Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
But I don't understand the function of the extra short tube on top.

The tube on the Venova has a cylindrical bore. That means that it should behave like a clarinet, which also has a cylindrical bore.

However, the additional pipe gives the instrument two open ends, with the reed in between. As a result, the instrument behaves similar to a conical bore instrument.

One result of this a timbre which sounds more like a saxophone than a clarinet. You can hear this in Linsey's Cylisax.

Also, instruments with a cylindrical bore and are closed at one end aren't able to support the second harmonic. The reason for this is too complicated for me to grasp.

Since the Venova is open at both ends, another result of the second tube is that it overblows (much more conveniently) at the octave.

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?