237. Audio For The Carolina Crown Drum & Bugle Corps

In Episode 237, four members of the audio team for Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps — Jonathan Yoo, Rosa Westfall, Tyler Hanson and Cole O’Malley — join Andy Leviss to talk about what goes into reinforcing sound for a modern Drum Corps International performance. They provide an in-depth look at the ins and outs of a true “battleground” audio situation, with 90 seconds or less to set up line arrays, wired microphones, and dozens of channels of wireless in some of the largest stadiums in the world! This episode is sponsored by Allen & Heath and RCF.

Episode Links
Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps
Drum Corps International (Marching Music’s Major League)
Carolina Crown Show — 2023
Carolina Crown Show — 2012 (Cole’s Favorite)
Andy’s High School Band Circa 1998
Episode Transcript

Be sure to check out the Signal To Noise Facebook Group and Discord Server. Both are spaces for listeners to create to generate conversations around the people and topics covered in the podcast — we want your questions and comments!

Also please check out and support The Roadie Clinic, Their mission is simple. “We exist to empower & heal roadies and their families by providing resources & services tailored to the struggles of the touring lifestyle.”

The Signal To Noise Podcast on ProSoundWeb is co-hosted by pro audio veterans Andy Leviss and Sean Walker.

Want to be a part of the show? If you have a quick tip to share, or a question for the hosts, past or future guests, or listeners at home, we’d love to include it in a future episode. You can send it to us one of two ways:

1) If you want to send it in as text and have us read it, or record your own short audio file, send it to signal2noise@prosoundweb.com with the subject “Tips” or “Questions”

2) If you want a quick easy way to do a short (90s or less) audio recording, go to https://www.speakpipe.com/S2N and leave us a voicemail there

Episode Transcript

Transcript

Episode 237 - Carolina Crown Audio Caption

Note: This is an automatically generated transcript, so there might be mistakes--if you have any notes or feedback on it, please send them to us at signal2noise@prosoundweb.com so we can improve the transcripts for those who use them!

Voiceover: You’re listening to Signal to Noise, part of the ProSoundWeb podcast network, proudly brought to you this week by the following sponsors:

Allen & Heath, introducing their new CQ series, a trio of compact digital mixers for musicians, bands, audio engineers, home producers, small venues, and installers that puts ease of use and speed of setup at the heart of the user experience.

RCF, who has just unveiled their new TT+ Audio brand, including the high performance GTX series line arrays and the GTS29 subwoofer. Be sure to check it out at rcf-usa.com. That's rcf-usa.com.

Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green


Andy Leviss: Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Signal to Noise. I'm your host, Andy Leviss, and this week Sean had some client stuff he had to take care of, so fly in solo, drive in the virtual studio. Hopefully I don't crash straight into the ground while Sean's away. Uh, but, uh, there's no lack of folks, uh, to, to hang out with us this week. 

We've got, uh, we've got four guests with me, so, uh, keeping it, keeping it packed in the virtual studio here. We've got, I want to say this is half of the audio team of, uh, the Carolina Crown drum corps. They're all, they're all nodding their heads like, yeah, that's about right. You're, you're not horrible at math. 

Um, so we've got, uh, Tyler Hanson, uh, Cole O'Malley, Jonathan Yu, and Rosa Westfall, if I didn't butcher anybody's names. Cool. Um, why don't we go around real quick and I know, like, Cole, I'll start with you just because you're the one who kind of reached out to me. You want to give us the quick, uh, intro of, uh, what y'all do and then we'll go around and let everybody give us their quick, uh, who, who you are, how you ended up here. 

Cole O'Malley: Sure, yeah, so, uh, my name is Cole O'Malley, I'm the lead A2, uh, for Carolina Crown. Um, AKA like a board operator, is what we consider an A2, and our job is to amplify, uh, the brass and percussion for Carolina Crown. 

Andy Leviss: And, uh, Tyler, you're up next. 

Tyler Hanson: I'm Tyler. I'm one of the A1s at Carolina Crown. And, uh, my job is just hear how the entire product sounds from up in the box and work with our music director, Michael Klesch, to make changes in that regard. 

Andy Leviss: Cool. Uh, working around the circle, uh, Rosa, you're up. 

Rosa Westfall: I'm Rosa. I am the audio coordinator for Carolina Crown. Um, I kind of, uh, help, uh, our caption head, John, um, manage schedules. And, um, I kind of am boots on the ground managing various projects in terms of, um, the execution of, um, Um, the product and system maintenance and system build and, um, kind of all of that. 

Andy Leviss: Right on. And then that leaves us with the last but not least, Jonathan. 

Jonathan Yoo: Hi, I'm Jonathan You. I'm the Audio Caption Supervisor for Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps. My role is to lead up and run the audio team and be the, run the big connections between the audio team and a liaison with the designers and with the, uh, The rest of the people that are at the high level of the drum corps putting the production together. 

Um, also some of the things I do is work with budgets, staffing, um, helping us get the things that we need to have to, for us to have a successful season. And um, you know, just kind of the guy that says, what do you need from me and what, how can I help? 

Andy Leviss: Awesome. So, it sounds like we got like a pretty good cross section of the team covered. Um, why don't we take a step back? Because I know I'm, I'm a marching band kid at heart from when I was in high school, so I know what drum corps is. Why don't we, for listeners who may not be familiar, uh, does one or more of you want to give us a quick, uh, what, what exactly is drum corps and, and maybe how does, how does audio come into it? 

Because I know a lot of, a lot of folks are even familiar with marching band. We'd be like, Sound for that. What do you, what, what sound for that? So why don't you kind of give us that overview and then we'll dive in from there. 

Cole O'Malley: John, I think you'd be good. Or Rosa. 

Rosa Westfall: Oh, um, so, drum corps is, um, a lot like marching band, um, but, uh, there are no woodwinds, um, but there are percussion sections, both, uh, marching battery and front ensemble that stand still, um, as well as a brass section and a color guard. And so, um, In more recent years, um, we have begun amplifying, um, it started kind of with the front ensemble, um, keyboard, percussionists, marimbas, vibraphones, um, where they are just naturally quieter instruments, and so, um, that was kind of the first step in amplifying, um, a drum core parts. 

And, uh, there's also sound design aspects. Um, so synth, um, is kind of the term we use, although it's usually like a MIDI controller connected to a computer running something like main stage. Um, and there's, um, a sound designer who incorporates samples and other electronic kind of aspects. Um, and then in even more recent years, um, we've begun amplifying, um, Soloists on the field, horn line, um, members that are soloists and also now, uh, kind of a greater component of the brass line to kind of help amplify them and, um, and even better shape kind of the musicality of the show. 

Andy Leviss: Right on. Like, I'm torn between the audience or to me being like, that's awesome. And the, like the old school mumbled the years ago, marching band game being like back in my day, we didn't  

Cole O'Malley: back in my day! So, is it 

Andy Leviss: Um, but that's cool. Um, so is it like when you're. When you're amplifying the solos, are you, like, is that, is that wireless, is it like fixed mics that they're like coming up to to play the solo, like how, how does that work? 

Cole O'Malley: Um, it depends 

Rosa Westfall: It's kind of a mixture. Um, it depends just on kind of the staging. Um, there is someone that writes the drill or basically the positions of these musicians like on a football field. And so depending on where, um, they want those members at any given time for that, maybe soloistic moment. Um, sometimes we are able to make it a nice, easy, wired kind of situation um, with a standing mic, but other times if they want them moving during their solo or um, it's just kind of too far out from the front of the field, uh, we will incorporate a wireless. 

Cole O'Malley: and then, and uh, and 

Andy Leviss: Got it. Cool. And then, and, uh, so, and this is touring, like what's a, what's a touring season for drum corps like? 

Cole O'Malley: so there's like planning, you're just, you're out most 

Rosa Westfall: John, do you want to answer that? 

Jonathan Yoo: Yeah, 

so, uh, roughly, we kind of count that the season is 12 weeks long, once we hit the ground running in the summer, uh, usually starting around mid May, ending around the first or second week of August, um, and it's the entire summer, every day, all day type of situation. Um, right now we're in the process, we're in the middle of winter camps, and so there's monthly camps, uh, for the rehearsal season, um, and so on our end, on the audio team side, we don't have a Like, as much, like, things going on in terms of, uh, trying to get, uh, equipment set up right now, it's really, like, hitting the ground running in mid, uh, mid May, excuse me, as we, um, try to get ramped up for a competitive season. 

