 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Wookie001
Date: 2023-05-28 16:07
Is the special Vandoren humidity sealing for reeds necessary or does it improve the quality? Because most other brands don't have that.
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2023-05-28 17:20
Wookie001 wrote:
> Is the special Vandoren humidity sealing for reeds necessary or
> does it improve the quality? Because most other brands don't
> have that.
We've discussed this before (search the archive for people's thoughts). I don't find the sealed foil packaging necessary or, I suspect, useful. The reeds will have to function in the player's atmospheric environment, not in Paris. The boxes are sealed in plastic, which should protect the reeds adequately from whatever they need to be protected from. Opening the foil packs is, to me at least, a nuisance, and they become trash that probably doesn't decompose in a landfill and isn't (in my locality) acceptable for recycling.
Here's my curmudgeonly rant:
I also wish the companies that put them in plastic holders (e.g. all D'Addario, Brio, Lurie) would put them in cardboard holders like Aria, Pilgerstorfer and Steuer. My local recycling service doesn't want the plastic holders, either - too small, jams the machinery. I suppose the way reeds all were packaged when I was a student (laid flat is rows of 5 with a heavy paper separator between rows and lots of cushiony paper packaging on top and bottom) allowed a reed tip or two once in a while to break, but I think I'd take that over the wasteful, trash producing modern packaging.
Paper packaging of almost any sort can be disposed of easily. The more protective and indestructible the packaging becomes, the harder it is ultimately to get rid of.
Karl
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2023-05-28 23:03
Like Karl has opined, I'd be inclined to find the foil packaging more hype than substance.
The theory is that, like in this segment of video, https://youtu.be/XvmfrTsC7GU?t=158 that the reed is less susceptible to changes in humidity as it makes its way from the environmentally controlled room in which it is cut, to a player's mouth or humidified reed case once opened.
The question though is if whether, assuming this packaging even works, it's beneficial.
I keep my reeds in a humidity controlled environment. I find that doing so brings them up to playing speed faster than if I don't. Maybe the also tend to form less wavy tips: a product of unequal absorption of water perhaps more likely when a reed moves from dry to moist state: and hence the case (no pun intended) for never allowing the reed, once first used, to never fully dry.
But if Vandoren started boxing their reeds like they did before those plastic holders, stacked on top of each other (Karl, like I , I am sure remembers this,) would much bad come of this: my guess is no.
This said, an anecdote: I am fine with all sorts of questions from students. But sometimes incredible nuanced questions from so-so skilled players about things so subtle like ligature choice will come my way, to which I reply, "do you know what tool will improve your play on reeds," as the eager student's ears perk up.
At this point I pick up a copy of Bearmann III.
I've seen some Russian extracted players of incredible virtuosity who trained with clarinets held together with rubber bands, gum, and wishful thinking in the former Soviet Union. Where their gear was short, their access to etude books and tenacity was long.
If this forum supported tag lines mine might read, "a clarinetist's most important piece of gear is an etude book." ;-)
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2023-05-29 00:27
kdk wrote:
> I suppose the way reeds all were packaged
> when I was a student (laid flat is rows of 5 with a heavy paper
> separator between rows and lots of cushiony paper packaging on
> top and bottom) allowed a reed tip or two once in a while to
> break, but I think I'd take that over the wasteful, trash
> producing modern packaging.
>
SecondTry wrote:
> But if Vandoren started boxing their reeds like they did before
> those plastic holders, stacked on top of each other (Karl, like
> I , I am sure remembers this,) would much bad come of this:
> my guess is no.
Getting old together??
Karl
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Author: DougR
Date: 2023-05-29 01:36
I'm pretty much in agreement with you guys. I'm just wondering what exactly the problem was that the foil packaging was supposed to solve. Worst case to my mind would be weeks and maybe months in a dank, humid, smelly and possibly leaky shipping container. (In which I'm VERY happy for the foil packaging!)
Another possibility might be pennies spent to make the quality-control LOOK good, and bulk up the packaging, in order to charge dollars more.
Have to say, I don't experience the eagerness and anticipation with the new packaging that I did opening one of the old purple boxes, with the reeds all nestled together. Remember that faint bamboo bouquet? I miss that!
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2023-05-29 02:54
I had noted that the quality and constancy of the Vandoren reeds has gone up considerably since the "old days." So I'm not so sure that the packaging does NOT contribute in some way. I think that the upgrade came when Vandorens were sealed in the clear wrap around the whole box. That was also when they started the individual plastic reed guards but before individual reed guards were individually wrapped. There was also that transitional packaging for the Rue Lepic with a large plastic tray sealing ten reeds under a foil cover.
That's all to say that in the days of the "bamboo smell," ya got about three usable reeds out of ten........remember that? If the environmentally questionable packaging is responsible for more than twice that usable number, I'll take mine with a side of freon.
:-)
............Paul Aviles
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Author: SecondTry
Date: 2023-05-29 04:30
Paul Aviles wrote:
> I had noted that the quality and constancy of the Vandoren
> reeds has gone up considerably since the "old days." So I'm
> not so sure that the packaging does NOT contribute in some way.
> I think that the upgrade came when Vandorens were sealed in the
> clear wrap around the whole box........
Paul..just for giggles, what's your "playable, and bringing to playable" reed storage methodology when using cane, as opposed to synthetics? Do you humidify, etc.?
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2023-05-29 06:53
In a shorter version than what one sees in the Mark Nuccio video, I play on each reed for about 5min. per day for about four days. As I place them down (flat side up) on a table, I set them in a rough order of how well they play. Oddly (perhaps) the order of playability can change quite dramatically by the last day, but is usually settled by then. At this point I number the reeds but still allow the "concert" order to change as time goes on. These reeds then can be played "all day long" and usually get put through the ringer. I don't have to change out reeds during a day unless there is some catastrophic break.
I store the reeds in those simple plastic reed guards that look like the La Voz aluminum ones from many years past. The only thing I do to maintain humidity is to place the reed guards in a Baggies Sandwich bag just loosely folded over. Before putting this away for the evening I will flick a few drops of water off my finger tips into the bag. A batch of ten reeds can last a month and a half. When they reach their usable life (when they start to sound "brittle") the process begins all over again.
With Legere German reeds (or Euro Cut) I don't have to do any of this. That's is one of the benefits.
...............Paul Aviles
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