Before this devolves into the usual thread chaos/entropy, I've got a semi-serious reply to what may have been just a troll anyway...
It's so easy to fall into the cynicism bucket and start believing that we can't dance about architecture, but we have to have a way to communicate about experience, even when it isn't measured or even sometimes understood.
The buzz words seem to change every few years when we get a new crop of "we invented everything" young fellers in, but I think we all know what we are talking about. It would be great if someone came in with a spectrum analyzer and really put some numbers behind "bright" or "dark". Plus, just to discourage crossover, I think there is some difference between how tuba and bone players talk about the sounds their respective instruments make.
But when you're buying or selling horns sight-unseen (previous troll topic) you have to have a way to talk that doesn't use the widely mocked words "Germanic" or "Teutonic". The other side is that people start talking about frequencies and overtones when they haven't measured anything at all. I'm an engineer, and I believe in numbers and measurements, but I don't think it's right to just make $#!+ up. We don't have any real data available to us. So.
But we do talk about color and agree what words like blue, green, red mean... sort of, if we're not color blind or don't use stupid color names like ecru, chartreuse or zaffru.
So I've identified the trap, examined it, and now will proceed to step in it.
Part of the problem is that sound can't be measured just on a single axis - there are multiple factors at play, not the least of which is the player himself. There's the Dark-Bright axis, and then the nearly parallel Presence-Projection axis. I think what people describe as "core" is really just an ideal middle ground on the Dark-Bright line. In the end, everything is just comparative, so the spectrum seems to run between a York with a missing water key and an English Baritone. I personally like a sound on the dark side of the center of that axis.
We all claim we're after the sound, but if I confess for myself, I can't really hear the sound. I'm always surprised when I hear myself recorded. I'm not sure I could pick my own long tones out of a group of other people playing long tones. Articulations and movement between notes may be a different story, but long tones sound very similar between accomplished players, and even between dissimilar instruments like french horn and trombone. I challenge you to identify tones without a start or end attack/release. It's harder than you think.
What I'm really after is the feel. And if there's anything even more nebulous and impossible to measure or describe than sound, it's feel. I want to feel my head and lungs vibrate. I want to see that old CRT tv dance when I play a low note. You know it when you feel it, but there's no way to describe it. I know that if it feels right, it's going to sound right. Or maybe more honestly, if it feels good enough, sound becomes secondary. How many of us play this instrument mostly because of the way it feels when it vibrates in your arms?
