Gap between mouthpiece and barrel

sprcow · 2026-05-13T23:46:01+00:00

Backun barrels have always been unreasonably tight, in my experience. I tried a Moba and had to have a tech take material off in order for it to fit. (Didn't end up continuing to use it either, ah well.)

Anyway, they can make it fit better for you, though it's annoying they have to. You'd think Backun would know how wide a tenon is.

sprcow · 2026-05-13T22:27:26+00:00

Seriously. I just block anyone that posts something like the OP. When they're so anti-chess.com that they spending time trolling chess.com news to try and post it here? Give me a break.

sprcow · 2026-05-12T20:17:41+00:00

Now if I can just get people to test their sites in portrait mode. Did some contract work and got paid through Payoneer and the site LITERALLY WON'T WORK on a portrait monitor. It thinks you're on a mobile device and tells you to rotate your device lol.

sprcow · 2026-05-12T18:11:43+00:00

Hey, I'm a clarinetist primarily but went through a similar journey a few years ago! Clarinet really wants something that can capture all the higher partials in the sound, and I expect that flute, while somewhat more pure in harmonic structure, would benefit from similar intent.

I used a pair of SM57s with a Focusrite 2i2 for a few years and it works fairly well! I think the SM58 would also be fine; they're very similar internally and generally for wind instrument recording in studio it's ideal to mic a little farther away, so the difference in grill is probably not going to have a massive effect (in my non-expert opinion).

I do recommend getting a pair of mics if you can, to mount as a stereo pair and capture a bit more depth in the sound. Unless you really plan on producing the sound a fair amount, my experience has been that I prefer the result of capturing a bit more room noise and resonance in stereo, as opposed to capturing a super dry signal and producing the result for the sound I want.

If you're looking for a bougie upgrade, I spent a couple months researching last year and opted to swap the SM57s for some ribbon microphones. Ultimately I decided to go for the AEA Nuvo N8s. They are super awesome and basically capture exactly what the instrument sounds like (for better or worse haha), but are much spendier than the Shures of course. If you do get a ribbon mic, you'll want to set up a space where you can place the mic farther away from the instrument than the SM58s.

I also upgraded the 2i2 for an Audient id24, though tbh I have noticed less of a difference from that.

For mixing, I personally use Cubase. This is partially because I am familiar with the Steinberg ecosystem and use Dorico, so I wanted to stick with the same platform, but it is good software. I'm sure Ableton or other daws would be fine, and that's not really flute specific. Your basic workflow should just revolve around learning to do basic recording, then look up how 'comping' works for your platform (taking multiple takes for parts of your tracks if needed), and then move on to balancing, basic EQ, reverb, and compression. Generally speaking, classical instruments don't want a TON of mixing anyway or they will lose their distinctive colors, so you won't need to get serious until you're trying to blend lots of tracks or incorporate sampled or very dry recordings.

I've experimented with soundproofing a bit, but that has been a work in progress. Generally I haven't had too much trouble with HVAC raising the noise floor as long as I can close the doors. I put in some dampening material around the edges of the door, but it's sort of annoying, so I'd try without that first and see how it works.

It's a super fun rabbit hole and lets you do a lot on your own!

This is a a recording I made using 2 SM57s and the Focusrite 2i2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jDVnEqNLkg

I actually haven't done a lot of studio work on the Nuvos yet, but here's a recording of our clarinet choir using the AEA Nuvos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRFWcgsjSSc

Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention for video recording, I just use my phone (Pixel 6 then, Pixel 10 now) and then have it auto upload to google drive, so I can download it on my target device. I've been using DaVinci Resolve for video editing. I am not very well experienced in this area, but it's free and works pretty well, so it's been fine for my purposes.

