We hear alot about the sound quality of one whistle versus another. Is there a site where one can hear various whistles in a controled situation? For example: same artist(loose term)
and the same string of notes.
If such a site does not exist, maybe someone with lots of whistles would put one together?
Maybe C&F. Maybe Clips and Snips. (Clips and Snips has a good collection of sounds while not uniform)
This would be very helpful for some of us beginners who are about to buy a new whistle. Even a way for us to learn that the poor sounds we get are due to our playing rather than the whistle.
Somebody made a clip for me when I was trying to decide between the Hoover and Laughing whistles. I’m sorry, I can’t recall who made it, but thank you whoever you are!
Appropriately named, this mp3 demos a hoover, a laughing, a silkstone and a weasel. I don’t have particulars on any of the instruments but it is a start!
Now, I’m not claiming these are great recordings, or that I’m rated anything as a player (so please don’t pound me for using a slide when I shouldn’t or anything - that said, constructive criticism welcomed) but at least you might get some idea of how these particular whistles came out on my equipment. The goal wasn’t to do justice to the tune or to show what I can do, just to give an idea of the tone of the different whistles I could find last night.
Finally, something funny happened when I converted from .wav to .mp3 so the sound isn’t quite right. When (if) I ever get the chance, I will redo all the clips with higher quality. Also, I left the clips quite large as the differences are often subtle.
Richard
PS: If someone wants to send me a Copeland, I’ll add record it and add it to the list… somehow, I don’t think this cunning ploy will work however…
On 2002-02-28 19:27, avanutria wrote:
Somebody made a clip for me when I was trying to decide between the Hoover and Laughing whistles. I’m sorry, I can’t recall who made it, but thank you whoever you are!
Appropriately named, this mp3 demos a hoover, a laughing, a silkstone and a weasel. I don’t have particulars on any of the instruments but it is a start!
Walt,
What a great idea. I have been wishing for something like this for a long, long time.
Avanutria and Dr. Richard,
Thank you! I have really been wishing that someone who had a bunch of different whistles (and more skill than I have) would do this very thing. Thank you both so much!
Wow! Nice site and great sound clips. You make every whistle sound wonderful. I could still tell the Susato though by the buzz in the background. You’re right though. I think it’s hard to be objective about the whistles while you’re playing them. Recording and then listening seems the way to do a real comparison. The Susato sounds much better than I think it sounds when I’m playing it.
Oh, what was the name of the air you were playing? I’ve got to work on that one.
Of course, simply LISTENING to whistles will not abate a severe case of WhOA. In fact, to the inquisitive mind, it simply makes one make excuses for why one sounded different than another. Nope, buy buy and buy again, that’s my motto!!! Get a bucketload of whistles and pick the ones you personally like best!
Heh, thanks for the feedback. A few replies to questions:
First, a few people have told me that they clips don’t open correctly, especially under Netscape. I thought I had that mostly fixed, but there’s still at least one person who can’t download from the site, and I have no idea why. I’ve tested using IE6 and Netscape, and both now work okay.
Dakatomouse: the name of the Air is Amhran na Leabhar (there’s supposed to be an accent on the ‘a’ in Amhran, but I don’t know how to type one!). It’s in the Chiff And Fipple Tune Archive, as well as in “Ireland’s Best Slow Airs” (a great book), and I love this tune.
Erik T: heh. I hate resumes, but unfortunately I don’t get a choice - the site is part personal and part work (although it’s becoming more personal than work for the most part now)… I may however, sneak some whistle-oriented joke into the resume
Please let me know if you have any more problems with downloads, and a huge thanks to the people that mailed me off list with helpful comments!
Wow, what a fine website! Thanks for the opportunity to hear the various whistle types and “sound personalities”. Playing the same piece on each establishes a control or baseline to compare and the song selection was a fine one. (A beautiful piece and all the more meaningful in that it is a selection that is within the potential achievement realm of some of us less experienced players.)
Perhaps Rich or Dale would consider the folowing as a “sound idea” (I couldn’t resist the pun.): a C&F link page to sites that provide whistle “sound samplings”.
Something like you have Dr Rich but with even a greater array of whistle types.
I’ve thrown around the idea of doing a website with pictures and brief reviews of various models and keys of whistles, and including a sound clip with each one.
There are several factors that make such a simple sounding project actually be quite an undertaking though!
The main problem is tweaked vs. un-tweaked cheap whistles, and the sometimes extreme variations in the sound of any particular cheap whistle whether tweaked or un-tweaked.
A website dedicated to only expensive whistles would probably be easier to do, since most expensive whistles have a fairly consistant sound from one to the next… but not necessarily.
The litle project I did demonstrating the difference between the regular bore Susato and the new VSB really drove home the necessity of a controlled environment as well.
Those samples were recorded playing the same tune, in the same place, the same distance from the mic, with the same volume settings and with the same software… you can see where I’m going with all this.
I personally have heard a particular whistle played on a CD or on Clips & Snips, and have rushed to order one for myself so I could reproduce “that sound”… only to find out in many cases that I could never reproduce “that sound”.
I commend DrRichard for his sound clips, and I hope to hear more from him because it is a nice thing to be able to hear sound clips of a whistle to get a good idea of what you can expect it to sound like if you get one… just bear in mind that your might be in for quite a disappointment in some cases.
I know many people cling to the belief that in many cases it’s the fault of the player and not the whistle if it sounds horrible.
I have learned that this isn’t always the case though, and it’s the reason I advocate a higher-end whistle for a beginner so any possible quality issues won’t be a factor in interfering with the learning process.
While I personally believe that Mick Woodruff could coax a beautiful tune from the most horrible sounding whistle you could hand him, I know he too has encountered whistles that were better off being used as tent stakes!
He even told me recently that his introduction to wind instruments was one of those horrible cheap cane whistles!
It’s a good thing for us that he didn’t get discouraged by that experience or we’d have been deprived of a lot of fantastic music.
I can’t help but wonder though how many prospective whistle prodigies that we have lost to such bad experiences with a first whistle.
Well I’ve managed to get WAY off topic with this post, so I’m going to stop typing now before I manage to work Charlton Heston into it somehow!
“[Rain Dogs] …the ones you see wanderin’ around after a rain. Ones that can’t find their way back home. See the rain washes off the scent off all the mail boxes and the lamposts, fire hydrants…”
Tom Waits
[ This Message was edited by: raindog1970 on 2002-03-04 01:45 ]
Well, thanks for the thanks. I absolutely agree about the identical conditions, it’s really a requirement for this. Also, minimum use of effects is important.
I’d love to add more whistles to the site, but I don’t own any more That said, hey, if I get more I’ll add them.
The most interesting thing I learned from this is that in every case, for every whistle I own, technique is the limiting factor, not equipment. Also, that the whistles themselves have tremendously different feels when I play them, even though they sometimes sound very similar.
