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<\/a><\/p>\nLegere Signature vs. Rigotti Gold Reeds<\/strong><\/p>\n I first tried the 2 1\/4 and it played nicely but I thought it was a tad soft so I went to the 2 3\/4 strength. \u00a0This one felt\u00a0great but after going back and forth, \u00a0I realized that the 2 3\/4 felt stiffer than the Rigotti reed so I went back to the 2 1\/4 which felt closer in strength. \u00a0I don’t have a 2 1\/2 Legere Signature but I’m guessing that might be even closer perhaps.<\/p>\n Although there are some differences between how the two reeds blow, I was surprised more by the similarities between the two reeds than the\u00a0differences. \u00a0I am not a synthetic reed “guy”. \u00a0I have never really liked them in the past when I have tried them. \u00a0These new Legere Signature reeds are quite a bit better than the synthetics reeds I\u00a0played in the past that is for sure.<\/p>\n In general, \u00a0the Legere played surprisingly well\u00a0throughout the range of the horn. \u00a0The synthetic reed seemed\u00a0to vibrate and buzz more on my\u00a0lower lip than a cane reed (at least that is how it felt to my lower lip.) \u00a0 There were some notes that didn’t seem to have the same resonance \u00a0as they do for me on the cane reed. The primary one for me was middle “E”. \u00a0With the cane reed I always feel like that note is a bit more “alive” and “resonant” but with the Legere it seemed more “average” to me. \u00a0I also noticed that my high G in the second octave had a tendency to be easily overblown (that’s when you get this sorta raspy sound that seems like a mix of high G and low G together-great for rock n’roll solos).\u00a0After a little bit of playing time I was able to control this for the most part. \u00a0As a side note, the G did not get overblown with the Legere 2 3\/4 reed at all so maybe that is an aspect of the softer reed?<\/p>\n I did try the 3 1\/4 Legere reed but it was way to hard for me on this mouthpiece. \u00a0I never took the size 2 out of the package as the 2 1\/4 was great and I just assumed the 2 would be too soft.<\/p>\n Now, \u00a0I am joking a bit with the title of this article, this is not a fight to the death or battle royal but more just an interesting experiment to see how similar or different a Legere synthetic reed would be from an average cane reed.<\/p>\n I’ve included 7 sound clips below. \u00a0For each one I have three\u00a0versions. \u00a0The first clip is the full clip with something similar played on both reeds. \u00a0You can listen to that if you want to\u00a0see if you can discern the difference between the two reeds and where it occurs. \u00a0The two clips after, \u00a0are the full clip broken down by reed for those of you who can’t tell the difference and maybe want a hint. The second two clips work well if you want to compare clips by going back and forth.<\/p>\n There are certainly differences between the synthetic reeds and the cane reeds. \u00a0The purpose of this post is not to say they are equal but more about testing to see\u00a0what those differences are. As someone who just spent about $500\u00a0on reeds, I can say that if I can use a synthetic reed and cut down on that cost it would be well worth it for me!<\/p>\n Although I can hear the differences in the recordings below, I am pretty confident that I would be hard pressed to recognize a Legere Signature reed when listening blind. \u00a0 Matter of\u00a0fact, I had a Skype student a few weeks ago and\u00a0I asked what mouthpiece and reeds he was using. \u00a0I was shocked when he said he was using a Legere reed as I had no idea from\u00a0listening to him over the course of the lesson.<\/p>\n Let me know what you think in the comments below. \u00a0I have my own thoughts and opinions based off the experiment but I am curious what you hear. \u00a0I’ll post my thoughts and answers to any questions in the comments below as people start responding. \u00a0Thanks, \u00a0 Steve<\/p>\n 1.)Bb to low Bb Chromatic<\/strong><\/p>\n