Jump to content

Edting DCI recordings


Recommended Posts

When did DCI start editing the audio of Finals shows? I'm aware of their clumsy snipping of timing pistol shots in older recordings, but I've never heard clams fixed before. The Blue Devils' piccolo trumpet soloist missed a note during Finals, but the recording was edited for the commercial release. I would think that DCI would want to steer clear of any possible controversy caused by misrepresenting what actually occurred at Finals performances, but perhaps having a mistake-free commercial product is a higher priority for DCI? Will they soon be digitally editing the video to fix equipment drops?

I can understand the desire to have a clean product to sell, and the videos have never looked or sounded better than this year, but I think DCI should be careful about giving unfair advantages to certain corps considering how much work all the corps put into creating clean performances. I'm sure that the videos are poured over by fans and members alike who try to reconcile the Finals scores with what they see and hear on them, so they really should be left, literally, as a frank and honest record of events.

Edited by gearwonk
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know on the 2005 recordings, there are a couple of fixes. Spirit of JSU has the trumpet solo in "Luck be a Lady" fixed on the DVD, but he fracks it on the CD.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If an internationally acclaimed rock band has a three night performance schedule in New York City, and they record those concerts for a Live in NY CD, I have no problems whatsoever concerning the producer choosing the best version of each song from each night to place on the live CD. My opinion also applies to DCI performances during Finals week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In that vein, I would not mind either as long as the performances are identified for historical accuracy. If you take Blue Devils from Friday, just say so.

But taking a solo from one day, a song from another day, and the rest of the show from a third performance - no. This is the record of a contest, and it needs to be accurate. It is unfair to fix mistakes in the editing room. They will not be performing a similar service for Pioneer - why should they do this for Blue Devils? If a corps wants to splice the best notes together for their own product, that is fine - but the DCI product should consist of single, complete performances.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They've been doing this for decades. Recall the 1986 Garfield Cadets. Rumor has it, the soloist was stung by a bee that day, and the Finals solo was very, very off. (She was the only one playing.) Semifinals was beautiful, so they spliced it in. (Now that I think about it, they may have used the Cadets' semifinals perf in 1990. The hornline was on fire as compared to Finals.)

Watch the 1989 Blue Devils' video and tell me that sop soloist wasn't grateful that they used the semifinal solo for the recording. That was the most uncomfortable moment I've ever witnessed. He messed up badly and then kept going. Worse and worse. On and on. Eesh.

And cixelcyd, did you arbitrarily choose Pioneer, or was there a particular recording involved?

Edited by Tad_MMA
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Based on the description and marketing of the DCI championships discs, I get no impression that the video and audio for the DVDs and BluRays are only from Finals. I would hazard a guess that the video clips are spliced from all available photoage. Using that stradegy allows for the camera crews to focus on different parts of the show each night and gives the editor the most choices for the final cut.

DCI corps are so well practiced and consistant at their shows, that I would also guess that there is inter-song audio mixing going on, not just inter-show, but I can't be sure. I don't think it is false advertising or detertrimental to DCI or the corps featured, since it is impossible for the video to live up to the live viewing. There just aren't enough pixels and fast enough bit streams to support that deep a level of interaction right now.

The high-camera video (not audio) is the only photoage that I can think of that is most likely entirly from one night.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They will not be performing a similar service for Pioneer - why should they do this for Blue Devils?

In the mid/late 1990's, they did this for every corps that played multiple nights (for the CD's, for non-finalist corps). They gave the corps director a choice of which performance they wanted on the CD's, and the Director could pick whichever he thought was best. Videos were different, as I don't remember there being a video package that wasn't Top 12 so I don't know how that worked. But the mass-produced CD's DCI did give all corps the benefit of deciding which performance they wanted to best represent them. Now-a-days IDK, but as far as Pioneer is concerned you're right in the sense that Pioneer did not qualify for Semifinals and only had one performance throughout the week: i.e. no multiple performances to edit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Based on the description and marketing of the DCI championships discs, I get no impression that the video and audio for the DVDs and BluRays are only from Finals.

Exactly. People might assume that's the case, but I don't think DCI expressly states the performances on the audio or video are from Finals. The website where you order the audio & video states:

Order the 2013 World Championship Blu-ray today featuring the top 12 placing corps.

Substitute 'Blu-ray' with 'DVD' or 'CD' and you get the idea. I can see how people might assume it would be a specific performance, but it's not.

What is interesting, is I would love to hear how much of the performance on the Blu-ray, as an example, is from Finals night and how much is it edited? Is it just a small handful of minor edits for one reason or another (a really cool visual moment where the camera got it wrong in Finals, or a judge got in the way, etc) or does the editor have freedom to use the best shots from all week & thus the Blu-ray performance of Crown is really a mash-up of all three runs from the week.

Again, I don't really care one way of the other (the DCI production team did an INCREDIBLE job producing this year's products), but I'd be curious to hear exactly how they do it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is inherently dishonest to do this, and I think the mistakes should just stay. They've been doing this for years because they can and I'm sure it doesn't come without a corps director's approval or request. What random luck should that crown ballad incident show up on the multicam? It doesn't matter, it's not very nice to keep it in there, especially had they gotten 2nd, but it still happened and is on the high cam, they just don't do the close up like it was. Why was nearly every solo botched in some way for BD? Who knows, but it could have contributed to their placement and music scores, So why remove it? The exception would be Crown's 2010 incident where the kid was injured at some point in the show, OF COURSE edit that out, whatever happened there it's not his or her fault (maybe the corps' fault) and that would just be insane schadenfreude to keep it in.

The performances are judged, so that should be reason enough to keep them as they are, right? to edit them after the fact seems contradictory to me to the critical nature of the activity, and I feel like they do this so that no one's feelings get hurt. Maybe it's about the kids in the end? But it's dishonest and maybe even ultimately doing them a disservice.

Edited by TESB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...