 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: ned
Date: 2016-03-07 05:39
I don't normally practice tunes whilst listening through headphones. I can't think of why I did actually - this time - but it was a weird experience.
I have a pair of reasonable quality, mid-priced Sony MDR-XD100s, and perhaps I was trying to obtain more clarity from a scratchy old recording and figured this would offer more clarity than through the speakers.
I started playing along to the record to learn the melody line (as you do...) and almost immediately I became aware of the ''soprano sax effect''. I believe that I have not noticed this before, in all my years. I'm not an audiologist or a wave physicist, so I cannot explain in scientific terms what was actually transpiring, during the listening/playing.
I would hazard a guess and venture to say that various partials (is that the term?) were masked by the cups of the headphones, or perhaps the recorded music itself was masking my tones? Perhaps both vectors were in play?
Whatever the cause, I am intrigued by it. It has rather put me off this particular mode of practice though, as the normal clarinet tone cannot be heard clearly. Perhaps my tone would suffer if I persisted?
I'm curious to learn if anyone else had a similar experience?
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: CMM
Date: 2016-03-07 10:57
I have experienced this as well; the same phenomenon occurs when playing with earplugs in.
Personally, if playing with a recording, I have found it works best to use a pair of earbuds and only have one of the earpieces put in.
I am curious, though, if anyone can explain the science behind this.
Joshua Anderson
Chamber Music Michigan
http://www.chambermusicmichigan.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2016-03-07 15:04
You don't HEAR the sounds cast out into the air (so much) but rather are hearing the sound you produce as conducted through your bone structure.
You get the the same sort of "What the.....?" effect in reverse recording your voice and then listening back. All these years you thought your voice was more resonant than it really is. We hear a large percentage of our voice through our bones.
...............Paul Aviles
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: johng ★2017
Date: 2016-03-07 19:10
I don't normally play with recordings, but a group I play in is doing Beethoven's 9th symphony with just one rehearsal for the winds, so I have been playing along with various recordings to be sure I am solid on the piece at varied tempos. As Ned says, using speakers doesn't work because you have to drive them too much to be able to hear the quiet spots while playing and using headphones steals away all but the basic tone of what you are playing.
One thing you can do is slide one headphone ear piece a little to the side so sound can leak in. I solved it a different way by moving .wav files of the recording to a digital recorder so I could listen to the recording and use a mic for clarinet and hear everything through the headphones. The un-doctored mic sound is a little dry, but it is way better than the "soprano sax effect". One other bonus to this method was that I was able to adjust the sharper pitch of some of the orchestras on the playback.
John Gibson, Founder of JB Linear Music, www.music4woodwinds.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: MichaelW
Date: 2016-03-07 19:20
Attachment: SAM_0801.jpg (51k)
Your Sony MDR-XD100 headphones are of the „closed“ type; closed shell headphones would indeed make an effect like earplugs, that is most of the air transmitted part of your instrument's sound can't reach your ear and thus the sound may be modified. I use „open“ type earphones (see photo) where most of the external sound can penetrate to the ear, and hear only a slightly reduced volume, but hardly any distortion.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
