O,Flynn's B chanter and others

rorybbellows · Post by **rorybbellows** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:31 pm

Not being personally familiar with B or Bb chanters I was wondering , when listening to some players playing said chanters, there seems to be a lot going on, apart from the basic tune. (I wont get technical because I don,t know how ) There seems to be A lot of other sounds coming from the chanter , Maybe this is called tonal colouring I,m not sure.
But when listening to Liam O,Flynn on The pipers call album playing his Alian Froment B chanter it seems there is none of this .A much more straight forward sound .(not explained well I know,but I hope you know what I mean )

Is this due to the playing style of the player or is it due to the chanter

RORY

PJ · Post by PJ » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:33 pm

Rory - Any particular track on that album you'd like to specify?

rorybbellows · Post by **rorybbellows** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:38 pm

I was listening to Kevin R playing his brad Angus pipes on clips and snips there are loads of these sounds from his chanter compared to O,Flynn's B chanter ,any trackwhere he is playing the B chanter

RORY

Patrick D'Arcy · Post by **Patrick D'Arcy** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 2:58 pm

Might you be hearing the regulators or are you talking about tonal harmonics?

Patrick.

djm · Post by **djm** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:11 pm

I believe you are talking about the reduced overtones on a flat chanter. This gives them the quieter, more nasal sound. Whether you go for this sound depends on your personal tastes. Something about opening up the bore for the concert chanters adds alot of extra high end frequencies that make these harsher and brighter sounding. Its really up to you as to what strikes your fancy.

djm

rorybbellows · Post by **rorybbellows** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:19 pm

But do you not think O,Flynn's B chanter lacks that kind of nasal sound(thanks djm)not that I,m complaining as I think it sounds beautiful

Or would it be that even through it,s a flat chanter he plays it consert pitch style

RORY

texasbagpiper · Post by **texasbagpiper** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:23 pm

While we are on the subject of flat chanters, Just curious, Has their ever been an "A" chanter.

I know it would be long as Hell, but.....curious

ausdag · Post by **ausdag** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:33 pm

djm wrote:I believe you are talking about the reduced overtones on a flat chanter. This gives them the quieter, more nasal sound. Whether you go for this sound depends on your personal tastes. Something about opening up the bore for the concert chanters adds alot of extra high end frequencies that make these harsher and brighter sounding. Its really up to you as to what strikes your fancy.

djm

I don't think we're comparing concert chanters with flat chanters here. The Q's about the sound of two or more different B chanters. I would say it's difficult to guage the true tonal properties of any chanter from recordings especially low-quality Clips and snips records compared to high quality Liam O'Flynn studio recordings.

Cheers,
DavidG

rorybbellows · Post by **rorybbellows** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 3:57 pm

I,m not really comparing O,Flynn's to Kevin R's chanter , I was using that as an example
It's more that I think that O,Flynn's chanter sound very different than most other B chanters I.ve heard

RORY

eric · Post by **eric** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 5:14 pm

You'll get different results from different chanters, but I think a great part of it stems from the player. From Kevin's clip-n-snip, I get the impression he is using a lot of off-the-knee as well as very open (alternate) fingerings to get an extra nasal tone.

Let's ask him! Hey, Kevin!

PJ · Post by PJ » Mon Jun 20, 2005 5:58 pm

texasbagpiper wrote:While we are on the subject of flat chanters, Just curious, Has their ever been an "A" chanter. I know it would be long as Hell, but.....curious

Haven't seen an A chanter but I've seen images of a monster G chanter made by Davey Stephenson:

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:06 pm

Davy S. didn't make this chanter.... I want to say... Peter Hunter?

tompipes · Post by **tompipes** » Mon Jun 20, 2005 10:44 pm

I would say it's difficult to guage the true tonal properties of any chanter from recordings especially low-quality Clips and snips records compared to high quality Liam O'Flynn studio recordings.

Compare that O'Flynn recording to Mick O'Briens recording on Kitty Lie Over. Its the same set. Liam borrow's Mick's set often enough.
I'm not saying Liam can't get better tone from it than Mick. When you compare studio recordings of the same set or sets made by the same maker you have to consider the mixing engineer too.
O'Flynns recording of that set had a bigger instrumentation, thus more equalisation, compression, etc. on the recording.

Tommy

Jim McGuire · Post by **Jim McGuire** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 12:45 am

Liam did indeed borrow Mick's Froment flat sets over the years. Liam also acquired his own Froment B set along the way.

Liam does make the flat pipes play like a concert pitch set. I'd often thought the same thing of Sean Og Potts. When I hear both pipers on their flat sets, I'm more reminded of their playing on concert pitch pipes.

tompipes · Post by **tompipes** » Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:32 am

Liam does make the flat pipes play like a concert pitch set. I'd often thought the same thing of Sean Og Potts. When I hear both pipers on their flat sets, I'm more reminded of their playing on concert pitch pipes

Jim is right.
There are quite a lot of differen't technique involved in playing a flat set compared to playing a wide bore D set. Some pipers, experienced or not, will treat a concert pitch chanter the same way as a chanter in a flatter pitch.
O'Flynn is a very structured, yet exciting piper, so when he playes a flat set, he employes the same technique as he would when he plays the Rowsome set. Really, there aren't a huge amount of players that can stylisticly adapt between the two.

But then, thats why their style is so distinctive.
Maybe pipers that are used to flatter pitched sets won't give it all on D pipes and visa versa.

My tupennce worth.
Tommy