cleanhead77

For an example, I have found that a small bore Connstellation with that big heavy 5+" bell is harder to play than a large bore Schilke X3 which has a large but much lighter bell.

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so many mouthpieces, so little time.......

Adam Smith

I am learning so much on this forum. This is fantastic! How does Annealing a trumpet affect the sound? And on the other hand... If a trumpets material is very hard?

rowuk

Brad, there is in my opinion so many different models because one size does not fit all.
If I am in a studio and the recording engineer "recreates" my sound anyway, I need a trumpet where I can hear myself in that "dead" acoustic environment. It will most likely have a light bell.
If I am playing with large ensembles that play in reverberant environments, I can use the added efficiency of a heavier instrument to make my sound more suitable.
If you switch between the two without changing your expectations, you will work harder than necessary. If you become accustomed to heavier trumpets like most of the symphonic players, you will learn to hear yourself in a different way (from the room and not off the back of the bell). The optimum is having the right equipment for each setting that you play in.
Please note, there are many players that do everything with one horn - good for them. I believe that this approach always has some degree of sonic comprimise.

Adam,
annealing just refers to the heating of metals to make them "soft" or pliable. The softer and/or more massive a material is, the less it will pass soundwaves through it (=more projection, less sound behind the trumpet). A harder/less massive material will pass soundwaves more easily (more sound behind the trumpet, less energy moving forward).
While we are at this, let us not forget the bell wire on the rim - this also augments or reduces a bells capacity to "project" and "resonate".

Christine,
what you describe is the standing wave that is set up in the trumpet when playing. This is based on the acoustic length of the instrument (that is different than the physical length and dependent on frequency because a bell is attached) and the forces applied to develop the partial series. The impedance is directly related to the efficiency, the more efficient, the higher the impedance. Misaligned valves cause a change of bore size which changes the acoustic length of the instrument, thus changing the intonation. A standing wave is created because the horn design causes a mismatch in coupling to the outside air. This causes the vibrations to be reflected back down the horn. Proper design of the "mismatch", the acoustic length and efficiency can provide us with a horn that has superior sound and intonation. There is a lot that can go wrong however!

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Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again.