DCI FINALS IN INDIANAPOLIS

On August 8th the D’Addario Percussion Team ventured to Indianapolis to represent Evans & ProMark at the Drum Corps International World Championship. Of the 35 corps competing in the finals each and every one of them put on extremely entertaining performances. The corps each brought something a little different to the table keeping things very fresh across the entire show. We spent a lot of the time in the streets of Indianapolis where the corps spread out doing “In the Lot” warm ups and their preshow run through. Most of the “Lot” footage was actually in an open field in the Indianapolis White River State Park, seen below.





Oregon Crusaders running book in the lot



                                            

   The Bluecoats performing "Twitch" from the lot in Indianapolis

The Colts warming up in the lot

Oregon Crusaders in the lot

DCI World Championship Prelims August 9th 2012

The event started with 35 corps competing for a spot in the semi-final round. The judging panel was made up of:

General Effect Visual: Frank Morris, Kyle Miller

General Effect Music: John Bell, Jeff Harper
Visual: Chris Moss
Visual Analysis: Sal Adamo
Color Guard: Robert Solomon
Brass: Steven Page
Music Analysis: Albert Lo
Percussion: JJ Pippitone

The Oregon Crusaders on the field



The scores for the preliminary round:

1 Blue Devils                     97.550

2 Carolina Crown              96.600

3 Phantom Regiment         94.600

4 The Cadets                     94.050

5 Santa Clara Vanguard    93.200

6 Bluecoats                        92.250

7 The Cavaliers                  89.500

8 Boston Crusaders            89.000

9 Madison Scouts              88.550

10 Blue Knights                 85.850

11 Spirit of Atlanta            85.200

12 Blue Stars                      83.750

13 Crossmen                       83.400

14 Glassmen                       81.250

15 The Academy                79.950

16 Pacific Crest                  78.950

17 Colts                              77.450

18 Troopers                        76.350

19 Oregon Crusaders         75.900

20 Jersey Surf                    74.500

21 Blue Devils B               73.450

22 Vanguard Cadets          72.950

23 Mandarins                     71.700

24 Spartans                         69.350

25 Cascades                        68.650

26 Gold                               66.350

27 Pioneer                          66.200

28 7th Regiment                64.450

29 Genesis                         63.500

30 Legends                        63.400

31 Music City                    62.850

32 Raiders                         61.050                           

33 Colt Cadets                  57.950

34 Les Stentors                 52.750

35 Blue Saints                  49.100

DCI World Championship Semi-Finals August 10th 2012

This round was narrowed down to the top 25 corps of the prelims. The judges for this round were:

General Effect Visual: Mickey Kelly, Marie Czapinski

General Effect Music: Nola Jones, Ken Turner
Visual: Bruce Jones
Visual Analysis: George Oliviero
Color Guard: Mike Lentz
Brass: Paul McGarr
Music Analysis: Gary Markham
Percussion: Mike Davis

The Boston Crusaders pre show huddle

The Bluecoats on the feild

Boston Crusaders storming the field



The scores for the Semi-Final round were as follows:

1   Blue Devils                 98.200

2   Carolina Crown          97.450

3   Phantom Regiment     95.700

4   The Cadets                  94.100

5   Santa Clara Vanguard 93.700

6   Bluecoats                    92.800

7   The Cavaliers              89.400

8   Boston Crusaders        89.300

9   Madison Scouts           88.800

10 Blue Knights               87.650

11 Spirit of Atlanta          85.650

12 Crossmen                    84.900

13 Blue Stars                   84.600

14 Glassmen                    82.250

15 The Academy             81.900

16 Pacific Crest               80.250

17 Colts                           79.200

18 Troopers                     77.650

19 Oregon Crusaders      77.450

20 Jersey Surf                 75.450

21 Blue Devils B            73.600

22 Vanguard Cadets       72.750

23 Mandarins                  71.600

24 Spartans                     70.750

25 Cascades                    68.750

DCI World Championship Finals August 11th 2012



The last day of finals was not just the last day of the competition; it was the final day of drum corps for the summer. Some of these performers have been traveling all summer long for multiple summers and this day is when everything comes to a close. As you would think, the day is very emotional for the performers,  teachers, parents, and fans. The D'Addario Percussion Team was able to travel to some satellite locations to catch a few of the final rehearsals.



