With a record 17 world championships, the Concord Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps are the most decorated corps in the history of Drum Corps International (DCI). An estimated two million people view the Blue Devils’ A Corps each year live, on TV, in movie theaters, and on the Web.
The A Corps won back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015 and intend to win another one with their 2016 show, As Dreams Are Made On (based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest). As with their 2014 and 2015 shows, PreSonus mixers and loudspeakers play in an important role.
“PreSonus and the Blue Devils are undefeated world champions; we’ve won the past two seasons together,” exclaims Blue Devils director of percussion Scott Johnson. “Hopefully we will go three in a row and beyond.”
For the 2016 season, the Blue Devils employ a PreSonus StudioLive RM32AI rack-mount digital mixer with AVB networking. They control the mixer with a PreSonus StudioLive CS18AI AVB control surface and UC Surface touch-control software running on a MacBook Pro laptop and an Apple iPad. The system also features PreSonus’ new ULT-series loudspeakers.
“In drum corps today, the pit and the electronics have become a big part of the musical ensemble,” explains Blue Devils brass caption head and arranger John Meehan. “You need to sound as good through the sound system as you do acoustically. Since we started working with PreSonus three years ago, we’ve been able to expand what we can do because of the opportunities the equipment offers us.”
“The PreSonus equipment allows us to do things in a more theatrical way, which is what we really like to do,” concurs music director and music arranger Dave Glyde. “The new ULT speakers give us the confidence that we’re going to have a bigger edge than our competition because they’re so clear and precise. You can hear each individual sound.”
“Since we started using ULT speakers this season,” Meehan adds, “we’ve been able to separate the voices a lot better, and we can add more elements without muddying the overall sound. And regardless of where you’re standing, you can clearly hear the whole ensemble, so there isn’t a bad seat in the house.”
PreSonus ULT-series loudspeakers feature a rotatable horn with 110° horizontal dispersion for wide, even coverage. “The ULT speakers are very crisp, clean, and clear, and the wide pattern lends itself well to what we do on the football field,” observes front ensemble caption head and arranger Jim Wunderlich. The Blue Devils can rotate the horn for 110° vertical dispersion in speakers that cover the press box and upper grandstands.
“We rely on PreSonus mixers and speakers so the audience can clearly hear acoustic instruments like marimbas and vibraphones and to amplify the synthesizers, samplers, sounds from laptops—anything we use in the front ensemble,” Wunderlich explains. He also likes that the StudioLive RM32AI mixer and StudioLive CS18AI control surface are easy to set up and use.
“You can network them using AVB Ethernet and wirelessly, using a router,” he confirms, “so we run light, flexible CAT5e cable instead of heavy, expensive audio snakes. That lets us set the mixer and controller quite a distance apart, and we can also mix wirelessly with an iPad from the audience or the press box.”
The StudioLive RM mixer allows the Blue Devils to send audio individually to each of six sets of loudspeakers on the field and control them individually with the StudioLive CS18AI. “On the CS18AI, all channels are labelled with digital displays, instead of the old method of writing channel labels on a strip of tape,” Wunderlich adds. “It’s clear and clean.”
Blue Devils executive director David Gibbs points out that there are many reasons the Blue Devils chose PreSonus.
“It’s a priority for us to partner with the best companies in the world,” Gibbs proclaims. “It’s important that our kids and our staff use the best products, and we want to be associated with people who are passionate about the products that they provide. The Blue Devils’ relationship with PreSonus has been tremendous. We love the support, the people behind the scenes, the interest in providing us the very best equipment, and the service. The PreSonus staff’s expertise is amazing.”
Gibbs observes that PreSonus equipment has become an integral part of the Blue Devils’ show design. “The PreSonus relationship has enhanced our ability to create over the past two years, when we’ve won world championships,” he asserts. “It gives our staff the ability to create a standard-setting show and compete for world championships, which is our expectation. We hope the relationship goes on for a long time because it’s invaluable for us.”
The Blue Devils percussion section.
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