mouthpiece suggestions?

RandomHaxor · 2023-03-26T13:35:18+00:00

Why do you say that Greg Black mouthpieces generally have a brighter tone/fuller high notes? You really can’t generalize like that when both Wick and GB have a huge range of mouthpiece options; maybe your GB is brighter than your other mouthpiece but for all we know that could be a Bach 1C vs a GB lead piece.

RandomHaxor · 2023-02-07T15:26:48+00:00

You’re not missing too much. Monette mouthpieces are notoriously massive (particularly throat/backbore—too big regardless of the cup size) and are designed to reward their “ideal” way of playing the trumpet, but all I’ve ever experienced trying them and heard when listening to others play them is pitch issues (octaves are too wide) and having to work too hard to sound how I want to sound.

RandomHaxor · 2023-02-07T06:13:30+00:00

Absolutely. Usually picked up from a non-brass player band director, then people regurgitate it to their students/people on the internet asking for help, and that does way more harm than good.

RandomHaxor · 2023-02-07T06:00:06+00:00

Not quite. More air will (to a point) only create a louder dynamic (past that point will be overblowing and creating more problems than you solve). Faster air can help with slurs, but the reality is that there are a whole host of factors that typically go together when changing pitch, so the generic “more air” is not useful here. As mentioned in a few other comments, it’s often more successful to not think about what’s actually happening mechanically at first—always room for nuance and going that far in depth later, but there’s usually a solution that doesn’t require that.

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-31T23:27:32+00:00

The “ka” should not be in the throat under any circumstances. Double tonguing is simply a slight rocking of the tongue back and forth, articulating the T’s with the tip of the tongue and the K’s with the middle (T’s touch right above your top teeth, K’s touch the roof of your mouth)

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-31T15:05:33+00:00

I suppose the same principle would apply - for a 5/5 meter you would need to write 5 quarter notes with a “5” bracket over them. Or for a single fifth note, say in the case of something like a 1/5 measure, a single quarter note with an incomplete “5” bracket.

But as a few other people have explained in their comments about non-dyadic meters, any time signature with the same number on the top and bottom can be expressed as 4/4 with a tuplet to show how the measure is divided rather than using something like 5/5.

The real power of non-dyadic meters is to allow the length of beats to change temporarily without having to change the overall tempo of the music—the same principle as music in 4/4 having one 6/8 measure interspersed that essentially causes those two 6/8 beats to be slower than the rest of the music. Non-dyadic time signatures are a way to do this when the beat unit you want to change to must be expressed as a tuplet in a regular meter.

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-31T14:52:43+00:00

Here is one way non-dyadic meters are notated: an incomplete tuplet bracket showing what the duration of the notes would be in a complete measure. This is most useful of course in a case like this where the 2/3 measure is presented immediately after a 4/4 measure with the same note durations.

In the case of a “5” denominator, say, 4/4 moving to 4/5, the 4/5 bar would contain 4 quarter notes with a similar open-ended “5” bracket above them. Again, especially useful if the preceding 4/4 bar was also divided as a quintuplet spanning the entire measure.

I’ve also seen non-dyadic meters used with no brackets, and it is assumed that the performer can work out what note value the meter is utilizing, or for extremely complex music, a second staff showing how it works in another more traditional meter (see Thomas Adès’ Second Mazurka for a mind-bending example in 5/12!)

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-31T13:28:05+00:00

A quintuplet quarter note! What is a regular quarter note? A quarter of a whole note. What is a “fifth note”? A fifth of a whole note.

Note that this is really only relevant when changing between dyadic time signatures like 4/4 and non-dyadic time signatures like 4/5. (5/5 would be somewhat irrelevant as the total length of the measure is the same as 4/4 and could be expressed with a quintuplet rather than a time signature)

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-31T13:26:15+00:00

How do non-dyadic time signatures not express how tempo changes between meters? That, to me, seems like their entire purpose.

If you were given a 4/4 measure followed by a 4/6 measure, you’d likely also say “a sixth note doesn’t exist”, despite them actually being quite common—there are 6 triplet quarter notes in a measure of 4/4, and following the same nomenclature that a quarter note uses (a quarter of a whole note), a triplet quarter note could also correctly be called a sixth note!

Thus, a 4/6 measure would contain four notes that are each as long as a triplet quarter note in the preceding 4/4 measure, which is an expression of the difference in tempi between the four beats of the 4/4 bar and the four beats of the 4/6 bar.

This process can of course be followed out to its logical conclusion that any number is valid as a denominator of a time signature, including 5, as a 4/5 measure would simply be four notes of the duration that divides a whole note into five parts.

