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Brass Arrangements Sound the Same


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1 hour ago, GUARDLING said:

Boy, you packed a lot of personal preferences in 2 sentences..lol

 I counted 3 sentences . ( lol)

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 The easiest identifiable, on field, unique characteristics of the various Corps was never really the brass sound to begin with me. Oh sure, with a handful of Corps there were definately some tell tale signs with the brass line sounds or particular arrangements played. But on the whole, the easiest identifiable characteristic for me with the various Drum Corps were their uniforms, shakos, and in some cases their Corps colors. Just like most of the College Marching Bands . if we took away all their unique attire, shakos,  traditional colors, it would be harder for me to distinquish among them on the field... especially if they did not play their signature songs out on the field, or do their signature visual moves. I would not be able not tell the difference with their trumpets sound,  nor the tuba sound,  nor the overall brass sounds with them. Most all of the College Marrching Bands would most certainly begin to look and sound more homogenous, and far less unique among themselves, very quickly to me I would imagine..

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2 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 The easiest identifiable, on field, unique characteristics of the various Corps was never really the brass sound to begin with me. Oh sure, with a handful of Corps there were definately some tell tale signs with the brass line sounds or particular arrangements played. But on the whole, the easiest identifiable unique characteristic for me with the various Drum Corps were their uniforms and shakos, and in some cases their Corps colors. Just like most of the College Marching Bands . if we took away all their attire, shakos, colors, it would be harder for me to distinquish among them on the field... especially if they did not play their signature songs out on the field, or do their signature visual moves. I certainly could not tell the difference with the trumpets sound, the bass sound, or the overall brass sound.

agreed

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13 hours ago, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:

First, the good:  It’s nice to hear brass lines punching up the volume again and most corps are accomplishing this without field microphones.

There are at least four corps (Crown, Cavaliers, Boston, Colts) using the amp-the-whole-corps mic array this season.  I think that is more than last year.

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5 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

There are at least four corps (Crown, Cavaliers, Boston, Colts) using the amp-the-whole-corps mic array this season.  I think that is more than last year.

Sigh...

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30 minutes ago, BRASSO said:

 The easiest identifiable, on field, unique characteristics of the various Corps was never really the brass sound to begin with me. Oh sure, with a handful of Corps there were definately some tell tale signs with the brass line sounds or particular arrangements played. But on the whole, the easiest identifiable characteristic for me with the various Drum Corps were their uniforms, shakos, and in some cases their Corps colors. Just like most of the College Marching Bands . if we took away all their unique attire, shakos,  traditional colors, it would be harder for me to distinquish among them on the field... especially if they did not play their signature songs out on the field, or do their signature visual moves. I would not be able not tell the difference with their trumpets sound,  nor the tuba sound,  nor the overall brass sounds with them. Most all of the College Marrching Bands would most certainly begin to look and sound more homogenous, and far less unique among themselves, very quickly to me I would imagine..

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2 hours ago, dcibrando said:

the reason some of the arrangements are so pieced together now adays is so they have time to do all the dancing and prancing and GE visual stunts and tricks.... because GE scores more.  Sad but true... another reason why we see uni..err costumes now rather than the tradition uniforms.  GE is what it is all about now

Any complaints about bulges you wanna add in there?

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14 hours ago, ThirdValvesAreForWimps said:

First, the good:  It’s nice to hear brass lines punching up the volume again and most corps are accomplishing this without field microphones.  Congratulations!  Design staffs listen to the veterans and fans after all!  We want a big sound and we want it to be produced by natural means.

Now, with that being said, each corps used to have its own particular sound.  Back in the day you could pick out a brass line blindfolded:  Phantom had a particular sound, Madison had a distinctive sound, etc.  

No longer.

Every brass arranger in DCI seems to use the same technique.  The trumpet parts are arranged similarly, etc., and its hard to distinguish between some of the brass lines today.  Sure, there are differences in quality and clarity but in general there is what I call sameness across DCI. To me things sound tuba- and mellophone-heavy across the board especially live.  Even some of the best brass lines in the country sound like a radio with the bass turned up and the treble turned down.

Other than from the Blue Devils I don’t hear the searing-hot trumpet sound cutting over the top of the brass section.  To my mind the best brass sections shade a little toward the treble end of the balance scale; not a lot, just a little.

Look, modern brass lines are amazing but it sounds like the parts were ripped from Arban’s technique book.  Would it hurt to play more than four consecutive measures of an actual piece?  Other than parts of “Bolero” by The Cavaliers, a couple bars of “God Bless the Child” by the Bluecoats, and a trumpet solo from Phantom Regiment in “New World Symphony,” I don’t hear much I recognize.  It’s mostly a ten minute mashup.

I can’t disagree with you too much. Other than BD and Crown and maybe SCV, I can’t really  tell any of the hornlines apart. There is definitely a lot of sameness out there now

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