EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

There are several schools of thought about oboe as far as 
sound goes.

A great deal of this goes into the reeds they  make..etc.

The basic split in the oboe world as far as sound goes are
1) more "buzzy" that gives it more "presence". (more pointed but 
not "round" center to tone. (baroque instruments tend to be like 
this...as are early string instruments)
2) center of tone more on top...thinner..more cutting
3) center of tone more middle ..darker..smoother (can have wider 
center and more volume with harder reed..or..more pointed but 
still  round center)
4)center of tone much wider...(which is what you are hearing in 
the VSL...using a very hard, stiff reed that gives a loud more 
spread out sound. (more common in Europe than here)

You can hear examples of these types of oboe playing thruout 
the US orchestras...but  I think the main school of thought here 
would probably be that most oboists here strive for more pointed 
"center" to the sound..with the largest variables being whether 
that center is more in the middle and slightly larger..to a smaller 
more cutting center on top..as opposed to volume or loudness to 
the sound of the instrument via a very hard stiff reed.

The very wide spread out sound..is not as common here in the 
states..but there are some people who play this way.

These schools of thought revolve around what makes the 
instrument  "project" more....thinner more pointed sound? Or, a 
larger middle center? And, which one of these sounds best 
exemplifies the character of the oboe and the parts for which it 
was written as played along with the other instrument timbres.

Players who follow one school or another (and in between) tend 
to have very strong opinions about which one is better.  (even for 
specific styles of music).

My wife plays oboe, english horn.  I had her listen to the VSL 
oboe samples.  She thought it was quite amazing that samples 
could sound so good (she's used to hearing my kurz and a 
couple of small Miroslav mini oboe samples).  But, the first thing 
she said was...wow..that's a hard reed. The hard reed...can be 
more "open" at the tip (between the 2 reed ends)...and it vibrates 
harder..which gives you that very wide,  loud, spread out 
sound...much like a clarinet in timbre.   Speaking of which...if you 
listen to the clarinet samples..you'll hear the same thing (hard 
reed, big sound thats very wide).  

She personally doesn't care for that type of oboe sound, but that 
doesn't mean it sounds bad.  On the contrary, she thought it 
sounded quite good (or I should say that it was reproduced 
accurately).  She mentioned that this kind of sound blends very 
well (but can tend to get lost). She said that the hard reed can 
produce a lot of volume out of the instrument but that because 
the tonal center is so spread out  and wide ..that it still tends to 
get lost..or be rather,  non descript from the back of a concert 
hall.  It's not just dark,  its very .."non pointed" which they try to 
make up for with volume.

It's just a different school of thought about how the instrument is 
played and the approach to playing it.

I understand that VSL is going to be adding  more/different oboe 
samples in the future.  I think this is a great way to do it.

From my wifes perspective,  she thinks they are GREAT 
samples.  What you are hearing is not something wrong with the 
samples..but an accurate reproduction of  "one" school of 
thought about oboe sound (more common to European 
orchestras..but not without it's proponents here in the states).  My 
wife thought they did it perfectly for this style of oboe playing.  But, 
we too look forward to some examples of the "other" styles of 
playing as we have no doubt that they too will be done very, very 
well as these have.

--- In exs-users@yahoogroups.com, Edmund Eagan <ed@t...> 
wrote:
> 
> On Monday, February 10, 2003, at 06:40  PM, Bill Canty wrote:
> >
> > Maybe that explains why the Vienna Symphonic solo oboe 
demo doesn't
> > sound as "nasal" as I've come to expect an oboe to sound...?
> 
> Probably the Vienna has a darker, Germanic sound rather than 
the 
> brighter nasal quality you would hear from a French player.
> --------
> Edmund Eagan
> www.twelfthroot.com