And so, typically, about, uh, About a month, the first month or so of the summer is where we consider we're in spring training or pre tour. This is where we learn the production, the 10 to 12 minute long production. We learn all the drill, all the shapes on the field, learn all the music, all the choreography and start putting all these things together. 

And once we get to about mid June, we start hitting the road and we start traveling the country from about mid June until the first or second week of August. Typically, we cover about 10 to 12 12, 000 miles by bus and caravan and so it's quite a bit of an undertaking to move the members and the staff of the drum corps and so it's, um, it's one of those things where it's a small, like, it's a small glimmer into what the road touring life is for like our live audio people, um, where, but there are some, there are some nice things about it but there are some difficult and challenges that we have to kind of endure when we go on the road. Particularly with weather, depending on where we are in the country. 

Andy Leviss: Gotcha. Cool. So, so, so there's like planning you're doing like throughout most of the year and then it's those like three months that you're hot and heavy  

Jonathan Yoo: Pretty much. 

Tyler Hanson: Yep.  

Andy Leviss: Cool. That's, yeah, it's like one of those things you don't think, cause I know like if you're, if you're like deep into that world of like DCI stuff, which I know some people who are, like, you know, and it's this whole world that like so many of us know nothing about. 

Um, so I, I guess why don't we, we talked about like who you are and what you, what y'all do there. Uh, how did y'all get into both audio and how did you end up, uh, working on, on drum course stuff? Um, why don't we start, we'll start with Tyler since we haven't heard from you in a little bit. 

Cole O'Malley: got started in  

Tyler Hanson: So, I got started in audio simply because, like, I was playing in, like, a bunch of, like, musical acts when I, was in high school and somebody I'm the guy that recorded everything, since they wanted to put out albums and everything. So, that's pretty much where I got my start. I took that into college trying to be a studio engineer, but then I found, I switched over to live pretty much right after college cause there was more work available and I've been there ever since. And then, my, I think my first live gig was actually being The sound engineer for the core that I used to perform at, Louisiana Stars, and just pretty much downward spiral from there. 

Andy Leviss: What was your instrument? 

Tyler Hanson: I, uh, was a snare drummer and also a drum set player. 

Andy Leviss: Alright. Cool. Cole, what about you? How'd your journey end up here? 

Cole O'Malley: So, um, I was in high school during COVID and, um, I was in marching band all throughout high school and, um, found myself, uh, doing a internship at a church during COVID doing like pre recordings. And that's kind of how I got into audio, um, and doing like main stage patches and watching the front of house engineer. And, uh, I went to school for audio at Appalachian State. I'm still a student at Appalachian State, I'm a senior. And, uh, I had to do something this summer. I love drum corps. Um, wanted to do it, but wasn't the best at my instrument. Um, 

so  

Andy Leviss: was the instrument? 

Cole O'Malley: uh, trombone and baritone. 

Um, in high school, I was a drum major. Um, but yeah, I really wanted to be involved some way. 

And you know, I was in audio school, had to do something. So, uh, get some sort of summer internship. So I emailed, boldly emailed the core, the core director of Carolina Crown. I was like, hey, can I be an intern? And they were like, yeah, sure. 

Andy Leviss: Awesome. 

Cole O'Malley: Kindly enough, they were like, yeah, sure. So in 2022 is my first year. 

I was an intern. Um, some scheduling things happened. Uh, one of our A2s had to leave tour. So, um, I moved up to, uh, be kind of like an A3, A2 and mixed for the rest of the season, um, right after spring training and. Fell into it and I've been here ever since. 

Andy Leviss: I didn't say I saw you, you had sent, like, the, your resume when, when we were chatting about this, and I noticed you, it seemed like it lined up well, that you bumped right from, like, being the intern to the intern coordinator, so I was like, clearly nailed something there. 

Cole O'Malley: Yeah. Well it's just my intern experience was like, I was there from day one, day 88 or what day? 80 something . And, um, that year they wanted me to kind of help the interns out. Um, considering I had, I had done so much this season before and helped them, you know, kind of guide them through it. I. 

Andy Leviss: That's awesome. Um, cool, uh, what about you, Jonathan? 

Jonathan Yoo: So, I'm, uh, I guess the old guy on the staff, um, 

on the crew,  

Andy Leviss: guys represent. 

Jonathan Yoo: and so I, um, I was a high school band director for about 15 years, um, in, uh, in Texas, and, um, you know, as part of the things that we do with, uh, being in Texas, we do a lot of marching band, because there's a lot of football, and so, uh, with that, with our marching band, Um, you know, I started taking on more responsibilities with, uh, electronics and audio, um, to help out a percussion director. 

It's just one of those things where, you know, we spend a lot of plates and wear a lot of hats and there, you know, there's some times where you just get to a bandwidth, uh, limit and so help, uh, started helping them out with it and, uh, kind of taking that on and, um, you know, just, uh, this was kind of like in that 2000. 

8, 9, 10 era. Um, and so just helping, you know, uh, getting set up for the front ensemble, uh, making sure that everything's working and just kind of getting things dialed in. Um, and you know, from those early days was a lot of, uh, asking a lot of questions to other friends in the activity about what they do and how they do stuff and just kind of learning. By trial by fire, and a lot of fire, uh, there's definitely been a lot of fire, but again it's a lot of, a lot of those times when you're on fire is when you learn a lot, um, and, and definitely learned a lot of what not to do, um, and this, uh, this, uh, this, uh, last, like, decade and change of, uh, doing audio for Marching Arts, um, and then As, uh, you know, doing a lot of this with my group and helping out a couple other groups. 

Um, and then, uh, you know, COVID happened. Um, and I was actually transitioning out, uh, of teaching full time to go into the design and consultant world anyways. And, um, uh, one of our, uh, the perm coordinator that I worked with in my school. Uh, uh, she wanted me to kind of work with a couple of her teams and so did just a couple during the COVID year. 

Yes, in Texas we still had marching band and football and during COVID, um, and it just kind of grew from there. Um, and then I got a call from a friend of mine, um, and it's always how it is, right? A friend of a friend of a friend, uh, recommends you and got a gig with the, uh, on the audio team with Santa Clara Vanguard and, uh, 22. 

And then, um, you know, sometime that summer, um, Tony Lyman, who was the former audio caption supervisor, he's a good friend of mine, um, he kind of approached me about coming over to Crown and, uh, you know, just something's happened and, you know, fate always does its work and then I landed at Crown and for, uh, for 23 to help and do what I can and, um, now I've been, uh, named the caption supervisor. 

So that's kind of where I am right now. 

Andy Leviss: Right on, and then, uh, the last, but again, not least, uh, Rosa, what's, what was your journey? 

Rosa Westfall: I, uh, was a musician kind of my whole life, like growing up. In high school I started as a percussionist, um, doing marching percussion, um, involved in, like, marching band and also another similar marching arts activity, uh, called Indoor Drumline. And so I loved doing that and already kind of had plans to go, um, to school for audio production at MTSU. 

And so I was doing that while I was marching, kind of my last, there's age limits to these activities, so it was like my last few years doing it while I was in school. Um, and I was really focusing on, um, studio work. in school. And, um, it, after I aged out, I, uh, just kind of got sucked back in. Um, I've kind of left the marching arts and come back to it a few times at this point. 

But, uh, but I mean, I love it. And it The Marching Arts did so much for me as a member that I like always want to kind of pay it forward as best I can. And so I got my first drum corps gig at Spirit of Atlanta in 2019 and I did that tour. And then, um, I worked with the Blue Coat Strum and Bugle Corps in, uh, 2021, um, because in 2020 we did not have a season. 

And, um, then similarly, Tony called me, uh, And was like, help, we need someone for the last two weeks of tour in 22. Uh, and so I agreed to do it and have been with Crown since. It's also worth noting that Tyler and Cole really, like, did the whole 22 season. Like, they were the audio staff, pretty much exclusively. 

So, they really killed it that season. So, it was really A great, like, opportunity for me to come in and, like, see all this work, the culmination, like, of all the work that they did all summer, and to have, get that experience of the last two weeks, it was really hard to say no to the next year. So, uh, yeah, no regrets. 

Cole O'Malley: So, 

Andy Leviss: So I know you, you mentioned like how like all like your time and periods in the marginal arts did so much for you. Like what sort of, like what sort of other things did it do for you that is what, what drew you back in? 

