Wow! This is great, I like it very much . Even if it might not be applicable for pipes, I would not care; I love your example, thank You John.John O'Gara wrote:Don't know if this analogy is on track and at the risk of criticism.
Miki
Wow! This is great, I like it very much . Even if it might not be applicable for pipes, I would not care; I love your example, thank You John.John O'Gara wrote:Don't know if this analogy is on track and at the risk of criticism.
Fecking classic! LOL!uillmann wrote:But opinions are like a holes - every chanter's got one.
there's certainly some effen "sea monsters" on South Beach, so at least we know THAT is true! (God help us!:-)Patrick D'Arcy wrote:I agree with you there but there is more to it than simply a slighlty different design. The whole thing feels different. I'm not about to trust any scientists either.... they only know what they know until they are convinced of something else. ... y'know, flat earth, sea monsters, global warming etc.
PD.
No, I wouldn't say that about boxwood flutes. Responsiveness and "flexibility" in tone are I think qualities that depend more on the embouchure hole and the individual player than the type of wood. And I know a few owners of boxwood flutes who produce a hard, focused, penetrating tone when they play. But I do think the "mellow" quality that many people ascribe to boxwood flutes (and chanters) has to do with an additional layer of complexity in the sound, maybe it boils down to more overtones or "turbulence" or just plain old magic, or maybe it's just our imagination, but I do feel that boxwood sounds different. Whenever I play a friend's blackwood Bb flute and then pick up my boxwood Bb flute, my girlfriend says the blackwood one sounds deeper even though they're tuned to the same note.pancelticpiper wrote:Brad, is your experience like mine, that boxwood flutes have a more responsive, flexible tone than blackwood? That it's easier to produce a bold, ringing, projecting tone on a blackwood flute?
All this makes me think that I should be playing a boxwood uilleann chanter as I love a darker, softer tone on pipes.
man, I wonder if I can cast a reed out of concrete?There was a famous experiment in which a researcher named Coltman made a wooden flute and then made a cast of it to produce an "identical" flute out of concrete. He played both flutes for an audience, who couldn't hear any difference between the two.
While I understand that this makes intuitive sense, by all accounts it is dead wrong. Flutes and chanters are not resonating instruments. If you were talking about guitar or violin soundboards that would be a different matter.stew wrote:Without any doubt, hard & softwoods produce different resonances because of there fibre scructure, go and clank some different peices of wood together, and the penny will drop, it very simple understand.
Quite right.bradhurley wrote:While I understand that this makes intuitive sense, by all accounts it is dead wrong. Flutes and chanters are not resonating instruments. If you were talking about guitar or violin soundboards that would be a different matter.stew wrote:Without any doubt, hard & softwoods produce different resonances because of there fibre scructure, go and clank some different peices of wood together, and the penny will drop, it very simple understand.
I understand (I think) what you guys are saying, and I'll definitely deferbillh wrote:Quite right.bradhurley wrote:While I understand that this makes intuitive sense, by all accounts it is dead wrong. Flutes and chanters are not resonating instruments. If you were talking about guitar or violin soundboards that would be a different matter.stew wrote:Without any doubt, hard & softwoods produce different resonances because of there fibre scructure, go and clank some different peices of wood together, and the penny will drop, it very simple understand.
While it cannot be proven that materials do not affect woodwind tone, it is relatively simple to disprove most of the explanations put forward by non-acousticians regarding materials and woodwind tone production. The 'resonance' behaviors of wood do not enter into it - unlike the case of "soundbox" instruments like violins, guitars, pianos, etc., where resonance behaviors are paramount.
Unfortunately these sorts of misunderstandings often lead physicists to - unfairly - dismiss the claims of musicians and instrument makers regarding woodwind materials and tonal effects altogether.