Author: cjwright
Date: 2012-03-28 21:37
I believe the two are not mutually exclusive. You can have amazing tone AND response.
Just to clarify, I believe resistance, is different from response. Resistance is the amount of air needed to keep the reed going once it is going. But response is how much effort/air is required to get the reed started and start on a whisper.
Resistance is a major component to good tone as well. If the reed is responsive, but the resistance is too light, it will easily overblow, causing tone to distort and spread. If the resistance is too great, it can easily tire the player and they will lose control over dynamics and pitch, often causing them to pinch up to pitch rather than blow up to pitch.
Response, resistance, and tone all have to go hand and hand, and often when I see/try reeds others have made, the problem is balance. They'll have the resistance right but the tip will be too thick in certain areas to give maximum response. Or they'll have response, but the sound will be too shrill or not complex enough. Balance is just as important as both resistance and response.
When I first started my studies with David Weber regarding reeds, his integration line (the definition between the heart and tip) is one more of a concave idea, with a flatter angle into the center, and a more subtle tip, which he plays at the very tip and controls the cover of the tone with his lips. Martin, encourages a different idea with a more convex integration line which he describes as "a car windshield". This builds more cover into the sound, and allows him to work less with the embouchure.
In my experience, there is a direct relationship between stability of responsiveness and resistance, and flexibility of tone. In my own reedmaking, I can make a very compact reed which won't easily spread tone, will respond immediately, and play in pitch, but I give up opening, and therefore some volume in order to get it. I choose how much flexibility vs. how much stability based upon what I'm playing, in which ensemble, and with whom.
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