Posted by Barry Guerrero on April 27, 2003 at 20:41:27:
In Reply to: Pistons vs. Rotary posted by Steven on April 27, 2003 at 20:23:35:
I'll take your question because I equally hate the usual, "go look in the archives" responses. In general, rotary valves are less prone to sticking. There's usually a greater sense of security when playing with rotors. Also, in general, it's a bit easier to slur smoothly with pistons. At least, that's been my experience. For whatever the reason, it seems like it's a bit harder to do a slur on rotors when going from, let's say, an open valve note to a first valve note. I don't know if it's the bounce "thing" or what. Anyway, I think that the differences often times get blown out of proportion too. Now, since you're after a helicon, I would assume that you're not exactly planning on auditioning for a major symphony orchestra post with it. Therefore, the slurring issue may have little or no relevance (or is it "relavence"? I don't have a dictionary close by). If that's the case, then it's probably more an issue of which helicon plays better. But if the playing characteristics of two helicons are pretty much a draw, and it's simply a matter of pistons vs. rotors, I'd go for the rotors as long as their linkage isn't too heavy, and the speed of those rotors aren't too slow because of it. Good luck.
Barry Guerrero