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DCI Austin - July 20


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MANY groups mic their strongest individual players (30-40 brass players). Some groups mic the sidelines.  Some groups do both.  The problem is when the top groups mic individual players and win, then you are forcing everyone else to do it, whether they want to or not.  Example, everyone loves how good the Phantom contras are. One reason they sound good is because they are all mic’ed.  It’s not possible for 12 contras that aren’t mic’ed to sound like they do.  
 

Miking the sideline is not very expensive.  You can do it effectively for less then the cost of one wireless mic.  Miking 30-40 individual is VERY expensive.  100k expensive or you rent them for 10-20k for the summer.  When people complain about drum corps costing too much, miking individual players is a cost that isn’t needed and one that is driving up the price of drum corps.  It also creates a have and have nots situation that some drum corps just can’t afford to spend money on.

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14 minutes ago, jwillis35 said:

I remember speaking with someone about this very thing and that was my take. I suppose I could be wrong. I don't think I have heard anyone doing this sort of thing this summer. I appreciate you posting that. Interesting to see the names on that proposal. To me it would be ridiculous to allow ensemble amplification with such large horn lines now. 

Perhaps they mean small ensembles or solos. Because everyone is amping the solos, and it did just come across my mind that The Cadets do use a small trumpet ensemble at the end of their show that gets some amplification when they do the double tonguing feature.  So perhaps you are correct. 

The actual voting results 

Brass Pre-Recorded/Sampling Electronics Management

DID NOT PASS IN INSTRUCTORS' CAUCUS — A proposal to prohibit the use of short-range microphones for brass reinforcement was voted down in the instructors' caucus, due to concerns about limiting the creative process.

 

Brass Amplification Parameters

WITHDRAWN IN INSTRUCTORS' CAUCUS – A similar proposal regarding the synthetic “doubling” of brass content for reinforcement purposes was withdrawn.

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Mics along the front are picking up hornlines and sound is being re-amplified out through their "ensemble speakers". I stood along the front sidelines in Denver and I even heard percussion battery (snares, quads, bass) coming out the sideline amplifying speakers on the left and the right when batteries got close to the front sideline. This is happening with most top corps. Also, the deep bass synthetic goo is back in spades overpowering the tubas at most impact points in the show.

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35 minutes ago, jwillis35 said:

So I may be wrong about this. As I mentioned in the post above The Cadets do mic a small trumpet ensemble at the end of their show when they do the double tongue flurry in the closer. So perhaps I am not clear on what is allowed. Maybe just solos and small soli ensembles. 

When this was brought up SCV 2017 was the first thing that came to my mind because I absolutely hated it. It made their brass line sound so distorted and fake. 

Phantom’s entire tuba line is mic’d. It’s not limited to solos or small soli ensembles. 

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12 minutes ago, brassboy said:

Phantom’s entire tuba line is mic’d. It’s not limited to solos or small soli ensembles. 

I had no idea their entire line was mic'd.

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33 minutes ago, jwillis35 said:

I had no idea their entire line was mic'd.

I suspect a lot of things are mic'd that we do not know about. 

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1 hour ago, Turnadot said:

MANY groups mic their strongest individual players (30-40 brass players). Some groups mic the sidelines.  Some groups do both.  The problem is when the top groups mic individual players and win, then you are forcing everyone else to do it, whether they want to or not.  Example, everyone loves how good the Phantom contras are. One reason they sound good is because they are all mic’ed.  It’s not possible for 12 contras that aren’t mic’ed to sound like they do.  
 

Miking the sideline is not very expensive.  You can do it effectively for less then the cost of one wireless mic.  Miking 30-40 individual is VERY expensive.  100k expensive or you rent them for 10-20k for the summer.  When people complain about drum corps costing too much, miking individual players is a cost that isn’t needed and one that is driving up the price of drum corps.  It also creates a have and have nots situation that some drum corps just can’t afford to spend money on.

There's quite a difference between micing the strongest players in a section vs an entire section. There is no deception involved in the latter, but certainly is some in the former 

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