Spirit of Atlanta final rehearsal of the season.

Blue Devils in the Indianapolis Colts Training Facility.

Jim Wunderlich giving one last pep talk to the Blue Devils Pit

Boston Crusaders in the lot before Semi-finals

On the evening of the finals the judges were:

General Effect Visual: Rich Kemp, Mike Stone

General Effect Music: Glenn Fugett, Richard Saucedo
Visual: Juno Orefice
Visual Analysis: Debbie Torchia
Color Guard: Lee Carlson
Brass: Andy Cook
Music Analysis: David McGrath
Percussion: Allan Kristensen

Lucas Oil Stadium Field

These corps really pulled out all the stops that night. The entire show was one incredible performance after the next.

The Blue Devils final performance

Blue Devils closing their show.

The Boston Crusaders on the field 

The Bluecoats on the field

The finals ended with a victory for The Blue Devils scoring a 98.700 with the other corps scoring:

 1 Blue Devils                  98.700

2 Carolina Crown           97.650

3 Phantom Regiment      96.550

4 The Cadets                   95.050

5 Santa Clara Vanguard  94.450

6 Bluecoats                      92.550

7 Boston Crusaders         89.100

8 The Cavaliers               88.850

9 Madison Scouts            88.000

10 Blue Knights              86.700

11 Spirit of Atlanta         84.400

12 Crossmen                   84.000

Congratulations to The Blue Devils for taking 1st overall as well as in percussion. This was an outstanding season for all the corps and has helped raise much anticipation for next season. We must wait and see what is pushed to new limits in 2013 Drum Corps International!

DCI Texas Tour

DCI SOUTHWESTERN CHAMPIONSHIP

&

DCI THE EXSIGHTMENT OF SOUND 

Our percussion team ventured out to Houston and San Antonio this past weekend for the DCI performances. All the corps have been bringing their A game with each performance being more intense than the next. Some of the scores were within .100 of a point! Here are the results from the Houston show-

1. Blue Devils- 89.350

2. Carolina Crown- 81.600

3. Phantom Regiment- 85.450

4. The Cadets- 85.250

5. Santa Clara Vanguard-84.450

6. Bluecoats-83.200

7. The Cavaliers-80.400

8. Boston Crusaders-80.300

                                                   

Next stop was the Southwestern Championship at the Alamodome in San Antonio. This being one of the larger performances having 26 Corps perform. Hard to believe but the scores were even closer than  in the previous competition with ensembles being separated by .050 of a point.The scores of this show are as follows-

1. The blue Devils-90.400

2. Carolina Crown- 89.550

3. Phantom Regiment-87.750

4. The Cadets- 86.950

5. Santa Clara Vanguard- 85.850

6. Bluecoats- 84.850

7. Madison Scouts- 83.050

8. Boston Crusaders- 81.550

9. The Cavilers- 81.500

10. Spirit of Atlanta- 80.450

11. Blue Knights- 78.650

12. Blue Stars- 77.950

13. Crossmen-77.550

14. Glassmen- 75.200

15. The Academy- 74.600

16. Colts- 72.900

17. Troopers- 72.600

18. Pacific Crest- 72.350

19. Jersey Surf- 69.800

20. Mandarins- 66.950

21. Cascades- 65.100

22. Pioneer- 62.600

Open Class

1. Oregon Crusaders- 78.400

2. Genesis- 73.400

3. Forte- 66.450

4. Revolution- 63.150

 

Finally, on Sunday the 22nd  the World Class Individual & Ensemble Competition took place. Over 400 performers took to the stage with great passion and excitement.  Among the 400 competitors a few members of the D'Addario percussion family finished high in the ranking. Here are a few of our more notable individuals-

