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 Any (further) commentary on the Vandoren Black Diamond MP's?
Author: DavidBlumberg 
Date:   2015-11-19 20:16

Anyone playing on the Vandoren Black Diamond Mouthpiece, and what are your impressions of it compared to the popular 13 Series?

http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com


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 Re: Any (further) commentary on the Vandoren Black Diamond MP's?
Author: seabreeze 
Date:   2015-11-19 20:56

Very smooth, round sound, especially in the altissimo. More of a traditional Viennese sound than German. Soft-edged, non-percussive staccato. Very even and balanced in pitch and timbre throughout the entire range (doesn't get squealy when you go up high). Bridges wide intervals with a nice, liquid legato.

Compared with the M13 or the M15 the sound seems a bit smaller and doesn't have that famous "ring tone." Wonderful, though, for Viennese waltz music. Personally, I have trouble controlling the long open facing, so I have a mouthpiece tech put a close facing on it (close to an M13 or a Backun MoBa C facing). Then it works well with 3.5 Vandoren 21 reeds.

Not my main mouthpiece though, but nice when you want to sound subdued, mellow, and intimate--a night in old Vienna.



Post Edited (2015-11-20 00:00)

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 Re: Any (further) commentary on the Vandoren Black Diamond MP's?
Author: John Peacock 
Date:   2015-11-19 21:02
Attachment:  plotx3.pdf (35k)

I got one on trial - didn't like it. But while I had it, I took some measurements of the lay, which I show in the attached plots. These show, in order, a B45, 5RVL, BD (numbers 18, 17, 22 on the plots).

You can see that the BD is very slightly more open at the tip than a 5RVL. I get 1.16mm for the BD as against 1.13 for the 5RVL; these are both at the extreme tip, but in any case it's the difference that counts.

Other significant differences: the BD lay is shorter. Both B45 and 5RVL look very similar beyond 15mm from the tip, but the BD is closer there. Also, it has strange variations in curvature: the profile has very little curvature between 5 & 10 mm from the tip, but it has a sudden flare within about the last 2mm.

Whether any of these features are why I didn't like the sound, who knows, but some may find these comparisons interesting.

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 Re: Any (further) commentary on the Vandoren Black Diamond MP's?
Author: Curinfinwe 
Date:   2015-11-19 22:56

I used one for about a month and a half, but just switched to a Hawkins R. I'm a grad student in clarinet performance.
I also found it to be very smooth and round, but it did not work well in a big hall. Ever when I was trying to project, my sound was going nowhere and the ring wasn't there. The throat tones were also fairly flat, and I've heard that others have had the same results. Attacks were very nice- there was a very good sense of exactly where the note would speak.

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 Re: Any (further) commentary on the Vandoren Black Diamond MP's?
Author: Monsterchef 
Date:   2015-11-21 03:52

I tried on at a local shop and switched on the spot from M13. It is more fatigue prone than smaller tipped mouthpiece. But in return you get a bigger sound that is quite thick and dark. My horn is a CSGII.

Cheers,



Post Edited (2015-11-21 09:46)

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 Re: Any (further) commentary on the Vandoren Black Diamond MP's?
Author: tylerleecutts 
Date:   2016-03-27 01:38

I use the BD5 13 and love it.

I especially like the facing length and tip opening on the mouthpiece. You don't have to put nearly as much mouthpiece inside the mouth for the fulcrum point and it responds with ease with medium strength reeds, hovering around 3.5 and 3.5+. The sound is very dark and the quality is there immediately with center without me having to work for it.



Post Edited (2016-03-28 01:59)

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 Re: Any (further) commentary on the Vandoren Black Diamond MP's?
Author: KUBecca 
Date:   2016-03-30 10:16

I actually bought a BD5 after trying many other vandorens (M13, M15, M30). i came from an M30 and used 4.5 V12s. Ordered 6 of them on trial from Weiner and all six played great.

I think the BD5 really rounded out my tone overall and is very even high to low unlike my old M30 (I may have just had a bad one.... it was pretty old). I also found when I played loud on my M30 the sound would "spread" and wiith the BD I can play very loud and still have a compact tone

I also switched from a 4.5 to a 4 V12 with the switch.

Overall, I have been extremely happy with the BD5 and am really glad I switched

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