I feel silly posting a song from a video game, but I’ve been wondering what instrument makes the lovely, airy sound found here: http://youtu.be/S1i8MEHcX0Q?t=1m1s
Thanks for the help!
That’s probably a synthesizer. But it’s supposed to sound like a pan pipe / pan flute.
You’re right, it does sound like one. Any idea of where to get a nice, cheap beginners pan flute?
Just Google “pan flute” or “panpipes” and you’ll find scads out there from super high-end to not so good. But here’s one to get you started:
Here’s a real one, being played by an actual human being
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QB8ofYXwSg
The largest size is called toyo.
The next-largest size is called sanka.
Usually they’re played in pairs, each person playing one-half of the instrument.
Anyhow you can get extremely high-quality Andean panpipes (zamponas in Spanish, sikus in Quechua) fairly cheaply. I bought a fantastic malta (the higher-sized one) and sanka by Gonzalo Vargas for around $40 each. These instruments are superb.
Here’s a guy starting out on the sanka then switching to the malta (which is one octave higher).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_um2xZlgDsU
You can Google these various words and find all sorts of stuff!
You need to decide if you want to play Andean or Romanian style pipes (or both!). The Romanian style - like those played by Zamfir - tend to be a bit more costly. For a nice set of Romanian pipes that won’t break the bank, check out Brad White at http://pan-flute.com/
Andean pipes are a lovely but very different kind of instrument. They can be had from numerous sources around the Web and are usually very affordable owing to their more ‘folksy’ construction.
Uh, I should apologize to all Andean pipes players, because I thought for a long time that Andean pipes (didn’t know that name before) are just a toy derived from Romanian style pipes.
The title was “deep airy flute” so I immediately thought of the lower-pitched Andean instruments, the toyo and sanka.
I’ve not seen a Romanian panpipe that size (though they certainly could exist!)
Romanian panpipes have all the diatonic notes in a single row, curved so as to be easier to negotiate.
Andean panpipes usually have the diatonic notes divided between two separate small one-row instruments, traditionally played by two different players, but the two rows are often held together (even sometimes being bound together with string) so that a single player can play the entire instrument. Nowadays a third row is sometimes added which has certain chromatic notes.
Here’s an excellent video showing a guy playing both rows of a toyo. (I have one just like that!) What’s cool about this video is that it lacks the reverb and synths and other stuff than modern Andean musicians are so fond of
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTq-2OjYc-U
Wow… I just came across this great video which shows toyos played in the traditional way, with each musician playing one-half of the scale, and thus playing “in hocket” as classical musicians would call it. These Andean tunes are exquisitely beautiful
Ah, I didn’t look at title well.
I just listened the video in first post and I think that used range is doable using Romanian panpipe like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzZdRytVKZ4