Chanter Volume.

[ennischanter]

Hi. I am wondering how loud can an Uilleann chanter get?

[mke_mick]

You mean precisely, in decibels? Or roughly?

Roughly speaking, a "standard" (hah!) large-bore concert pitch chanter with a hard, bright reed can be quite loud: easily heard over crowded-pub background noise, without amplification. But in no case are they so loud as to make people's ears bleed: the uilleann pipes, unlike the Great Highland Bagpipe, are an indoor instrument.

My Rowsome-style Pat Sky chanter, which I've reeded with softer, warmer-sounding cane, is "medium-loud." When I practice each night, it's audible throughout my house, but my kids still manage to fall asleep. They sleep easier still if I play my much-quieter C# set. (When I played the latter at a recent large family gathering, I had to "stay off the knee" just to hear myself!)

My plastic Rogge chanter is my loudest, and it tends to have a strident tone color to boot. But it's all in the reed: if I slide the bridle down, that same chanter is fine for hotel-room practicing (just slightly out of tune -- it's happier with a hard reed).

Is that what you were after? If you actually want hard numbers for the "loudest case scenario" maybe I can haul out my decibel meter later on, but someone with a louder chanter may be better positioned to deliver that. And I'm sure some of the forum's recording artists, like pancelticpiper, have been measured recently in this way.

Cheers,
Mick

[ennischanter]

You mean precisely, in decibels? Or roughly?

Roughly speaking, a "standard" (hah!) large-bore concert pitch chanter with a hard, bright reed can be quite loud: easily heard over crowded-pub background noise, without amplification. But in no case are they so loud as to make people's ears bleed: the uilleann pipes, unlike the Great Highland Bagpipe, are an indoor instrument.

My Rowsome-style Pat Sky chanter, which I've reeded with softer, warmer-sounding cane, is "medium-loud." When I practice each night, it's audible throughout my house, but my kids still manage to fall asleep. They sleep easier still if I play my much-quieter C# set. (When I played the latter at a recent large family gathering, I had to "stay off the knee" just to hear myself!)

My plastic Rogge chanter is my loudest, and it tends to have a strident tone color to boot. But it's all in the reed: if I slide the bridle down, that same chanter is fine for hotel-room practicing (just slightly out of tune -- it's happier with a hard reed).

Is that what you were after? If you actually want hard numbers for the "loudest case scenario" maybe I can haul out my decibel meter later on, but someone with a louder chanter may be better positioned to deliver that. And I'm sure some of the forum's recording artists, like pancelticpiper, have been measured recently in this way.

Cheers,
Mick

I'd say that summed up my question quite well.


Can flat sets, if reeded properly, be louder than concert sets? And concert sets become quieter?

[Tony]

Hi. I am wondering how loud can an Uilleann chanter get?

I gave some decibel ratings on this 2003 topic:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10762

[bobkeenan]

I went back to the referenced earlier posts and was surprised to see how loud the chanters were. The decibel ranking examples were given by Lorenzo;
EXAMPLES OF dB levels:
Faint
30 whisper, quiet library

Moderate
50 rainfall, quiet office, refrigerator
60 dishwasher, conversation

Very Loud
70 traffic, vacuum cleaner, restaurant
80 alarm clock, subway, factory noise
90 lawnmower, shop tools, subway
100 garbage truck, chain saw, loud stereo systems, snowmobile

Extremely Loud
110 rock concert, power saw

Painful
120 jet takeoff, nightclub, thunder
130 jackhammer
140 shot gun
180 rocket launching pad

Some of the posters were getting 85db in the lower octave and 95+ in the higher.

I was thinking how lucky I was to NOT have a chanter that was that loud but because I was curious I have one of those RS db meters that I use for my home theater/ stereo system. I set it up in "Studio A"... my man cave, that has lots of furniture and a rug. Set the meter almost at ear height and about 2' from my pipes (similar to my ear distance to the pipes).

I found that with my Angus concert pitch D and one of my softer reads I was getting 84db for the low, 85 for the back D, and up to 92 at a high B. Tried the Vignoles D Chanter and got 86, 88, and 93 db's. I think because the Angus is more narrow bore..... or it could be the reed ( i made that one as well) it played quieter.

So while my chanter is a bit quieter than the poster from a few years ago..... its only by 1-2 db. And is still in the category of alarm clocks to lawnmowers. That surprised me a bit. I dont think I will wear ear protection but it might be worth it to keep playing with softer reeds... earwise.

Good news is that they are not highland pipes that, I read, tops out at 110 db (chain saw level)

[uillmann]

Hi. I am wondering how loud can an Uilleann chanter get?

Eh?
<a href="http://s419.photobucket.com/user/pipey2 ... 2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp27 ... to-102.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo ear-trumpet-photo-102.jpg"/></a>

[ennischanter]

It seems that it depends on reed stiffness and lip spacing.

I've heard that Seamus Ennis and David Power both played some really stiff shoulder dislocatin' reeds. And judging by recordings of their live playing, their sets sounded like they could be heard quite a ways....

Then again, would they might've had wider bores??

[an seanduine]

Uillmann, I followed yur link, sorta. . .yah moved it! Nice Go Set. Good Lookin' flute, too. I also enjoyed my ole' buddy Diogenes as well.

eh?