An Experiment With Flute Volume

[Doug_Tipple]

The following has to do with observations I have made concerning flute volume.

This past week, the supplier from whom I usually buy pvc pipe was out of stock, so I purchased a different brand of pipe from another store. When I started cutting it out to make a flute, I could tell right away that the material was harder than the pvc that I normally use. It also had a bore texture with little pits, feeling like fine sandpaper when I put my finger in the bore. I was curious to see what the first test flute would sound like from this new material and whether the dirty bore would act in a similar fashion to the dimpled bore flutes.

Testing the first prototype flute I found that the dirty bore didn’t correct the second octave intonation like the dimpled bore seems to do. It still needed a wedge to correct the second octave intonation. However, to my surprise, the flute was louder than any flute that I had previously made, and I attributed that to a greater hardness of the new material. I decided to test the loudness of two similar flutes, one with the regular white pvc pipe that I have been using and the other made from the new, harder material.

Using a tripod mounted quality digital sound meter, I played both flutes as loudly as I could at a standard distance from the sound meter (8 feet). Setting the sound meter at (max hold), I took several different readings throughout the two-octave scale, at D4 (low D), G4, D5, G5, and D6 and then took an average of the results. The test results confirmed what I had heard with my ears, namely that the new, harder material played louder (82.7 decibels) than the flute made from my standard pvc (80.9 decibels).

Much has been written on this board about whether the material that a flute is made from will have anything to do with the sound that the flute produces. My personal opinion, based upon some of the tests that I have done on pvc flutes, is that flutes made from softer pvc will produce a softer sound (less volume). Conversely, flutes made from harder, more dense pvc will produce a louder tone. If you want to play in your home, I would choose the former, because it is easier on your ears. If you plan to play in a session, where you would like to be heard about the din, the louder flute would be more ideal.

[Jonathan]

Doug,
I wonder too if the texture of the bore might be making the difference. What do you think?

[Tom O'Farrell]

And I hazard a guess that a metal open holed simple system flute would be louder still. I playregularly on a metal boehm system flute and also on a wood simple system and there is no question the boehm system is much louder and more penetrating, by a long shot actually.

[Nelson]

They have been making wooden bohem flutes for 150 years and they are just as loud as silver ones. Also, they made detailed calculations 50 years ago just how much louder bohem flutes are than simple system fltutes.

Nelson

What do you think, Doug?

[Unseen122]

Wooden vs. Metal bohems could be the same volume because of the bore shape and that is why simplw systems would be different. About Doug's I could say that harder PVC has smaller pores assuming that PVC has pores at all but if that was the case that the new PVC has smaller pores thyat would mean less air escapes from the Flute making it louder and easier to play lower.

[Doug_Tipple]

The sound level tests that I have done with a modern silver flute (Yamaha open hole student flute) show it to have about the same volume level as a cylindrical bore pvc simple system flute in the first two octaves. Because of the smaller bore of the silver flute, the low D note on the silver flute is weaker than on the larger bore pvc flute, and the top notes are slightly louder on the silver flute, mainly because the smaller bore of the silver flute favors the upper notes. On average, across a two octave range, the flutes are similar in volume, within the error of my sound meter.

With the invention of the modern Boehm flute in the 19th century, the wooden flutes with conical bores that were being used in orchestras around the world were replaced by the Boehm flute. The modern flute, with a cylindrical bore and a tapered Boehm headjoint was considerably louder than the conical bore wooden flutes (how much louder, I don't know). The conical bore wooden flutes became folk or chamber instruments at that point, and they became available in pawn shops around the world at discount prices, much to the delight of folk musicians.

It should be noted that Boehm-style wooden flutes with cylindrical bores and the tapered Boehm headjoint are still being used in the best orchestras in the world. Look closely next time on TV or the concert hall, and you may see one.

[ChrisA]

assuming that PVC has pores at all

It doesn't. That's why plastic, metal, and glass are called 'non-porous' materials.