I am wondering if medium holed rudalls (or copies thereof) can be heard in loud sessions, or does one need something prattenesque? Or in a session in a noisy room. Something like the Glenn Watson rudally flute is what I have in mind. Experienced people’s views are especially welcome. Thanks.
As usual : it depends on who is driving.
The Glenn Watson flute I once owned held up fine in noisy sessions. The sound carries well and I could even hear it…
Best wishes.
Steve
I would wager that Leo MacNamara could drive a small holed Rudall and Rose to the point of driving some people to need ear protection. . . 
Bob
Thanks, gang.
I drank the pratten kool aid at first. But after three prattens I ran into a used Wilkes R&R copy. I have never turned back. I have been heard. I have heard other people playing rudall copies in large sessions from across the room. It is a thing. Prattens and R&Rs each have their own characters. The prattens I have played have been Olwell and McGee. The Rudalls: Dave Williams, Wilkes, Greet Lejuene, Francois Baubet and a large holed Rudall Carte. It would be fun to have all those flutes in the same room and see what my more mature self thinks of things. But various flutes have been sold and traded off over the years. The Baubet is the newest and has the smallest holes. I believe it is a mite quieter than the rest. But not a shrinking violet.
Glen Watson makes a fine flute. I have heard them played well at sessions. You will not be disappointed.
Thanks. The occasion for my question, in fact, is that I’ve got hold of Blayne’s
Wilkes Rudall, the one listed on the IFS site. It sure is aggressive right out of the box.
Pat once told me that, playing in sessions in Ireland, until recently he needed the
Pratten to be heard, though now he has improved to the point where he can
be heard with the Nicholson. Those Irish!
That is no understatement. I had a small holed Rudall model from John Gallagher, before I got my large holed boxwood model, and when he tried it out at a lesson the first thing he said was “WOW!”. I was thinking the same thing since I was so excited to hear it sound so great. Believe me, there was no problem with volume. He makes every flute he plays sound nimble with great tone, and yes, loud.
I wouldn’t dare to say I’m good player, but OPs question is very close to me.
I used to play LeJeune Standard (which should be somewhere between R&Rque and Pratenesque) several years and about a month ago I switched to Watson. Yes, first days was quite terrible, differrent, especially first hours but now… I never played so loud and resonant with LeJeune ever as I’m play with Watson after a month.
I am not saying LeJeune is bad, I met several players who plays LeJeune very loud with nice “color” (in these days, it was the reason I bought the same flute), but it seems Watson flute suits me more. Much more.
Conclusion is rather: Don’t look which flute is louder/quieter, look for flute which plays better (louder? colorful?) in your hands. It doesn’t have to be the same flute which using someone else.
Has anyone ever actually tested the volume of these different types of flutes? Or is it simply a matter of perception to the player only?
Perhaps some flutes simply radiate more sound in the vicinity of the player - but the same player generates the same amount of volume as perceived by other players. Flutes that are easy to drive and often have large holes sound loud to the player. But I haven’t noticed much difference when listening to someone play a supposed quiet flute vs. a loud flute.
This would be a very easy thing to test.
Casey
Hi Casey
I did look into that in my initial collaboration with Grey Larsen, back in 2003. (Gawd, 15 years ago!)
http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Grey.htm
Just over halfway down the page, you’ll see we measured the loudness of three flutes:
The Firth, Pond and Co original (very small holes)
A medium holed Rudall copy (medium)
A Pratten’s Perfected copy (the largest anywhere)
Essentially we found small differences, but concluded they weren’t enough to explain our perceptions. We’d need to compare spectra of the various instruments. I think we’re hearing more body (fundamental) in the bigger bored, bigger holed instruments and interpreting that as louder.