Keyboard

1^st – Monica England, The Blue Devils

Timpani

3^rd – Garrett Tyler, The Blue Devils

Tenors

1^st – Chris Drummer, The Blue Devils

2^nd – Onye Eme-Akwari, Bluecoats

Snare

1^st – Keelan Tobia, The Blue Devils

Percussion Ensemble

1^st - Keelan Tobia & Amir Oosman (Snare/Tenor Duet), The Blue Devils

3^rd – Boston Crusaders Percussion Ensemble

Cymbal Ensemble

3^rd – Pioneer Cymbal Ensemble (we don’t do cymbals…but they’re one of our groups, so I included them)

Balanced Set Drumhead System

Upon releasing our Evans G14 heads, we started experimenting with various combinations on the drum set. We started thinking about gearing each head on the kit to the size of the tom it was going on, and came up with the Evans Balanced Set. The idea would be a set of heads with graduated thickness to better suit the tonal qualities of different sized drums.  We can directly connect it with the Pearl Reference line of drums. Pearl Drum Company did research on what wood and ply combination works best with each size drum.  We applied the same principle to the drumheads and were presently surprised with our discoveries.

What is depicted in the picture above and below is a G1 on the 10” tom, a G Plus on the 12” tom and a G14 on the 16” floor tom. This is not an exact science, but more of a general concept. Being that drum sounds are very much based on personal preference, you may want to experiment with different combinations to suite your needs.

This idea came from trying to achieve what every drummer strives for; tone. Sometimes, depending on the physical dimensions of your drums, one head thickness won’t yield the optimal tone for each drum in a set. This concept focuses on maximizing the tonal quality of each drum on your kit.

For more information on any of our heads visit the product portion of the Evans website. http://evansdrumheads.com/EvDrumsetTomBatter.Page?ActiveID=3591.

 

Here is a sampling of some Inked by Evans drum heads for our artists. The quality of both the head and the image are incredible. For more information on how you can create your own Inked head go to http://www.inkedbyevans.com/.

 The Heads

 

Brann Dailor
Mastodon

Darren Leader
Steel Panther

Mikey Montgomery
IWRESTLEDABEARONCE

Joey Cassata
Z02

Brian Smith
Hemlock



Tomas Haake
Meshuggah

Martin Axenrot
Opeth

Matt Halpern
Periphery

Alex Preiss
Psychostick

Glenn Sobel
Alice Cooper

Tony Hajjar
At the Drive In
  

Kenneth Schalk
Fuel

JP Patterson
Manitoba



Jeff Fabb
James Durbin

Carmine Appice
Cactus

    Modern Drummer Poll 2012 Results

Congratulations to all of our winners this year. Some incredible work has been done both on the stage and in the studio. We are so happy that it did not go unnoticed. Here is a list of all the artist and how they did.

Neil Peart (ProMark)- http://www.neilpeart.net/

                Prog 1^st place, Educational DVD 1^st  place

Thomas Pridgen (Evans, ProMark)- https://www.facebook.com/ThomasPridgenFanPage

                Alternative 1^st  place

Steve Smith (PureSound)- http://www.vitalinformation.com/

Fusion 1^st  place

Chris Adler (ProMark)- http://chris-adler.com

Metal 1^st  place, Clinician/Educator 1^st  place.

Matt Halpern (Evans, ProMark)- https://www.facebook.com/matthalp#!/Matthalperndrummer

Metal 2^nd  Place

Brooks Wackerman- (Evans)- http://twitter.com/#!/brookswackerman

Alternative 2^nd place

Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez (Evans, ProMark)- http://www.elnegro.com/

                Fusion 2^nd place

Chad Cromwell (PureSound)- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chad-Cromwell/113518188658841

                Country 2^nd place, Studio 4^th place

Rich Redmond (ProMark, PureSound)- http://www.richredmond.com/

                Country 2^nd place

Billy Ward (Evans, ProMark)- http://www.billyward.com/

                Clinician/Educator 2^nd place

Elaine Bradley (Evans, ProMark, PureSound)- https://www.facebook.com/people/Elaine-Bradley/673249463

