“A Jolly good reed”
Cane or Synthetic Polymer? AKA plastic!!
This article was translated into Dutch for the clarinet magazine De Klarinet
A brief personal comparison of some new versions of cane and synthetic reeds by Leslie Craven
New cane reeds from MARCA and polymer Silverstein reeds compared to synthetic reeds by Legere and Forestone.
MARCA new product : the ’57 arundo donax cane reed
I have for a number of years been a MARCA artist and have played their reeds for over 30 years with great success. About a year ago the founder of MARCA Mr Franco Guccini (a very kind and generous man) died and he left a fantastic legacy of artisanal reed manufacture and a family run business in Ollioules, Var, Provence, in the South of France.
The more famous reed manufacturers still have the “lion’s share” of the global market but if you want to try an honest reed with excellent cane that has several different profile shapes do try MARCA. Like many manufacturers reed products – they may not all be perfect, tried straight out of the box but the cane quality is excellent and with judicious adjustment using your favourite reed fixing device (SMERf of course J) one should be able to make every reed in the box play well. It is worth pointing out that the price of MARCA reeds is considerably less than most main stream brands, perhaps because they do not have the marketing and showroom overheads of more famous companies with offices in Paris and other major cities.
For those occasions when a cane reed will simply not respond well – in conditions of extreme dryness and heat then the selection of plastic reeds on the market is now truly excellent and there is a lot of choice. Basically I believe there is room for both cane and synthetic to live together side by side. I find cane more responsive and focussed generally but the control and consistency of tone one can achieve with plastic reeds has to be experienced to be believed.
All reed manufacturers produce several different cuts and profiles of their products. I was sent a new MARCA cane reed profile the ’57 to sample by Nicolas Righi, the owner of the MARCA company and I found the reeds to be very vibrant and could use several straight from the box. The rest I adjusted with the SMERf* system and made them play well. (For those unfamiliar with SMERf it is a kit designed by me with my friend and colleague Dr Robert Watson to adjust reeds – featured a while ago in the Dutch Clarinet Magazine De Klarinet).
I have not only been playing cane reeds but have also been experimenting and assessing a number of synthetic reeds and thought the readers of De Klarinet may be interested to see my conclusions so far.
Synthetic / Polymer AKA Plastic reeds
Having tried most of the more popular brands of synthetic reed including Bari, Fiberreed, Forestone, Legere and Silverstein Ambipoly ALTA (I shall call them plastic from now on) I narrowed my favourites down to the Silverstein model the “Vivace”, Forestone MH and Legere European cut 3.5.
Playing plastic reeds can be a strange experience as one has to get used to the fact one does not have to moisten the reed each time – but having said that I instinctively did almost every time I put a reed in my mouth – strange how old habits linger.
I found in my opinion the Bari and Fiberreed plastic reeds more suited to jazz but in particular the Fiberreed was resilient and produced the altissimmo easily but overall the general tone of both these was less refined and less suited to classical music than the Legere, Siverstein and Forestone offerings. The Bari reed played very freely but lacked something (for my personal expectation of sound) in the body of the sound.
New Profile for Silverstein Vivace reeds.
To allow me to assess the most recently designed Silverstein reed profile, a week ago Silverstein director of artist relations John Isley sent me the new version of the Alta Ambipoly “Vivace”, a reed that has been on the market for over a year now but re-designed very recently. Some time ago they produced the Primo and the Vivace, both good plastic reeds but I had a feeling that they could and indeed would be improved.
A while ago I commented to John Isley that I liked the Vivace and Primo Alta reeds a lot but found the extreme altissimmo with many plastic reeds (including those of Silverstein) to be more difficult to emit than with cane reeds. He said that the design originally was to build a reed that made a good sound in the most used areas of the clarinet for the greatest number of people. He did however take on board my comments regarding the extreme high register of the clarinet being less easy to produce than cane reeds.
Attenuation of harmonics is not always a disadvantage.
