Klarinet Archive - Posting 000511.txt from 1998/03

From: "Doug Sears" <dsears@-----.org>
Subj: Re: Mouthpiece baffles
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 13:56:45 -0500

What are these baffles? Are they a commercially available product -- made
by whom? How do they attach to the mouthpiece?
I could use more edge to my tone and more volume on both alto sax and
clarinet, for playing Balkan dance music unamplified.

--Doug
---------------------------
Doug Sears dsears@-----.org/~dsears

-----Original Message-----
From: Shouryu Nohe <jnohe@-----.edu>
Date: Saturday, March 07, 1998 4:33 PM
Subject: Re: Mouthpiece baffles

>Jason-
>
>Don't use them unless you need volume. That's all they REALLY do. I've
>used one on my stock mpieces - the tone improves a tiny bit, and the
>volume level goes through the roof. If you have great control, then go
>for it - if you don't I suggest staying away from them.
>
>I had quite a reputation in my sax section as being one of the more
>enthusiastic players of the group (my nickname was MEGALOUD). I
>originally bought the baffles to improve my tone - after all, I was
>playing on a stock mpiece. Well, what I got (and my friends who tried
>them) was about twice the dynamic range we had prior to the baffles. We
>couldn't get any softer, but boy, could we get louder! It got very hard
>to control in the lower dynamic levels, because of how it acts, it tends
>to amplify any airstream, even the tiniest, so in my experiece, it takes a
>great deal of precise air control to utilize one correctly.