"What's the loudest flute I can get?"
Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2022 6:51 pm
I've seen this question a decent bit here, and I had four flutes in front of me, so I decided to do a little test. I'm not saying it's scientific or anything but it confirms some of my general biases so I'll run with it .
Basically, I've got a "large-holed Rudall," two "medium-holed Rudalls," and a "Pratten." I'll omit the various makers' names because this isn't really about them. The large-holed Rudall has the largest holes, followed very closely by the Pratten, followed by the two other Rudalls who are both around 10.5mm on the 5th hole. The embouchures each have their own little quirks; the Rudalls are all fairly close to each other and the Pratten is somewhat different. Now, I don't have the full gamut from small-holed German and Baroque to whatever the largest holed simple-system flute on the market is. But the flutes I have are from well-known makers often discussed here, and IMO fairly indicative of what you'd buy in a typical "Irish flute" on the market today.
I have a number of decibel-meter apps on my phone, plus my Apple watch, plus a decibel meter app on my laptop. I ran through a tune ("The Five Mile Chase") 2x on each flute on each app and device, running the decibel apps to record the peak volume reached as well as the average volume. I'm quite sick of the tune by this point, but it's all in the name of science, or at least curiosity!
The finding: in each app, on each device, all 4 flutes were within a decibel of each other on both the average and the peak. Each app and device was a little different in how it measured things, but the key was that there was more variance between apps/devices on the same flute than there was between flutes overall!
Out of curiosity, I did a similar test with a few whistles, just on one of the apps. They had a bigger variety in sound, with a 6 decibel difference in average and and an 8 decibel difference in peak between the quietest and the loudest.
What does it mean? "It's not the flute, it's the player" seems to be the conclusion. Bore and hole size obviously have an effect on volume as evidenced by the whistles, but the embouchure seems to be by far the greatest indicator of volume. Each whistle has one fixed way of playing regardless of player, hence the variation, but flutes are all dependent on the player for the embouchure. I wish I had a greater variety of flutes to fully test this, since I'm sure I could find some difference between large and small holes. But for the standard Rudall and Pratten-style flutes on the market today, it seems like volume is largely the player, not the instrument.
As an aside, all 4 flutes sound different in tone quality and such, and feel different to play. I bet some might "cut" differently in a session due to different harmonics being emphasized. It's not all about brute volume!
Basically, I've got a "large-holed Rudall," two "medium-holed Rudalls," and a "Pratten." I'll omit the various makers' names because this isn't really about them. The large-holed Rudall has the largest holes, followed very closely by the Pratten, followed by the two other Rudalls who are both around 10.5mm on the 5th hole. The embouchures each have their own little quirks; the Rudalls are all fairly close to each other and the Pratten is somewhat different. Now, I don't have the full gamut from small-holed German and Baroque to whatever the largest holed simple-system flute on the market is. But the flutes I have are from well-known makers often discussed here, and IMO fairly indicative of what you'd buy in a typical "Irish flute" on the market today.
I have a number of decibel-meter apps on my phone, plus my Apple watch, plus a decibel meter app on my laptop. I ran through a tune ("The Five Mile Chase") 2x on each flute on each app and device, running the decibel apps to record the peak volume reached as well as the average volume. I'm quite sick of the tune by this point, but it's all in the name of science, or at least curiosity!
The finding: in each app, on each device, all 4 flutes were within a decibel of each other on both the average and the peak. Each app and device was a little different in how it measured things, but the key was that there was more variance between apps/devices on the same flute than there was between flutes overall!
Out of curiosity, I did a similar test with a few whistles, just on one of the apps. They had a bigger variety in sound, with a 6 decibel difference in average and and an 8 decibel difference in peak between the quietest and the loudest.
What does it mean? "It's not the flute, it's the player" seems to be the conclusion. Bore and hole size obviously have an effect on volume as evidenced by the whistles, but the embouchure seems to be by far the greatest indicator of volume. Each whistle has one fixed way of playing regardless of player, hence the variation, but flutes are all dependent on the player for the embouchure. I wish I had a greater variety of flutes to fully test this, since I'm sure I could find some difference between large and small holes. But for the standard Rudall and Pratten-style flutes on the market today, it seems like volume is largely the player, not the instrument.
As an aside, all 4 flutes sound different in tone quality and such, and feel different to play. I bet some might "cut" differently in a session due to different harmonics being emphasized. It's not all about brute volume!