Klarinet Archive - Posting 000969.txt from 1998/08

From: Shouryu Nohe <jnohe@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Buffet Greenline
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 19:30:11 -0400

On Mon, 31 Aug 1998 Maestro645@-----.com wrote:

> > characteristic R-13 bore. It sounds no different, and on occasion, better
> > (Prof. Garrett can attest) than a standard R-13.
> And what exactly do you mean by better? That's too vague.
> Chris Hoffman

Oh don't start arguing semantics. Most of us here know what a 'bad',
'good', 'better', and 'great' tone sound like. There are hundreds upon
hundreds of variables between one clarinet and the next that make you feel
one sounds better than the other. Typically, a 'dark' sound is what we
feel is 'good' and as our friend Mr. Leeson often points out, how do you
define 'dark'? It's a matter of semantics, in which we often lack words.
My physics prof argued otherwise:

"Highly saturated with the various harmonics and overtones that are not
audibly perceptible unless singled out, all of which combined create the
characteristic 'dark' sound we generally like. Now, let us look at the
oscilloscope reading that Mr. Nohe has produced here: notice, it is not
one distinct wave - there is a pattern of notable repetation, which forms
large waves, but all along we see these other spikes. This makes the rich
sound - he's obviously had a lot of embouchure training. You'll find that
beginners or players with a 'bright' tone have less of these little
spikes everywhere, that is, less harmonics. So why does the richer tone
please us? Because each frequency tickles a different area of hairs in
the basilar membrane, and we generally like a wide array of hairs
tickled."
- Prof. Rob Liefield

(This was from someone elses notes, in short hand that they took while I
was playing for the demonstration.)

In any case, THAT was how Rob defined a 'good' tone. 'Dark', 'rich',
'warm', they're all terms we use to describe the tone we like. That
definition that I just gave was probably the closest one may ever come to
defining what 'dark' or 'rich' is. The point is, Rob took what HE felt
was a good tone and defined it. Of course, Rob was also a horn player, so
he was probably talking out of his butt, I dunno.

In general, we know what sounds 'good', and we know what sounds 'better'.

J. Shouryu Nohe
http://web.nmsu.edu/~jnohe
Professor of SCSM102, New Mexico State Univ.
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