I've never tried this brand in particular, but I have used synthetic reeds (Emerald plastic) before, and the ones I had sounded really bad, had little dynamic range (no such thing as piano), couldn't play low notes, and the high notes were wild, squeaky, and difficult to control.
If you look at the pictures of the reeds, they have some sort of tape starting at the string and going over halfway up the reed. When you see that much tape on a reed it usually means that the reed needed that much tape to keep air from leaking out the sides. Even my crappy Emerald synthetic didn't have
that much tape on it.
The pictures aren't great quality, but the reed seems to be made of plastic. You should ask the seller what the material is, and if it's plain old plastic I'd steer clear for sure.
Also, judging by the fact that the tape goes up so high, it's possible that the reed doesn't use an American scrape (I can't tell from the image). A different scrape isn't necessarily bad, but European scrapes require a different embouchure and it's probably not a good idea to switch back and forth. The scrape type would be another good question to ask the seller.
I mention this because my old Emerald had some sort of European scrape with a U-shaped tip. Of course I'm assuming that you use American scrape reeds. If you use European then it's not an issue unless the reed
does have an American scrape
.
Now onto the marching issue.
I've heard of a few people who march oboe, but it's very rare.
There are a few reasons why people don't march oboe, and the fact that cane reeds are delicate and stubborn (especially under harsh conditions encountered in marching band: extreme cold, extreme heat, tripping and falling, etc.) is one of them. A plastic reed would certainly fare better under these conditions, even if it's tone, range, and dynamics are inferior to the cane reed. Problem is it doesn't fix the other reasons that people don't march oboe.
Non-reed reason #1 - The oboe is delicate. A wood oboe wouldn't stand a chance against marching band. A synthetic oboe would do a lot better... until the player tripped and fell and threw all the keys out of whack.
Non-reed reason #2 - The oboe is quiet. You can barely hear a whole section of clarinets on the marching field. Can you imagine hearing a single oboe? I guess you could put a bunch of oboes on the field, but I think you can imagine the problems that could cause.
Non-reed reason #3 - The oboe is dangerous. If a player tripped and fell while playing, the reed could stab the roof of their mouth or become lodged in their throat or a number of other painful places.
Synthetic reeds address none of these issues and, being less delicate than cane, could even make #3 worse.
I think that if you wanted to march oboe in a parade a synthetic reed might work though, because parade marching is safer in general than field marching, and probably poses less of a threat to a player and his or her oboe.
However, if you're considering purchasing these reeds to use in a concert band I'd highly suggest using real cane reeds instead. I don't care how good the site says they are. Synthetic oboe reeds and materials just haven't been refined enough to stand a chance against the quality of a good cane oboe reed.
If you want to use them for practice that might be ok. Test them out if you want, but don't pay too much for them.
I'd also click detailed feedback under the seller's name and try to contact some of the people who have purchased his FibreReeds specifically and ask them how they thought the tone and quality of the reeds was. Don't judge the reeds by the feedback they left though, I think feedback is supposed to be based on customer service and accurately describing the product, and as far as I can tell, the page never says that they are better than cane reeds, so it is an accurate description.
Good luck!
