Chiff and Fipple Forums

I know, his is still bigger. And he can actually play it. This one made sounds, but it took two men and a boy to cover the holes. Maybe I should try a tabor pipe...

No problemo,-just quit smoking and use the piper's grip

C'mon, Dale! Size does not matter. It's how you play it.

Carey, I am really impressed.

Feadoggie

Does it come with a case?

Wow. I would be SO much more excited about teaching 3rd graders the recorder if they could use those. Can you imagine a quartet of those things?

Clip no longer available? What does it all mean?

Mitch wrote:Clip no longer available? What does it all mean?

Hm, the clip still comes up fine for me, Mitch.

The sub-contra is by Adriana Breukink, who also designed the excellent Adri's Traumflöte (Adri's Dream Flute) recorder. There's a write-up about it with photos on her website:

<-- Clicky photo

Yeah, this monster was made by a ... a ... girl.

Garn!

I've seen that clip before!

She has the wrong stance - it should be played .. more ... rockabilly

(The machinery is nice tho .. hmmm MacHinery - a nice Celtic word )

MTGuru wrote:

Mitch wrote:Clip no longer available? What does it all mean?

Hm, the clip still comes up fine for me, Mitch.

The sub-contra is by Adriana Breukink, who also designed the excellent Adri's Traumflöte (Adri's Dream Flute) recorder. There's a write-up about it with photos on her website:

<-- Clicky photo

Yeah, this monster was made by a ... a ... girl.

Yeah, you know, a whistle player who shall remain nameless--Bob Pegritz--ridiculed me once for thinking this thing was real and not just a photoshop gag. He didn't think there was any way to fill the air column enough to get a sound of out it. Of course, I suspect there was a grain of truth in Bob's skepticism. It's certainly seems a long way to go for an instrument with limited usefulness.

Nice vid on the Subcontrabass Recorder Dale! This instrument is quite interesing.

I feel that the designer, in an effort to preserve a " Traditional Renaissance Design", has ignored simple acoustic improvements for better and more powerful resonance. A Bohem taper in the headjoint, combined with a smaller voicing window and a throat restriction between the top tonehole and the voicing window, would double acoustic energy. These large Renaissance Recorder designs must move a great deal of airmass below the voicing window before they begin to resonate. Response time is very slow. Organ pipe makers use a round lip on the labium edge for faster response time at low windway pressure.

http://www.organstops.org/f/FlautoDolce$.gif

Carey: Nice effort on the Bass Whistle! I suggest a much more narrow bore in the Diameter/ Length ratios of 1/38 to 1/40 as well as a smaller voicing window to improve your design. Don't give up on your Bass Whistle plans. A smaller internal diameter headjoint would also improve acoustics. Stepped bores are not too much acoustic trouble in large bore instruments if PVC is your choice for prototypes.

Didn't watch the clip yet but I bet it's much easier to play a comfortably sized whistle into a computer mic and re-sample down two octaves (aka voice changer).

Sheesh-- on my little lathe, I'd have to make one of those in about 6 sections!

Thomas-Hastay wrote:Carey: Nice effort on the Bass Whistle! I suggest a much more narrow bore in the Diameter/ Length ratios of 1/38 to 1/40 as well as a smaller voicing window to improve your design. Don't give up on your Bass Whistle plans. A smaller internal diameter headjoint would also improve acoustics. Stepped bores are not too much acoustic trouble in large bore instruments if PVC is your choice for prototypes.

Thanks for the thoughts! It will be fun to try some things.

I originally made it as a prop for attracting attention to my stand at a fair, but once made, I had to play it. As you might have noticed in the photo, I call it my "Gee" whistle. It's not really in G, but I was commissioned to make a low G whistle for a local player and took my prop to the gig when I made the delivery. You should have seen the look on her face while she sorted out of I was serious or not. "You didn't say HOW low."

About the air column taking more air to fill it- I don't know if that's true.

I've played a contrabass flute a couple times at the annual convention of the National Flute Association. They're made by Eva Kingma (sp?) in Germany (another girl making huge flutes!)

The Kingma contrabass flute actually plays great. It takes no more air than a normal Boehm flute.

It's shaped like a huge numeral "4".

There are videos on YouTube of people playing them.

Other big flutey things are the giant Mosenos in Bolivia and Peru, and the huge flutes played in Romania. Both of these are whistles/fipple flutes.