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yeah, i used to be a big fan of them...because i didn't play my sax very often, so i wanted a long lasting reed that i didn't have to take care of very well..i also tried the "bari" brand synthetic reed. the fibracell wasn't my favorite, but i was able to land lead alto in the jazz band with it. definitely synthetic reeds are an awesome choice for marching, but for my set up, i like actual reeds smile i'm hoping my director will let me march sax this year...i'm not a fan of the clarinet part for the song we march to in parades xD

a synthetic reed is just a "fake" reed. it's not made from the traditional cane reeds. it's made from special types of plastics. if i remember correctly the fibracell reeds are a mixture between cane and plastic to re-enforce it. but that's just my understanding, someone correct me if i'm wrong smile . bari makes a fully plastic reed that i used for a while, it was nice but eventually i wanted to sound as good as i possibly could, so i started experimenting with reeds...right now i landed on hemke premiums size 2 1/2...they're good reeds, but they're just a tad bit hard for me at the moment, my c# down to Bb don't come out very well..i'm hoping a little practice will fix that though smile . don't stop the clarinet by the way. you will go so much farther if you're proficient in both the clarinet and saxophone. you will be a better musician, and you will be asked to play in more groups.

Drastically? Not for me... They sound different when you're getting used to them, which takes a little while, but then they act just like a super-durable cane reed. (At least, fibracells do.) I use it for marching, and it works great.

Yeah. It does buzz a bit... at least, until I learned how to "control" that aspect of the fibracell reeds. The 'buzz' is a bright tone, which some players like, but I prefer a darker/warmer tone. (Hence I have a bronze sax.) It took me a few weeks to be able to sound good on fibracells, but their reed makeup is definitely not the same as a pure cane reed. I only use the fibracell to 'warm-up' my embouchure before band, then I switch to the almighty cane reeds. They just have such a better sound, and it's easy to get that sound out of cane reeds. That's how I feel about it. biggrin

I'm having a bit of trouble with the bari sax. I have to play it for jazz band even though I wanted to play alto.

But here's the deal; I've been playing the bari (barely) for 2 years. I've been playing jazz for 2 years also, but on alto. I can't always get out low notes (C# and below) on the bari, but I have great intonation on all the other notes. I'm currently in the process of 'fixing' my embouchure for bari sax, but is that the reason I can't get those notes all the time? It may involve me not putting enough air in, but whenever I try to do that, it jumps up an octave.

On occasion, I can play them just fine, but it's the times that I can't play them that disturb me.

Well, guess what? I played today just fine. I could hit a low A without any problem at all. I got a new reed. That's it. That's really all I had to do... well that and practice a bit. We have a super-fast Latin song and I have a duet with the bass. It's awesome, but extremely hard. xd

Thanks, though. mrgreen