2003 Finals CDs Review

[spiritsop01]

that would be nice

[hiccups05]

yeah thats what i was thinking

[beckylynn44]

Hey I wanna add something to the "microphones do lie" statement. I hate it when you can hear the guard in the recording. Sounds weird right!? Every heard that moment where you hear that weird clang sound in the music where it sounds like a flag poling being dropped? As a guard member myself, I know that it was probably a guard person catching a solid toss but to anyone else it sounds like a drop...it's kinda sad! lol

[Loud-is-good]

On a side note, isn't it funny that I was critical of more than one corps, but only one set of fans is getting defensive? Why is that?

HMMM

PHREAK

Uh, probably because people liked Phantom more than any other corps this year, so of course they are gonna get more upset when it is criticized. People don't care if something they don't like gets criticized.

[spiritsop01]

good point

[LaSqueegee]

Hey I wanna add something to the "microphones do lie" statement. I hate it when you can hear the guard in the recording. Sounds weird right!? Every heard that moment where you hear that weird clang sound in the music where it sounds like a flag poling being dropped? As a guard member myself, I know that it was probably a guard person catching a solid toss but to anyone else it sounds like a drop...it's kinda sad! lol

I am not a big guard person Becky....but I do hear that alot on the CD's. :)

[usmpiano]

Just IMHO, it is actually appropriate. Sometimes the crowd adds to the recording, like the "Gail is watching" comment after the SCV Fog City opener.

I don't know, I kinda thought that "Melissa!" was a nice touch to SCV 2000... ^0^

**RUNNING FOR COVER....**

[usmpiano]

The other thing I wanted to say was:

Hey Phreak, if you never let your kids get beyond "control", you are closing them off to the world of jazz. Most jazz players don't play with what you would call "quality" yet they are good at what they do...let them experiment and see what THEY like. Don't be so stifling of creativity.

[DCIPhreak]

The other thing I wanted to say was:

Hey Phreak, if you never let your kids get beyond "control", you are closing them off to the world of jazz. Most jazz players don't play with what you would call "quality" yet they are good at what they do...let them experiment and see what THEY like. Don't be so stifling of creativity.

I am closing them off to jazz? I guess I am wasting my time each week after school in "stage band" rehearsal.

They play with great style, and don't play past their best quality sound.

[deftguy]

the mics can lie...Cadets 89 drumline. clean live dirty on cd's/tapes.

Sorry Jeff, this is not true. The reason is sounds cleaner live is because you are hearing the combined effects of the direct output of the corps, and the stadium reverberation. Reverberation within a stadium can hide a multitude of horn and drum sins. When listening to the CD, you are getting more direct output from the mikes, and far less stadium reverberation. Depending on the kind of mikes used(DCI uses omnipolar condenser and dynamic mikes) they can be very revealing of dirt that cannot be heard in the stands.

Many of the "flubs" you hear on any recordings are because of physics and how sound travels..especially with equipment

This is not correct. The mikes only turn what is acoustical energy, into electical energy. Mikes follow exactly(or should)exactly the waveform that is fed to it.

microphones do lie... first off, all sound reproduction devices these days have an overt emphasis on the bass sound and texture... modern music has driven us to this.

This also is not true. Most microphones(depending on which kind)exibit a flat frequency response over the entire range of human hearing(20-20khz). Some introduce a slight rising response around 4khz(this adds clarity), and some actually roll off the bass and highs. The ones I see DCI using are dynamic and condenser mikes which are usually flat, and have no emphasis(or very little)at any frequency

also, the placement of the microphone is very interesting as well... no audience member is 5 feet in front of the percussion and 40 feet tall... and corps do, address things from the box and tower so it is understandable how this is not addressed...

This is irrelevant. In order to get good even coverage of the whole field, the microphone must be raised high. Also to keep from"highlighting" one particular section the mikes must be raised. If it was lowered to near field level, only the instruments that are in the nearfield of the mike will be heard. Raising them is the PROPER technique.

not even taking this into account... scv's extreme dirt ruined their whole performance on the cd... this can also be blamed on mic placement if you would like... just a personal opinion.

Bad placement cannot make dirt. Only the musician can. A microphone will record only what is fed into it. Garbage in, garbage out.

Actually the mics can lie. Case in point Cadets 93 tenors solo. On the tape (CD) they sound dirty as ####, but it was a function of coming through the two mics at different sound rates dut to placement on the field. Live it was a clean as a freshly mown rutabega skin.

This is also incorrect. The only thing that will happen when sound reaches two mikes at different times is what is called the "Precedent effect". The means whichever sound arrives first sounds the loudest. The closest mike will pick up the most sound and will record the intensity of the sound loudest, the furthest one away will pick up less sound with reduced amplitude and intensity.

Microphones do not make things up. If there are intonation problems, it will be picked up. Dirty percussion, it will still be dirty when it is recorded. Garbage in, garbage out.