Posted by Jim Andrada on May 08, 2003 at 12:31:14:
In Reply to: Recording Bell tuba opinions posted by Gus Pratt on May 07, 2003 at 21:44:21:
By the way, at least with the top action horns, recording bell directionality can be made less of an issue by pointing the bell to the left. Given it's own upward angle and the rightward tilt of the horn, it winds up pointing to the left and up at about the same angle as a normal "concert" tuba.
Some of the older recording bell horns seem to have lost their original bells and had them replaced with Sousaphone bells. A Sousaphone bell won't cooperate quite as much because typically they're at about a 90 degree angle - ie have no upward tilt. The bell rim also tends to hit you in the face if you point it to the left. And with the bell facing front, the balance is worse and the horn wants to fall forward which makes it tiring to hold.
I've heard of folks with front action recording bell horns pointing the bell to the RIGHT and holding the horn horizontally on their laps. This also aims the bell upward and to the left. I've never tried this myself.