I also have a counterweight, actually that of YSL-882, attached to my original yellow brass tuning slide. But at the time I bought it I have not yet done any experiment or play-test to find out the effect of it on the sound. Since I have to move it to the new tuning slide, this is a good opportunity to do the experiment so long due.
My experiment setup is a microphone about 2 metres from the bell. Too close I know, but my bedroom has no more space. The sound is recorded using Audacity and Audio-Technica ATR2500X microphone.
Timestamp -
1. Gold Brass w/ Counterweight VS Yellow Brass w/ Counterweight (0.00 - 1.33)
2. Gold Brass w/ Counterweight VS Gold Brass No Weight (1.33 - 3.06)
3. Gold Brass No Weight VS Yellow Brass No Weight (3.06 - 4.38)
Timestamp -
1. Gold Brass w/ Counterweight VS Yellow Brass w/ Counterweight (0.00 - 0.56)
2. Gold Brass w/ Counterweight VS Gold Brass No Weight (0.56 - 1.49)
3. Gold Brass No Weight VS Yellow Brass No Weight (1.49 - 2.49)
(Pardon my intonation in La Virgen de la Macarena. I did not have lunch before recording and that affected my air support
)My observations are as follows:
1. Gold brass with counterweight sounds darker than yellow brass with counterweight.
2. On the contrary, gold brass with no weight sounds brighter than yellow brass with no counterweight.
3. Gold brass with counterweight sounds darker, fuller, and more controllable than that with no counterweight. The one with no counterweight has more brilliance.
4. The aforementioned observations are more or less consistent between the two videos.
I am quite surprise with the result. I have done this kind of experiment before, comparing YBL-830 with YBL-321, two totally different horns except that both are made by Yamaha, and the result is quite ambiguous. Also, spectral analysis (centroid, spread, skewness) of long tones at various dynamics also shows that variation caused by the player (I did the long tones 3 separate times, shuffled between the cases) is larger than the difference between gold VS yellow or counterweight VS no counterweight. But the difference is very noticeable and consistent when listening to the sound, despite changed only a small part.
Also, the fact that gold brass with counterweight sounds darker than yellow brass, but without the counterweight sounds brighter, also intrigues me.
Of course difference resulting from me between each playing could also play a part. But I cannot think of any way to avoid that except using artificial mouth.
I think I will keep using the gold brass tuning slide with the counterweight on. If anything, it looks better on the horn than plain yellow brass
Are your observations the same as mine? Any possible explanation? Or is there any additional factor that I should control to have more accurate result in the future?