Rosa Westfall: Um, I think it just gave me, like, a passion for, well, you know, as a student, um, I got a great music education from it, but also just, um, it's Drum Corps especially is, um, kind of tough work. It's a lot of long hours, so there's just, like, life skills that you tend to learn through music education at, like, that kind of a demand, whether that's, like, time management, or, like, how to effectively practice, and, um, Yeah, like communication skills and self discipline. 

I don't know, like a lot of just life skills that, um, that I really, really value and, and use in my personal, like in my profession, like every day. And I still work as a studio engineer and, um, and I definitely got a lot from Drum Corps that like goes into that work as well. 

Cole O'Malley: well. I don't know, 

Andy Leviss: Like both on the, on the musical side and the like interrelationship and communication side? 

Rosa Westfall: Yes, absolutely. 

Andy Leviss: Cool. And I realized I asked everybody else their instruments other than Jonathan, you, you said you teach. So I assume a little bit of everything. 

Cole O'Malley: bit of  

Jonathan Yoo: Yeah, a little bit of everything, but oddly enough, my main 

instrument is actually saxophone.  

Andy Leviss: Okay. Okay. I was going to say mine, mine was saxophone. And I still, I, I, I have a soprano and alto upstairs that I really should dust off. I have not played them in far too long. 

Cole O'Malley: on or  

Jonathan Yoo: same. Um, I was actually staring at it today when I was working at uh, at my desk. 

And I was like, I should probably, uh, get some new reeds cause they're probably some, some, they're from before COVID. but, uh, yeah, I played saxophone as my main instrument, um, did my music education degree. The University of Houston and I actually marched baritone euphonium at the Madison Scouts back way in the day, um, like in the 2002 to 2005 range, so, I was actually marching drum chord before there's amplification, and then when amplification, was actually legalized. and so, You know, way before that, amplification, just marching band has always been legal, but then, um, in drum corps wasn't actually legalized until 2004. And then I believe electronics are using sense and samples weren't, uh, uh, legalized until 2009. 

So a lot of this is still kind of 

relatively quote unquote new, um, ish or on the, in the, young, uh, stages of, of what we've been able to do in this activity. But it's definitely grown quite a bit like exponential growth. And  

Andy Leviss: Yeah, like I remember like late 90s when I was in high school, like, I mean, to a certain point, almost anything was, was legal, but like watching and you'd always like, you'd talk your eyebrow, like the, the schools that have like more like electronic and like playback stuff and be like, is that cheating? 

That feels like cheating. I don't know, man.  

Cole O'Malley: man.  

Andy Leviss: Um, and for the, I, I I, 

Cole O'Malley: I, 

Andy Leviss: uh, I've lost track of a thought there, but Yeah. 'cause I was, I was back in the day where like the, the, to give you an idea of the time period, which might only mean anything to Jonathan, is I was in the period where, here in the northeast it was, uh, CNBC, the cadets marching band cooperative, and then transitioned to like US Scholastic, uh, when, like the cadets, I guess, pulled away from that organization. 

So like late nineties. Um, but yeah. Uh, what was it? Uh. I think technically we were, yeah, US Scholastic 98 marching band champions the one year. So that's like my clip, my way to go out my senior year. That's, I didn't send it to the rest of you. I sent Cole the photo of all of our seniors from that competition, um, which was a fun to go. 

That's, uh, when, when Cole was sending some photos of y'all earlier, I was like, oh, I should go diving. I think I have one. I'll throw into the email, but I didn't reply all to everybody, but I'll, I'll post it in the discord, uh, for, for folks who are listening. So they can, they can look at a very, very young Andy. 

Yeah, Cole's holding it up on his phone for, for everybody else there.  

Tyler Hanson: Oh, I can barely see that, Cole.  

Andy Leviss: the, on the left there. Um, uh, yeah, so I know we, we touched on this a little bit in the intros, but there's a number of roles that just, that's always the thing for different industries, between theater, concert, whatever, we all have like A1, A2, whatever, and like every little pocket of the industry defines them different. 

And I know you, you talked to, y'all talked about some of the ways you define that, but, and then there's also like other titles that seem very unique to Drum Corps. So, I don't know, does one of you want to volunteer to kind of give us the rundown of like what all the positions are? 

Cole O'Malley: Rational, Shannon, uh, 

Jonathan Yoo: sure, um, I'll start like, so, Memaril's audio caption supervisor, kind of, It kind of defines itself. I'm just the, the top of the food chain, uh, also the first one to get yelled at, so, uh, it comes with the territory, but it's, you know, my job is to, uh, uh, hire the audio staff, um, uh, take a look, you know, making sure we're managing budgets in terms of staffing budgets, equipment budgets, uh, looking at the needs, uh, that we have for the program for that summer. Do we have the equipment currently that we need, or do we need to buy something new? and working with the core admin staff about trying to get things ordered and you know what are the things that are worth buying or not worth buying and like you know the designers like we want to do this thing it's like well we can do that however it's going to cost this many dollars is it worth the squeeze that sort of thing and so to kind of be able to kind of work between the designers and what we can really do as an audio team because again a lot of times the designers will just ask can we do this And most of the things they ask for is, like, the answer is yes, it's just a matter of time and money. And so, like anything else, and so that's kind of a lot of things I'll do on my end. Also, like, trying to keep everyone's summer schedule organized, like who's flying in and flying out, managing all those things, and then, um, and, you know, that's kind of the overview of what I do. And then from there, it goes to Rosa as Hertel's audio coordinator, and like she said, she's the boots on the ground, she's kind of on the day to day. You know, making sure that the, um, that the train is still moving forward. Uh, you know, if there's any concerns or things we need to, uh, take care of, she'll address those with the rest of the team and, uh, as, as we work through the summer. And then, uh, like Tyler is also one of our A1s and, um, like one of the A1s jobs are really the Be the ones running the caption if I'm not on the road or Rose is not on the road and manage, managing the team there, um, and also being the, and being upstairs or what we call upstairs, like at the, in the press box during rehearsals, you know, if, uh, if our music director, Michael Clutchley, hey, I want that louder or softer, uh, we'll usually, our A1s like Tyler will communicate that down to Cole, uh, who's our A2. And in our world, um, our a twos, our board ops, so they're the, uh, people on the, on the console running, running the console, making volume changes, uh, level changes, uh, scene changes, all that sort of stuff. And so, um, and that also rolls into, into, into, um, our performances where they're the ones running the console and doing all the scene changes and, and doing some live mixing, uh, at the same time. Um, and then we have our a threes and, um, the, that role is specifically for our wireless coordination. Uh, 'cause right now we're running. Anywhere between 24 to 30 channels of wireless, and so, if anyone knows what it's like to manage that much wireless, it is a lot to handle, and that's part of their gig to make sure all the wireless is up and running, you know, packs have batteries, everything's working. Um, scanning, deploying signals, and, and then, and frequencies, and then just making sure that, um, uh, they're monitoring all that, uh, all the RF stuff, uh, because, you know, some parts of the country are great, and some parts of the country are 

not  

Andy Leviss: in Texas. 

Jonathan Yoo: exactly, especially like 

that DFW market, 

Andy Leviss: Yep. I was going to say DFW, Miami, like every, yeah, everybody looks at me in New York and they're like, Oh, you guys have it out there. I'm like, we have it fairly easy compared to some places other than just like every once in a while stuff will randomly fire on, on the Empire State Building for testing. 

And then it's like, where did that come from? And half of Broadway, you know, clenches simultaneously,  

Cole O'Malley: yeah, 

like,  

Jonathan Yoo: yeah, yeah. 

Cole O'Malley: chime in on the RF part because, 

like, we've got, we've got 24 to 30 channels, but there's also 7 other cores, maybe 3 other, 3 to 7 other cores at each show that also have between, you know, One channel and 32 channels of wireless that are going on before and after us and we have to hope to God Sometimes that everyone is using their allotted frequencies And if there's no frequency coordination group that pray God they turn them off. 

So that's another crazy part about the RF coordination 

Andy Leviss: Copy. So there's, there's no like one person in officially in charge of that for the whole  

Cole O'Malley: no, it's, it's usually on a core by core basis, unless it's at the regionals and at DCI finals, um, that usually frequency coordination group will be there and they'll divvy out frequencies. But at the smaller, uh, local shows, it's usually, there's almost never, um, 

someone there to give out frequencies. It's, we'll show up about two hours before, two, three hours before the show, do a scan, deploy. 

