A Christmas Puzzle : five whistles

Whistle
1

For the past week I had half a mind of putting up a Christmas competition with a prize and all. Once I thought about it I realised what I had in mind wouldn’t really work on one hand and would possibly be perceived by some as trying to make a point, which wasn’t really what I was going for.

So here it is, a puzzle if you like it. Five clips of the five D whistles that happened to be on the table. My original idea was to make a contest out of identifying the make of each but I came to realise that would probably be too hard. So I kept the prize for myself.

Make of it what you will, try identify them by their sound, pick the odd one out, mark them all as sounding rubbish, take it as you like it, no obligations, just something to keep the brain occupied while the chocolate rush is upon us.

All I can say they are all D whistles, they are all slightly different in their tone but they all play as easy as eachother. In fairness there’s one that I do not particularly like tonally although it plays well enough.

The tunes were all recorded in my kitchen between 10 and 10.30 on the morning of Christmas Eve (and before I had the coffee in me), no editing or fiddling with the files. I played tunes that came into my head and gave them the once over with filesizes in mind.

So, anyone able to name the whistles gets full marks, separating the cheap from the designer ones, full marks as well, picking the odd one out (and you can pick several depending on the way you look at it) will get you a virtual medal.

the tunes are: Tom Billy’s Jig, St. Patrick’s Night, the Reel of Mullinavat, The Man of Aran and Fox on the Town

You can find them here

Good luck. And have a good one.

2

They somehow sound all similarly to me. :confused:

Merry Christmas!

3

When trying to decide which low D to buy I taped myself playing a portion of the same reel on each of several makes, and a portion of the same air on each, so that I could listen back and hear what they sounded like to someone listening. The results were surprising, in that each sounded quite different, but not necessarily how I thought they would. All of them lost character in the upper octave. The whistle with the most interesting tone in the second octave was the Susato. Actually the Susato sounded the most “woody” overall, which surpirsed me, because when you play it you’re aware that it’s plastic.
Anyhow, to really have people be able to listen for the sound of each of your whistles it would be better to play the same tune on each. Otherwise its apples and oranges.
Yes there’s not a huge difference in the sound in those samples. Probably the whistles feel more different to you when you’re playing them than they sound to an outsider.
If these are all whistles that you picked out and purchased, they will therefore all reflect your ideas about tone and playability. Five whistles picked out and purchased by somebody else might be quite different.
Great playing and very nice tunes by the way!

4

This is not about a detailed technical examination of these five whistles. Apples and Oranges and maybe the odd Lemon are fine. I am interested in how different people respond to the sounds, what is good, what is bad (maybe they are all bad or all good). It’s about whistles being played and how listeners respond to them.

Make a guess at what’s being played, which are better or worse and why. Examine your own notions and opinions about whistles, learn something maybe or just pass some time over the christmas. Nothing too serious or complicated or controversial.

5

I agree it would be better if you could record the same tune. And I don´t know what´s your mic like (the one I had before made whistles sound all the same).

On the other hand, this is what I´d call “constructive criticism” - the idea is brilliant, and you played these tunes I could download very well! Pity I could download only two of them, my internet connection isn´t too good these days.

6

Fox on the town: Definitly brass…probably a more expensive whistle…I’m guessing Sindt

Man of Aran: sounds a little cheaper…might be a Dixon…it’s got a little raspiness to it…sounds like the tubing might be on the thin side. Maybe it’s a tweaked Gen?

Mullinavat: is that a Susato I hear? There’s a roundness to the bottom end that you don’t often hear. May be it’s a Reyburn

StPatrick’s Night: This one sounds cheap. Maybe a Gen or Feadog

Tom Billy’s: Sounds like a Walton’s LBW

Great playing by the way! Thanks!

7

Congratulations Peter. What did you win?

8

1st prize

9

“Lad I don’t know where you’ve been but I see you won first prize!”

10

Nice tunes Peter! And damn, your whistles sound nice, clean ánd in tune :wink: I’ll definitely keep these tunes to borrow some of your variations. Now, without reading previous replies, I’ll give it a shot.

Tom Billy’s Jig : Sindt
St. Patrick’s Night : Little Black Whistle
The Reel of Mullinavat : Shaw
The Man of Aran : Waltons
Fox on the Town : Generation

Merry Christmas to all of you!

11

I have no idea what whistles they are but I did find out that I want to learn Tom Billy’s and Man of Aran (which I’m pretty sure (without looking it up) is also on the Donncha OBriain record). Thanks for that.

I liked the first three whistles pretty much equally. I’m guessing one of the last two is the one you don’t prefer.

12

I actually listened to a clip on a website linked on one of the whistle tour thread maybe ten days ago. The tune played was The Maple Leaf which is a tune composed by Darech de Brun. On the same day I drove by Darech’s (summer) house which is a mile north-west from me. Anyhow, although I have known the Maple Leaf since 1980 I never played it but somehow it seemed right to take it up. Donncha O Briain played the Man of Aran (another Darech de Brun tune) after that one so that one came back to me even though I hadn’t played it for years, or much at all for that matter. How the mind works :wink:

I’ll leave the clips up for another week and let you know which whistles I played. Interesting replies so far. Keep them coming.

13

I know going in that i will likely have no idea which is which among the whistles, but I am grateful for the tunes, so will give more than one listen.

Thanks Peter, for a bit of fun and great music.

14

Hehe I was thinking that they all tended towards the airy side but after listening to them a few times I just realised that it might be just the way you blowed and/or recorded them.

Fox on the Town: A sweet sounding tonal core surrounded by airyness, but a bit bland that way because it lacks variety. Sounds like a cheapy though, and the light sounding clack at the end seems to reenforce this assertion.

Man of Aran: I think this is a nice cheapy. This one shows more tonal texturing than the first one.

Mullinavat: The tone also seems to be coming from a denser made instrument, the response doesn’t sound as crisp as the 2nd. Its not a mass produced whistle judging from the clarity of timbre in that last note. I hazard to say this is the Sindt.

St Pats Night: I dont like the sound this one, its too airy, on the bland and muffled side.

Tom Billy’s: This has that sweet raspy sound I associate with nice cheapies so I’m going to go with either Generation or Oak.

My favourites would be the 2nd and 5th whistles.

15

Lovely playing (as I knew it would be), but there is a horrible buzz in those recordings when played back on my computer.

It sounds as though a bee were sitting on the mic buzzing his wings while you were recording.

–James

16

I think your tunes are a great holiday treat! I’ll not attempt to hazard a guess on the whistles, but I’ll add these to my favorites.

Thanks, Peter.

Reg

17

Nice tunes, nicely played. Thanks, Peter. I have no idea about the whistle brands. To me they could all be the same. I’ll be eager to know which is which. Illustrates the old saw that a good player can make almost any instrument sound good.
Mike

18

They all sounded really good but I couldn’t tell if they were from different whistles. Maybe when I’ve been playing more my ear will be more discerning.

19

Your playing is fab. Whatever whistles they are are getting the royal treatment from you.

I particularly liked the sound of the whistle that played St. Patrick’s Night. If that was the cheapy what can I say? I like the sound of cheapies.

20

Well, I don’t know about my playing

and that’s not really what’s the issue here.

I see some good attempts though at listening closely and taking an informed stab at identifying the whistles in the clips. We need more of those.

This is THE opportunity to bring all this whistle talk into practice and show us what you’re made of.