Author: hautboisteur
Date: 2006-12-12 12:02
The concept of windows has changed over the years for me, depending on evolving sound concepts. I was taught that windows are made in order to make a darker sound, improve the reed's flexibility and to enrich the sound and make it deeper. That was the place where the Velvet tone lies, as I understood it.
At that time the profiles of the reeds I made was slanting sharply downwards, reaching a big bump of the heart and sloping downwards again towoards the tip. Special attention was paid to that area, because of the tone quality it represented to me, so I took care to make thin windows and scrape them seperately. This, together with a thin tip and a thick heart to hold the reed together created a sound with a lot of high frequncies, a lot of lower frequencies and no middle. Sort of De-Lancy sound.
Later, I changed my approach: I wanted to make the parts of the reed blend more evenly. So the scrape was along the entire back this way: two or three short strokes from the beginning of the scrape to its middle and then several longer strokes over the entire back. This created a profile that slanted downwards without too much of a bump at the heart and created a smoother surface overall. The windows were thus created more naturally. This gives more stability and focus to the sound and vibrations flow more freely along the reed.
Today I scrape the back so as to give the reed more vibrations and do not make such a big deal out of the windows. I still make them, but not as thin as they used to be, maybe adding a few strokes to the back of the back, not more.
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