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Brass Ensemble Amplification


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2 minutes ago, CAtenhut said:

Brass lines used to be 60-64, and now that max membership is 165, they're closer to 80. If a soloist is playing with the rest of the line, you wouldn't be able to hear them. 

Most hornlines are back down to 72-76 now. Even though the overall numbers have increased, guards and pit have increased, whilst hornlines decreased. No wonder tuba lines need to be mic'ed now. Harrumph.

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42 minutes ago, drumcorpsfever said:


 

I don’t have an issue with amplification. However, I’d prefer this particular trumpet feature played within the entire ensemble. 

I don't have an issue with this specific amplification. It is obvious they are amplified, as they are positioned right in front of a mic. 

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43 minutes ago, 2000Cadet said:

It's not cheating if the rules allow it. 

It may not be cheating, but amplifying only the strong players in an ensemble is dishonest and deceitful. 

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1 hour ago, CAtenhut said:

Brass lines used to be 60-64, and now that max membership is 165, they're closer to 80. If a soloist is playing with the rest of the line, you wouldn't be able to hear them. 

Yes I can.  I have no problem hearing a soloist among their 79 peers, just like in any orchestra or chorus of comparable size.

I think the issue is where someone wants the effect of a solo voice being dominant over their 79 peers, the battery, pit, and other electronic sounds.  To me, artificially overbalancing one horn to that degree cheapens the effect of the other 79 horns.

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1 hour ago, 2000Cadet said:

It's not cheating if the rules allow it. 

Yes it is.  It cheats brass performers out of the educational experiences and tangible accomplishments of refining and balancing a large ensemble.  And it cheats spectators out of the chance to hear pure quality brasslines.

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1 hour ago, Triple Forte said:

Micing soloists is horrible as well in my opinion.  First ,  people have to do a where’s Waldo to find out where the soloist is many times, you don’t really Hear the soloists natural tone and most corps all use the same reverb setting  so a lot of these individuals sound the same 👎👎

It gets worse than that.

As an example, I was enjoying a recent contest performance by the Blue Devils.  There is an intricate tuba feature late in their show, staged right of center around the front hashmarks.  I was viewing from left of center, about the 40 yard line.  The field mics belonging to the corps are picking this up.  Electrons travel faster than sound, so as a consequence of this staging, the amplified portion of the tuba sound projecting from the speaker nearest to me was noticeably ahead of their acoustic sound.

There are innumerable examples of unnecessary use of amplification dirtying up the sound of field performers.  Anyone here posting that spectators do not notice these things does not speak for me.

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1 hour ago, Slingerland said:

A rule was proposed last winter (or the year before?) that would have limited the corps to a certain number of mic'd performers and taken shotguns away, and the usual suspects' staff members wouldn't approve it to get to a full vote. Now the corps with the money to spend are mic'ing some members to create a sweetened blend that feeds through the speakers on top of the live sound. 

It's not cheating in a literal sense, but it's definitely not what the spirit of the original rule change was designed to foster. Unless it was.

This isn't true. All of the corps got a vote in the instructor's caucus on this and it failed OVERWHELMINGLY. I think of the 20 or so people there, only 4 voted in favor of the rule.

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