A Christmas Puzzle : five whistles

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 2:35 pm

boomerang wrote:Hmmm
having noted a distinct theme regarding Peter's preferences, and thinking he still has a point to prove, may i suggest
all 5 whistles are generations,
some brass some nickle
maybe tweeked by various makers or players
all played extremely well, the different pitches and keys are deceptive to the ear,
maybe im wrong,
but
maybe?
David

Just to be clear again: these are five different D whistles. No point being made (mind you I was tempted but I resisted, for once).

I have just put down another set of clips on the same five whistles hopefully addressing some comment (tunes with C naturals included).

At this point we have :

Whistle 1 Fox on the Town – Jenny’sWedding
Whistle 2 Man of Aran -- Flogging Reel
Whistle 3 Reel of Mullinavat -- Kitty’s gone-a-milking
Whistle 4 St Patrick’s Night -- Skylark
Whistle 5 Tom Billy’s -- Maud Millar

For the second set of tunes I changed position (sat on the other side of the table) which cut down a bit on the natural reverb of the room. It’s rough and ready and tunes were again picked at random as they came into my head.

Take a pick, which one(s) is/are bad/good sounding, which is/are the expensive/cheap one(s) etc. ? Shoot.

The second batch is sitting here

Good luck

FJohnSharp · Post by **FJohnSharp** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 3:04 pm

May we assume that they are in the same order?

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 3:08 pm

Ehh, yes, and to leave no doubt at all I listed both the first and second clips for each whistle above (and below)

Whistle 1 Fox on the Town – Jenny’sWedding
Whistle 2 Man of Aran -- Flogging Reel
Whistle 3 Reel of Mullinavat -- Kitty’s gone-a-milking
Whistle 4 St Patrick’s Night -- Skylark
Whistle 5 Tom Billy’s -- Maud Millar

lyrick · Post by **lyrick** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 4:15 pm

I think I need about 10 more clips played with each whistle to help me make up my mind. Or 20. (Anything to get more clips from you, Peter

)

Here are my wild guesses, I'll be happy if 2-3 are correct.

Whistle 1: Generation
Whistle 2: Sindt
Whistle 3: Oak
Whistle 4: Humphrey
Whistle 5: Dixon Trad

FJohnSharp · Post by **FJohnSharp** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 4:16 pm

Well duh on me.

I ask dumb questions in real life too.

CranberryDog · Post by **CranberryDog** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:38 pm

You are a very accomplished player; however, I think your style is so developed and pronounced that it brings a "sameness" to each selection.

I believe that your puzzle would be less puzzling if you played slower pieces so that the opinionated whistler could listen more attentively to each whistle's dynamics.

As mentioned before, playing a single selection on all the whistles would be enjoyed by the discerning ear.

Of course, there is the process of recording that can skew intonations. I can make a Copeland sound like a Gen by simply fooling with the compression ratio, limiters and EQ.

And last, it would be less puzzling if each listener had the same sound system.

Thanks for the lesson.

Cyril.

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:32 pm

#2 sounds like a feadog to me, but that's the only guess I'm hazarding until I listen a little more closely.

There's a world of difference between the 1st and 2nd batches of tunes..I notice the same thing when i'm recording myself. If I sit close to/facing a wall, there's a bit of natural reverb.

Jon-M · Post by **Jon-M** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:31 pm

[quote="CranberryDog"]You are a very accomplished player; however, I think your style is so developed and pronounced that it brings a "sameness" to each selection.

The consistency in style should actually make it easier to distinguish among the instruments; it removes one more potential distraction.

Jon-M · Post by **Jon-M** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:32 pm

[quote="CranberryDog"]You are a very accomplished player; however, I think your style is so developed and pronounced that it brings a "sameness" to each selection.

The consistency in style should actually make it easier to distinguish among the instruments; it removes one more potential distraction.

CranberryDog · Post by **CranberryDog** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 12:17 am

Jon-M wrote:
CranberryDog wrote:You are a very accomplished player; however, I think your style is so developed and pronounced that it brings a "sameness" to each selection.

The consistency in style should actually make it easier to distinguish among the instruments; it removes one more potential distraction.

I agree in a way.

If you slow it down; wll then, you slowed it down.

peeplj · Post by **peeplj** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 8:43 am

Here are my updated thoughts. Even if my answers turn out to be far out in left field, this was still fun: thanks, Peter!

Fox on the town – high end, pure, sounds a lot like a Burke

Jenny's Wedding – relatively pure and clean sound

Man of Aran – got that “lonesome Gen” sound, also tuning in 2nd octave sounds like a Generation

Flogging Reel – sounds like a Generation, complex sound, tuning sounds like a Generation

Mullinavat – pure, clean sound, very well balanced between octaves, lovely sound

Kitty's Gone a-Milking – thinking this may be a Sindt because of the sharp C-natural

St. Patrick's Night – this sounds like an Oak or maybe a Feadog to me

Skylark -- sounds a lot like a Feadog here to me, very bright sound

Tom Billy's – bright sound, clean

Maud Millar – sounds more like an inexpensive whistle here, sounds a little raspier than on Tom Billy's, maybe an Oak?

--James

Edited to fix where I typo'd the name of a tune.

DreamOgreen · Post by **DreamOgreen** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:02 am

Thank You for the interesting idea for a thread Peter

Just a few comments...

Your playing skills are exellent to my untrained ear anyway...hats off to you.

The clips sounded so similar to me that to guess would be just that .. a guess.

The reason I wouldn't attempt a guess is the same reason I seldom get into the cheap vs high end whistle debate. Fast tunes like Jigs and Reels do not linger on any one note long enough (at least to my novice ear anyway), to perceive much of a difference in tonal quality from one whistle to another.
In my opinion, (for the little that's worth) differences in tonal qualities between any whistles, regardless of price just aren't apparent enough to notice when the music is played at Jig or Reel speed.

I did not listen to the second set of tunes though. (I have dial-up internet, so the first set took me twenty minutes to get through!)

Good fun anyway though

... Thanks

rodfish · