Blue Devils 2015 - Hornline [Quality Audio] 

+kia2008100 I think it's embouchure matching.

A bit of an understatement tbh

*vanguard punching air rn*

Thank you so much for the compliments! Means a lot to hear coming from a successful recording engineer!! I definitely record this hornline with purpose -- with mic specific placement in mind, given their "sectional circle." Used this recording as my model for filming their 2016 hornline as well, though I should've added the windscreen due to the storm clouds rolling in over Annapolis... Oh well, managed to salvage the audio to an extent, and guess the wind noise adds to the drama :) Thanks again for the kind words and for watching!

+Erik Lester Thanks for sharing, and for your service. Jets and brass playing...a great combination. Glad your hearing is still largely intact. Blue Devils are very much the corps that inspired my channel to begin with, and I am glad to be able to feature their brass sounds from yet another amazing year! Thanks for you comment and for watching.

+Nicholas Gustafson I don't think I was able to reply to your comment when I first saw it... But now that I am, thanks so much :))) Just capturing the sounds I would want captured if I were marching.

+HornlineFanatic ditto, by far the best sound quality and production to be found on the tube. Thanks for sharing with us!

+luke snell Thank you!! It's always encouraging to hear comments like this.

Thanks! Your early season vid of their ballad is what inspired me to get this footage!!

+johnythanj It is my pleasure. Thanks for your comment and for these amazing reps! I'm glad to be able to bring these sounds to people, including those who were on the other side of the horn! Assuming you play tuba (based on your videos), you should know that the BD tuba/contra sound has long been one of my favorite trademarks in drum corps, so the focus on low brass in this video is not an accident :) Hope to see you out there this summer as well!! I will be catching BD starting on the week of August 1, and am hoping to head to Indy again.

That attack is awesome. In the raw audio prior to upload, it sounds even tighter. Wish youtube offered control over sound quality!!

+Eric Olsen I use FCPX

5:05-5:40

Haha ...yes, glad I finally finished it! More vids coming soon!

Yessssss!!!! Awesome. And my pleasure, as always!!

My pleasure! This is the corps that inspired this channel! Thanks for the amazing sounds and for your comment :)

Right there with ya bro, I can't stop listening to that section

Those mello and barri runs are so sweet, typical BD blend and balance

Jam Camp Where is this piece from? I've heard many marching bands play the song at 4:40 but I can't find it anywhere online. It's so beautiful and irritating not to find.

Children Will Listen & Last Midnight (both from Into the Woods) by Stephen Sondheim

The summer goes by so quickly! Lucky I got to hear you guys multiple times. But I just think of the many BD fans who only get to hear you for 12 minutes every year!

I know right... The biggest downfall to being a member, to me, is losing the surprise of seeing all the progress at the end, without hearing every moment in between. In other words, ironically the worst part about being in the Blue Devils is never getting to SEE the Blue Devils!!! Thanks for the video, caught some feels. I remember seeing you recording and hoping I would get to see those videos, and it's weird to remember that so clearly after it's been done for so long.

Yeah I guess the closest you will get is listening to other hornlines. In 2013 I went to a show just to hear BD warm up...my first day hearing hornlines up close in YEARS. It was a small show, but the crowd listening to BD warming up was huge--mostly people from other corps that had already performed. The hornline first got loud on Shotgun (my first time hearing that warmup). I had forgotten how loud BD was. And all the people around me from other corps had the same reaction. Captured this moment as well...one of my first vids on this channel. Hearing shotgun is always exciting--usually the first loud stuff we get to hear! Anyway, this year...I don't know what it was...but that Allentown warmup in this vid was just brutally loud haha. Especially that jazzy section with the swaying... The brief silence at the end is because we were all just in disbelief. My recording doesn't really capture how insanely brutal it was for those of us sitting in the circle!

yep heard it too...Bloooooooo

+wtwrush Thanks so much!! Hahaha, at some point I might set up a donation thing to offset some of the costs, but much of my audience is in school, or paying off student loans, and I wouldn't want students or recent grads giving me their money...unless they're rich lol. So I pretty much operate on the assumption that there isn't much money to be made in filming hornlines, much like there really isn't any to be made in actually performing with one!! Money aside, nice observations about the brass sound, especially coming from a drummer--which I assume based on your vids. Is that you drumming in your popular Portfolio vids?

I'm all for free internet content, but I think you'd be surprised (or not, seeing how many overwhelmingly positive comments there are on every video) at how many people think these recordings are worth donating for, student loans, tour fees or otherwise. I don't know how much they would help you to make more videos, but they could at least cover the travel costs and maybe future equipment expense... but it's obviously your choice. As you say, and as always, compensation for any sort of involvement in drum corps usually comes in the form of abstract things like self-fulfillment and that's part of what makes it so strange and incredible. I just feel like you deserve a more concrete reward for the amateur but absolutely most professional content you bring to all these people who can't experience it themselves, and to people like myself who maybe see one or two lines once, but never again. And yes, that is me! Thanks for checking out the channel, those are some old videos ahaha. I am only a drummer, but especially in drum corps, the battery is important but overall a very small part of the real music, and that's really the part I love most: melody and harmony!

+wtwrush I will definitely keep your suggestions in mind. Thanks again for the kind words. You are right about the reward in the abstract. If anything I'm doing helps prove that the pure hornline sound is *not* a relic of a bygone era, but is in fact still one of the main selling points of the activity--even among newer and younger fans--then hopefully my concrete reward will be having helped save my favorite musical sound from becoming regulated out of existence. Congrats on the success with those vids! On melody and harmony--as much as I love them, a well-tuned drum is one of the most musical sounds ever! So I disagree with pairing off the word "only" with "drummer," and I say this as a funk bassist who has observed that the best drummers always seem to be great all-around musicians. In this case, I observe that you also play piano, so I rest my case :)

You're definitely not alone there!

Thanks :) That's always the goal.

My pleasure! Thanks for your comment :)

And it is a reflection of the insane competitive landscape that they placed 3rd in brass.

Your the soloist at 4:42?!

The low brass sound is one of the things I love most about BD--especially the tuba sound. They are not afraid to make use of the lower range of the instrument, even at high dynamic markings. I have some amazing 2014 finals warmup footage of them I never posted...you should hear how the "Armageddon" section sounded. Some truly amazing low brass work. I need to post that footage.

+HornlineFanatic It is true they always do have a strong low brass...but on the dci recording (especially in Indianapolis) the low brass sound with BD doesn't quite pick up. I remember parts I heard in person that were incredibly solid and loud but in the recordings...you can barely tell. That is why the recordings you make do them true to life justice. Thank you.

It is definitely easy for details to be lost inside that huge echoing stadium. I think DCI should definitely get some recordings of some of the outdoor shows during late season, especially at PPL Park--probably my favorite stadium because of the cool architecture, but especially because there is no track around the field, which puts the audience closer. Thanks for watching and for your comment :)

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it :)

+Christopher Lisboa Thanks! :)

Thank you!

I hadn't heard that about intentional arm-shaking in Cirque du Soleil before, but that is interesting. However, as far as brass playing goes, I think that is the same general idea behind stuff like the park & bark "knee bender" stuff, which you commonly see in BD. For percussion, the high stick raising stuff (whatever that's called... not a drumline expert lol). Some visual theatrics, like you're describing. If anything, I'd say BD actually adds these kinds of theatrics more than a lot of corps.

+Channel Three I used to try to watch shows from high up so I could see the entire drill. After a few years, I wanted to sit lower so I could see the performers' faces. Not only is it louder, but it's so much fun, so much more engaging. You can see who's new, you can see who's about to age out.

+The Irish Asian9 | ¿Is that a march or a warmup? ¿Any link?

its a warmup

"Children will listen" from Into the Woods.

+HornlineFanatic thanks!

Hahaha! Trying to remember... After checkout on the way to the parking garage, maybe? Thanks for the amazing sounds! Truly surreal to hear in person!

Allentown warmups can be a little raw. It's dark, there's a ton of distractions, and they're getting pepped up for one of the most unforgiving shows of the summer--on rival turf! :) But agreed... That tuba entrance still sounds fantastic, if not also a little on the dixieland side of jazzy.

