Hello,
I’m horribly sorry to pronounce the word rec**der on this forum (I won’t play the whistle for an entire day to punish myself), but have a look at this link : http://www.kueng-blockfloeten.ch/en/news/dokumente/souffleurENGL.jpg
I’m usure to really understand what it does, but it may be useful to control the volume (for example to play in a hotel room). It might be interresting to try this on a whistle.
Interesting!
I’m off to drill a hole in a few fipples. 
I don’t see what the point would be. If you want to play quieter,
you can just use one of the many muting techniques.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=51907
I think this “Souffleur effect” on the whistle might just make
it harder to control the jump between octaves, since that what
a slight wind often does. Maybe in certain whistles it could be
useful, but I’m still not sure what for…
Thank you for the link about muting a whistle. This will be very useful.
A possible advantage of the “souffleur” is that you can keep blowing the same air quantity and have less volume. So you can train without changing your breath control.
I have to try it, but not on my Burke.
Sure that the diameter of the hole is an important parameter to adjust to keep the whistle playable.
I wonder if it is a similar effect used by this lip key:
I’m really digging the lip key! If its not pracical, it’s certainly another way to over complicate a whistle; one of my favortie endevors! 
Hi all, I have been selling whistles with a built-in muting device for a few months now, and have had good feedback from the people who have bought them. I have sorta been holding off on a C&F announcement as I’m not quite happy with the web site and I’m also waiting for some feedback on a whistle or two I have sent out, but this conversation about muting a whistle draws me out.
The muting device can be rotated to change the tone of the whistle. The more of the window you cover, the more “breathy” the whistle becomes. Cover a little and it gets just a little breathy. Cover a lot and the whistle virtually whispers. The cool thing is you can play both octaves and practice pretty normal breath control while playing quietly. Very quietly if you wish. Pics and more at:
http://www.parkswhistles.com/Whistles/Every/Default.aspx
I find muting the whistle really helps me when playing in the PARKED car waiting for my wife or something. My ears appreciate it - especially on the B part of Where the Lillies Bloom played in G.
I also enjoy sitting in my hotel room at 1 or 2 AM after a hard day’s work and playing for 30 minutes before I go to sleep. I wouldn’t be rude enough to play an unmuted whistle at that hour.
Have a look and let me know what you think.
I think the point here is that you can dynamically uncover this second hole, so that you can control volume during a tune, unlike the traditionally whistle muting techniques.
I’m curious as to whether the hole goes straight through or angles upward to join the normal windway. Straight through, I’d guess, and the new air stream perturbs the normal air oscillation that creates the tone.
I’d bet it goes straight through, otherwise it would change the pitch. Adding venting the bore after the window would take some of the energy out of the oscillating air column, reducing it’s volume.
I saw a similar effect when I drilled a small hole in the bore just ahead of the fipple. It was a small hole, and it did change the timbre of the whistle. I had a dozen whistles in my display and a player with a good ear for pitch and tone carefully tried all of them to select the one he wanted. He selected the one with the hole, saying it just sounds better.
I’ll see if I can post a few sound samples later today of one of my whistles with and without vent holes in the fipple and the bore. Stay tuned…
These is an older picture of some of my whistle expiraments. From the bottom up: the Keyed whistle, a whistle with 7 holes for a low C note (below D), and a whistle with a vent key. The vent is two small brass tubes, set next to each other like “OO”. By operating the key with a thumb, you can open these holes. This was intended to be an expirament about somethign else entirely, but what I found was (after some tweaking) I could actually alter the pitch enough to raise the key of the whistle from D to E (granted, this prototype only gets the first octave E in tune, I need to work on that). THe volume and attack also decrease dramatically in the E key, which I sort of prefer (as opposed to a shrieking, screaming E).
I don’t know about the hole in the fipple plug… I’d think it’d have to be just straight through too.
OK, here’s some samples with and without the vent holes. I think they need to be bigger to be effective as it’s hard for me to tell the difference. Perhaps others who have better ears can hear something. I’ll try larger holes later on.
To hear the samples, go to:
