SILENT Brass System For Trumpet - Pickup Mute & Personal Studio Included (SB7J)

I’m picking up the horn again after a decade long break. But I live in a small apartment and have no access to a good practice space and don’t wanna get evicted. I tried the Pampet mute which was fine and all, very quiet, but I bought Silent Brass on a whim. And it’s the BEST impulse purchase I’ve ever made, hands down. I firmly believe that if I’d had this system way back when, I would’ve been a much better player, as I would’ve actually practiced more. The simple ability to hear myself as if I’m unmuted makes me want to play until my chops give out from fatigue; I literally do not want to stop playing. The “room” setting sounds just like the campus practice rooms, the “hall” setting sounds remarkably like those rare times I’d be early for orchestra and have the hall to myself for warm-up. The ability to adjust the reverb level and master volume of both the mic and the headphones is phenomenal. The mic itself is insane. I can hear every flub, every gurgle of water, every little thing is perfectly captured. I plan to update my review when I have a chance to test the recording capabilities. I didn’t read enough before my impulse buy and I have to get an adapter to connect the personal studio to my Mac/iPhone. But that alone makes this purchase so worth it! I really was wanting to make weekly recordings to monitor my progress getting my chops back; ten years ago there weren’t so many regular ole musicians sharing their music and so I’m definitely wanting to join the party, but I was fretting about not being able to play unmuted to record. No excuse now! Mute definitely fits in the bell with the case closed. When it’s in— it’s definitely in! It will not fall out if you make sure to give it a little twist like any other mute. I don’t feel a lot of resistance although I know there is some; it’s negligible to me though. Intonation is not a huge deal, although other reviews will be more accurate for that since I’m horribly out of shape. Here are my few minor complaints: the earbuds are not awesome (sound is fine but they’re just uncomfortable and annoying, I wish there was a Bluetooth connectivity but I plan to buy better headphones with a jack). I wish the personal studio was rechargeable (minor thing, AA batteries are fine and it’s still portable). And I wish I didn’t have to buy an adapter to record (not really a complaint on the product, almost everything electronic requires adapters for input). All-in-all, I would recommend this to every horn player who can’t always access a practice space, and I would even go so far as to say it’s a required purchase for the serious horn player. I’ll be taking it this weekend for a hotel stay, and may even break it out in the car (dw I’m not driving lol). It’s lightweight, easy to use, pop in batteries and plug it in and boom— you’re on your own personal concert stage, or your own personal practice room with the all the reverb you want (or none if you don’t want it, although c’mon who doesn’t want gorgeous reverb? A psychopath, that’s who). UPDATE: recording capabilities So I’ve tested the recording function pretty thoroughly. I did have to buy a USB-C adaptor to connect to my Mac, but it wasn’t super expensive and it’ll definitely be useful for other things too. I have been recording using garage band, and it’s not too difficult to figure out even for someone who never used it before. You switch to audience mode and it emulates how it would sound to… well… an audience rather than how you sound to yourself playing. The sound quality of the recordings is pretty dang awesome and that speaks to the mic quality. You can adjust the sensitivity of the mic on the studio itself, which is useful because the mic can and will pick up on sounds outside of the bell. Definitely a great experience with this thing so far, but wow the batteries go fast it seems. I have been using it a LOT, so I guess it makes sense I ran through the first batteries. And it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that I used old batteries from something else because when I replaced them, they were a different brand than the ones I have in my drawer… can’t remember if I cannibalized another battery operated electronic in my excitement to test it out without looking for my battery stash? In any case, I just replaced the batteries 2 days ago so I’ll try to remember to update again later and keep track of hours of use.

