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Bluecoats pit on using click track


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It matters. And it's not the slowness of the electronic transmission. That signal is fast. Which creates a gap between the natural instrument sound wave and the speaker sound wave as each travel towards the audience. The front ensemble speakers have delays configured for the gap from the mallets to the speakers so the speaker wave is exact to the acoustic mallet strike wave. These guys are pros and if they are going to do it, they are going to do it right.

Ah, I understand now. I thought you were talking about the signal as it travels to each pit members earbuds. Looking at the helpful picture you posted, I am now intrigued by their setup. I'll be honest, I've never paid much attention to pit setup (sorry, front ensemble :silly: ) before.

Edited by lanceengland
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That... still seems like an unfair advantage. Part of the activity is learning how to play across those distances. If I can stick some device in my ear that does the work for me, what's the point? This doesn't seem far off from a click track.

Edited by eswsmello
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So they're using monitors to hear each other, since they're so spread out? That seems like a brilliant way of doing it. Bluecoats are revolutionizing drum corps. They're taking the whole activity and making it....(wait for it)......down side up!

I would imagine they're piping each person back into their own monitor, with a mix of various things at various times.

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I get the part about being able to hear the other instruments in the ensemble. What I don't get is how a front ensemble spread so far from side to side can get a uniform read on the sound/pulse coming from the battery. The pit player at the extreme end of side 1 is going to hear the battery a split second later/earlier than the pit player on the extreme end of side 2, depending on the placement of the battery. "Listening back" is Rule No. 1 of any front ensemble. First, all members of the ensemble must have an identical idea of the back-to-front timing before they can worry about the side-to-side timing. I don't understand how the monitors overcome the back-to-front issue.

Actually a lot of front ensembles start with a section timing first approach. Center deals with front to back. Everyone else follows the center, to the point of ignoring the backfield. Every ensemble obviously has their own method, but I can't remember the last front ensemble person I've worked with that didn't at least start with that method.

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Actually a lot of front ensembles start with a section timing first approach. Center deals with front to back. Everyone else follows the center, to the point of ignoring the backfield. Every ensemble obviously has their own method, but I can't remember the last front ensemble person I've worked with that didn't at least start with that method.

So . . . center is the arbiter of vertical unity -- staying aligned with the sound moving from backfield through the front sideline to the stands. All others ignore the sounds behind them and use their electronic gizmos to listen toward the center to lock down horizontal unity. Do I have that right?

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So . . . center is the arbiter of vertical unity -- staying aligned with the sound moving from backfield through the front sideline to the stands. All others ignore the sounds behind them and use their electronic gizmos to listen toward the center to lock down horizontal unity. Do I have that right?

I'm not teaching at Bluecoats, so I don't know how they are approaching it, but that would seem like a reasonable way to handle it. My point was just that the idea of "everyone in the front ensemble listens back" is not particularly accurate for a lot of ensembles.

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I'm bewildered and disappointed by the fact that front ensembles (not just Bluecoates) are using in-ear monitors.

Please answer this question:

How does the PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE Judge reward/penalize performers using in-ear monitors used for the express purpose of tightening up the ensemble?

I can picture the judge tape "Good job listening to the rest of the line in your monitors!"

Discuss...

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I'm bewildered and disappointed by the fact that front ensembles (not just Bluecoates) are using in-ear monitors.

Please answer this question:

How does the PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE Judge reward/penalize performers using in-ear monitors used for the express purpose of tightening up the ensemble?

I can picture the judge tape "Good job listening to the rest of the line in your monitors!"

Discuss...

Hopefully the judge evaluate the sounds being produced, and if it is very tight, give them the credit they deserve. What possible difference does it make if they use a legal tool available to them in order to perfect their ensemble sound?

Congrats to the Coats on yet ANOTHER innovation. Amazing group of people in charge of that corps.

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If you've ever worn one during a performance you'd know they're incredibly thought altering into how you play. You have to turn one ear off almost entirely. I don't like them. It's tough to trust your eardrum to someone at the other end of a fader who isn't hearing what you are.

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Everyone that's negative to this sort of use of technology is either ignorant of or blind toward the advances in live performance that are and have been a reality for the last few decades. Personal speaker monitors have been a fact of shows the likes of Cirque du Soleil and Broadway since at least the 70's, and every single drum corps on the field today uses speaker monitors at LEAST for their electronic keyboard player; sometimes the keyboard player has an in-ear himself. This isn't cheating, this is integrating technology into an activity in a way that is in line with how it has been integrated with all sorts of high-end musical productions for ages. It's really the only way to execute the kind of spread and show that they have this year. It's not even particularly original, though you'd have to talk to people more knowledgeable than me to get specifics about how it's been used before.

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