Klarinet Archive - Posting 000284.txt from 1997/11

From: PGAYR@-----.com
Subj: reed strength/ acoustically balanced
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 1997 00:47:37 -0500

Roger Garrett wrote:
I have tried 10's of Buffets and a few less Leblancs......I find similar
variations between them......further, I find no better "scale" or continuity
of sound
quality top to bottom with the Leblancs than I do with the Buffets. In
fact, when comparing the Opus with the Prestige R-13, I find the horns to
play remarkably similar with regard to the defined "accoustical balance".

If that opinion is unacceptable....sorry! I wonder, other than your
opinion.......why should we accept the adverse??

Roger Garrett

I hate to get into this discussion, since those who read it may conclude a
bias. But I will try to proceed and let people think what they may.
First, as to the term "acoustically balanced". It has been used here to
describe the contrasting qualities of Leblanc and Buffet clarinets.
I think I know what is being said, but acoustical balance is not the term I
would use to describe it.
The term I used for what we wanted to create in Leblanc clarinets was
"Balanced blowing resistance."
This was a feature which kept the blowing resistance of the clarinet more the
same from hand to hand and register to register than clarinets in the past,
especially the huge number of Buffet clarinets that I had played.
Balanced blowing resistance was so critical because it was the determining
factor in response, tone color, tone flexibility and tonal shape. Any time
blowing resistance varied from one note to another or one area of the horn to
another these other things varied also.
Whether we succeeded in creating a horn that had better balance in blowing
resistance that is to some degree a matter of opinion. Many great players
think we did, and that gratifies me.
I think you can see balanced blowing resistance fantastically displayed in
clarinets like the Leblanc Sonata or the VSP, they are super even
instruments, just as the L200 and L300 (as Leon Leblanc designed them)---but
they lacked the resonance to make them appealing to most professional
players. For students these instruments (Sonata/VSP) are fantastic.
The whole concept of matched or balanced blowing resistance grew out of what
I call acoustical efficiency. Acoustical efficiency is perfected as the
player's equipment enables him to play low, high, loud and soft with a
minimum of embouchure/air pressure exchange. That is, you get the most out
of your instrument with the least physical effort or physical variation.
This gives you both security and freedom, expressive freedom; for the
better your instrument as a machine is working correctly the more you can put
it out of your mind and occupy yourself with other things....... like
interpreting the music.
Preferring this or that tone is subjective. But whether you can slur this or
that interval evenly and securely with no variation in embouchure or air
pressure is more or less an objective matter; most players agree that you
either can or cannot on a given instrument.

I do beg to differ with Roger on one point and comment on another:
First, a comment of two on the equal evenness he says he perceives.
I would say that in some cases it is easy for a Buffet player to miss the
virtues of the Leblanc without playing the instrument for a sustained time.
The Concerto is very similar to the R-13, but the differences are significant
enough to make or break a first impression if the mouthpiece/reed set up is
not right.
Specifically, Leblanc clarinets tend to have a bit more resistance in the
left hand than Buffets and less in the right hand. (Please, understand that
I am generalizing of necessity here. We all know instruments vary and there
are always exceptions. But models do have common, distinguishing features
about which we can securely speak.)
The slight increase in left hand resistance has the effect of "holding" the
shape or envelope of the tone so the player can be freer with his embouchure.
For instance, if you relax your embouchure as much on most Buffets as you
can on a Leblanc you will find that the tone of the Buffet will lose its'
center and the pitch will sag.
Buffet players are used to using a certain amount of embouchure pressure just
to keep the pitch up and center the sound. This is not necessary on the
Leblanc, since the instrument does the job for you. You can just relax and
blow, and you can be free at the point of reed vibration. So you can see
that paradoxically, the added "hold" of the left hand actually facilitates
greater vibration and resonance in the reed.
These differences in the conceptual resistance balance of the instruments
mean you need a slightly difference reed set up to get the best out of each
instrument. I find I can tolerate certain reed/mouthpiece set ups on a
Leblanc which don't work on the Buffet at all.
Further, if I approached the Leblanc with the same type of embouchure
pressure that is commonly required on Buffet I will not care for the Leblanc
as well . Only by relaxing the embouchure trusting the Leblanc to "hold"
what I had to "hold" on the Buffet will I really begin to see what the
Leblanc concept is all about.
Second issue: tuning. The Leblanc clarinets, the Concerto and Opus, as well
as the Sonata objectively tune better than R-13's. The register tube
placement of the R-13 causes a spread of the left hand tuning ratios. So
to have an in tune high "C" you must have a somewhat flat thumb F, and a
similar situation with "E" and"B".
The Opus/ Concerto has better placement of the register tube and yields
objectively better left hand ratios.
This was no secret. Lee Gibson had been insisting Buffet do this for almost
two decades.
The Buffet Festival has better placement that the R-13, but Buffet seems to
have no idea about how to tune the clarinet. Consequently a clarinet that is
potentially better than the R-13 is regarded as worse because Buffet doesn't
tune it right, as least that is my impression with the several models I have
seen.
I can do corrections on them and they play very well in tune with fine
ratios in the left hand.
But to get back to the original item, the whole idea here was to make
professional instruments play better, more securely and give the professional
more freedom on a variety of levels.
I think this attempt has made things better for everyone. Recently I have
had the opportunity to play a large number of Buffet product. The right hand
resistance problem of past decades has been corrected to a noticeable degree.
The upper claion left hand pitches, however, still tend toward stridence
and metallic quality in many of these instruments; but over all it is an
improved instrument. I wonder if that would have ever happened if we had not
done what we did at Leblanc earlier this decade? I guess we can never know.
Tom