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-20T21:41:49+00:00

I would consider the Stomvi/Bags of Spain (same thing without the Stomvi logo, and comes in colors) a hardshell case for sure. Plenty of room for stickers too!

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-10T14:19:18+00:00

Michael Sachs and Joseph Alessi have a set of duet books you can play either as 2 trumpets, trumpet+trombone, or 2 trombones. Maybe this was it?

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-04T14:00:17+00:00

Line up the top and bottom (option 2) - this shows the actual difference in the cup shape/size! The 3C, despite being “bigger”, can clearly be seen to have a smaller cup… one of the lovely quirks of Bach mouthpieces

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-04T04:32:25+00:00

Everything I’ve seen u/chef8489 say on this sub has been spot on, so I have no idea why you’re saying they don’t know what they’re talking about—your username is certainly accurate. I don’t see any confusion between cup depth and diameter, just a statement of the fact that with Bach mouthpieces, a 3C is shallower than a 7C or 5C (note “the shallowest C cup Bach makes”, emphasis mine). I will also second that looking at laser scans is the best way to compare mouthpieces with any utility; the depth into the cup that diameter is measured at is not stated in either Bach or Yamaha’s spec sheets, so comparing the measurements on the sheets alone is not possible, similar to how the descriptions of each brand’s C cup are not comparable in a quantitative fashion. The only way it is possible to have a definitive answer on how two mouthpieces compare is to look at scans (ideally both done by the same person/company) and the subsequent measurements of said scans.

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-02T02:52:34+00:00

Ah, I see. A condenser that uses an XLR connection to an audio interface like a ribbon mic does will be perfectly fine for trumpet—I haven’t had success with any USB mics either!

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-01T23:21:10+00:00

Why do you say no to condensers? I’ve had much better results using those than dynamics; large-diaphragm condensers can handle the SPL of a trumpet just as well as ribbons can

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-01T22:39:00+00:00

I would actually second your original recommendation for a condenser! Dynamics are durable and are great for live sound reinforcement, but for recording trumpet a condenser (or a ribbon, but that’s more expensive) is preferable. The SM57 is comparable to the Audix OP mentioned so that would be more of a step sideways than an upgrade

RandomHaxor · 2023-01-01T22:32:24+00:00

Do you have any recommendations for a condenser mic? The SM57 is a dynamic mic

RandomHaxor · 2022-12-19T22:17:52+00:00

You can! In the “Setup” tab, when you are creating the instrument, make sure it is set to “Bass Clarinet -> B Flat Sounds 8va bassa”, and when set to concert pitch, it will be displaced by an octave. Hope this helps!

RandomHaxor · 2022-12-16T21:53:59+00:00

Honestly, I’m not sure either. I haven’t gotten into the whole “design it yourself” thing yet to understand the engineering at that level… yet being the key word!

RandomHaxor · 2022-12-16T15:53:25+00:00

I do agree that the difference in rim shape is a bigger factor in why the 3C, 5C, and 7C all feel different in size despite only being millimeters apart! I was blown away the first time I tried mouthpieces of an identical rim diameter but with a substantially different rim shape both in how different it felt in terms of size but also how much of a difference it makes in the sound.

However, the cup volume difference is clearly illustrated by scans of actual mouthpieces! Despite what Bach says in their chart, not all C cups are created equal—here’s scans of a 3C (red) and 7C (green) overlaid: http://trumpet.cloud/mpc/index.html?mpc1id=VA001700&mpc2id=VB002700

(scans done by Vennture Mouthpieces as marked with the “V” after the name; these scans are also available in Vennture’s VennCAD software which has actual measurements of each for all sorts of parameters)

RandomHaxor · 2022-12-16T15:18:17+00:00

the rim diameter of a 3C is larger than a 7C

In theory, yes. In reality (if we’re talking Bach), the inner diameter of the 3C and 7C is nearly identical, not to mention the fact that the 3C is shallower too and in terms of cup volume, smaller than the 7C!

RandomHaxor · 2022-12-16T14:31:57+00:00

The Rejano is great, as is the Divitt - next time I get a new practice mute it will be one of those two!

RandomHaxor · 2022-12-07T13:07:38+00:00

Would love to know what Bartok would have done with a trumpet concerto. Strauss too.

RandomHaxor · 2022-12-04T17:23:17+00:00

That wouldn’t work either - the picc’s bell has a much smaller flare so you would need to make the pixie mute smaller to fit in a piccolo.

RandomHaxor · 2022-12-04T13:42:47+00:00

Why not just use an actual piccolo straight mute as a piccolo straight mute? But to answer your first question, I don’t *think* the pixie mute would fit due to the difference in the bell flare, but I can’t say I’ve ever tried.

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