A few questions from a composer new to Uilleann Pipes

[RenaissanceGuy]

H.J. Clarke's tutor says something about the Ghost D note "having a mysterious tone, differing from all the other notes, hence the name."
A couple other written sources I checked seemed to assume that the note is somewhere in the neighborhood of D#/Eb but not exact; it's proximity to true D#/Eb could depend on whether the chanter is off the knee or not. Perhaps it could also depend on the hole placement on a particular chanter.

[an seanduine]

I found the Ghost 'D', as well as the 'hard' bottom 'D' to be reed dependant on my Thompson Chanter.

Bob

[pancelticpiper]

On my chanter (Quinn) Eb is pretty much the same volume and timbre as the other notes, and in tune.

For sure it's possible to blow Eb softly and get that ghost-y veiled sound, but it's also possible to blow it at normal pressure and get a normal sound.

In other words the "ghost D" effect has to be intentionally created by the player.

About the on/off the leg thing, it's a quirk of my chanter that F natural is only in tune, in both octaves, if played off the leg.

It makes F natural a very expressive note, as the "swelling" is essential to have it in tune.

I was listening to a piper on some album and he played an air with F naturals in it. Evidently his chanter needs F natural to be fingered on the leg, and the result was a plain expressionless note.

[dunnp]

Flat chanters generally don’t have a clear Eb like the large holed concerts.
That’s why you see a key for that note on some of them but Rowsome left if off his four keyed chanters.
The ghost d is essentially what I get on my flat chanter.
On a concert chanter it’s a difference of pressure I think.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aer9CqzmAsQ

[pancelticpiper]

Another thing about composers new to uilleann pipes: they don't realise that some of the cool unique things that uilleann chanters can do are specific to certain notes.

I was in a studio working on some project, and the piece had the note A in it, and the composer wasn't satisfied with the way I played that A.

"Could you do the thing on it?" the composer said.

"What thing?"

"You know, that thing that yooleeun bagpipers do."

"I don't know what you mean. Do you have a recording of it?"

So the composer put on some CD, and played for me a bit where the piper plays Hard Bottom D.

I had to explain that that effect only happened on that specific note, and that a piper couldn't just do it on any note of the scale.

He was dismayed. I don't know if he totally believed me, actually.