 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Nightcrawler27
Date: 2010-01-28 13:02
Is there a place somewhere that has sample recordings of different makes/models of clarinets? For example, I would like to get an idea for what an R13 may sound like compared to a Festival, Tosca, or a Leblanc Concerto II, etc. I realize everybody has a different "sound", but I would be interested in having some resource where you could hear the same musician test play a bunch of different clarinets (in their off-the-shelf configuration, no special barrels, etc) to get a general idea of what the differences might sound like. Or even something like the same person playing the same horn with different barrels. The different manufacturers don't appear to have anything like that on their sites.
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Author: Franklin Liao
Date: 2010-01-28 13:30
I don't think there is such a resource available... although I think that such a thing is really nice to have. I'd like a soundbank too personally.
All that exists now really would be a compilation of sample shots of all makes/models of clarinets, complete with the place of manufacture and other keywork details, which doesn't do any good in order to judge the tonal qualities of the sampled instruments.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2010-01-28 13:52
Nightcrawler27 wrote:
> ...I realize
> everybody has a different "sound",
It isn't just that players sound different from each other on whatever equipment they're using. There too many other variables getting in the way of getting any meaning from something like this. In addition, sound isn't the only consideration in choosing an instrument. Response (which you can't hear if the player demonstrating it is good), tuning, key layout as it fits the comfort of the player's hand, the instrument's natural tendency to project (which is related to sound quality but wouldn't be obvious from an electronic demo), and a few others I'm probably leaving out. And, to be honest, I think it would be hard to get a player (you'd have to do all the samples with the same clarinetist for this to have even a scintilla of meaning) to demonstrate all the brands and models in an unbiased way. Not that the demonstrator would deliberately skew the results, but the farther away an instrument would be from what he or she is used to, the less comfortable and, therefore, less ideal the result would be.
Karl
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Author: NBeaty
Date: 2010-01-28 14:09
The only way to determine for yourself the differences would be to go to a place where you can try many different ones. Record yourself doing this playing the same samples of music (two or three excerpts, orchestra and\or solo).
Even this would be slightly skewed because you wouldn't have your mouthpiece\reed setup to be ideal for each instrument and would POSSIBLY sound worse on an instrument that might be better for you with a different reed or mouthpiece.
There are really too many variables. Most of the time people take trusted friends, teachers, or colleagues along to listen.
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Author: BobD
Date: 2010-01-28 17:27
Instruments don't possess a sound. If you ever hear an instrument make a sound all by itself see your doctor. I realize this may be considered a smart ass comment but what you're asking for requires you to play the ones you're interested in.
Bob Draznik
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2010-01-28 18:00
I agree with Bob.........more or less. The different instruments would "respond" differently all right, but they only "suggest" different tendencies to a player. The player would then exploit these tendencies which may allow him to do things more to his liking.
Ummmm.......... for example I'm playing around with a combination right now that really encourages VERY soft playing and I therefore play "into" that tendency because that's were the richest treasures are........right now.
That said there are some general differences that one can pick up between a standard French bore instrument and a cylindrical bore (Boosey 1010) style horn, or a German Oehler system horn. But even with this, one needs to really "take on" the whole style and believe in it over time to exploit these differences and would not make a practical side by side recording for your reference..........sorry.
..............Paul Aviles
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2010-01-28 19:56
David Thomas's excellent blog (http://blog.davidhthomas.net) has clips of him playing the same pieces comparing R13s with Selmers, together with thoughtful description of how he perceives the sound difference. The descriptions are important, since I think it is often the case that the player feels the sound of different instruments to show bigger differences that is in fact the case. But how you feel is important, even if the audience can't tell the difference: if you are forever worrying that the sound is bad, that takes your attention away from the music.
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