anyone listen to marching bands?

I think an audiophile recording of the OSU band is a tough request, but you may get lucky and find one.

I still think checking out one of the elite DCI drum corps...like the Blue Devils, might pay off sooner. Several of the older, elite corps have pretty substantial recording libraries of their own music in addition to competition recordings. I'd think some of the corps' own recordings might have been done indoors...and perhaps in a studio.

It'd be worth checking out: Concord Blue Devils, Santa Clara Vanguard, The Cadets, The Cavaliers...among others.

The best recordings I've heard of music a marching band might play is Frederick Fennell,conducting the Eastman Wind Ensamble. In addition to things like Souza marches,they play much of the literature you might hear a live band play at a good circus.

My son's High School marching band won the BOA (Bands Of America) National competition his Freshman year, and that experience endeared me to sight and sound of a "good" performing band. In fact, a recording was made of his band, and because of the 100's of times I heard the live performance, I use the CD as a reference.

With that said, get the RCA CD: "Blast". The performance “Blast” evolved from the Star of Indiana (Indiana University based, Drum and Bugle Corps). That is, a theatrical performance was produced and choreographed based on three performing sections – Brass, Percussion, and Visual/Dance. Performers are in their early 20’s, drawn from mainly the U.S. Among them, “Blast” cast members hold 41 world titles.

I received the CD as a gift, and hesitated opening it for several weeks assuming that the recording would be less than a high quality one -- boy was I wrong!

If you want an excellent recording, and one of a marching band type performance, this one is it! The performance is described on the CD front as “An Explosive Musical Experience”. From my perspective, that’s more of an understatement, than an overstatement! In fact, if you’re unsure about whether to buy the CD or DVD, if you buy just one, I bet after listening/watching, you will buy the other....Cheers….

Definitely get the Blast DVD, it's fun to watch. A friend of mine saw the group perform at the NJ Performing Arts Center and ran out to buy the DVD, which I saw at his home on a big screen with audio played over a Dynaudio Evidence Master/Levinson 33 based system.

I agree "Blast" is excellent, however on a significantly smaller scale than a large marching band like OSU.