whistlecollector wrote: what does "flutelike" even mean?, especially when we consider that, around here in Chiffland especially, "flute" often means something other than the modern Boehm flute.
Yes it's hard to know what people mean. As I came to Low Whistle from 35 years of playing Irish flute, it's the Irish flute sound that I had in mind. But when I heard people describe whistles that have a sound almost diametrically opposed to the reedy Irish flute sound as "flutelike" I began realising that they weren't talking about Irish flutes, or perhaps even Boehm flutes or Baroque flutes. Given the whistles they were calling "flutelike" they probably had Native American flutes and possibly Baroque recorders in mind.
whistlecollector wrote: which Native American flute do you mean?
Around here, anyhow, Native American Flute (NAF) almost always refers to the modern USA flute with the external fipple device.
Tarkas, Kenas, Mosenos, Sikus, etc are generally called Andean flutes.
I say "modern USA flutes" because as far as I know the actual traditional North American native flutes were endblown flutes very similar to the Bulgarian kaval, which sound nothing like the modern commercialised NAF.
whistlecollector wrote: I didn't think there was any volume control on those things!
It's funny when you show up at a gig and they want you to play softer, or want you to crescendo or decrescendo.
I piped for a production of Brigadoon (the piper's staple gig) where the director was insistent that I start at full volume and gradually decrescendo as the piece progressed. When I convinced him that the only way this could happen was for me to walk further away, or be in a room where somebody slowly closed the door, he hunted around the building and discovered a long narrow hallway in the basement underneath the auditorium. I started my piece directly under the audience and slowly walked down the hallway as I played which evidently created the desired effect. An ancillary benefit was that I didn't have to be in costume!
Anyhow various sets of Highland pipes have inherently different volume levels, and the same set of Highland pipes can be set up to play at dramatically different volume levels depending on the reeds you use. But then you're stuck at that level of course.