 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: huboboe
Date: 2012-11-02 06:51
I may have posted this on another thread, but for what it's worth, here's my take on how the (American style) reed works, highly simplified:
There are two different regions in the architecture of the reed: the tip, which is short and vibrates at high frequencies, and the back, which is long and vibrates at low frequencies. The back, which is so thick that if you remove the tip there is no way it could vibrate, must then get it's energy from the tip, which vibrates easily.
The way this happens is along the slope of the blend between the tip and the back. If the slope is too gradual and the tip not thin enough, the mass of the back restricts the tip's vibrations. If the slope is too abrupt, the tip is not coupled to the back and vibrates alone.
IMNSHO, the blend is the critical factor. One can get a balance between the tip and the back with both being relatively thick which will play with a great deal of resistance, or with being relatively thin playing very easily with almost no resistance, but the balance must be achieved by balancing the tip and the back along the blend.
Cooper Wright's diagrams (linked by Drew in his question) are an excellent visualization of the architecture of the blend. The more rapid the slope of the blend, the more the tip is heard.
Hubbard's rules of thumb: If the crow is too tippy but with little resistance, clip the tip to remove some of the tip's influence and add resistance. If the crow is too tippy with a lot of resistance, thin the back to balance the tip and lessen the resistance. If the crow lacks the tip's component, thin the entire tip, from the heart along the blend to the corners.
A longer tip and a thinner tip produce similar results. Both increase the tip's influence on the balance. A longer back and a thinner back both have similar results also, but you can overcut the back more easily going too long than going too thin..
That's a quick overview of my thoughts on reed making. David Ledet's book "Oboe Reed Making" has a wealth of pictures showing how many different ways the same architecture can be expressed. I highly recommend it to those who feel there must be more to the process than they understand.
Robert Hubbard
WestwindDoubleReed.com
1-888-579-6020
bob@westwinddoublereed.com
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DrewSorensenMusic |
2012-10-28 04:42 |
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GoodWinds |
2012-10-30 23:45 |
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WoodwindOz |
2012-10-31 02:42 |
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ohsuzan |
2012-10-31 15:53 |
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Re: Tip Scraping Technique new |
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huboboe |
2012-11-02 06:51 |
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GoodWinds |
2012-11-02 17:20 |
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huboboe |
2012-11-02 06:56 |
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huboboe |
2012-11-02 18:50 |
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The Clarinet Pages
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