Kind of ice blue?
-Neb

---Original Message---
In Tuesday's (11/18) New York Times, Terry Schwadron reports that two Tufts
University engineering researchers have conducted a study "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 ten
trumpets showed minimal differences when the instruments were thawed and played
by six musicians."

The research involved trumpeters "ranging in skill from a former high school
musician to a New England Conservatory player to a member of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra." Still, Schwadron quotes a retailer, Wayne Tanabe, who continues to
offer cryogenic freezing in a 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 explains it, cryogenics accelerates what seems to happen to brass
instruments as they age," resulting in "a difference in ease of playing and in
the range of 'color' in the tone."

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