Mics on the field to amp the whole corps vs the pit or a soloist. Need some perspective

[Guitar1974]

I feel that integrating electronics doesn't necessarily take away skill- it certainly can (studio effects/auto-tune/syncing to loops)- but in the way corps use it, a whole new skill set is required.  It is difficult to integrate it well.  My question is simply "why"...  Is drum corps better because of electronics and amps?  I don't think anyone goes to an AC/DC gig and thinks they'd sound better with synths and a rapper.  I don't go to classical guitar concert and expect to hear "Eruption" shredded through an amp.  Do the majority of drum corps audiences really prefer mic'd ensembles and electronic effects?  

[ThirdValvesAreForWimps]

I've never seen a standing ovation for a microphone effect.  

[war eagle]

23 hours ago, Fred Windish said:

Lifetime Pennsylvanian here. Attended PA schools (Millersville, Temple, and Lehigh). Bama fan since 1964 when Joe Namath was recruited out of Pennsylvania. Have attended several SEC games in person, especially in Tuscaloosa.  Haven't done Tiger Stadium yet . . . I'm afraid to be doused with beer and beaten up!

But, back on topic - we ARE seeing too many changes, coming too fast, in drum corps. Much of it positive. The micing expansion thing is very concerning, however.

Dude you obviously don't much about Alabama, state not school, football.

[Vdad76]

9 hours ago, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:

We retired the G bugles.  That's water under the bridge.  Do the Bb/F brass lines sound better?  Yes, without a doubt.  Are they as loud?  No.  So what did DCI do?  Allowed more players on the field.  Now the brass lines are louder.  Now DCI comes along with electronics, prerecorded stuff, and live vocals.  Let's increase membership to 150 or more including more horns.  Now the brass lines themselves need to be amplified, not just soloists.

In my day the best sound won.  Now the best sound man wins.

It wasn't necessarily that bugles were louder in key or the other.  It's the technicalities and specifications that the instruments are to.  The bores on the instruments are not as big for one thing, which is the biggest spec that reduced the sound.  I'm a French Horn player and my Holton Farkas model double horn was the largest bore (inside radius of the tubing) that was made at the time.  I could play louder than many others in my section, when I could control the sound from going out of tune and/or split or spread, terms we used when the sound was not right on 440 (perfect tuning for each pitch), which was a problem for the two valve bugles.  The third valve gives an instrument the ability to play certain notes more in tune because several notes require that valve to be used.  The key of G was also very limiting for arrangers in the keys that could be used, for the same reason.  Since they are all instruments based off the same fingerlings for certain octaves they were playing in and having no third valve to keep the tuning centered on some notes, there were notes that most arrangers stayed away from, especially having more than one section play a certain note in a scale together (if a soprano bugle and a French horn bugle were trying to play together, if they matched up on a pitch an octave away from each other, tuning is very easy or rather notes not in tune are easily heard.   Arrangers stayed away from certain keys because of notes that needed valves 1,3 or 2,3 played together.  Because bores were larger, buglers had the tendency to go all out and not being able to hear yourself in large groups, playing loudly, well you see where this goes.  Just my two cents on it, but the ability to play more technical passages, more difficult music arrangements, more in tune, gave in to what we have now.  I know this about putting sounds through mics and processors, and that for me is another dicey object, but the move to three valve bugles or whatever we call them now, for my money, has been a good move - however I long for the Madison long notes at the ends of shows, the Spirit sound advisory signs, company fronts that brought the house down or the Blue Devils tight curl in "When A Man Loves A Woman" moving across the field.  Those were great days.

[2kidsindrumcorpsnomoney4me]

3 hours ago, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:

I've never seen a standing ovation for a microphone effect.  

Might be more of an electronic effect, but the pitch bend by the Bluecoats in "Tilt" got a standing "O" each night in Indy...I am sure there are still people who think the brass line did that.

[ThirdValvesAreForWimps]

2 minutes ago, 2kidsindrumcorpsnomoney4me said:

Might be more of an electronic effect, but the pitch bend by the Bluecoats in "Tilt" got a standing "O" each night in Indy...I am sure there are still people who think the brass line did that.

If a brass line could do that......

[Guitar1974]

26 minutes ago, 2kidsindrumcorpsnomoney4me said:

Might be more of an electronic effect, but the pitch bend by the Bluecoats in "Tilt" got a standing "O" each night in Indy...I am sure there are still people who think the brass line did that.

The funny thing is that trick they did is straight out of the 80's- the "Yamaha DX-7" synth pitch bend. Listen to any old Morris Day and the Time album and you hear that stuff all over it haha...  It is really a simple pitch bend on the pitch wheel of a synth- super simple stuff.  I actually think it would have been cooler to attempt it without the synth (or trombones or anything that can gliss smoothly)- I think it would have been way more impressive- wouldn't be perfect but I'll take live analog over "perfect" machine-made any day in regards to drum corps.