 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-01-07 18:17
Hi Robert:
I haven’t tried them and like you, want to hear from those who have.
I also suspect, like me, that your “reedar” (an amalgamation of reed and radar) is picking up signals that tell us to be cautious. It reminds us that even the most precise of revolutionary methods for cutting and contouring a reed (not that any of that is necessarily happening here) are only as likely to bring uniformly consistent good results as the consistency of the base product upon which such steps are applied.
And this base product, even when chosen from the best cane crops, from the best years of harvest, and is the best aged, is (as mother nature intended) full of diversity: not only within a individual reed, but across the reeds of a production line. While one of the ways that diversity manifests itself is in reed strength, another is, need I tell anyone reading, inconsistency of play.
People offering no guarantees on their cane reeds (and I don’t blame them for not doing so), even more so, who recommend and sell reed adjustment products (which I also find them harmless for doing), recognize this.
I too want to know what people think about their reeds (having adjusted them first.) Sadly we can’t easily quantify a player’s ability to effect such adjustment, or their personal tolerance for diversity among their set of “go to reeds.” But in large sample sizes, where lots of people are putting their thumbs up, I think there may be validity in personal testing.
How many reeds, by the way, are in a “quanity of 1”: their nomenclature? Ten I presume?
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2015-01-07 19:09
A few issues ago, the clarinet magazine had an interesting article about what makes a good reed. It ran a few well thought out experiments. The conclusion was that cane quality was the major factor and that one could check that quality fairly easily with a magnifying glass.
The author was making a strong case that by doing this quick check, individual who make their own reeds would save a ton of time by only working from good cane.
Then again you can also do away with cane and play synthetic. After all players like Ricardo Morales, John Moses or Richard Hawkins find them up to their standards.
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Sylvain Bouix <sbouix@gmail.com>
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2015-01-07 20:42
Well, guys, my assumptions are very different from yours. I still like cane reeds and find some good ones to play among the Vandoren Trad and Rue Lepics as well as the Peter Leuthner reeds.
Mechanical pens were supposed to make regular wooden pencils obsolete, but people still buy pencils. Contact lens were supposed to totally displace eyeglass but many opticians still sell them and many consider them "way cool."
My 12-year-old niece dragged me down to the French Quarter the other day to look for vinyl LPs to play on her "awesome" new Crosley phonograph, complete with replacement needles. She pays $20 to $40 for LP records I used to buy for $4.98 that she could easily download on her electronic devices. And, yes, she has a drawer full of ipads, ipods, cloud computers, etc, but she still wants some of the old things, including wooden pencils, eyeglasses, and phonographs.
So if the chant begins with "The Cane Reed is Dead," it continues with "Long live the Cane Reed." It will come back as RETRO, Post-Post Modern, Deconstructionist response to Plastic, etc. So Wenzel and Ricardo play composite--great for them; the last time I heard, Sabine Meyer and Michelle Zukovsky still play cane. If they stop, I would guess their descendants will find some pretext to bring cane back in their generation.
I have no reason to be wary of Brian Hormanson and the other names listed on the Reed Project roster. Making better cane reeds seems to me a worthy endeavor. I'd just like to know how well they have succeeded before I shell out a few bucks to find out. If no one knows, then I will reach in my pocket and pay to find out. That's after I help pay for my niece's boutique LPs and spare needles.
Post Edited (2015-01-07 23:50)
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2015-01-07 23:58
Robert:
You seem to be firm believer that "cane's death has been widely overreported."
Me too. I prefer cane, while I remain in full respect on the progress synthetics have made. They give us choices...maybe as of this writing an 83% reed 100% of the time. Maybe motivation for cane reed producers to strive for greater consistency.
I just don't see where Sylvain or I challenged cane's presence. He only touched on synthetics tangentially (at least of this writing) and I only said in essence to be wary of any cane reed maker's product being the next greatest thing: not, in fairness, that those at the Reed Project ever made such claims.
Serious clarinetist as we are, go with what works best, irrespective of age, unless age (new or old) adds value to play. I think New age or retro style trends, at least as it regards the clarinet based choices we make, aren't our priority.
Post Edited (2015-01-08 01:31)
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Author: Sylvain
Date: 2015-01-08 00:13
For the record I play on cane reeds.
Although my post might have been vague, I think I was trying to say that perhaps the most important factor in deciding what makes a good reed is the quality of the cane. Different cuts and profiles all undergo some level of quality control both by the reed maker and the player, but I don't think the cane gets inspected the way it should.
If I were to try to enter the reed-making business and truly wanted to make a better product this is where I would spend my R&D time.
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Sylvain Bouix <sbouix@gmail.com>
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