Posted by Eric Bamberg on February 06, 2004 at 19:26:56:
In Reply to: Overblowing a Bass Tuba posted by Big Bad Wolf on February 06, 2004 at 11:21:29:
As players get better they tend to even out the volume of the sound as they play louder whereas a less experienced player tends to hammer the attacks and taper down the volume of each note toward the end. It's the same as the difference between speaking loudly and shouting. They may have the same average loudness, but the shouting has more accent on the beginning of each syllable and is more painful to listen to.
Pop music studios almost always use a device called a compressor that reduces the variation in sound level from soft to loud. This simple device is often the single most important element in producing a polished, professional sounding recording. It really makes an instrument sound bigger, and can make a mediocre player sound like a professional.
For that "big professional sound" I suggest playing as though you are speaking loudly rather than shouting. Or in engineering terms, keep the average level up, and the peak level down.