Get the packs out while the brass is warming up. 

Andy Leviss: Copy. So it's a little bit of like, let's get ours on first so we stake out our territory. 

Tyler Hanson: of, sorta, yeah. We kind of, like, step on each other a little bit, but like, there's this kind of unspoken rule that you keep your transmitters off until you're on the field, and 

everybody usually follows that. 

Jonathan Yoo: And a lot 

of times if someone goes on first, they might be like, Hey, this like 4 72 5 was giving us problems, but it wasn't showing on, on workbench. And they'll, you know, we'll help each other out and let, let let each other know, like if there's some problem, problem frequencies. And so, uh, it's kind of a collective effort within, uh, especially within DCI with all the audio engineers too. like help each other out because if someone has issues that means somebody else could have issues and then it can snowball from there and so it's kind of one of those like, um, like, like we just are there to help each other out and support each other whichever way we can. 

Andy Leviss: Awesome. Um, rewinding. I want to get back onto that, that and like some of the gear side of it, but just re rewinding for a second to title. Cause I know you keep mentioning captions and caption head. And I, and I know that's a term I'm not familiar with. So like, what, what exactly does that mean in your world? 

Jonathan Yoo: Um, for the, like, so the caption heads or caption supervisors, those are the people that are in charge of that section so we have like a brass caption head, a percussion caption head, or a battery caption head and a front ensemble caption head. 

Andy Leviss: Copy. So like caption is basically another word for section. 

Jonathan Yoo: Yes. Yes. And 

then, um, so that kind of like divvies up, uh, everyone's, uh, roles within the organization. And so essentially it's like, uh, it's also like the point person for that, for that section or that, that caption. So if something's going on, like, uh, admin and leadership can go to them and say, what's going on? Or, hey, how's this going? That sort of thing. 

Andy Leviss: Got it. And then, um, yeah, on the equipment side. So like when you're like, when you're doing those local shows where it's like three or four different chords performing together, is it like, how does that work equipment wise? Like, is it all shared? Are you all bringing everything of your own? Like what, what are you traveling with? 

What are you using? Where? 

Cole O'Malley: we own everything.  

Andy Leviss: those listening at home, Jonathan just like put his face in his hand and just rubbed it as far as like, uh, 

Rosa Westfall: So, one of the unique things I think about, like, our activity is, like, we have a lot of, like, really interesting kind of, like, like, rules and regulations that's kind of, like, inherent in the activity, and one of them, like, probably the first one I'd say is that it is an entirely self contained system, and, um, So you can't expect that there will be house anything or shared anything. 

Um, there is, I think, generally house power, but that is also not something, and depending on your system, like something that's reliable. So we even like have generators to run our power. And, um, and we are also very meticulous in how we design the system because the, I think next biggest, uh, kind of. A limitation that we have is that we have to set all of it up and have it running in about 90 seconds. 

And that is also pretty unique, uh, for our activity. So, um, so drum chords do not share equipment or anything. Um, it's a great community that if, you know, something breaks, usually, um, it's a pretty, like, close community, so we probably will know someone in some drum corps, um, that is there that might, you know, have a spare this, that, or the third, but, uh, generally, we are all completely self contained in terms of our system. 

And 

Andy Leviss: cool. Um, that, so, I mean, let's talk about that cause like setting it up in 90 seconds, like I, I mean, my imagination is running away with like, what, what is, what is the system you're using? You want to give us like the big like overview of, of what, what exactly it is you're using and how, how you're packaging that to set up so fast? 

Rosa Westfall: does anyone else want to take this? 

Cole O'Malley: I can talk about the gear.  

Tyler Hanson: Yeah, I guess I can give 

it a  

Cole O'Malley: gear nerd. 

Tyler Hanson: Alright, so, uh, currently we run, uh, two stacks of, uh, Nexo line arrays. With subs over that, those are on their own, uh, specialty built carts. And we also, um, ran, uh, two, uh, small point source speakers over their own subwoofer as well in the middle of our, uh, front ensemble setup. We also have our mixer on a cart, all of our RF is on a cart. We have Uh, field mic stands that are, that get the, uh, entire, uh, ensemble that's on the field mic'd up as well. There's mics underneath all of our, um, percussion instruments. And, yeah, getting all that stuff set up. in 90 seconds is a pain. It's a, it's actually like a very well rehearsed and choreographed thing that we have to work on early in the summer in order to get it set up correctly at every single show. Multiple performers have Various responsibilities, whether it's pushing the carts or pulling the cables and plugging them into the right spots and With us having other responsibilities, but also having to stay on top of that it gets wild for sure  

Cole O'Malley: uh, stay 

Andy Leviss: Got it. Uh, so like microphone wise, like what are, what are you typically using for different things? 

Tyler Hanson: This past year we did Audio Technica AT2035s under our boards, and I think a couple of our boards we had SM57s under as well Um, we did timpani, but also we had AT35s as a distance mic because that's more the sound they wanted as opposed to the close mic of the timpani. We do, uh, I forgot the model of the Shure, uh, stereo mics that we use for our field mics. 

Yeah, the VP88s. Thank you, Cole. And, um, we used, uh, Beta 98s as our, uh, brass mics as well. 

Andy Leviss: Copy. So nothing, nothing crazy, crazy unusual. Like what are like, like, are these, are you tending to like stuff on stands, like clamped to instrument stands? Like what, what are you doing to streamline that and make life easy? 

Tyler Hanson: We're, uh, we are clamping pretty much everything to every instrument as much as possible. I think the only, like, stands that we have that we use are the field mic stands, so. 

Andy Leviss: Right on. It was just like LP claws or like, 

Tyler Hanson: Yeah, we, they have, uh, Clamps that are made to clamp onto our instruments and don't know how to describe it, but they're like these little square clamp things that we clamp onto the pipes and then they have, um, they're normally used for like mounting percussion equipment, but we mount mic stands to those and 

from there.  

Andy Leviss: Yeah. I've, I've done that one of my, actually my first, uh, theater tour, we got spoiled where it was a custom drum kit, like with the whole rack and frame. So everything was all. And, yeah, like it took us about two tour stops to figure out like, wait a second, he's got a pile of extra hardware, we don't need any of these weighted basses, let's just like clamp those, like a pipe's a pipe, clamp it in there and go. 

And it went from like, yeah, like 20 minutes to set up the drum kit and all the mics to like Six at most, which still isn't 90 seconds, but you know, theater gonna theater. 

Rosa Westfall: on the like keyboard instruments in the front ensemble, which is mostly the, that like hardware, um, mounting kind of systems, they stay on there all summer. So, um, they don't like disassemble like the keyboards, um, like when they load into the truck. And so those are things that, that can actually like. 

just stay on there for the whole season unless, you know, we have to swap them out or, you know, something happens, they bump something or, um, but yeah, generally those can pretty permanently stay on there and the wiring also generally stays on there, um, in a fa but is tied in in a fashion that they plug to, like, to each other's boards, like, daisy chained through keyboards, um, and yeah, and into, um, like a Cat5 breakout, um, that then gets run to our synth cart. 

Andy Leviss: Right on. That, that certainly makes it a lot easier. So, so basically you've got a cart that's running, that's got all the, like all the main stage interfaces and computers and all that. 

Rosa Westfall: Correct, that's for, yeah, for the synthesizer, so that, that's I guess the, another cart that I think Tyler had mentioned yet, um, that, yes, has, it's a, um, Redundant system, so that, um, because a lot of sound design, um, sound design is really huge in the marching arts now, and, um, especially in, like, transitional portions of the show, and so, um, a lot of, like, the general effect is, like, a caption that we are judged on, um, as a drum corps, and some of that can be affected if our, uh, So, Sound design goes down, and if for whatever reason the synth, um, stops working, the computer freezes, um, whatever that is, uh, so we have two computers running and that are doing the same thing at the same time, so that if something does go wrong, um, they can really easily switch, and there's also stage boxes in that cart, um, which is how we kind of tie in, like, different parts, different inputs, all the way back to the mixer, um, with Tio and Rio. 

Andy Leviss: Copy. So, and is, is it the player that's doing the switching over? Is it, is it like one of y'all that does it, that switches over? 