I really enjoy using this practice mute and audio system with my Horn! I play a few Yamaha horns such as a 314 single F Horn, a Yamaha 567 intermediate, and a Custom 87 horn. This Silent Brass mute is great for when I don’t want to fill the apartment with my sound and want to work on repertoire for upcoming auditions and staying in shape on my instrument. Yamaha’s silent brass allows you to listen with your headphones of choice and I like to use my AirPods Max because of the noise cancelling features. These two make an excellent setup for working on intonation with a drone, where I can use both a Dr Beat DB90 and listen attentively to where I am in relation to the relative pitches. I also find that once I have practiced on this mute that once I play with my right hand in the bell, I can allow my right hand to do the adjusting of the horns pitch and color a lot better. Since I have more resistance with the mute and do all of my practice in my apartment. When I want to I can just take out the mute and play stopped horn better as well. Since I am used to the added resistance! Lastly, the only downside to this system is the price is quite expensive and thankfully my brother gave me this as a gift because he didn’t want to get a noise complaint from our other tenants. Which is understandable and respectful. So if you are deciding on whether or not to get a regular practice mute, I would get this one because the mute that comes with it is very high quality. I can play the pedal notes on this practice mute very well and reach the high notes very well. Even better is that once you have practiced on this mute exclusively for a while, once you play with the right hand in the bell; the entire range will feel effortless and most efficient. Due to again the added resistance of the practice mute but you get the bonus of hearing yourself. You can record on a MacBook or IPhone but will need an adapter for the IPhone, which I should get. Haha. Yamaha really knocked it out the park on this 2.0 version! Five stars all the way!

I received the Yamaha Silent Mute earlier than I anticipated, which was great, because I was anxious to try this system out. I wasn't disappointed, hands down, I have never had so much fun practicing. I use my own headphones, it's quiet, it's versatile, it plays great, I forget I'm even using a mute. It gives me a clean focused sound, and the cool part is that I can record and play with a music app, love it!

Das Instrument spielt sich deutlich schwerer und ungewohnt. Aber für die Kondition kann es nicht schaden.

La Yamaha Silent Brass SB7J è davvero un prodotto eccellente. Si inserisce perfettamente nella tromba e rimane completamente all’interno della campana, come confermato anche dalla descrizione ufficiale. Una volta montata, il suono viene abbattuto in modo incredibile: fuori non si sente praticamente nulla, caratteristica confermata anche da altre recensioni. Questo permette di studiare liberamente, a qualsiasi ora, senza disturbare vicini o familiari. I cavi in dotazione sono sufficientemente lunghi, e il Personal Studio del modello SB7J offre un riverbero migliorato e la connettività USB per collegare accessori. Collegando le cuffiette incluse, si ottiene un suono sorprendente: il riverbero (credo che sia presente solo nel modello SB7J) crea l’impressione di trovarsi in una sala più grande (“può cambiare il suono da una piccola stanza a una grande hall” – Amazon.com). 🔊 Un leggerissimo rumore di fondo Quando non si suona, si percepisce un piccolo fruscio dovuto all’amplificazione. È un soffio elettronico leggero e costante, simile al rumore di un registratore acceso. Alcuni recensori lo notano (“the hiss isn’t very loud, but you’ll notice it” – YouTube review), ma sparisce completamente non appena si inizia a suonare. Occorre soffiare un po’ di più… ed è un vantaggio! Come tutte le sordine, anche la Silent Brass aggiunge una certa resistenza al flusso d’aria. Questo significa che bisogna soffiare con un po’ più di potenza rispetto a quando si suona senza nulla. Per quanto non sia la stessa sensazione del suono libero (cosa fisiologica per qualsiasi sistema mute), personalmente trovo che sia un vantaggio: questa resistenza aggiuntiva mi aiuta a lavorare meglio sul controllo del diaframma, rendendo lo studio più efficace e mirato. Molti musicisti confermano che, pur essendo una mute molto “free-blowing” per gli standard del genere, la sensazione non può essere identica all’assenza di sordina. 🎺 Conclusione La SB7J è una sordina fantastica: leggera, silenziosissima, comoda, con un suono modellato molto realistico e con un sistema di riverbero piacevolissimo. Il leggero fruscio è trascurabile e la piccola resistenza in più, per me, è addirittura uno stimolo per migliorare la tecnica respiratoria. Ora davvero non ci sono più scuse per non esercitarsi… puoi suonare ovunque e quando vuoi!