I found a copy of Fintan Vallely’s ‘Timber the flute tutor’ book in hobgoblin, but not the tape. They weren’t sure they could even order it, on either cassette or CD.
Does anyone know if this is even still available?
Looks like only the CD is available now: http://homepage.eircom.net/~imusic/salesOrderPayPal.htm
how is it
I got a copy of the tape several years ago from Lark In the Morning. In my opinion, it’s an awful tape. I’d rather hear the tunes as midis. that’s not good. It would be great if somebody re-recorded it or if Fintan himself re-recorded it, this time caring just a little bit about how it sounded.
The tunes in the book are great. I look for other recordings of the tunes. Some of the tunes take a little research - one tune called Hornpipe (p 22) is “Pretty Maggie Morrissey”. “Coleman’s No 2 Slip Jig” is “Comb Your Hair and Curl It”, " Slide" on page 25 is “O’Keefe’s”. Nice selection of tunes, but a pretty lazy effort.
What is wrong with the recording? 
Well, I’ve not listened to the tape. However, I have tried to listen to mp3 rips from my old Bothy Band and Planxty tapes. Not so good. These tapes were ‘good’ analogue stereo recordings for their day and age. But they were analogue. And now they are old. And I have no idea about how much distortion and tape stretch was involved and if they were copied on a highspeed copy machine. I do know, my mp3 rips faithfully reproduced all the current flaws on the tapes. And believe me, listening to them on my Sharp dual cassette dubbing machine didn’t improve them much. I’m afraid my ear has been ruined by listening to digital. I can only hope my christmas present of an mp3 turntable will do better by some of my old vinyl.
Bob
Well, it’s not clear to me if the poster is referring to the physical tape medium, the production values of the recording, the instrumental performance, or something else. Hence the question …
I have a recent CD copy of the said tape from Fintan’s web site, and have to agree with the earlier post.. IMO ,audio quailty is awful, difficult to play with because of some of it not sitting at A=440Hz, to be honest I have’nt bothered to use it much for this reason.I agree someone should re-record this..
I get the feeling that some of the posters on this thread aren’t getting to the heart of the music. That, the heart of the music, has little to do with audio quality. I agree that some old recordings aren’t an audiophile’s delight and aren’t really pleasant to listen to on a casual basis, such as while driving or making a sandwich. But the music demands that a listener be able to separate out the phrasing, timing, melody, ornamentation, etc, from the poor audio quality.
Fintan Vallely (http://homepage.eircom.net/~imusic/index.html) is a northern flute-player and is a giant in ITM. His punchy, breathy playing may not be pleasingly accessible to the casual listener. Old recording technology and audio tapes don’t sound good on modern equipment. But Vallely’s playing on The Starry Lane to Monahan and on Traditional Irish Music is well worth listening to carefully, despite the scratchiness and the “wow” and “flutter” that older listeners used to accept as more-or-less normal in recordings.
Listening carefully: isn’t that we are supposed to be doing?
The OP (me) was merely wanting to get hold of a copy of the tracks so I could listen to them, then try to play the tunes. I’ve found it very difficult to play a tune straight from sheet music when I’m completely unfamiliar with that particular tune (and the type of music in general).
I’ve found that most of the youtube recordings of ITM are so full of ornamentation that they are useless for a complete beginner like myself; I can’t separate the melody from the ornamentation.
Sorry about not clarifying my post earlier, I don’t visit C&F too often.
I can’t listen to the tape for pleasure, like I can with, say, June McCormack’s or Skip Healy’s. For my taste, the playing is very rough, the tone is unpleasant. It’s just hard to listen to. Granted, he may be a great player, but not on this tape. I would like to gain an appreciation for his playing by route of this tape, but that just isn’t going to happen.
Courtesy of Dave, I now have a copy of the tape. It’s damn useful to me and has already helped me with playing a great deal (I just don’t hear much itm).
However, I’ve found it impossible to play along with the music. Notes seem to be miles out from either the Dixon or Jem’s simple flute (which checks as in tune against a boehm flute, a recorder and a tuner).
Maybe this is due to the tape being a little stretched (although the vocals sound ok) or this “not sitting at A=440Hz”.