A good mouthpiece and barrel combo helps as well.

Produces rich, warm, dark tone while still allowing good staccato using medium-closed mouthpieces (e.g., Vandoren M-13 lyre or 5RV.

My mouthpiece is more on the closed side and these reeds work really well and give me a great sound.

it has a lot of clarity, and with the right mouthpiece, the sound is not "too bright