it? If they screw up, they can try again, lots of times, until the recording is good. Do you disagree with skywhopper that the essence of drum corps is live performance? It's just a matter of practicality. The performers happen to be marching and playing their instruments at the time. I suppose Crown could have chosen to cut those performers from the hornline altogether and have them stand up front during the entire show -- even when there is no voice at all. As skywhopper asked: why not have someone in the pit cover the voice? And as for practicality, why doesn't that argument justify prerecording a trumpet solo? As for gutless: I think Crown's use of the live narration is already extremely exposed, difficult and risky. I fail to find any portion of the show "gutless". Perhaps if Crown avoided live performance in the most difficult parts of the counting, I might see the argument for 'gutless'. But they did just the opposite. The live performers are doing the most difficult parts *live*. But it's not the live performance whose risk skywhopper is faulting. He's saying that Crown's guts fail when they opt to use prerecorded voice. Edit, on a tangent: it is most interesting to watch the green plusses and red minuses in action. I use the green plusses to mark a post that I like and think others should read. I never use the red minuses, and can't conceive of using them to mark down a post with which I merely disagree. If someone else thinks a post is worth noting, I'd like to know. The only reasonable use of the red minuses, in my view, is to note that comments are truly offensive or abusive, i.e., probably violating the terms of service. But in that case, I could just notify an admin. Ah well, to each his own. Edited June 21, 2013 by N.E. Brigand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legacy Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 FYI, most of the designers out there will try their cutting-edge ideas with their high school programs before taking those ideas to the "big leagues" of drum corps. Well before dci killed its own (div ii/iii) designers tried a lot out in div II Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted June 21, 2013 Share Posted June 21, 2013 (edited) I'm still all about live, all-acoustic performances... but I'll never get that again. One more year in DCA! Edit, to try and stay on the subject of Crown, whose show I haven't seen yet and may even love (theirs was my favorite DCI show last year, after all)--which Bruckner symphony was it that Bruckner8 once proposed to Gail Royer, to be told in response that drum corps wasn't ready for Bruckner? I'm listening to the 4th right now, and that imposing melody in the first movement would be so great! Surely Crown could do it. Edited June 21, 2013 by N.E. Brigand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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