All of the nuances that I thought the Olegature borught out were there on the 404. I went back and forth and couldn't tell the difference.
Been there, man!
Here's a question I asked on another forum:
Many players and lig ads talk about a "freely vibrating" reed. How much sound is produced below the vamp of the reed, on the solid table of the mpc? Isn't the sound generated from the point where the curve of the mouthpiece lay begins and extending to the tip, where the reed interacts with the embouchure? Is the idea that the vibrating tip of the reed is organically connected, by longitudinal fibers, to the base of the reed which is secured to the table? Then wouldn't "free vibration" of the vamp area be superfluous in synthetic reeds? A tuning fork sounds the same whether you grasp the handle lightly or have it locked in a vise.
While I haven't noticed a big sonic difference between ligs, I do notice that some ligs are easier to use, some seem made out of better material, some look elegant, and some look really ostentatious. Not noticing any acoustic difference could, of course, be linked to my individual hearing - but does computer analysis show significant differences in sound quality caused by ligature tightness, material, or design?
The biggest problem I have in comparing different ligs is being absolutely certain that all conditions remain constant, for instance, using the same reed, the reed is identically positioned, etc. Also it seems unfair to warm up a reed using one lig, then put a test lig on after the reed is conditioned and conclude that any difference in playability is due to the lig alone.
The Vinson clarinet lig I mentioned has a nice feature in that you can just slip it on and off without having to adjust the screws every time. This might be more pronounced on a clarinet mpc because they have more of a conical taper that most sax mpcs.