Chartier Synthetic Oboe Reed - Med Soft

I bought a synthetic reed for my clarinet and saxophone, and I was satisfied with it. So I decided to buy a synthetic oboe reed to test it out.When my reed came it was extremely flat, and I couldn't control the response and dynamic. It was just loud and flat.I contacted Chartier, and they were generous enough to send me a replacement. The replacement was much better; it was in tune and I could control the dynamics. This reed is a good back-up reed or a practice reed or for beginners. But I'll favor a wooden reed over this plastic reed any day.

My 9-year-old decided to take up oboe this year. When I first rented the instrument for him, I bought a couple of natural reeds at the suggestion of the instrument rental store. That was September. By October, my son had gone through 4 reeds at approximately $15 a piece. I decided to try a synthetic reed in the hopes of getting more mileage out of it. We're still on the first one 8 months later. I don't notice a difference in the sound, but keep in mind we're talking about a 9-year-old novice --- it's just as "squawky" as before :) For our purposes, this fit the bill.

Expectations of at least some tone quality were smashedSynthetic double reeds just don't work

The reed was not the same strength as a wooden med soft reed would be. It's ok for some limited practicing, working out certain difficult runs, as it is less tiring to play with but the sound is horrible.

For young students these offer durability and decent response. Yes, the tone does suffer a bit, but have you ever heard a beginner oboist? There's not a ton of tone control regardless of reed choice.

squaky sound, might be OK for a beginning student who does not know how to make reeds yet, but not worth it

Sounds really great but loosen your embrochure a lot while playing this reed. Other than that it's great

This reed does not crow properly if it is too wet.