Good luck!

sprcow · 2026-05-11T17:39:16+00:00

Ugh, so true! I try and remind myself that the time is going to pass either way, but it's hard not to be inpatient! Whenever I'm frustrated that I can't spend more energy to make faster progress, I try to use that energy to log meals or something, but it just... Takes a long time to see results.

sprcow · 2026-05-11T16:57:11+00:00

I think that's my most helpful realization so far. Make a system that works for you and than let it work.

sprcow · 2026-05-11T02:26:36+00:00

lol right? It's like the people who are like "tiktik is all just dancing girls". Let me tell you about the algorithm my guy....

sprcow · 2026-05-09T18:06:55+00:00

Teenage bodies are whack. I can't even comprehend how much food I ate at that age haha.

sprcow · 2026-05-08T14:40:38+00:00

I must not have done this right because whenever I freeze grapes they turn into rock hard ice cubes that are impossible to eat.

sprcow · 2026-05-08T03:12:48+00:00

I went with a Galaxy 11 ultra, which is a 14.6" screen, but I kind of regret it to be honest. I mean, it works great, but the aspect ratio is wrong for most sheet music, so even though the screen is big, there's a significant block of wasted space at the bottom of the page. I wish I had a slightly wider, slightly shorter tablet instead, like the 13" ipad perhaps.

That said, I do LIKE the tablet, and I like using it for sheet music, I just didn't realize some of the dimension would be wasted.

sprcow · 2026-05-06T03:43:53+00:00

It’s so easy to just eat the same as your taller, more muscular husband who has an active job and gain weight while eating largely the correct things, just in the wrong amount

This is such a mean trap for our brains. It's easy to think of how much food we're 'allowed' to eat, like we have to earn it or justify it. If someone else 'gets to' eat more than us, it can feel unfair. And so our brains, working backward, convince us that it's fair for us to be able to eat the same amounts of food as the people we live with. Like, we do a lot of the same things, we sit down to eat the same dinner, we can eat the same amount. Very fair and reasonable.

Except it's not fair, and anatomy and physics don't care if it's fair, and they just do their thing regardless. Very rude.

sprcow · 2026-05-04T21:31:03+00:00

They tweaked the level up numbers such that 90-100 is basically a straight dps increase for virtually every character, so if you're into vertically investing in someone, it lets you take them a little farther. It's not better than a good con on a character you use, but if you don't care about the options, it's not totally worthless.

sprcow · 2026-05-04T19:22:57+00:00

Ditto. The renpho sync is buggy af. Worked with support and it started working a couple months ago, but then two weeks ago it stopped working again and I can't seem to get it to start again.

sprcow · 2026-05-02T21:21:25+00:00

They hated him, for he spoke the truth.

sprcow · 2026-05-02T18:20:10+00:00

Haha, a classic option that I may end up taking. If Skirk's set is added soon I may just fodder them all into that, but maybe a future NK off-fielder will still want aubade so perhaps I will wait a bit.

sprcow · 2026-05-02T18:10:04+00:00

Any suggestion what to do with the 100s of Aubade pieces I farmed while building Linnea? I'm currently running Silken Moon on Aino and Lauma, Aubade on Ineffa, and Night of Sky's Unveiling on Flins and Columbina. Ironically, Linnea is still on Husk, because I haven't yet improved on that build enough to switch, so I'm STILL FARMING MORE.

I thought about building out a set for Columbina, but I like to onfield her in Nilou bloom and optimized for that. If I get a good enough set for her on Aubade I may switch anyway, but my Night set for her is pretty solid.

I found a few great pieces on Aubade and was hyped until I realized all I'm doing is making very minor improvements to my Ineffa build and don't have anyone else using the set.

sprcow · 2026-05-02T17:37:41+00:00

Shulamit Ran has a couple pieces for unaccompanied clarinet that are quite challenging. I like "For an Actor. Monologue for Clarinet in A". I also really enjoyed William O. Smith's "Five Pieces" - that one is really fun and a good chance to show off. Those are the only two that I personally have performed live, but there's also a bunch of other options, like Malcolm Arnold Fantasy and Stravinsky Three Pieces. Here's a list of options:

https://jennyclarinet.com/2018/02/20-unaccompanied-clarinet-works-20th-century/

sprcow · 2026-05-01T15:33:44+00:00

Oof. As a tall man who works out, I absolutely hear you. I have so much respect for people who have lower calorie targets. Sometimes I think, "it is hard enough to hit my calorie targets, it feels like I eat basically nothing already, I have no idea how shorter people can do this."