Rode SVMP! And it is ABSOLUTELY in stereo :) Possible to get comparable results using standalone recorders such as Zoom H1 or a Tascam

+HornlineFanatic i've been debating between that and the rode stereomic pro shotgun mic lol for both horn and drumline lots

Honestly, the people who will repost your videos on Instagram won't care which because Instagram is mono anyway :P

+HornlineFanatic true haha i'm actually doing media for blue stars this summer and was planning on getting a killer mic to go with my Sony a6300

Euphonium (hybrid, I believe)

Shotgun might just be my favorite corps warmup since I first heard (and filmed) it in 2013. Written by John Meehan himself. Always exciting because it's often when the hornline first really opens their dynamics.

why is it called the shotgun exercise anyways?

+HornlineFanatic My high school started incorporating shotgun into our warm ups last year and we love it! I shock myself how loud I'm actually playing.

is the shotgun warmup in this video? if so where at lol

+The Funky Chicken Starts at around 30 seconds into the video.

+Nicholas Brister nailed and then held for friggin ever without moving a bit. Impressive for sure!

+smoshman6000 the top partial is a double C. It's not too loud, but it is audible.

I thought I was the only one hearing it..

Haha... Sorry about that. Hope the new one is at least more fitting.

I don't. But honestly, the exposure time is so short I don't worry about it. That said, I did once see some Crown members wearing hearing protection when rehearsing in close quarters in front of a blasting metronome (see my 2013 Crown vid). That makes sense since they are closer to the sound source and exposed to the noise all summer. But for sure, hearing is critical, and damage can't be undone (at least until some cutting edge research on regrowth of hair cells gets further along!). Honestly the worst thing to happen to my ears this summer was being in a loud club for several hours (my ears were shot for the couple days)...wish I'd kept some Mack's roll-up earplugs in my wallet... and all the editing I do--I should probably edit at lower volume levels.

I had to wonder because this summer I got to sit inside the Blue Devils' circle in San Antonio, and the ending of space chords was so incomprehensibly loud that I felt like I was going to wake up deaf at my housing site the next morning.

+Gentry Walker I was actually a few feet away from him while he was recording. It was the first time I'd been in a circle like this, and I sat right in front of the mellophones, and at the end of a rep I legit couldn't hear for 5 seconds hahah.

+Gentry Walker It certainly is a good idea to. Many corps bring an audiologist to educate the members about the dangers of prolonged exposure to loud noises. I think the Dr. told us that you shouldn't be exposed to a hornline playing fff for more than about 4 minutes. Most members will wear ear protection when they play in enclosed areas (ie. inside during thunderstorms). Unfortunately wearing ear protection distorts sound quality so I prefer to not use it when in front of a corps even if it does damage my cochlear cilia.

+Gentry Walker by the way, drummers wear ear protection essentially at all times. That includes performances.

+Matt Mansour I'm not sure whether it's original content from BD's arrangers, or a quote from a piece of music... But it's the transition into "Children Will Listen," their ballad. Listen to this vid at 9 min 17 sec for the transition, which you can hear the euph and trumpet soloing over... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bwhOarPDlA4.htmlm17s

+HornlineFanatic Thank you! That was helpful. And i always love your content; keep it up!

+Matt Mansour No problem, and thanks for watching :] There are definitely some geniuses working at BD. A couple of interviews discussing the 2015 design... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sRHqphUL5es.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3Y0A-UPY6bM.html

+Matt Mansour P.S. Turns out the phrase at the beginning of this vid was written specifically for the BD show by John Meehan and Dave Glyde. It was based on different ideas from Into The Woods, but it's essentially an original phrase you won't hear outside the Blue Devils arrangement.

+Tom Bluecoats playing "Thumbs" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TXPsQVNQscU.htmlm47s

+HornlineFanatic Thank you!

My pleasure. Thanks for watching!

Hahaha! It was purely for clickbait effect when I first published the vid, but I've been meaning to change it. Thinking I'll either go with just the backfield frame or else one from the high brass rehearsing up close...something easily recognizable as being from this vid.