When assessing ligatures and reeds I always look for reeds and ligatures that produce the most harmonics and tend to discard those ligatures and reeds that attenuate the harmonics.
I have discovered that the attenuation or lack of certain harmonics is not necessarily always a bad thing
For example: my friend and colleague Dr Robert Watson (with whom I have undertaken considerable research into ligatures and reeds using an oscilloscope and spectrum analysis microphone*) an excellent amateur player is a firm advocate of the Legere European cut and I have to agree they make a very acceptable very smooth rounded sound.
This kind of sound would be ideal in many situations particularly chamber music and in the recording studio as they seem to have fewer harmonics to disturb sensitive microphones. Fewer harmonics and a slightly rounded sound is an advantage in that small-room situation but I find that I prefer a lot of harmonics in the sound to obtain all the tone colours I look for in my sound. (*this research was published a year or two ago in De Klarinet).
That same projecting edge in the sound produced by reeds and ligatures with more harmonics present may not be as desirable in a dry acoustic or studio and that is definitely where the Legere could sound attractive to the microphone. Conversely, in my experience the advanced player can easily control a reed with more harmonics in a skilful way to achieve a greater variety of tone colours in the sound.
Dr Watson and I discovered the same harmonic phenomenon with the CRY04 Silverstein ligature comparison tests we made: the CRY04 produced the widest spectrum of harmonics improving projection and tone colours, particularly in the weaker areas of the clarinet – notably the upper chalumeau and we also found it emitted the altissimmo more easily.
Many players are convinced cloth or leather ligatures adjusted by a single side screw create a warmer more rounded sound but these simply mask the harmonics and produce a less projecting, less focussed sound.
Picture: from left to right, synthetic reeds: Bari, Legere Classic, Forestone, Fiberreed, Silverstein Ambiploly Vivace and Primo and Legere European cut.
Legere European cut is very wide. The European cut is very wide for most mouthpieces and overlaps the side rails quite a lot but is a very short cut – shortest of all the reeds tested. It looks rather like a soprano sax reed. The combination of those two features, the shortness and greater width, creates the “warmer” sound perceived by the player.
My feeling is although the Legere European cut may record well, I doubt it would project as well into the concert hall in solos over a major symphony orchestra whereas the Vivace or Forestone or a longer blade cane reed will project better due to the more present harmonics or overtones.
We clarinet players tend to dislike edginess in the sound but it is often that slight edge on the sound that will carry a solo in a large room over a loud symphony orchestra. One phenomenon I experienced as a student was with my Teacher (the great Sidney Fell, a former Principal Clarinettist of the London Symphony Orchestra). He sounded very “buzzy” when I stood close to him when he demonstrated in lessons but at a greater distance the sound was clear and utterly beautiful in the hall. His sound had many colours and I believe that was because of the harmonics in his sound.
Vivace produces a wider spectrum of sounds. The latest Silverstein Vivace which is about half a millimetre longer and slightly different in profile from the previous versions, produced the upper altissimo and indeed all the range of the clarinet with a very pleasing clarity and ease and with lots of harmonic interest and body in the sound. It created the full spectrum of colours I look for compared to some of the other plastic reeds. Interestingly Silverstein advocate soaking their polymer reeds in water for a few minutes before trying them and this apparently does make a difference to the response. So by deduction it seems that the polymer may have some absorption properties.
Forestone
Another excellent plastic reed I liked very much was the Japanese Forestone and in all these makes of reed I found the 3.5+ (VIvace), 3.5 in Legere or MH in Forestone suited my own design CRAVEN/Sonoro mouthpiece style which has a tip opening of 1.06 – 1.08 millimetres on average with a medium facing curve of length approximately 14 – 15 millimetres maximum. The Forestone produced the kind of colours I like in the sound and played in a very similar way to the Silverstein reeds.
Playing plastic reeds can improve one’s control of the altissimmo register on cane reeds
There is no doubt having played all these plastic reeds they all work well for different occasions. I found one very interesting phenomenon was after deliberately playing plastic reeds exclusively for months in zoom lessons with my students (to see if any of my students noticed the difference) I found when I returned to a cane reed I was able to play with incredible ease in the altissimmo.
