Klarinet Archive - Posting 000127.txt from 1995/02

From: Fred Jacobowitz <fredj@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: vibrato and equipment flutter
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 1995 03:01:57 -0500

Edgar,
What you say about vibrato masking flutter may very well be true
but I have found that all good cassette recorders record clarinet VERY
poorly and with lots of flutter. It was explained to me by a recording
engineer as having to do with the fact that cassette tape is an
inherently lousy medium for music recording (is was invented for
recording conversations!) and thus, no matter how much vibrato I use (and
I use quite a bit), my SONY Pro Walkman is virtually useless for any
thing except recording my rehearsals. So a word of advice to all those
clarinetists out there... DON'T BUY A CASSETTE TAPE MACHINE TO RECORD
YOURSELF AND EXPECT ANYTHING LIKE PROFESSIONAL RESULTS!!! I am saving up
for a DAT machine.

Fred Jacobowitz

On Sun, 5 Feb 1995, edgar pearlstein wrote:

> An interesting point is that flutter in recording or playback equipment is
> most noticeable with instruments that themselves have very little vibrato:
> in particular, clarinet and piano. This is because any vibrato tends to
> mask the flutter. This means that in shopping for equipment, test the
> candidates on solo clarinet and piano music.
>