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Hi VSL community. New member here.
I'm probably a complete idiot for asking this, but I was wondering why there isn't a clarinet in A on this site. VSL has clarinets in B-Flat and E-Flat, so where's the clarinet in A? B-Flat and A clarinets are the most common clarinets, and the lack of an A clarinet surprised me. Or is the VSL bassett horn transposed to A? Thank you for your time.
Most probably the VSL people see it as redundant. In todays orchestras the clarinet in B-flat is the standard instrument. The players tend to switch to the clarinet in A when they play passages with many sharps, simply because it is easier to transpose that way. With a virtual instrument there is no need to transpose - therefor you don't really need a clarinet in A if you have one in B-flat already.
The clarinet in E-flat is shorter than the clarinets in B-flat and A and has a different timbre. It's a different instrument really, while the other two can be seen as the same instrument simply with different tunings.
That being said I would like to see a clarinet in A from VSL. Eventhough it is not a very pronounced difference the clarinet in A has a slightly mellower and softer timbre than it's higher pitched brother. That's why it has been used quite often in chamber music.
A personal remark adding to what Dominique wrote above: for me, the difference in timbre between the Bb and A clarinets was always so slight, that I could never conisder these two to be two distinct timbral variations of the same instrument. As Dominique pointed out, it's a completely different story with the Eb clarinet though - that is a "proper" different sounding instrument of its own.
