Alto saxophone comparison - sound clips

clarnibass

clarnibass

Hi

I had a chance to do this comparison today so thought why not. I'm interested in the results also for personal reasons. This is not an attempt to prove anything, just interesting to know the opinions from this blind test.

There are six saxophones recorded. There are three files, each with all the saxophones and the same order for each file. First file is a major scale. Second file is a slow song. Third file is a fast song with some improvisation.

It is not me playing. We just spontanously chose what to play and did only one take of each so there are some mistakes. I'm mainly interested in what people think of each saxophone.

Thanks

www.nitailevi.com/temp/alto_comparison_gmaj.mp3
www.nitailevi.com/temp/alto_comparison_slow.mp3
www.nitailevi.com/temp/alto_comparison_fast.mp3
 
I noticed how remarkably similar the saxes sounded and am reminded once again how little the instrument itself contributes to the overall sound behind the concept of the player, the mouthpiece and the reed.

The greatest tonal difference seemed to be at the transition to the second register D and above. All of the saxes played had a "hooty" sound on the D but some more so than others. I would hesitate to try to name the brands, let alone guess which was which.

I am beginning to realize that the "feel" and the sound to the player himself/herself is far more identifiable and unique for each sax than the sound 10 feet away. There are so many good instruments nowadays that a skilled players can sound their best on many different makes and models. It is the ones that they have to work the least on to produce the sound they want to achieve that they will gravitate towards. That does not make the others poor instruments, because other players of equal ability may find those the most cooperative when they play them.

John
 
I heard a difference on the first set of horns playing scales - the last one seemed muffled in comparison to the first two . . . or maybe the first two had more resonance. Hard to describe sound.

However, I agree that most differences are more evident to the player than to the audience. I suppose it can be said that is important, though, because once the player is pleased and confident that his horn and set-up is the best he can find, it has a psychological effect on his performance. But as far as mere tone comparisons, most in the audience couldn't tell one from another. DAVE
 
Just to clarify, I never meant that anyone tries to guess what the saxophones are. The purpose is that I have some samples from some companies and wanted to see how they would sound in a blind test against other saxophones.

Maybe just to add, the saxophones were recorded about two feet away or slightly less. Also it is interesting to me that I can hear a bit more difference between the saxophones in the recording than I could live. I could hear a lot more "noise" live (i.e. air, etc.) but for some reason the microphone captured almost only the sound of the saxophones. Also, one of the saxophones was the player's alto and the others he has played for the first time.

Still I would be interested to know if anyone thinks some sound better than others and which ones.
 
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Nitai

If you are after opinions, here is mine...

To me, saxes 1 and 4 are to my taste (dark sounding, broad tone and consistently so in all their range that I heard), and very similar to each other.

Sax 6 is close to my preferred 2, but there were occasional intonation issues

The remainder lacked the breadth, depth, evenness and intonation that the others had - in one way or another

Chris
 
I thought number 1 had the most even tone, 2 and 6 were second, 4 and 5 were third, and sax #3 had a large tonal change but maybe that was the playing.
This is a fantastic blinded resource. Did Clarnibass ever tell what the horns were?
Todd
 
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