Cole O'Malley: switching 

Rosa Westfall: Yeah, it's, it's the player. We, we try our best to, um, give, like, good information and kind of train the members, especially in the front ensemble, because there's so much of, like, the audio side integrated into their world. We try our best to train them really well, um, to take care of the things, um, right, to, you know, know when they should or shouldn't unplug and what to do if something goes wrong, um, especially the synth player because the synth player has, um, all that kind of right there, um, then we kind of have to trust that they, um, they know how to handle things if Things happen, and they always do, because we're definitely, like, loading and unloading the truck, like, twice a day, usually, on the road, um, so a lot can happen in those, like, loads and unloads, and, um, plus it's super hot in Texas, so, just, like, the heat and, um, And just wear and tear that happens on all the gear is, um, pretty immense, so we try our best to make sure that everyone's really aware of what the gear can and can't take in the course of the summer. 

Andy Leviss: Right on. And so just getting nerdy about it because like redundant systems have been a large part of my life over the years. I'm gonna say that's like like a radial or whirlwind like switcher kind of situation or Jonathan's not I like nope. 

Cole O'Malley: if it's on, I 

Andy Leviss: So what are what are you using for that? 

Jonathan Yoo: We're somewhat low tech ish. I say that, but there's a lot of tech in it. Both of our Mac minis are running over Dante with 

Dante Virtual Soundcard. And then we have a KVM that we use to switch the trackpad and the keyboard and the synth over between Mac 1 or 2 or A or B. And so that's kind of how we run it, and we run both Macs into the console. At the same time, and we have each of the Macs on their own Mute group. And so, uh, Mac 1 is always the primary Mac, Mac 2s are secondary. So if something's wonky, like say Cole's at the console and he's like, Yo, look, something's weird. We have like a signal, like a hand sign or something, or a flare. Um, and then that's when the, the synth player will notice, uh, switch, uh, hit the KVM switch and switch over. And so, um, there's, so there's a lot of, um, like, it's. Low tech in terms of equipment, but, uh, we are running all that over Dante. So, um, which is super cool, but as a lot of us know, sometimes Dante is Dante. And, um, and so we've been able to mitigate a lot of that. And, uh, Cole and I kind of, uh, were able to brought some new gear into the system this last summer and it really helped out with the network. 

Cole, you want to elaborate on that? 

Cole O'Malley: Yeah, we've been using the, the new Netgear 4250 switches, 

um, and they are just like so sturdy. Um, there's, and this is our managed, you know, you think of most managed switches to, you're taking about 10 minutes, um, to set up, to, you know, configure for Dante. But, um, the good thing about these is that you can. Just, it had like profiles, so you just set it all to, it's like Dante profile, and you're good to go. And it also has like all these different like AV compatibilities, so like you can run NDI for video, it can run AVB, it can, like it's got all these profiles that are just preset for you. So, go in, you log into the IP address, and do everything, it takes like Maybe a minute. And they, and if you have like a issue, you call up NETGEAR, they know exactly what you're talking about. They know AV, they know pro AV. So like, they've been an absolute dream to use. 

I don't think we had any. Issues this summer, 

Rosa Westfall: Nope. 

Cole O'Malley: with them. No, they were, they were perfect. Yeah. 

Andy Leviss: Like I've, I've up until recently was working in installs and dealt with the Netgear switches a lot and yeah, the 4250s are great. Like the only time I think I ever had issues was when we started getting into systems that needed like 10 gig systems. So we had like the 4500 core switches and things get a little esoteric. 

There, but yeah, with like the 4250s alone. Yeah. So it's like those and like with, yeah, Luminex switches coming out that make like, yeah, Dante use like a thing you don't have to think about at all. And it's after years and years of configuring other brands of switches and having like 10 page cheat sheets of, of what to set up. 

It's nice to be like, Nope, just click the button and it'll work 

Cole O'Malley: Yeah. And since we're, uh, pretty much Yamaha native system, you know, we're using Nexo and we're using a QL5, we're using Tios, Rios, and all that Dante stuff is integrated into almost all the Yamaha gear. Um, it's just, it's a breeze, you know, it all works super well. Um, that's some of the best parts about it. 

Andy Leviss: right on. Um, so yeah, we covered, yeah, Nexos, we covered the speakers, um, so I know we talked about you had, uh, carts on there and I, so it's all, like, ground stacked arrays. 

Tyler Hanson: Yes. 

Andy Leviss: Cool. And, uh, like, when you're, when you're performing it, like, it's, I, I assume we're, we're mostly exclusively in, like, stadiums or, 

Tyler Hanson: Yes. 

Andy Leviss: and is it like, are you selling, like, is it, is it full around or are you only covering, like, the one side of it or how does, how does that tend to work for Drum Corps? 

Tyler Hanson: We, we really only cover the, uh, side that we're performing to. 

Cause I mean, it doesn't make sense for people to try to watch the show from the back. Cause that's gonna be like, a weird timing thing, 

obviously. But, yeah. 

Rosa Westfall: are visual elements of the show as well that Wouldn't make sense backwards. And 

Andy Leviss: Yeah. It was, it was, it was the weird thing in marching that is like, you are sort of performing to both sides, but you typically like, we're just like, you, that side is what it is. It's, it's the visitors. Don't worry about them. 

Cole O'Malley: that 

Tyler Hanson: Right, yeah. 

Andy Leviss: Um, cool. Uh, I mean, what's the, you guys, like, what's the craziest thing that happened to y'all the last season? 

Like, any, any fun, like, oh my god. 

Rosa Westfall: I think the craziest thing that happened is that we had, I don't want to jinx it, but so few problems. Like, I think that we were so worried. Like, last year was the first year we did, um, the wireless thing to the extent that we did. And, um, because that is pretty new to individually mic horn members, um, to help, help reinforce, like the overall brass sound is very new. 

And, um, Very few cores do it, um, just because of the financial barrier that there is, but, um, but it was kind of Crack Carolina Crowns first time diving into that, and I think that all of us were just so worried that something would go wrong because we didn't really have that experience, that we were so, uh, on top of it, that, um, it went really smoothly, um, smoother than any season I had I don't think I've ever done a drum corps before. 

Andy Leviss: awesome. And we're in January now, so we can safely say that, and at least that season's passed. We're not entirely tempting the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing. Um, so, give me an idea of, like, numbers and, like, how many, how many members are in a core? And, like, as you're starting to, like, fill out with, like, miking folks, like, how many of those are miked or not miked, and how does that work? 

Ha, ha, ha, ha. 

Jonathan Yoo: What's the limit now, guys? Is it 152? 154, I think? Or is it 

Cole O'Malley: sounds right.  

Jonathan Yoo: Something. 

like that. Back in my day, I'll say that. It was like, it used to be like 120, 124, 128, and so then the the size of the drum cores have grown. But, you know, let's say it's like around 152 ish of all the members on the on the field. 

The front ensemble is right now looking to be six marimbas, six vibes, xylophone, glock, timpani. Um, and then, um, uh, a synth or two, and then, um, and so that's a good number of, uh, of performers in the front ensemble. Then that's where, uh, you know, a lot of the, all the percussion, sound design stuff comes out of there for us. 

And then, uh, like we said, for the brass, anywhere, anywhere, uh, between 24 to 30 or even possibly 32, uh, brass members are miked depending, um, on top of if they're a soloist, if it's a specific instrument like. This past summer, we had a, a concert French horn that started the program so that, uh, that instrument had a mic. 

We had a concert euphonium, uh, in the ballad, uh, on top of, uh, like the six or so trumpets, the couple mellophone, couple baritones, and the two of us that we, that we kinda, uh, micd across entire, uh, across the horn line. And so. Um, that's kind of the extent of what's getting miked for the most part. Um, and then the five VPD 8s ran across the front sideline, horned at the field to pick up some of the larger moments where like the horn line is stretched from like, uh, goal line to goal line, uh, to really kind of pick up the entire field itself. 

So, that, that in itself does present itself with some challenges where You inadvertently pick up the snare drums and you're not trying to pick up the snares or you actually 

Andy Leviss: So exactly like rock and roll. 

Jonathan Yoo: yeah Only if we could put them all in isolate an iso booth, that'd be great. Um, or sometimes it's it's also this as we start the season, it's kind of like there's it's all noise and then as we go through we we comb things out and and like and get clarity as the horn line gets more clear with tuning and and and balance and things like that same thing with the with the percussion and their volumes and their balance as it keeps getting refined then it's like oh that That thing wasn't a problem. 

That didn't, what was that? And then things start kind of creeping up that weren't problems because there's other things that were kind of in the foreground. And so for us, it's like we start in mid May, but then it's a entire summer of combing through the entire program constantly. Finding things that like just keep popping out here and there. 

