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Help me out...What do I need to make those great sounds? Microphone, amplifier, soundbars to make nice effects? Pleace help me out with a setup. For Whistle playing.

thomasaasen wrote:What do I need to make those great sounds? Microphone, amplifier, soundbars to make nice effects? Pleace help me out with a setup. For Whistle playing.

Uuummm? Might want to move this one to the Whistle Forum then. Moderator? Oh, moderator?

You might want to reference a particular example (or examples) of "great whistle sounds" so we can appreciate your interest and give you the best feedback. Barring that....

I'll add my two cents. The "great sound" of the whistle is based mostly on the skill of the player. What you need is to be a great player. Talent and experience built up over time will do the trick. No mic, amplifier or effects box/software will cover for poor playing or propel your sound beyond what it is already in a bare bones performance.

But still, many of us have likely owned or tried all of the technology that can be afforded by mortals. I don't have GAS myself but I do have a broad array of audio equipment accumulated over a long musical career. So yeah, I've tried most of what is possible with a whistle (as well as many other instruments).

For live performance most great whistle players just show up with their whistles and play into what ever sound system is provided at the performance venue. Many will have technical riders on their contracts which outline the type of equipment and set-up (mics, effects) that they prefer or expect. A light reverb is sometimes added for ambiance but many halls will naturally provide enough spatial reflections to do the job. Sound checks prior to performance are used to work out the details. A small number of players will bring their own mics, stage mixer and effects (leaving nothing to chance).

For studio/recording instances the topic is broad and complex. Anything is possible from a handheld recorder employed out in the field to high dollar digital spatial modelling, harmonizers, samplers and pitch editing. It depends on the perspectives of the artist, producer and engineer working on an individual piece of music and how they envision te final sound of that recording. The best recordings in my opinion are those which are just the whistle captured as played in a natural setting ( or as close to that as possible). In other words, it is about the skill of the whistle player.

Hope that helps start discussion

Feadoggie

thomasaasen wrote:What do I need to make those great sounds? Microphone, amplifier, soundbars to make nice effects? Pleace help me out with a setup. For Whistle playing.

Feadoggie wrote:For live performance most great whistle players just show up with their whistles and play into what ever sound system is provided at the performance venue.

I cannot speak to stage performance however I think you can find your answer by observing what whistlers are using on stage on YouTube and any other video hosting websites. Or still photo images may provide your answer.

Here are a few YouTube examples, but there are so many videos to observe and choose from. Search for a whistler in the type of stage performance you desire, outdoors or indoors, large audience or small, big band or small band or solo whistling.

McCusker whistle begins around 3:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzwRnpi ... e=youtu.be

Nuala Kennedy whistle begins around 2:20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22pB0U_oLD4

The Sidh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17-SEr4 ... e=youtu.be

Take a run thru these still photo images and microphones. Whistlers begin at 40.
viewtopic.php?p=1143852#p1143852

ytliek wrote:Search for a whistler in the type of stage performance you desire, outdoors or indoors, large audience or small, big band or small band or solo whistling.

Right. Context is everything in regards to the required and extraneous equipment, what can be seen and what can only be heard or not heard. Whistlers will require more or less depending on what the music and the staging require.

I see your Sidh and raise you one Afrocelts concert with two great whistlers on stage and a powerful lot of drums. The first fifteen minutes of the concert video should give you a good taste of the whistles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wmf1xmkuxo
James McNally seems to have stolen a pair of Bono's glasses too.

But underlying all of the staging and showmanship is the fact that these people can really play the heck out of a whistle whether they are sitting in a living room at a house concert or blowing up the stage at the WOMAD Festival (or Estival Lugano in this case). It ain't about the hardware. It's the playing of the whistle that makes the great sounds.

Feadoggie

Thankyou so much for all the replies. I agree that the best sound comes from pure playing. I just had in mind a setup for a "church" ore "a big hall" like sound were the sound gets hanging in air/carried away. Sorry my english. Just wanted that movie sound so to speak. I think what I was looking after was just maybe a light reverb.

Possibly something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsM7zHfl_ZA

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTmnmu ... 7nHLXDy4fA

Yeah. That's the sound. Just want a little setup for home use.

Then I think I'd just go with what Feadoggie had said about focus on the playing. The mics or softwares can do the rest. Try a recording in a stairwell or tunnel. This isn't an endorsement rather an example of stairwell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoW7zwudkCA

And tunnel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYQDjIsMMBA

At home try recording yourself in the bathroom. Or closet.

OK. A good digital reverb will provide the effect you want - live or recorded. What bits and pieces of gear you need is dependent on what you have available already.

A pretty standard beginner recording setup would be:
- a good mic,
- mic cable,
- decent preamp,
- PC interface
- PC
- DAW software
- Reverb plugin effect
- I'd Assume playback is through PC headphones or speakers

So, there are lots of ways to put together such a setup.

Example one: Shure SM57; XLR M/F cable; Behringer Xenyx 302 mixer with built in USB PC interface; USB cable; PC; Audacity software; LADSPA plugin suite

Alternate could be: Shure SM57; XLR cable; USB adapter with a gain control (like MXL Micmate Pro); USB cable; PC; software (like Audacity) and the LADSPA plugin suite.

A live setup would depend on what you might have around already in the way of amps, speakers and such. Personally I'd go with something like a Neumann KM184 mic into a TC Helicon Voicelive 2 (great reverbs and delays) played through a pair of Bose L1 model II systems with a B1 bass speaker for good stereo separation. That can of course be greatly simplified.

Bob's your uncle!

This is one of my favorite reverbs.


Of course you can probably do all you want on a smartphone.

And I like the sound of this version better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T0O7WPKMtU

Feadoggie

Get away from 'mushy" reverberating synthetics, Listen to a whistle outdoors, dry as a bone and beautiful as it relies on the player only...

There is nothing more drab than an over reverberating whistle other than an over reverberating whistle with a synthesiser "pad" accompaniment as every other whistle player in the world has already done it!

H
https://soundcloud.com/holmesflute/sets/holmes-flute

Tnx Feadoggie. U got it spot on there. I look into those. IAlso check into apps for mobile use. Of Course clean Whistle playing and the pure sound is what matters, but I like to have alternatives for experiment and joy.