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Amplification of Drum Corps


Amps: Permanent Component or Bad Experiment  

111 members have voted

  1. 1. Should Amps Exist In Drum Corps?

    • Keep Them - They Enhance The Activity
      29
    • Blow Them Out!
      82


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Kill the vocals.

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No vote. I'm split on the matter. Effects percussion, like the one tiny drum from BD '04? Fine by me. Narration? I'm probably the only person who liked the narrator for BD '05, but overall, I'm against it. Drumspeak? I liked both 'Coats and Cadets in '05. Singing? Ehhh. Shouldn't be done in ensemble, and feature singers don't do much for me either.

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Can't vote on this one ... I'm for amplification of the pit percussion instruments, but generally against using it for voice. I don't always hate amplified voice, necessarily, but I'd rather it had never been introduced to DCI at all. Would rather keep the emphasis on the brass and percussion ... heck, I don't even like unamplified singing in corps (or marching band).

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The voice, through a microphone, will always, always sound unnatural, and not coming from the point of origin. It will sound confined, forced, never open and free like the sound coming from the drum or the horn or the ensemble, unamplified voice for that matter. It will always be less than top notch, unlike the performances the kids produce naturally. We will hear a loud, beautiful, full pasage of music, then an electronicaly altered voice sounding every bit out of place. It has been that way on every occasion so far, if the equipment doesnt cause reverb, or malfunction altogether, you will get a worldclass drum corps performance with a 10th grade drama club vocal accompaniment.

~G~

Edited by GMichael1230
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It might *seem* radical, but if amps were pulled, wouldn't everyone go "whshew"?

How about a compromise... you get to use your Long Ranger. Huh? It's perfect... it keeps all the "effects", but it's limitations of one mic, one speaker keep it used for just that...

In other words, if you had the rule for one long ranger with one mic, you would have had:

Cavies effects in 007

Cavies spin-whistle this year

BD hand drum / train effects

Yowza!

Cadets' Bjork-speak

Boston's hand-coloring

Crown's "make loooooove"

Seattle's err-borne

You'd have not had:

525,600 reasons

Cadets' drumspit session

Bluecoats drumspeak (by multiple performers anyhow)

Cadets' singing this year (not a full frequency spectrum)

It gets back to the idea that effects are good, but adding a fundamentally different "voice" isn't.

Thoughts?

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The pit instruments worked well for the first twenty or so years, the amplification of the pit was not a concern until what, four years ago ??

My opinion for what it's worth.....amps are not needed !! B)

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The pit instruments worked well for the first twenty or so years, the amplification of the pit was not a concern until what, four years ago ??

My opinion for what it's worth.....amps are not needed !! B)

But one could also argue that the pits of the amped era are among the nicest sounding pits in DCI history. Would SCV's pit in '04 (arguably the nicest sounding pit ever) have been the same without amping? Was it because they had 7 age outs??? Who knows???

I'm in the catagory of go ahead and mic the PERCUSSION instruments. Heck I would even like to see a guitar or bass guitar in the front ensembles (they have done wonders for the WGI pits).

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Keep 'em. The possibilities are too much fun, and yes that includes amped vocals. Like any element of a show, vocals can be done well or done poorly. The instances in which they are done poorly do not suggest that amped vocals are inherently worthless, anymore than an out of tune hornline means that we should scrap brass.

None of this "Get Rid Of The Amps" discussion is about poorly performed anything. It's about electronic vs. acoustic, pure and simple. B)

KEEP DRUM CORPS UNPLUGGED!

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