Or we go to this one venue where we're rehearsing in this large stadium for three days, but it's got a 15 foot wall in front of us. So that's like, okay, so that's going to cause other things to start reflecting back and causing feedback that we've never had before. And so then we just keep working to comb those things out. And that's the, that's the thing that I think that really, uh, helped us excel at what we did as a team is that everyone was on board on the team, on the audio team to like make Carolina Crown the best version of Carolina Crown, do our part. But to like always keep going like, well, is this good enough? No, it's not, it's not good enough. 

We got to keep going, keep going. And even all the way to like finals day, the last day we're still combing out some stuff with the timpani because once we got into Lucas Oil Stadium for finals. You know, we go into an indoor, uh, indoor, uh, stadium, and then all of a sudden, there's stuff like in the 500 range that starts humming back in the, in the stadium. And it's like, that wasn't a problem, uh, earlier this week or last week. But then it's like, we got to find this, this issue and kind of comb it out. Three days and try to get it to be as tight as we can. And so, you know, that's one of those things where it's, for us, it can seem neurotic because we're always constantly like going like, we gotta fix it. 

We gotta fix it. But it, for, for us, it's like for those members on the field, 'cause there's those 154 members on the field that are busting their butts every day. Sweating, like going through all the emotions of rehearsal and performances. And we're on our side with our cast and we're the adults in the room and we have to make sure we do our best so that they can have the best performance as possible. 

And, you know, if something does go sideways, like in a rehearsal, you bet that every single person on the audio team is like figuring out what went wrong. And we feel we all feel that personal accountability, like, oh, we just disappointed the drum corps and those kids and those students and members on the field. And so we're here to help them and help. Lift them up and so that they can have the best performances all summer long. And so that's one of the things I think that really like helped our, helps our team gel together because we're all on the same page. It's like, it's not about myself or Rosa or Tyler or Cole, the rest of the team. 

It's not any one individuals, all of us working together for the common goal to make Carolina Crown as best as, as best as they can be and make this version of Carolina Crown the strongest version that we can, uh, and do what we can to help. 

Rosa Westfall: Yeah, I think also that like Carolina Crown specifically has such like a rich history of the brass line like I think that, like, miking the brass like we did this past year and We will do this year is, um, really daunting specifically for Carolina Crown because they, they award, um, caption awards, um, at finals, which, um, like the Color Guard or the Percussion or the Brass will receive awards, um, separate from like the overall score, um, or rank. 

Well, yeah, the overall score ranking, um, And Carolina Crown has won High Brass, or the Brass Award, it's called the Gemat, many times before, and has just like a really big, um, you know, rich history of their brass line, and like, I was super pumped to be involved with Crown when I started. because I love their brass line. 

Like, I was a percussionist, and so I, you know, but I, Carolina Crowne was like the only brass line I knew because I loved it so much. Like, I had, you know, YouTube to mp3 downloaded their 2013 warm ups and stuff. Like, I, so being a part of like this kind of new step that we've taken as a drum corps was like very, like, Important that we get it right, I think, for all of us and, um, including the other captions, like, I'm sure, like, it really kind of speaks to the trust that they have of us as a, um, team that they were willing to kind of take that step with us and that, you know, we're able to, like, listen to each other and collaborate on this bigger, like, production that we create. 

Um, and yeah, for the members, because ultimately it's an educational experience and it's a performance experience for those members. They pay a lot of money to do the activity and, um, and they deserve the best run at the, on the last day. 

Cole O'Malley: the last 

Andy Leviss: what, what is the age range of the members? 

Cole O'Malley: the age 

Rosa Westfall: Uh, I don't know if there's a lower age limit, usually like 16, 17 I think is the lower limit, but um, the age out is 21. Um, like if you turn, I think you're allowed to turn 22 during the summer? I can't remember the specific date, but 21 is the age limit, ultimately. 

Andy Leviss: Um, so Jonathan, you mentioned, uh, briefly, uh, about like when you're getting into finals, there, there's three days that there's like three days of rehearsal stuff, or like how to, how does that work? And like, how many cores are, are, are participating at that point? 

Jonathan Yoo: So, we get to the final week in August for us, and we call it finals week, Um, so, um, it actually starts Monday and Tuesday with the open class drum cores, and they have their open class prelims and championships on Monday and Tuesday, and then depending on where some of those cores place, the, uh, higher placing cores will actually Uh, get to perform at, uh, quarterfinal, sorry, prelims on, uh, on Thursday night. 

I'm starting to definitely age myself here. I used to call it quarterfinals, but, um, they, so some of those, 

uh, open class groups, plus all the world class groups will, um, will perform Thursday, uh, for prelims. And then, after that, there's a cut for semifinals going into Friday, and then after that, there's the final cut going to finals night on Saturday. 

And so, Um, you know, the, the, the numbers. fluctuate a little bit, year to year, depending on if some chords are coming out, or not, but, uh, typically, for, I believe, for prelims, it's somewhere around, 24 groups are performing that 

day or so, you know, ish, and then the cut, then it gets cut down to semis, um, which maybe just might be like somewhere between like 20ish, 2021 maybe, um, or so. 

And then it gets cut down from there to the top 12 finalists. Um, and um, like we're, uh, since we're a world class drum core, our first performance is Thursday night. And, you know, again, we, we are, Typically outside for all of our shows except for, um, two of our major regionals at, uh, San Antonio at the Alamo Dome and, um, actually, no, sorry, Atlanta is also outside at the Brace Stadium or former Brace Stadium, um, but, uh, the challenge is definitely when we are tuning the system and saying your balances and everything and we're outside. And then we go inside into a dome facility that definitely does change things and, um, you know, it's one of those things like you don't know exactly what it sounds like until you get in there. Uh, like, you know, every year you go, okay, this is what we're probably going to sound like when we're in there, but, you know, every program's, uh, every show's different, you know. 

The staging changes all the time, so some things that worked last year might not work as much this year. And so there's some of those things where it's a constant moving target. Where like we, we have our like, okay, we're going to set up our mics to here, here's our EQs for everything, here's our gain structure and all that sort of stuff. And then we just, from there, it's like, we then have to keep like, like I said, combing through and adjusting. But those, uh, those three, those three nights that we get in there, it's three opportunities for us to find the things that are still kind of, uh, might be issues. And so we get a very limited time actually during finals week because it's not a lot of rehearsal. 

It's just, uh, maybe three, four hours on, uh, on those days. And then you just, uh, got to pack up and head down to Lucas Oil and do your performances. So, um, they're, 

those challenges  

Andy Leviss: you're, not even rehearsing on the field. You're rehearsing  

Jonathan Yoo: No, no, no, we're at a different site. So we don't, we don't rehearse inside Lucas Oil. So that's a huge thing to where, like in live touring and live, live audio where, you know, let's say we take a certain superstar who has been on tour making, you know, lots of stops, their, her crew. 

Rolls in and then they get to set up and they fire, they tune, they test the whole place out. Like Rosa said, we get 90 seconds and we aim it to the front sideline and we hope that we get most of it right, honestly. And it's like, you know, did all the mics work? Did we get any feedback? All right, cool. 

Everything worked, you know, and that's, that's part of the, the huge challenge is the fact that our venue changes. every performance. And 

so we can go from like a small high school stadium that's like 10 rows of bleachers and then all of a sudden we go into the Alamo Dome or we go into, um, like, you know, insert any professional stadium here type of thing. 

Andy Leviss: yeah, well, I was going to ask because I realized we kind of glossed over that. We talked about having 90 seconds to set up. We didn't even mention on like, do you even EQ bro? 

Cole O'Malley: 90 seconds, 

Tyler Hanson: we, 

um, we actually go through, our this year we went through our whole system tuning process at our home base in, um, at Gardner Webb, which is where we do our spring training at. and, that's where we start to uh, set our shading, put it through SMART, make sure that everything's set up. And then from there it's just pretty much all prediction and NS1 for every stadium and then just using our ears on the fly and making sure that it translates as well. 

Andy Leviss: Copy. And, and, uh, S1 I assume is the, is Nexo's control. I'm going to say that's one of the few brands I don't know super well. cool. And I was in, I mean, I guess when you're like outdoors a lot, that does certainly take some of the variables out of it until you get to those like domed and like enclosed spaces. 

At least I, I imagine that makes the, the, the spray and pray a little easier. 

