Tone quality in O'Briain chanter?

[Oldpiping]

Hi,

I am curious what is the tone quality which can be heard in this Cillian O'Briain chanter owned by Chris Mcmullan: it sounds like a big NJAH in the sound or it is just me. Something I don't hear in many chanters. Is it a brightness I hear or just very strong harmonics or this is particular reed producing that "thing" or just his playing tech. ... Any idea? If you listen at 0:9 - 0:11 and 0:21 - 0:23 it is very obvious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2v2uvjxC3w

Thanks for comments

[Ceann Cromtha]

I know exactly what you're saying -- mine has that sound, even at a low pressure. To me the sound is round and full.

[rorybbellows]

The large underground concrete car park helps too.

RORY

[Oldpiping]

The large underground concrete car park helps too.

RORY

...before posting this I was thinking "don't bother & just skip this strange question", othervise Rory will jump in and give some brillian comment
But then I thought how boring this forum would become without his highly sophisticated humour. So, thanks Rory, I always enjoy your entertainment

[The Sporting Pitchfork]

Ó Briain chanters do seem to have something about them that sticks out just a wee bit. I often can't ID anyone else's CP stuff, but I'm often able to correctly guess if a chanter is one of Cillian's. (I played one myself for a number of years.) His reed design may be part of it along with his particular method of scalloping the finger holes. My understanding is that this is supposed to add "brightness" to the quality of sound. There may be some high-end harmonics dancing around on the edge of your hearing thanks to the scalloping that could be less evident without it.

There's a track on one of Kila's early albums ("Mind the Gap" maybe?) where piper Eoin Dillon does a somewhat improvised slow air on his Ó Briain set and explores the tonal variations of certain fingerings. Some of the sounds he gets are easy to do on an Ó Briain chanter, but I've never gotten them out of any other CP chanter--granted, not all of them would be to everyone's taste. But if you ever have the chance to play an Ó Briain chanter, play a back D and then lift your bottom hand pinkie finger for vibrato. The quality of sound is pretty unique.

[rorybbellows]

.before posting this I was thinking "don't bother & just skip this strange question", othervise Rory will jump in and give some brillian comment
But then I thought how boring this forum would become without his highly sophisticated humour. So, thanks Rory, I always enjoy your entertainment

Ah shucks, you're to kind. BTW I think its a good question, O'Briain chanters have excellent tone and in fact his full set are totally impressive . What I notice as well is how well balanced the regs are, just above the drones but below the chanter and homogeneous in tone. One other thing thats important is that actually the chanters I've heard ,although great in tone and tuning they sound different, probably due to different reed settings, meaning the piper has some control to get the tone he wants . A versatile chanter is important.

RORY

[tommykleen]

My understanding is you really have to push those chanters -be on top of them- to get all that tone. More so than most makes.

[An Draighean]

But if you ever have the chance to play an Ó Briain chanter, play a back D and then lift your bottom hand pinkie finger for vibrato. The quality of sound is pretty unique.

Tried that on mine, but didn't think it sounded better than bottom hand first finger vibrato.

[Torrin Riáin]

My understanding is you really have to push those chanters -be on top of them- to get all that tone. More so than most makes.

I think that this is true. They'll eat you up if you're not ready for them!

There are also some significant tonal and behavior differences between the different bore models that Cillian has updated over the years. It's fairly obvious if you have two or more of the different models to switch between.

[The Sporting Pitchfork]

But if you ever have the chance to play an Ó Briain chanter, play a back D and then lift your bottom hand pinkie finger for vibrato. The quality of sound is pretty unique.

Tried that on mine, but didn't think it sounded better than bottom hand first finger vibrato.

No, I wouldn't say better either, but I don't think I've played a chanter by any other maker that reacted with quite that electric "zing" in that particular instance. I discovered it completely by accident. Again, best used sparingly if at all. (Unless you already have your chanter hooked up to some good Electro-Harmonix effects pedals, in which case, you might as well have at it.)

IIRC, Cillian is up to at least his seventh design iteration of his chanter at this point. My old chanter was a relatively early one of his, probably more than 20 years old, I'd reckon. I'd love to get my greedy mitts on one of his newer chanters someday.

[rorybbellows]

I wonder by what yard stick Cillian O'Briain judges an advancement in his design.

RORY