Unless you’ve invented a transporter and beamed Mr. Crawford into the room I’m in, then every one of those things is in the signal chain. Some impact the sound less than others, but not one of them is invisible in an A/B test if you know what to listen to.
All consumer camcorders and cellphones that I’m aware of have compression built in. A lot of it. If you don’t believe that compression impacts the tone of a whistle, I don’t know where to start. Do an A/B test recording a whistle with a camcorder and a studio mic and you’ll see for yourself. I can hear the compression in the recording, clear as day. I happen to know what compression sounds like in whistles, because I’ve spent time experimenting with it. A lot of the compression I’m hearing is probably coming from the camcorder and the software, not from the sound man.
FWIW, everything that comes out of the speakers on this computer sounds like crap. I’m sure you didn’t mean to imply that that’s how Mr. Crawford sounds though.
And apparently much of what we read read on a computer screen is likewise crap. I stand by what I said. I’ve met Kevin and played with him several times. He and his Susato sound terrific. He sounds great, even on my DIY whistles. My point was that the whistle doesn’t make the man, the man makes the whistle. So to speak. Susato whistles are the target of disdain by many people and they do not deserve that. Yes they are bold whistles and have to be played boldly.
Ok. I stand corrected. Someone else knows more about the particular whistle than I do. That is probably not that unusual. However, I would mention that Sweetone’s don’t cost much, and Meg’s even less. If you can get one (I’d go for the Sweetone), I’d get it. Mine was $10 a few years back. The Meg I had was about $3. Shipping and handling was more than the whistle. And I agree. When you learn more, you will wand a different whistle.
If you go back and read what I wrote, I never said a single thing about how a Susato whistle might sound, and even less about Mr. Crawford, who’s playing I hold in high regard.
What I said was there’s a lot of steps in that signal chain (any one of which could potentially radically change the sound – my computer speakers being a great example). That, and I can hear compression in the clip.
I have the Mel Bay Clarkes, and they do vary in quality. Some are breathier; some are clearer. (As a matter of fact, I should probably mark the better sounding Clarkes in some way. Not easy to tell them apart.) I think they are all right for the children (for whom I bought them), but to be honest, though I do still play them, they tend to wear me out sooner as they require a lot more breath on the higher register. I usually go back to my Freeman-tweaked Blackbird in D, since it requires a lighter touch (so to speak). I think it’s more enjoyable to play and I like its sweeter tone.
