Recently, i attended an acoustic session, and was quite disapointed with my homemade low D’s loudness. I couldn’t even hear it, let alone try to match the other instruments. So, now i’m about to make a session-grade whistle.
What i’d like to know is what are the parameters that influence the loudness the most? Is it a type of material the whistle is made of, windway width, length or height? Size of the tone window?
The ones that i have made, were made by Guidus’ instructions, but i’t seems to me that his recommendation of 14mm wide windway, combined with 2mm thick pipe wall yields pretty chiffy and breath-consuming whistle, without the desired loudness. As i don’t have any brand-name low D’s i dont know how wide their tone holes are?
My experience is that low D whistles are seldom useful in sessions, except when most of the players drop out to allow it to solo or play with a few other instruments. Otherwise, it’s usually overwhelmed. Flute players are usually able to push through the mix.
It wasn’t very big one… two fiddles, guitar and mandolin, one high D/C whistle, bodhran. Though there was this guy that banged some kind of wooden box like there was no tomorrow.
Anyway, can any Low whistle stand on it’s own against even this puny session?
P.S.
The one that played the box was a drum section, so to say. He was literally drumming onto a wooden box (i guess it was a kind of a drawer). Not the accordion or smth.
Probably a Cajón - which actually does mean box or drawer. It’s a Latin American instrument that has thoroughly infiltrated flamenco music, and made inroads into Celtic fusion (e.g. Gráda) and other world music. Most have snares behind the front striking surface, which gives it the extra “zing”.
The biggest factor for loudness (power) of a whistle is how much wind can be delivered to the blade. A 14mm by 2mm windway seems adequate, 2mm height is perhaps a bit excessive. If you widen the windway a lot more, say 15 or 16mm, you may find you have not enough air in you to play long enough on one breath.
You did not say how long the window is, the distance from the windway exit to the blade. That distance is quite crucial, it should be about 5mm for the 14 mm wide window. If it is too long, much air is wasted, resulting in wind noise.
Another very important factor to make the whistle more efficient and less “windy” (you called it “chiffy”), is to reduce turbulences by smoothing all edges of the window and of all the tone holes. This will allow air to vibrate more freely, and thereby allow you to increase the wind speed, and thereby the power (loudness).
And on top of all these measures you can add “boxears” around the window: an edge ca 5mm high on the left and right side and the windway side of the window. This will focus the vibrating air streaming out and will about double the loudness. You can experiment with bluetack to make a rough 3-sided box around the window and will get an immediate effect.
I didn’t mention the length of the window, as it is a variable of sorts… I don’t really know where it will settle, as i have to move it around during the tuning. But it is around or less than 5mm.
One other thing:
Try the window with about 5mm from blade edge to plug wall, and 6mm from blade edge to upper edge of windway exit, giving it that extra 1mm opening. Then chamfer the lower edge of the windway exit just a bit (on the plug). This will help the response (time it takes for a note to start) and the power. The bottom of the windway aligns with the blade tip.
And for a more flute-like sound with less shrill overtones round the blade edge just a bit, so it is not quite sharp.
No, actually, we have three box players, Al and Alan and Scott, and usually at least one is at most every session. Squeeze boxes, not small wooden ones!
