I am going to be shooting a saxaphone and want to be able to capture some smoke wafting from the horn (im pretty sure thats what the sound end is called).
It is a fine instrument so we dont want to blow smoke through it, exposing the valves to smoke. Rather I would like to generate smoke in the horn and let it sort of waft out.
Does anyone know of any type of smoke generator (maybe along the lines of a "mini smoke bomb" that would be safe to put inside the horn and would produce a moderate volume of smoke. Im also looking for a whiter smoke as the instrument is silver.
How about using a traditional fog machine (party supply store) with a vacuum cleaner hose attached to it. Have an assistant shoot some fog into horn and then back away quickly. If you don't use ice in the fog machine the fog will have a tendency to float up rather than hug the ground. If it hangs in the horn too much, the assistant could blow gently into the mouthpiece. And if you use ice in the machine, maybe the fog would sit inside the horn and a gentle blow by the assistant might cause it to flow up and over the rim of the horn in a cool fashion.
I've never done this type of thing... just throwing an idea out there.
FWIW, I picked up a pretty nice fog machine on closeout at Party City the day before Halloween for $25.
Gregg Heckler wrote:
A small piece of dry ice and water in a cup would do it.
This...or maybe drop one of those little cone shaped pieces of incense down there...that would make a steady little waft of smoke. I'm guessing you can still get those, although I don't think I've actually seen any since the '70s .
Uhh. As a musician, I would NEVER let anything too cold (dry ice) or too hot (burning incense) inside my instrument. What about hooking up a hose to a fog machine, run the hose inside one of the valves and blow it out the bell that way. Blow on the reed and it should help disperse the fog nicely. Otherwise, I like Mark's suggestion. Another way to do it would be to gaffer tape the hose on the side of the bell that is unseen.
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