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Thread: What are some aspects you look for in an instrument review?

  1. What are some aspects you look for in an instrument review?

    I've been toying around with the idea of doing amateur brass reviews and comparison videos on Youtube/Instagram/Facebook. What are some aspects of instrument reviews that you want someone to focus on when reviewing brass instruments? I would like to categorize things as effectively as possible. One of the aspects I do want to include is from my point of view (as a band director). What do you look for?

  2. #2
    I like the idea of doing one from the director's point of view. Can you describe more about that concept?

    Here are a few people are doing reviews of horns (and other topics). First, Aaron Campbell (a Besson artist doing a Besson review here):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI4cNL32HbA

    And here is Algirdas Matonis reviewing Adams (a Sterling artist):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgIbkQKXtck

    Here is Trent Hamilton doing a review of a classic horn. He has several others, and I'm not sure if he has an affiliation with a brand:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipf6q2AR_L8

    Here is my own, but I have not done a series. This is of the Adams E1 (I am an Adams artist), but it is not the model I currently play:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpVaEa5WHmU

    And here is my written article on choosing a horn; perhaps it will trigger a couple ideas, although the format and focus here are both different from yours:

    http://www.dwerden.com/eu-articles-choosing.cfm
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

  3. So for the director's point of view I wanted to focus on the long term viability of the instrument. How well will this instrument or brand handle wear and tear of daily student use? (For ex. Yamaha horns are notorious for their ability to handle dents are brushes fairly well, but can be a nightmare when valve guide issues spring up out of nowhere, which I think should be very important to band directors when deciding on long term investments. Also how well does these instrument blend in within an ensemble? For example, my Mack Brass 210L Tuba to have a super big encompassing sound, but very heavy sounding. While the Yamaha Rotary Valve Bb Tuba to be very light, direct sound, but a noticeably smaller sound when even compared to the old Yamaha full size 3 valve Tuba. Do you want a Euphonium to blend into the trombone sound? Or into the Tuba sound? Or stand out on its own. And of course pricing and usage. So for instance, my Mack Brass Euphonium is great value for the price, but after owning it for about 6 years, certain spots where my hand is place has worn out the silver polishing, while the Yamaha student model Euphonium's at my school from 1993, still hold their silver polish extremely well.

    And thank you for those links! That will help me format the flow of what I want to do!

  4. #4
    You have a lot of good thoughts!

    I'll add a little tip. If you are going to play the horn as part of each review, you need to find a way to get a quality horn sound and a quality voice sound. The same mic placement and volume setting won't work for both. When I have done a couple of these I used my 4-channel Zoom:

    https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-H4N-Digi...dp/B01DPOXS8I/

    It was just off camera, but close enough to pick up my voice. Then I had an external mic plugged into the Zoom, and that mic was placed further back to pick up the horn well. If you are on a budget, you can use the same recorder, but record all your voice bits first, then reset things and record all your horn bits. You'd have to assemble them in the video editor. The tricky part of this is that you have to sync up the audio and video in the video editor and discard the camcorder's audio. Most camcorders don't have a very good mic for recording music.

    You could also mix and match. Use the video recorder for your voice and an audio recorder placed further away. Then you'd mix the audio recorder's track where you will be playing (and kill the camcorder audio there).

    There are others ways you can get it done, I'm sure. Most importantly, when you are playing you need a recorder that does not have automatic level control. It will try to "fix" your differences in volume!
    Dave Werden (ASCAP)
    Euphonium Soloist, U.S. Coast Guard Band, retired
    Adams Artist (Adams E3)
    Alliance Mouthpiece (DC3)
    YouTube: dwerden
    Facebook: davewerden
    Twitter: davewerden
    Instagram: davewerdeneuphonium

  5. Since I am more of a section player, with very few solos, and those usually as a statement of the melody in the context of a larger setting, I am most interested in a horn's intonation quirks. No horn has perfect intonation throughout the scale, as Dave's charts show. But if I can get an idea ahead of time what to expect, I can decide if the particular quirk(s) is/are something I can live with or not.

    Also, I want to see good long tones and melodies as well, because playing the variations on Grandfather's Clock is, except for overall response including interval slurs, are more a function of the player and how well the valves are maintained than demonstrating the characteristics of the horn.

    Keep the intro explanation to a minimum and elaborate more at the end, with a recap of any particular short motifs which may need further explanation or demonstration.

    Some of the videos have superlative editing when comparing either a range of horns, or a range of mouthpieces, or both, as "side-by-side" without delay that can cause ear fatigue.

    Thanks for allowing my input.
    Last edited by iiipopes; 04-02-2018 at 04:43 PM.

  6. Thanks for the replies. I don't know if it's against the rules or not but I'm going to post the finished product of my first review:

    https://youtu.be/Y3lylJz1AfA

    I have the script already written for my first full review for my Mack Brass review but this is my first mini review for 3 Marching Baritones that I did a comparison with. I'd love some feedback. I know one of the issues is the voice over because of a lot of the background noise that I will have to edit before I add it in next time on Audacity.

    I hope the video quality is okay, I shot all the footage on my Galaxy S9 camera.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    Smoketown, Pa
    Posts
    233
    Having my wife do a recording of our resent performance has alerted to me that my sound is not exactly what I perceived during rehearsals and practice. This could be in part to the I pad and where the recording was made. Looking back, I usually use a different mouthpiece which gives a darker sound but wanted to project more with what I chose to use. I'm thinking now that a portion of a review should be based on a recording of the ensemble as part of the evaluation. Our ensemble conductor records some of the rehearsals as a method of going back and evaluation of sound, balance and of course intonation. I think most of us are aware of the quirks of each of our instruments. Sadly one forgets to do a check once in a while to make sure that pervious adjustments remain the same. This forum has been an excellent resource for me as a teaching tool for myself to further progress as a player and performer. Our own personal tastes as far as what we expect for the sound we produce is blended with all the information contained in this forum and what we hear on You Tube and other avenues of recordings. Since I am long gone from teaching, I've turned to performance and sometimes standing in for some rehearsals to conduct.
    B&S 3046 Baritone/Euphonium
    Wessex Festivo
    B&S PT37-S
    Schilke ST20 Tenor Trombone
    Jupiter XO Double valve bass trombone

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