I have this anonymous old 8 key flute which I love playing, the keys are so comfortable, the craftsmanship is as good as they get, the flute is very thin and a joy to play, but it’s not as loud as my R&R type flutes. Today I removed the two foot keys, and suddenly it plays so loud, like someone turned the knob from 5 to 11 !!! 
would be interesting to see if this follows on some other flutes
hi Eilam,
That is why the Trad players were alway stripping off the keys, for better venting. You should see how loud it is without the foot! (Don’t try this at home!) 
It really is a nice flute, but it’s hard to compete with the R&R with the Noy head!
Jon
11! Like, that’s one more than 10!
Tell us more about the old girl. Anonymous? Post mounts? Just curious.
Eric
Removing those keys also eliminates the accidental clacking sounds that can occur if your little finger moves against them unintentionally when playing.
I think it makes the flute sound louder to the player; I’m not sure there is an equal difference in volume to the listener who’s ten feet away.
Not that this matters; if it makes the flute sound better to you, go for it!
–James
Maybe someone with an 8-key can post two sound samples. One with the foot keys and one without them. Maybe playing 10 feet or so from the mic and trying to play as loud as he/she can. Then we’ll see if the difference is just to the players ear or if there really is a noticeable difference to audience.
it was definitely noticeable to all in the house.
Eric, I’m way too lame to know how to post a sound clip or a picture, but I’d be happy to email you a picture if you want to post it for me, I’ll send you some of my R&R as well, it’s such a beauty!
yes you’re right, 11 is like way more then 10 !! that alone is enough to give one a Mullet and a Harpies sore on the lips, ahh yahh, hairy chest as well.
(PM me your email address if you’d like a picture of the flute OK? it’s block mounted keys, and fully restored by Noy)
Were the foot keys properly fitted and opening wide enough, Eilam ?
hi Andrew, well, they were working (better if you had some oil on the Pewter), and seemed like the opened as much as intended.
Perhaps someone should have intended them to open more !
Let’s have photos.
Eilam, if Eric can’t host them for you I can host a few pics and put em up here. You can send them to my gmail: great . osiris @ gmail . com (remove spaces)
Eilam & Co,
I have the pictures, but I’m at work and can’t do anything with them. Also, my website is limited by my ISP so I don’t think I can put them up for any length of time. In addition, being at work, I’m not allowed to open them for fear they harbor some virus…so I can’t even look at them until tonight.
Thanks for sending them! And, Spinal Tap rules!
Eric
I’ll see if I can get a recording this weekend of my 8-key with and without footjoint keys in place…sounds like an interesting experiment!
–James
You can post the pictures using Image shack.
http://imageshack.us/index3.php
Your avatar portrait. Peeplj, seems to have been taken with a very wide angle lens !
Will you be able to measure the volume ?
I love astronomical photographs, especially those of galaxies and nebulae!
One of my favorite things to do as a kind of mind game with myself is first to envision how big the earth is. It’s pretty big, but I can pretty much wrap my mind around that. Now the sun…it’s vast but yeah, I can sort of understand how big it really is. Then you pull way back and try to understand how big the solar system is–this is right on the limit of what I can really understand in any meaningful way.
Then you pull back again, way way way back, and try to envision how big a galaxy is, that contains trillions upon trillions of solar systems, some doubtlessly much larger than our own–well, it’ll just about make your head explore, in a good way. 
Anyhow, when I was a kid I also used to love standing outside at night (in winter, at least…on a summer night in Arkansas the mosquitos grow so big they have landing gear) and look up at the stars, and try to imagine the vast amounts of both distance and time that I was gazing through. It’s another enjoyable cause of Spontaneously Exploding Head Syndrome.
As to measuring volume, on a galaxy, I can’t…my head won’t wrap around it.
On my little experimental recording, though, I can, if that’s what you meant…I view the waveform in Audacity and note the amplitude of the waveform. It’s not precise but it’s good for informal experimentation, which is handy, since that’s about all I’m good for, as well.
–James
if you can even begin to imagine the distances to moon & sun you are doing better than i can James. have you noticed how the apparent direction of light shining on the moon often does not seem to be where the sun is? those distances are beyond my brain’s ability to comprehend in a tangible way.
last summer i was trying to visualize the center and extent of the milky way. it is amazing to find Sagitarius and then consider how huge our galaxy is in comparison. these pictures help do that:
http://home.arcor-online.de/axel.mellinger/
my favorite astropic is the Hubble Ultra Deep Field survey:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040309.html
so many galaxies! so little time!
enjoy! /dan
Great stuff. Really takes you out of yourself -zooming round the universe . There’s a star to the left top of your first shot that brings back memories.
It is terribly disappointing the Terry McGee hasn’t given us the definitive position on the supposed deadening effect of low C keys.
We could all sleep then !
Just wait, i’m sure he has a couple of University students on it right now!
You cheeky young buggars! (Whoops, sorry Andrew!)
Glauber is actualy correct, our University of New South Wales Physics Dept. researcher is preparing to launch into a new set of measurements to determine (at higher precision), among other things, the differing end effects of normal open finger holes, holes with pads dangling over them, and Boehm style keys with perforated pads. This is for our computer assisted flute design project. So, nyah!
But we don’t have to wait till then to know approximately what’s going on. The dangling pads (or pewter plugs) do at least two things - reduce the effective size of the hole and screw up the aerodynamics. By removing them then, we increase the effective size of the hole, sharpening the note - handy as most of the old flutes had flat notes on the foot - and improving the airflow, assisting the efficiency of the oscillation (so more signal) and reducing the noise created by vorteces.
It actually goes a little further than that. Most modern Irish flutes are made without these keys, but still have the reducing taper in the foot section required to get good C# and C notes. This is a bit silly as those notes can’t be played and it disadvantages the D. (Quantz railed against the practice in his mid-18th century book.) That’s one of the reasons French 5-key flutes can be so perky - none of the unnecessary baggage of the extended foot. I modify the bore in my “long-D” feet to minimise the effect of the baggage.
The McGee, Himself.