[Dixielandjazz] Freezing Trumpets

[Stephen Barbone]

Here is further proof that trumpet players are a bit off. :-) VBG

Don Ingle, do you leave your trumpet out in the snow overnight up there
in Michigan?

Cheers,
Steve Barbone

November 18, 2003 - New York Times

Hot Sounds From a Cold Trumpet? Cryogenic Theory Falls Flat

By TERRY SCHWADRON

         Without, er, fanfare, two Tufts University engineering
researchers announced results of a study last week rebutting a popular
myth among some trumpet players that deep-freezing the instruments will
change the sound for the better.

Rather, they told the Acoustical Society of America meeting in Austin,
Tex., that scientific testing of cryogenically freezing 10 trumpets
showed minimal differences when the instruments were thawed and played
by six musicians. After two years of research, Dr. Chris Rogers, an
engineering professor, said
that he and colleagues determined that freezing trumpets did not make
them sound better.

"One of the great things about studying musical instruments, though, is
if the player believes it will make a difference, he or she will play
better, so it acts as a sort of placebo," Dr. Rogers said.

There has been growing interest among musicians in these treatments for
brass instruments of all kind. In experiments, the instruments were
cooled with liquid nitrogen to minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit, and then
slowly warmed, all in the belief that they would become easier to play.
A major flute manufacturer uses the process, and small storefront
businesses have popped up for the sole purpose of freezing the
instruments.

Chip Jones, a Tufts graduate student involved in the research, said he
had recruited six trumpeters ranging in skill from a former high school
musician to a New England Conservatory player to member of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra.

They played the same sequence on trumpets that had been frozen and those
that had not, and then rated the instruments. They were also asked to
identify which trumpet matched the sound that "people say is brighter,
freer-blowing or that had more `presence,' " Mr. Jones said.

Differences in the answers, he said, were statistically insignificant.
"There was more difference from trumpet to trumpet and from player to
player than in the results from treatment of the instruments," Mr. Jones
said.

The research was requested by Selmer Musical Instruments, a wind
instrument manufacturer, which was considering whether to offer the
cryogenic treatments for new instruments sold from the Vincent Bach
Stradivarius trumpet line. As a result of the tests, the company has
decided to forgo the deep-freeze.

But others who have tried the deep-freeze say there is a difference in
ease of playing and in the range of "color" in the tone.

In Arlington Heights, Ill., Wayne Tanabe, owner of the Brass Bow music
repair shop, said his advertising was by word of mouth. "Otherwise,
people think you're talking about voodoo," he said.

He has a tub-size cryogenics tank where he can fit a tuba and several
trumpets. His freeze technique costs about $200 and takes 35 to 50
hours. As Mr. Tanabe explained it, cryogenics accelerates what seems to
happen to brass instruments as they age. Sound quality improves because
resonance is clearer, he said.

Mr. Jones said studies had shown that while steel, for example, did
undergo change through freezing, brass did not. Heating, by contrast,
does soften metal, potentially changing its acoustics.

The trumpet research is part a musical instrument engineering program at
Tufts.