Does anyone have any clips/mp3s of the Reviol Low D?
Pancelticpiper on youtube - low D comparison - one of the whistles is a Reviol.
Thanks, retired. I actually knew about that one but I think pancelticpiper himself realised it wasn’t a great recording. It’s not easy to distinguish a great deal of difference between the whistles.
Whistle and drum has a clip of one. I believe played by Joanie Madden, I can’t remember. I also saw Paddy Keenan playing one, but I can’t find the clip now. I believe it was on youtube somewhere. He does play a burke, or goldie, or o’briaiain, too, but he also plays/played a Reviol at some point. The Madden clip is in the little music player on whistleanddrum. For some reason it doesn’t come up on the Reviol product page, but if you open up any whistle page on there that does have the sample player at the bottom, you can just select “Reviol low D”.
There aren’t many clips of it around, and I don’t know of any clip from a person who plays it as their main instrument. One thing about the Reviol is, I think it’s a whistle that does give many more rewards in the long term if one sticks with it, as one learns more and more over time how to adjust towards using it’s unique attributes to the fullest. It’s definitely a more and more rewarding instrument the more time passes, at least for me.
I will end this message here, to spare you all from a novel-length post full of praise for the Reviol.
But, it’s simply a well-known fact, the Reviol is the best low D whistle there is.
Does everyone feel this way?
No, not really 
but hey, horses for courses etc..
I should clarify: that YouTube video has adequate sound quality to convey what those whistles sound like, but, like all musical instruments, whistles are more different to the player than they are to an outside listener.
In other words no recording or in-person listening conveys how different various whistles ‘feel’ to the player himself.
This has been proven many times, for example the Boehm flute tests where flutists can’t distinguish between silver and gold flutes when they hear them being played, but to the player the flutes play entirely differently.
Anyhow I got a Reviol C/D/Eb set, one head and the three bodies, but I didn’t feel that the Reviol D suited my tastes and way of playing, and I sold that set.
What emerged out of a couple years of frenzied Low D buying and testing was that the MK is the most suited for me. MKs aren’t perfect (I wish they had a stronger bellnote and a slightly flatter 2nd octave) but they’re the best for my way of playing and my tastes. The Reyburn would probably replace the MK if they were available in aluminum.
I think this is true of any good musical instrument, any whistle.
In my opinion other Low Ds I’ve tried have had at least as much potential.
There are studies that prove it.
I studied the whistle very carefully multiple times, and determined it’s the best. Don’t try to complicate the issue with your psuedo-science.
And actually, it’s Shannon Heaton in the clip on Whistle and Drum, not Madden. The sample player is a bit difficult to find, but if you go to the Reyburn section of the website, the player is at the bottom and can be selected from there.
and yes panceltic piper, I do agree with your statement on it being true for any instrument. I am not in disagreement that all instruments are used to their fullest after developing familiarity (especially woodwinds!), but rather I had specific traits of the Reviol in mind that I have found are rather unique compared to my other low whistles.
Okay Sirchronique, we’re getting curious. What specific traits set it apart from other low Ds? I think we’ve both tried Reyburn, Bracker, and MK. If the Reviol stands out and above those whistles, for you, I’m interested to know why.
Yeah me too. I’m not at all convinced that there is one “best” whistle in any key. Of course it’s likely that you’re just messing with us 
I’d offer that the more one practices on any whistle, or other instrument for that matter, the better it will sound. In fact, I’ve discovered the best low D five or six times now. 
Then I scientifically decided that it takes at least three of them to cover all my needs (idiosyncrasies). But I’m certain that I’ve not yet completed my analysis.
So what is your criteria?
ecohawk
Yes, I was indeed joking about my claim that it’s a well-known fact that it’s the best, and that my reviewal of the whistle constitutes a reliable scientific study 
.
But not joking that I think it’s the best low D for me out of any I’ve tried, or why. Perhaps I’ll elaborate more after I’m somewhat more awake.
I might have given the wrong impression earlier. My experience is that the longer I play on a particular Low D the more my playing adapts to the way that particular whistle plays, and I will “sound better” on it, learning how to best deal with what it wants to do.
However I don’t believe that there are deep mysteries hidden in any Low D whistle. Musically whistles are rather straightforward things, much more so than flutes for example.
In a few minutes one can determine the upper and lower pressure limits of each note in the traditional D-b range and where each note in that range has to be blown to play the instrument, as a whole, in tune.
The tone colour and volume of each note are fixed by the maker and for each note come out in one specific and invariable way if the note is blown at the pressure it must be blown at to play in tune.
In short, it’s not rocket science.
Reminds me of a lecture I attended many years ago given by a university professor who taught Renaissance and Baroque recorder. He told us of when he had attended a concert given by a recorder ensemble in Holland who were attempting to play Baroque recorder music in an “expressive” way, the players blowing notes harder and softer to give “expression” to the music. He emphasized that on the recorder this is impossible and that blowing softer and harder simply makes the note flatter and sharper, the pitch fluctuating more than the volume, the result being out of tune music, nothing more.
It’s precisely why, when dynamics became important in orchestral music, recorders and musettes were discarded.
(NB that recorder ensemble had the headjoints of all their recorders put on backwards, which our professor was also puzzled about.)
Anyhow I put that Reviol through its paces and there was nothing about it that made it stand out from the crowd. Of course every whistle is unique and a different Reviol might play differently.
I’ve owned 5 or 6 different MK Low Ds now and they vary somewhat, though remaining quite distinct from any other make. The Low D that can knock my favourite MK off its perch hasn’t come through my fingers yet, but I welcome it! We’re all on that Quest for The Perfect Whistle.
While the recorder ensemble you describe sounds way over the top, are there not times when you want to blow a little softer or a little harder, a little flat or a little sharp, for effect?
I’ve read comments that some whistle or other will stay in tune with a wider range of breath pressure. While I haven’t enough experience to know for sure, I’m a bit skeptical. Have you noticed that whistles differ in how loud or soft you can blow a given note without going significantly out of tune?
On the flute you can play a long note, keeping it exactly on the same pitch, starting very quietly and increasing the volume steadily until the note is very loud, then decreasing the volume until it is very quite again.
It’s a standard exercise for building tone. I would do it while looking at an electronic tuner, keeping the needle pointing straight up the whole time.
On a whistle this is impossible and as you increase and decrease the air pressure the note goes up and down in pitch; this can be verified by watching that needle go up and down! So “expression” in the manner of dynamics is always at the expense of tuning.