Imperial Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 (edited) New question along these lines:If I put my drill on Pyware (or any other), what is the best way to add the horns and percussion? I am thinking of playing with the SCV sound libray for perc and putting the whole show together so the staff can watch the whole thing while listening. Anyone doing this out there? I don't "put" my drill into Pyware, I create with it. I find that's what it is so useful for. You can watch the transition which you've just easily created, then play with adjusting the angles, paths and velocities until you reach the proper dynamic level. If you don't like it, you just trash it, as it didn't take a long time to create it in Pyware in the first place. It also comes in handy for large groups, as you are never spending any time drawing dots and numbering. With Pyware, you spend your time writing in a sofware environment becuase you save time on dotting the page. I do however like to hand chart for very small bands. For that I use the best drill paper out there from our sponsor: Pathway Productions. They also have the best dot books. http://www.pathwayproductions.org Edited December 13, 2005 by Imperial Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan H. Turner Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Chris...I've been writing by hand for 20+ years, and Pyware has me at a disadvantage from a management standpoint, in that if you call me and say I lost 2 trumpets and a clarinet, I could type a few things and voila. The whole drill is changed (theoretically--although it's not THAT easy I'm told on Pyware). But from a "creation" standpoint (and this is where I'm sort of stuck in my ways as a "professional" drill designer that actually makes money at this), I don't write collisions, I don't NEED a computer to show me my animation (that's why God gave me a brain), and I don't write big steps (well...yeah...I do, but I do it on purpose to terrorize 4ft tall freshman tuba players with braces). I STILL think my drill by hand is FAR cleaner to read than a Pyware print out.... BUT.... I know I know I know...it's the 21st century and I should change. Soon I'm sure. Apparently band directors out there think having Pyware is a superior way TO WRITE. To me, it's not. I'm just as fast. At least, I think I am. And for Dream, in case you're curious, I write by hand, and give it to Bob Briggs who inputs it into Pyware--just for ####s and giggles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imperial Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 (edited) Chris...I've been writing by hand for 20+ years, and Pyware has me at a disadvantage from a management standpoint, in that if you call me and say I lost 2 trumpets and a clarinet, I could type a few things and voila. The whole drill is changed (theoretically--although it's not THAT easy I'm told on Pyware). But from a "creation" standpoint (and this is where I'm sort of stuck in my ways as a "professional" drill designer that actually makes money at this), I don't write collisions, I don't NEED a computer to show me my animation (that's why God gave me a brain), and I don't write big steps (well...yeah...I do, but I do it on purpose to terrorize 4ft tall freshman tuba players with braces). I STILL think my drill by hand is FAR cleaner to read than a Pyware print out....BUT.... I know I know I know...it's the 21st century and I should change. Soon I'm sure. Apparently band directors out there think having Pyware is a superior way TO WRITE. To me, it's not. I'm just as fast. At least, I think I am. And for Dream, in case you're curious, I write by hand, and give it to Bob Briggs who inputs it into Pyware--just for ####s and giggles. Well, Ryan, if you eliminate members in Pyware, you can set it so that in one fell swoop, the drill shapes (on all sets) don't change but the members appear as holes. Then adjusting each set is pretty easy from there but you still have to do it. I know there is a blunt feature in the program to auto adjust but it really messes things up. I think it's there just as a sales feature. It's not a panacea. I never use that "nuclear option". I use Pyware basically to save time. That I know it definately does. The other reason (as I stated) is that I feel you can find the "sweet spot" easier in terms of velocity vs step size by using the animation feature. In many cases you don't have to wait to see it on the drill field to realize if a move has the proper effectivness. One other huge time saver in Pyware now is that I can print to PDF file and email the charts to the user instantly. I've written things and done rewrites, then emailed them hundreds of miles and they were being photo copied and taught literally minutes after I finished! JS Edited December 14, 2005 by Imperial Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craiga Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 I've got to agree with Ryan on this one. Writing by hand for 20+ years, I have experimented with Pyware and just found it too cumbersome. I used it for five seasons, then went back to the old way for my 60 piece band. The animation was cool but the resizing thing was a pain. Oh, and by the way Gasmman, nice plug for Pathway!! :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan H. Turner Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 I've written things and done rewrites, then emailed them hundreds of miles and they were being photo copied and taught literally minutes after I finished! JS SHOW OFF!! b**bs b**bs b**bs You make a good case...grumble grumble grumble... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-Contra Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 (edited) When Jamey Thompson wrote for GLASSMEN, it was all by hand. I don't know if he still does his writing by hand or not. Can any Phantom people comment? I've been writing drill for about 6 years. I've written for high schools (including my own) and a local college marching band. I use Field Artist by Raven Labs. I have found it to be extremely user friendly. You can check out the demo for Field Artist at: www.ravenlabsinc.com Edited December 15, 2005 by G-Contra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 I know I know I know...it's the 21st century and I should change. Soon I'm sure. Apparently band directors out there think having Pyware is a superior way TO WRITE. To me, it's not. I'm just as fast. At least, I think I am.And for Dream, in case you're curious, I write by hand, and give it to Bob Briggs who inputs it into Pyware--just for ####s and giggles. I'd say the best thing to use is...whatever you are most comfortable using...as long as the customer accepts what you produce. The thing you do NOT want to have happen is for the tool to drive your design...that should still be your own creativity...the issue with that is there is a learning curve to any software product...be it Pyware, Sibelius (what I use for my music), MS Word, Excel, etc....and what you do NOT know how to do might impact what you eventually produce, unless you are careful. You might want to 'practice' using Pyware by inputting some of your older drills so that you become familiar with the software, in the "off season". Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BorisTS Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 When Jamey Thompson wrote for GLASSMEN, it was all by hand. I don't know if he still does his writing by hand or not. Can any Phantom people comment?I've been writing drill for about 6 years. I've written for high schools (including my own) and a local college marching band. I use Field Artist by Raven Labs. I have found it to be extremely user friendly. You can check out the demo for Field Artist at: www.ravenlabsinc.com My favorite part about when Thompson wrote for Glassmen was that his drill paper had the high school hashes on it. I don't know if he's since changed that, but every year somebody would forget when writing down their dots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imperial Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 My favorite part about when Thompson wrote for Glassmen was that his drill paper had the high school hashes on it. I don't know if he's since changed that, but every year somebody would forget when writing down their dots. Check out this stuff: http://www.pathwayproductions.org/ezdd.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cire Posted December 15, 2005 Share Posted December 15, 2005 im not sure if all the drill is still being done by hand at BD, but when i was there a few years ago it was all hand written. im guessing it still is Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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