Tyler Hanson: Yes, absolutely. 

Jonathan Yoo: And, you know, every stadium is different. And so some stadiums are easier to get into and the flow is easy getting in and out of the field. So, you know, depending on who's in, you know, there's a group in front of us getting, getting done with their performance coming off the field. Some, you know, sometimes there's, you know, one entrance and a different exit. 

Sometimes everything goes in the same. 10 foot wide entrance. And, um, that is, 

That's um, that, that can be 

very, yes. and it can be very, very stressful. Um, we're like, you know, when like myself, Rosa or Tyler have been upstairs, like mixing the show and calling the show, we're walking, looking down going, Oh my God, Oh my God. and then it's like, you, know, unfortunately we don't have like communication with like Cole as he's coming on until, and so like, it's like, I hope everything's going okay. Like you see this giant traffic jam. It is. Bumper cars down there, uh, with just the front ensembles, and then you layer in all the props and then all the other things that are going on, on the field. 

It's, it's a lot. And it's, you know, uh, a lot of that, uh, a lot of that crowd control and the, and the traffic control downstairs on the floor. A lot of that's done with like the, a two's, like Cole's, like the one's like, all right, let's go. And there's kind of, he's kind of down there directing traffic a lot of times and go like, you know, like, you know where to set the, the mixer cart, the RF cart plugging stuff in, making sure everything gets. 

Like, where it needs to, and so it's, um, like it, like, uh, I think Tyler mentioned, we, it's a well choreographed, um, setup and teardown, and it's something that we practice a lot, because again, like, this, the 90 seconds we get is literally no joke. It's 90 seconds, and we gotta be ready to roll, and it's, if it's not, if it's not up that, up in those 90 seconds or so, then we start getting people like, what's going on? 

Why is, why are we still, why are we still setting up? What, like, what can we get, you know, and so then it, like. It kind of, unfortunately, can create a little more anxiety for everybody and again on our end it's, you know, what can we do to make sure that the members are taken care of and so that their anxiety is, you know, they already have their anxiety as a performer. 

We don't want to add to that because we're trying to plug things in and, you know, and again there's some human error. Sometimes it's, uh, oh we forgot to turn on the breakers on the motion labs or, yeah, the NL4 didn't get Locked into place. And so, you know, there's but you know, those there are those those minor mishaps that happen Obviously, we try to you know, try not allow those things to creep in too often. So 

Andy Leviss: Got it. Uh, I mean, we're, we're coming around. I feel like we've covered a lot of, is there, is there anything that, that y'all thought I was going to ask or wish I'd asked that I haven't yet? I'm getting, I'm getting mostly blank stares, so I feel like that means I'm doing my job. But no, Rosa, you were saying something. 

Cole O'Malley: I, I, 

Rosa Westfall: Well, the only thing that, like, has occurred to me is the, um, that's a big thing that maybe is more interesting for the Drum Corps people listening, um, but is the, like, doing, with the wireless, we have to also do delay times, and the members are moving around the field, and so, um, most of, like, how the show is mixed, we try to bake in as much as we can in scenes, and so, um, you Cole's job is, um, greatly changing scenes at the right time, and there are a lot of scenes. 

How many scenes do you think you had, Cole? 

Cole O'Malley: teams. 

How many teams do you think he has? 

Rosa Westfall: And that's like, like 12 minutes. 

Cole O'Malley: has 

Andy Leviss: that's, you might actually be outdoing us here in the Broadway world, but it's 

Cole O'Malley: voice 

Rosa Westfall: And then, but on top of that, he has in ears in for the A1 at the top has, um, voice of, voice of God that's talking down and making live changes as well in addition to that. Um, but, uh, But how we do the wireless micing, because the members are moving a lot across the field, um, is that we have to bake in delay times for those scenes as well, um, which has, you know, been a journey and is, uh, difficult to do, but I think it's important. 

I think I got it down to a science last summer. I, uh, wrote, uh, I, I recently, uh, got my master's degree at Georgia Tech. And, um, so I learned kind of the beginnings of programming. I am not a master for sure, but, uh, I wrote MATLAB code so that I could enter, um, the members drill sheets, um, into my MATLAB LabCode, and it does all the calculations for the delay times, 

Cole O'Malley: you, 

Andy Leviss: That's, I was gonna say, and also, if you, if you ever decide to like move on from drum crew, there are lots of Broadway sound design teams that, that, that would take you in a second because we end up doing a lot of similar things for. You know, actor imaging in Broadway. It's like I, I was one of the mix covers for, uh, To Kill a Mockingbird when it was on Broadway. 

And yeah, and that three hour play, like I, I don't remember what the final count of scenes were, but yeah, like 90 percent of the console cues were switching delay zones for people to image where they were on stage through that system. So yeah, like having like a software ability to do that off like the blocking sheet or the drill charts is, is that's awesome. 

That's you are, you are speaking my language there. 

Cole O'Malley: more 

Rosa Westfall: definitely doing batch math. It's really all it's doing, but yeah,  

Tyler Hanson: one of the one of the coolest things about that, though, is that, like, I don't think we accounted for like every single delay factor. So actually, what was cool is because there was a little bit of. added on delay that it didn't account for. It actually pushed the image more to the performers than towards the speakers, and I thought that was like the coolest thing about it. Because now it actually sounds like it's adding on to the field sound instead of the speakers taking over, which is what lots of people in drum corps still want. They want the emphasis to be what's coming off the field versus what's coming through the speakers. 

Andy Leviss: Yeah, 

Rosa Westfall: Yeah, and that was a conversation that Tyler and I had while I was kind of doing it and talking about it because there were, you know, uh, there were scenes, um, on our file where they are moving during the scene and the question was, do we need to make a whole new scene just because they're moving, like, somewhat of a significant different, like a significant enough difference where I think it would probably matter? 

And after talking with Tyler and him bringing that up, I was like, alright, then the default is whenever they're farther back, you know, so that. That it has that exact effect like Tyler described. 

Andy Leviss: that's it's why I never would have thought of how much like what y'all are doing it like is similar to what we're doing on Broadway. But yeah, that's the same thing we get into in theater with yeah, figuring out if somebody is moving from all the way upstage left all the way downstage right, when are you going to trigger that change? 

Is it? Is it going to crossfade? Or is it just we're going to wait till they pause in a sentence? And yeah, that's it. That's, I had no idea there was that much overlap there. That's really cool. Um, 

Cole O'Malley: It was cool. That's how it 

Andy Leviss: Tyler, it looked like you were going to say  

Tyler Hanson: yeah, um, I was gonna say, like, 

the way Drum Corps has evolved recently, it's becoming more Broadway esque, like, Just generally speaking, like, our shows are being, like, produced a lot more instead of, like, sound wise, instead of just, it's like, what you get on the field, is, you That's pretty much what it is. 

It's like, because of the involvement of audio and sound design and everything, it's becoming more of a theater performance and less of just marching band now, and I think that's really, really cool. 

Andy Leviss: I was going to say, what does the old man say? You into that or are you like, Yep.  

Cole O'Malley: we 

Jonathan Yoo: No, I'm, it's like for me, it's uh, it's really cool to see the 

evolution of the activity. You know, I mean I still remember when we, uh, when amplification was legalized, like you had the old cats are just like, nope, not about it. But then, and I was part of that And I was like, that's, you know, that's ridiculous until One of the guys in the front ensemble was like, well, we can, it's great because then we don't have to play with bad technique and beat the daylights out of the keyboards and use rock hard mallets to project and to get it to be heard over the horn line. And I was like, oh, okay, that makes sense. All right, cool. You know, like, I'll allow it, you know, but it's, and to like, see things evolve and progress, like, it's been really cool to see the change. Because again, I go back and watch shows from my time. And it's like, oh man, we 

really didn't do anything, and then now you're seeing these performers like run, skip, hop, dance, all this stuff that they're being asked to do It's like, oh, I definitely couldn't do that now. Um, even if I was in the best shape of my life, that's what they're doing is absolutely insane. And then you have the percussionists, like the battery guys wearing drums, you know, like that, and they're doing all this, all similar stuff. It's just pure athleticism. 

And it's, uh, it's amazing to see this every single day and every single night in the performances. And, you know, again, like, The one thing that we try to do, and again another thing that we all agree on, it's like we try to make the audio Electronic portion of the crowd to be as transparent as possible. And so to the point where you go, is that being amplified or is it being amplified? You can't really tell because we're trying to get that level of transparency on a football field while there's. People running at high tempos and high velocities, also playing and performing. And so, you know, that's, uh, and that's one of those things that I think we all are in agreement about. 

