Author: echi85
Date: 2018-01-22 06:48
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to try a pair of new Yamaha CSVRs. These are the ones that have been getting a lot of buzz on this forum. A colleague of mine went to the atelier in LA and hand picked these instruments. We tried them in a real life setting; a large open space where we could judge sound from a distance.
Initial impressions:
These instruments are setup pretty well. They seal like a drum. The pads are seem to be well seated and there were no major defects. The ergonomics for me felt a bit off. Key heights in particular seemed to be a problem. For example, the height of the register key didn't match the level of the thumb F hole. If I bought a set, I would still need to send them to a repair man in order to fix the feel of them and also to put cork pads in the top joint.
Sound:
These were tested first with the stock barrels.
The Bb clarinet was ok. In a direct comparison between the Yahama CSVR Bb to my R-13 Bb, mine was a clear winner in terms of sound. The R-13 had more color and ring in the sound. Another colleague said mine was the one that captured her attention. To be fair, I have a really excellent R-13 so it's not really a knock on the Yamaha.
The A clarinet was very good. In terms of sound and resistance, it felt like a Bb clarinet. The tubbyness that is common with R-13 A clarinets was not there at all. It had a great deal more freedom and color in the sound. This was the instrument that we did the most testing on.
Testing the A clarinet:
We played a variety of excerpts blindly for each other, going through our R-13 As and the Yamaha. We played the same excerpt and had the other say which one was the best out of 3. Initial impressions were that the Yamaha was the clear favorite. It had a ton more projection and life in the sound. However, after a while, we started to notice some things that were less appealing. These became more apparent the farther away we went. We did testing from the podium and from about 15 feet further back. In exchange for liveliness of sound, the Yamaha seemed to lack lower partials and body to the sound. It was to the point where the sound started to get strident, particularly in the left hand clarion.
The scale of the instrument also started to show it's flaws. The throat tones in particular, were much more hollow and didn't match the ringing sound of the clarion. We tried mixing and matching different barrels to see if we could adjust these qualities but nothing really seemed to work. The instrument's strengths were for light and loud excerpts, but it showed problems in slower, more delicate excerpts.
Intonation also seemed to be slightly funny. The chalumeau and clarion were excellent, but the altissimo register on the Yamaha was very sharp compared to the Buffets. You can play F#6 with out the rh sliver key. E6 didn't really need the Eb pinky to be in tune. Side F#6 was also very high. We have both played R-13s for most of our lives so perhaps we are used to compensating in certain ways.
Conclusion:
To put it simply, the Buffets had a luminous quality to the sound that the Yamahas did not. The Buffets were darker and duller than the Yahama, but they made up for it by having a better balance of partials. They sounded whole while the Yamaha was lively but hollow.
To be fair, my colleague deliberately chose an A clarinet that had a lighter sound. He told me that there were others he tried that were darker. I don't think it's completely representative of the line of clarinets. However, I found the same kind of hollow quality in a Yamaha 881 Eb I tried last year.
I am biased in that I have played Buffets all my life so perhaps it's a sound that I am used to hearing. From what I understand these new CSVRs are significantly better than previous iterations. Also, both of our R-13s have had an extensive amount of work done so I don't think it's a fair comparison. However, the argument that Yamahas are good to go out of the box is not completely true. They are far better than Buffet, but they still need work, albeit less.
The price is really appealing though. They cost almost half of what new R-13s cost. For amateurs on a budget, I think they are a slam dunk decision. Pros should try them to see if they work in their respective concert halls. The leanness of sound the Yamahas produce may be better in certain environments.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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