What was the LOUDEST hornline Drum & Bugle Corps EVER recorded ?
From
chris.e.welke@gmail.com@21:1/5 to
All on Tue Sep 27 11:25:57 2016
Loud requires, 1. Horn line in G. 2. Ensemble properly structured and have time down cold. 3. The hornline and battery must be in tune relative to each other.
Any deviation in time or pitch creates noise and
Thus reduce their decibel level. So the question
Is also, which corps best eliminated noise and projected the most sound? G bugles are louder than Bb, I'm not going to try to justify or explain that, the bugles created during the civil war were
In G for a simple reason; the key of G and its sister key C (adding the 1st valve) send sound; i.e. Military signals the furthest with the most clarity. Bb is more musical but the sound doesn't carry as far, from which I deduce that G bugles, especially
the last generation Kanstul 3v Custom Class bugles with all the "tune any note" kickers designed by Zig and Jack Meehan were the loudest iteration of the G bugle, simply because they were still in G, had the least resistance (more air... Key for decibel
cranking per Rick South) and they kickers allowed for fine tuning of chord stacks, as for instance GM is "loudest" if the 5th D, is 5 cents sharp and the 3rd, B, 30 cents flat (the root, obviously right on the bullseye). So I'm going to limit loud corps
to those using the best Bugles, which puts the loudest hornline in between 1991 and 1999.
As for corps I heard live, 1996 Concord and Rockford are standouts. Mid to Late 90s Madison, Santa Clara and Garfield also deserve mention. (And bias; I was a member of the Big Bore section - 1997 Santa Clara)
As for shows I never saw live, but based on the criteria above, 1995 Madison, 1992-93 SCV, 91-93 BD, 95 Rosemont must've been UGFL.
So honorable mention for loud must go to 93 Star, they were NOT on Kanstuls, but aging 2v degs .... Still the ensemble perfection, the oft plagiarized chord stacking by Jim Prime and the raw energy and emotion evident in that show leads to believe it
extremely loud too. As for loudest ever; I gotta go with 1996 BD.... Just note that the "gunshot" chords in the opener & closer of that show were nearly identical to the closer of 93 Star, of course I'm not saying Wayne Downey ripped off Jim Prime, but
he certainly heard how loud, or how much "bonus loud" could be cranked out using Prime's brand of voicing/chord stacking; he liked it so much that he "payed tribute to it" in his 96 arrangement.
PS there is another key to loud, the brass and battery must have consistent equipment (matching horn set, all sopranos on same mouthpiece; i.e. 3G, 1&1/2 for Mellophones, 6 1/2 AL or 5G for Baritones etc) and they must have consistently defined
articulation. If half the hornline is using "doh" and half "da" or "Dee" that will create noise. I recommend "hah" (no toungue) for warm ups and "dah" ( toungue flat and pointed) during the show. Releases also must be precise and consistent in order to
get a longer ring.... I think we can agree the line that rings the audibly longest was probably also playing the "loudest" as well.
Anyway that's DCI, for All-Age I shamelessly believe the 2004 Renegades (where I was one of many many many ringers) was the loudest Sr. Corps to ever disrupt DCA.
I stomp them.
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