It seems that some really famous pipers get by just fine without much of a hard D. I am not one of them, mind you, but my hard D is gone 'til spring in all probability. I am hoping to slide by like these Big Guns. Problem with that?
t
I’ve always admired the hard D that you are able to get on your recordings. Is this a recent problem?
Hey man, move to Nashville. The D is always hard and the river is ready and willing to take the canoe year round.
Yes, problem–turn in your pipes (to me). You can get them back when you can demonstrate a consistant, solid hard D (without the pipes).
-No E (no hard D for you!)
Hey, Tom! How’s Corncrake goin’?
I was under the impression that the hard D is an effect; nice to have, desirable even, but as to necessary…if the music’s beautiful without it until Spring, play on. Sometimes I think it’s overdone, myself, but that’s just me.
In fact on most chanters hard D is the proper D, ‘soft’ D is flat and doesn’t sound right over the drones [or otherwise]. From that point of view it is necessary to have use the hard D.
I have seen some chanters. notably a Leo Rowsome a pupil of mine has that seem to have their bottom note tuned to soft D, not a set up that seems very desirable but there you have it, if you have one of those hard D will sound wrong and you will have to settle for the other one.
Thanks, Peter. Tuning must account for my impressions, then!
Take a listen to this online sample from Liam O’Flynn’s CD ‘The Given Note’
The tune is: Ag Taisteal Na Blárnan (Travelling Through Blarney) and played on a B chanter.
Though in-tune with the other notes, O’Flynn’s hard D ‘bangs out’ louder than with more harmonics than the other notes almost sounding like that one note came from a different chanter.
http://www.taramusic.com/sounds/cd30348.mp3
The sound file is from this website:
http://www.taramusic.com/sleevenotes/cd3034.htm
Ahh… lovely stuff… BRRRRRRRRR!
Hard D is the D you should always go for… if you miss it then it’s a bum note.
PD.
Have to agree with Pat on this. If you can’t get a hard D at all you need to see to your reed. If the hard D is out of tune with the soft D, it may be a reed problem, or you may need to see your pipemaker. The difference is in both volume and somewhat with more overtones on the hard D, but the soft D should still be in tune with it.
djm
I would not think so to be honest, soft D and hard D are in my experience not of the same pitch, far from it. On any of the chanters I have played anyway.
To quote the man himself, in the Master’s Touch:
Here’s a previous discussion about hard D’s
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=8406&sid=fe5f3c17c7a15d0d9bc517f907d90d7a
tom, what climate -area do you lve in? i gather it is dry and cold? seems like you could make or have a reed made and set up for most conditions.
i couldn’t play without my hard D, i would feel i had a falty reed.
hope you can solve this 
best, tansy
Sorry, but the hard and soft bottom D were always in tune, both on my Robbie Hughes chanter and my Joe Kennedy chanter. Alan Moller also notes this in his reed-making video.
One thing that never failed to amaze and annoy me is how Seamus Ennis’ set was never in tune, his regs especially. I would not go by his every word as gospel. He may have been an amazing player, but he couldn’t even make his own reeds. Judging by the terrible noise of his set in his recordings, I doubt he knew that much about setting up his pipes. Quite possibly he had someone do this for him.
I use both hard and soft D to add a dynamic element, the hard D to set off crans, and the soft D for airs or to end a phrase where I don’t want the note to stand out. You should be able to do this.
djm
I suppose we must agree to fiercely disagree about all of the above.
Duuuuuuuck! 
I may be mistaken, but Paddy Ks pipes oft sound like there’s not much of a HD coming from his chanter. But as they say on the net …WTF??? Better a tune played well without those stilted attempts to get hard D every time…
Alan
To answer the question in the topic..
Yes! 
My chanter seems to keep both soft and hard bottom D’s in tune as well. In fact I’m not certain I’ve ever heard a soft D. Can someone give a sample of this?
Thanks!
PR
Themen (I mean amen!).
So only pipers who make reeds are good? That’s news to O’Flynn Moloney Touhey and all of them!
Andreas Rogge’s “justification” for whittling out the inside of Ennis’s chanter was his idea that the bore had shrunk there, and this was preventing the chanter from sounding a hard D easily. He claimed to have measurements of 3 other Coynes - all the same size as Ennis’s? Where are those? - which had a larger bore there. Hence the surgery. Recently I asked if anyone had thought to try a different windcap on that chanter - Ennis’s windcap had no stop key mechanism, and the tubing for the inlet looked like a couple of trumpet crooks that had been soldered together - not original stuff. Perhaps with a windcap with a stop key the chanter would have worked better; I’m told with some it makes a critical difference. The reed likes to “see” the stop key mechanism, the chanter was made with it in mind, apparently. I was also told of some chanters which work best to being plugged direct into a bag stock, not a gooseneck type inlet. Very subtle stuff. Ennis played very stiff reeds, too. O’Flynn’s recordings of the same chanter have lots of motorboating bottom Ds, what you got with a light reed, apparently.
Ennis should be judged by the Return From Fingal CD, and the best material on the 40 Years record. If you think you can play better than that, you’re high! The tuning’s all you could ask for, too. And I’ll take the odd dropped note over an entire CD of sterile perfection.