I think that subconsciously I was changing my embouchure and tongue position and was exaggerating the use of the correct facial muscles to obtain the altissimmo when I was playing the plastic reeds. When I returned to a correctly balanced cane reed the response was more positive, the sound much more focussed and the altissimmo very surprisingly appeared with much greater ease to the extent I was shocked how easy it appeared with the MARCA Superieure reed I was using.
Silverstein team science.
Silverstein are an interesting and very scientific company and never seem to rest in the search for better products. I must confess I have been one of their “artists” now for quite some time and it may seem to the reader that because of that I am biased – but rest assured my personal appraisals here are fair and honest. I do believe we all have opinions and some may disagree with my opinions and of course that is totally the individual’s prerogative in a free society.
I am not paid by any company to boost their sales by writing reviews and as I have done here I have outlined the good and the bad in all the products. Silverstein seem to have listened to the feedback from artists and responded to it which is a scientific approach other manufacturers may do well to emulate.
To conclude this very brief appraisal of some plastic reeds and the new MARCA cane reeds I would say that all the plastic reeds I have mentioned are worth a try and it is up to the individual to choose their favourite.
Personally I am still very much impressed by the new Vivace reed and for cane reeds I am using the MARCA Superieure, the Premium and the new ‘57 (so named to commemorate the birth of the company in 1957). In addition to these MARCA produce a fantastic relatively new student reed that is really inexpensive named *Primo which I have found to be really consistent and ideal for younger players. (*not to be confused with the Silverstein polymer (plastic) reed of the same name)
What is the difference between Superieure, Premium, and the ‘57 MARCA cane reeds? A question I am often asked by customers to my website to describe the MARCA reeds and their differences.
Here are the results I find:
The Superieure (far right) is a long profile, with less bark from the heel to the first cut than the Premium but it has a longer blade (about 2mm) and is a very vibrant harmonic-rich reed that projects very well but needs to be a firmer strength than the Premium to have the same body in the sound. It is ideal for Symphonic playing and all other types of music.
The Premium is a shorter, more full bodied reed generally thicker in the heel and the beginning of the vamp than the other two reeds in this description and has a rounder sound than the Superieure but still with enough harmonics to carry well into a large hall.
The new ’57 is a reed that has no straight cut but the normal crescent cut where the blade starts but is similar in characteristics to the Premium. A vibrant reed that gives a warm sound without loss of harmonic interest.
Picture: from left to right MARCA ’57, Premium and Superieure.
Whilst MARCA cane reeds represent the wonderful French reed making tradition of many years, a young child learning clarinet (and trying to cope with the daily changes in cane reeds and the resulting squeaks and squawks), a plastic reed could be less of a challenge to a beginner struggling to come to terms with fingerings and embouchure etc.
The consistency of plastic is excellent on a day to day basis and the child would have one less thing to concern themselves with. I know when I started aged seven, the reed was always an issue and it was either too hard or too soft or sounded stuffy and unclear. I never had a reed tip trimmer in those days and my first teacher taught me to burn the tip of the reed to make it harder using the curved profile of a halfpenny!! J (Before UK went to the decimal currency system!) Those burnt-tipped reeds lasted a long time maybe because the burning hardened the arundodonax cane and prevented the capillary action of absorbing too much moisture.
Price is a problem - the top brand synthetic reeds are in my opinion very expensive.
There are many less expensive plastic reeds around and they are worth a try for younger players. To that end the top brand manufacturers would do well to produce a plastic reed specifically aimed at children with a lower price tag.
My advice is: if you can afford the financial outlay then try as many as you can afford before making a choice of one brand but for my personal use I choose the Silverstein Ambipoly Vivace – the latest profile to give you all the harmonics in the sound to produce the full spectrum of colour in the sound that the our beautiful instrument the clarinet can produce.