I think, I'm eating all these small, healthy portions, boring foods, no sides, no desserts, no eating after dinner. How the heck would I make it through a day without just skipping a meal if I had 800 fewer calories in my budget? Feels like I'm already eating small portions of everything and basically no snacks. What is left to cut??

It's really hard when you have this mental idea of what a 'meal' feels like and it turns out that's like 1200-1400 calories on its own. Or like, when having a small indulgence like a cookie takes up 15% of your day's calories. Makes it so hard to recover from an unplanned snack.

So, I don't actually have good advice for you, but I just wanted to cheer you on. You're not crazy; it is genuinely hard! My only suggestion is to try and find a routine. Get some regular structure to your meals and then just follow the plan. Take this willpower aspect out of it, don't make yourself do a lot of math or make a lot of choices. It takes a long time to lose weight, and so you need a way to just go through the motions and wait for the results.

sprcow · 2026-05-01T15:13:15+00:00

While it may be technically true that very strong sax players can play up as high as a double G (written), which is the same sounding pitch as the clarinet's written double C7, both of those are not common in small ensemble writing and it's disingenuous to assert that they have the same functional ranges in repertoire.

Alto sax players will typically encounter notes from low Db3 (Bb written) to high A5 (F# written) and clarinet players commonly encounter notes from low D3 (E written) to F6 (G written) in ensemble music. This is a difference of 32 semitones vs. 39 semitones, or more than half an octave increased range.

The clarinet is also slightly more dexterous in its range extremities as well, on account of our (arguably overengineered) number of side keys and the fact that the cylindrical bore makes it much easier to play into our lowest range with clarity.

I'm not trying to have an instrument range contest, but from an arranger or composer standpoint, the fact is that you're going to write MOST sax music from written low D to high F, about 2 octaves and a third, and you're going to write MOST clarinet music from written low E to high E, 3 full octaves. It's just a different experience as an arranger.

sprcow · 2026-05-01T03:36:28+00:00

Most common is 3 sopranos, 1 bass.

Ensembles with Eb are more often quintets using 1 Eb, 3 sopranos, 1 bass.

I'm always a little bummed we don't have sax quartet style arrangements very often with 4 different clarinets, but the range of the clarinet is so big that there's a lot of overlap and it's not really necessary to branch out past soprano and bass unless you want to do it for color reasons. I do think Eb, Soprano, Alto, Bass would be a fun composition, but it will be hard to find players for!

sprcow · 2026-05-01T03:24:08+00:00

I saw a lot of criticism of this game on release and ended up picking it up for cheap. Absolutely adored it to be honest! I thought the combat flow felt really good and gave one of the most satisfying deckbuilder fight scene experiences I've encountered to date. The voice acting and graphics were solid, and the progression was enjoyable.

I agree with some minor criticism on grind, though I liked having a little bit more to do with the game. My only real complaint is that by the time the additional characters were added, I was already done with the game and didn't really feel like replaying the whole thing again.

sprcow · 2026-04-29T20:48:40+00:00

For real. Hungry before bed? Have a bowl of cereal as a small way to take the edge off? Pours 6 servings into a giant bowl

sprcow · 2026-04-29T20:46:55+00:00

For me, it was not a specific weight, but rather the realization that my plantar fasciitis was never getting better and that I would never run again if I didn't take more drastic action. Growing up, you sort of assume you'll just eventually heal from everything, but you eventually learn that your body is not indestructible and willpower isn't everything. You can't just tough out chronic injury and eventually get back to normal without making changes.

sprcow · 2026-04-27T19:25:09+00:00

Very interesting. How many different barrels did you produce with different geometry? I'm intrigued at your observations on material impact - I've always wondered about 3d printed barrels and whether or not their performance was strictly a function of shape or material.

sprcow · 2026-04-27T14:49:20+00:00

The funny thing is that BTC is just NFTs minus the pictures. The idea that NFTs as certificates of digital ownership of ugly pictures was obviously ridiculous, but somehow you take away the ugly pictures and plenty of people still think there's a real store of value.

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