And, you know, there's times when like Cole will be downstairs and I'll be like, Hey, let's put, like, put the A3 on real quick, come upstairs and like, listen to this, see if I'm going crazy just so that, you know, we get a different set of ears upstairs and things like that, just to make sure, like, like. We're not going crazy what we're hearing or because again there's times when you just hear the same thing over and over and over and sometimes you just forget what that sounds like and so getting some fresh ears here and there is really helpful um and so like that's something that's uh that we're my goal for the whole team is that if you're you can be like caption supervisor or down to the intern. Everybody can be able to do a little bit of everything. Maybe not at the same level as some of our team in those roles, but everyone has a good understanding of everything that's being asked of them, so that the entire team can hop in wherever is needed, that sort of thing. And so, there was a time when Cole had to be the A1 upstairs for a couple days, and he did a great job running the caption, and when there's like a gap in the schedule, and it just happened to be like that, but Cole's like, Yeah, I'll go upstairs and we Put another person on the console and it worked out, you know, and you know, wherever everyone's comfortable doing it. 

Well, to an extent, like it might be a little bit nervous, but again, like it's, you know, if you're not nervous and it's then, you know, kind of not living in my opinion. So, um, you know, it's, it's a really great thing to see everyone step up to the plate and also everyone bringing their. Their talent to the team. 

Whereas like Tony would, a lineman would say, everyone has their superpower and we want everyone's superpower here at the table. And everyone's got got their contribution and everyone does their thing to put their, put their thumbprint on it. And so that we as a team can be as strong as we can. And you know, for me as caption supervisor, I've always been in the mindset, even as a, when I teach band, like get people in that are smarter than me. If I'm the smartest person in the room, I need to find another room. 'cause I gotta keep learning. I gotta keep going. Cause there's things that we did last summer that we're all like, there's no way that's going to work. And then, Oh, that worked. Okay, cool. I'll eat crow on that one. You know, that sort of thing. 

And, you know, so it's, um, again, one of those things where the activity just keeps progressing and changing where again, like, you know, I imagine seeing Broadway, you'd go like, I've done it this way. It always works. And, you know, and then, you know, like let's try something new and on paper it should 

never  

Andy Leviss: worst reason to do something is because it's always worked. Like it's a good reason to fall back on something. 

Jonathan Yoo: Yeah. 

Andy Leviss: Like it's when you need something to work and you know, it always works that great, but to not try something different just because we've always done it that way. Um, and I want to, I want to flag that thing you just said again, Jonathan, cause that's. 

Um, the, the venue that I've been working at a lot is, is basically the unofficial like house, uh, mixer. The audio supervisor there. My, my good friend and good boss Micah. Uh, he, that's the thing he says all the time too. He is like, the number one thing I look for when hiring people is everybody should be at least a little bit smarter than me, which is a high bar 'cause he is one of the smartest guys I know. 

And I'm not just saying that 'cause he is often my boss. 

Cole O'Malley: I'm not 

Andy Leviss: Cause I'm not even sure he'll be listening to this, but yeah, it's, and he's always like, yeah, he's like, cause if I'm the dumbest person in the room, we're fine. 

Cole O'Malley: the dumbest person in the room, we're 

Rosa Westfall: Yeah, I think we have, like, such a diverse team, like, like, whatever we do outside of Drum Corps is also so diverse in our team that we all, like, learn from each other all the time. Like, I have questions that, like, Cole would be the first person I go to, there's questions I have that Tyler's the first person I go to, and like, and that's, it has, like, I think, really 

Cole O'Malley: all 

Rosa Westfall: team over the last couple years, which is like really cool. 

Andy Leviss: that's, that's awesome. And like I said, like I even like coming into somebody who had a little bit of an idea of what, you know, what, what DCI is about. Like I've learned so much in this last hour talking to y'all and like, I've got a whole new respect for what you're doing and I hope some of our listeners. 

You know, at home have two and, you know, maybe we'll even like interest some folks in, in joining that world. Um, yeah, so thank you all for coming and making the time tonight to do this. It's, it's been great. Um, yeah, I don't know if there's anything any of, any of you want to like add in at the end or any, any last stories before we let everybody go on their way. 

Cole O'Malley: Check your batteries on your wireless packs. 

Andy Leviss: I'm gonna, 

Jonathan Yoo: Ha ha 

Cole O'Malley: right kind of batteries. 

Andy Leviss: uh, this sounds like a story. This sounds like a story. 

Jonathan Yoo: Cole? 

Cole O'Malley: So, um Oh my gosh, okay, so, 

Andy Leviss: You did it to yourself. 

Cole O'Malley: before I, before I start this story, I want to thank Kevin Duthu at Shure for saving our butts. Um, so, we had bought, I guess they're the wrong strength batteries, the wrong voltage, I mean they're double A's, but they were not high enough. 

And we were getting RF dropouts, and we were like, freaking out, this is like, towards the end of the season, as the batteries start to die, we're like, oh my gosh, like, what is going on, we're changing, you know, paddle, uh, configurations, and we're checking Intermot, I mean, we are deep, deep into RF territory, we're like, what is going on, um, this is finals week, I text Kevin, and I'm like, hey, like, What in the world is going on? He's like, what's the, I think I'm going to say voltage, but it might not be right, but what's the voltage on your batteries? And I'm like, such and such. And he's like, that's too low. I was like, awesome. So we go, John goes out to Costco at our first finals day rehearsal, I think, and picks up like 90 to like 100 ProCell Duracell batteries. And we replaced them all, and it was flawless for the last three shows. Like, that was a, that was a big learning moment for me, um, and I think for all of us. 

Andy Leviss: Always read the spec sheet. 

Rosa Westfall: yeah, we were using like not the Shure batteries they were just like rechargeable ones that we got off Amazon and Yeah, I think over the course of the summer, you know recharging them maybe overcharging them sometimes and They were yeah dying 

Andy Leviss: yeah, battery maintenance on your schedule's gotta be crazy. 

Jonathan Yoo: Yeah, we, we definitely, we talked ad nauseum about it during pre tour about, do we just buy batteries and just, do we, you know, endanger a bunch of sea turtles or do we just try to go the rechargeable route and we went the rechargeable route but we definitely learned, you know, uh, there's a certain point in time where, uh, that we'll switch back over just regular alkaline batteries and, uh, do a little bit of danger to the environment, not as much 

Rosa Westfall: week is that time. 

Jonathan Yoo: Yes, 

exactly.  

Andy Leviss: Got it. Yeah, I mean, again, I come from a world where we finally have gone to, like, pretty much fully rechargeables in, in the Broadway and theater touring world, but it took a long time. Because again, there were a bunch of cranky, cranky, quote unquote, old guys like me and Jonathan sitting there, like, No way, not happening, not on my watch. 

Alkaline to death. yeah, so, that's cool. Um, well again, thank you all so much for coming. Like, this has been really cool. Um, and I will, I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you all, uh A little bit of homework for me, if you can, if we've got that email thread going with all of us, I want each of you to send me a video of like one of your favorite performances or something that we can put in the show notes so people can get an idea of what y'all are doing. 

So we'll see. And that's also going to be fun for me. Cause, cause we're going to see how many of you send the same one or not. So 

Cole O'Malley: We'll see,  

Tyler Hanson: Cool.  

Andy Leviss: we'll see. So we'll, we'll post it. We'll post some of those in the, in the links for people. And I'll even see, I think there's one or two of like my old like marching band performances from high school buried on YouTube somewhere. 

If I can find one, I'll, I'll pop one of those in the show notes too. I'll throw myself out on the pyre there.  

Cole O'Malley: there.  

Andy Leviss: Um, but thanks again, y'all for, for making the time. This has been really cool and it's been so good having you here. 

Rosa Westfall: Thank you so much  

Tyler Hanson: Yeah. Thank you, man.  

Cole O'Malley: We'll see  

Jonathan Yoo: so much.  

Andy Leviss: Cool. And again, thanks everybody for listening. Uh, this has been another episode of Signaled Noise brought to you by our sponsors, RCF and Allen and Heath. And, uh, hang on there. Tune back in next time when Sean will be back in the virtual chair next to me. And, uh, we'll see you then. Take care, everybody. 

​

Music: “Break Free” by Mike Green

###