                Up and Coming 2^nd place

Charlie Benante (Evans)- http://www.charliebenante.com/

                Metal  3^rd place

Todd Sucherman (ProMark)- http://www.toddsucherman.com/

                Prog 3^rd place, Educational DVD 2^nd place

George “Spanky” McCurdy (Evans)- https://www.facebook.com/george.s.mccurdy

                R&B 3^RD place

Eric Slick (Evans)- http://ericslick.com/

                Up and Coming 3^rd place

Chris McHugh (Evans, PureSound)- http://www.chrismchugh.com/

                Country 4^th place

Jason Bonham (ProMark)- http://www.jasonbonham.net/

Mainstream Rock 4^th place

Glenn Kotche- (Evans, ProMark)- http://glennkotche.com/

                Alternative 4^th place.

Jeremy Spencer (Evans)- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeremy-Spencer-fan-page-official/293852039291

                Metal 4^th place

Jonathan Schang (Evans, ProMark, PureSound)- http://district97.net/

                Up and Coming 4^th place

Richard Bravo (Evans)- http://solisbravo.com/bio/

                Percussion 4^th place

Ari Hoenig (Evans)- http://www.arihoenig.com/

                Educational Book 4^th place

Marco Minnemann (Evans, ProMark)- http://marcominnemann.com/home

                Prog 4^th place

Brann Dailor (Evans)- http://www.mastodonrocks.com/

                Metal 5^th place, Recorded Performance 4^th place

Carl Palmer (ProMark)- http://www.carlpalmer.com/

                Prog 5^th place

Jamire Williams (ProMark)- https://www.facebook.com/jamire.williams

                Jazz 5^th place

Mark Guilliana (Evans)- http://markguiliana.com/

                Fusion 5^th place

Jay Lane-(Pro-Mark)- http://jaylane.net/

                Alternative- 5^th Place

Ben Sesar (Evans, ProMark, PureSound)- http://bensesar.com/

                Country 5^th place

Florian Alexandru-Zorn (Evans)- http://www.besenspiel.de/News.html

                Educational Book 5^th place

Gil Sharone (ProMark)- http://www.gilondrums.com/

                Educational DVD 5^th place

               

    

        

          

       

               

           

               

       

     

          

               

WGI 2012 Recap

Another fantastic season of WGI is in the books! Congratulations to all of the competing groups.

Major congratulations Riverside Community College (ProMark artists) for taking 1st in Independent Marching World with a score of 97.088 and Music City Mystique (Evans artists) for taking 2nd in Independent Marching World. Congrats to South Hills High School (Evans artists), Victor J. Andrew High School (Evans artists), Franklin Central High School (Evans & ProMark artists) for taking the top three (respecitively) in Scholastic Marching Open.

Also, congrats to George Mason University (Evans artists) for taking first in Independent Marching Open with a score of 94.900. Woodbridge High School (Evans artists) took first in Scholastic Concert World with a score of 99.600. Chattanooga Independent (Evans artists) took second in Independent Marching A with a score of 91.725.

As always, we've got plenty of "In the Lot" videos for you from Championships in Dayton, OH. Please visit http://www.youtube.com/user/EvansPercussion and http://www.youtube.com/user/ProMarkdrumsticks for more!

EVANS HIGHLIGHTS:

PROMARK HIGHLIGHTS:



New PureSound Website

The PureSound website is officially received a facelift! In keeping with the rest of the D'Addario percussion brands, PureSoundPercussion.com now features a similar design to EvansDrumheads.com and ProMark.com. Keep an eye out for new product videos, interviews and sound samples coming in the near future!

http://www.puresoundpercussion.com/

In addition, PureSound is now on Facebook and Twitter:

https://www.facebook.com/PureSoundPercussion
https://twitter.com/#!/puresoundsnares