just popped over from the whistle forum, to ask you guys and gals if you know what key Davy Spillanes pipes are in on the album ( a place among the stones ) its a fabulous album some really atmospheric low whistles as well as some very beautiful uilleann pipe playing, I only ask as I have a couple of albums with the Uilleann pipes on them, the Chieftains and the Fureys, again brilliantly played but totally acoustic without any effects added, I’m no expert but it seems mr Spillane adds some effects and his pipes sound a bit deeper, I’m not considering buying a set but would like to buy some more music with this type of playing and in whatever key it is in.
He uses an internal pickup (mounted on the reed, I think) then fed into a vocal compressor and equalization system. (I understand that the more commonly available dynamic compressors used for instruments like guitars aren’t really up to the task). The compressor is needed to cut down on contact noise with the chanter (finger noise, etc.) and the EQ is required since the reed motion and sound profile inside the reed cap isn’t much like the sound that comes out of the chanter - so this at least makes it sound a little like pipes!
It used to require a huge box of electronics but I guess it’s fairly miniaturezed now. Then of course reverb, etc. is added.
Although I believe you are correct, I’ll point out that Davy claims to have always made his own whistles. It may come down to what one means by “making” a whistle.
Hi all, and thanks for all the information, after reading billh’s post I can see that mr Spillane has a comprehensive set up on his pipes, they do sound amazing, so do the whistles, again very heavy on the efects, reverb, digital delay etc, regarding the whistles, the river dance whistle certainly looks like a Bernhard Overton, I think I read in older posts that Davy plays his own as Dale mentioned, or a modified Overton, I suppose if you make enough modifications to a whistle so it plays totally different and looks different you could class it as a re-styling, but not your own???
