Posted by Leland on May 28, 2002 at 23:12:10:
In Reply to: Silent Brass posted by Doug on May 24, 2002 at 18:00:41:
In my limited experience with the tuba model (an afternoon), it makes a darn good attempt at what it claims to do -- provide an acceptable reproduction of your sound to your ears without bugging the sleeping dog in the next apartment.
It's very big and unwieldy, but its purpose is not to come along as you take your tuba on a roller coaster at Six Flags. It's also not much worse than most other mutes I've seen. For me, that point is moot.
It plays like a decent straight mute, The tuning can be a bit wacky on some notes, and any deficiencies in your chops will become more apparent.
The sound through the headphones was its shortcoming, although there may be an updated version by now. It was easy to overblow the mic or input channel (could sound like something by Nine Inch Nails). When the sound seemed tonally correct, it was much quieter than I was used to hearing, thereby encouraging more loud playing.
Great idea, and I wish it worked better than it does.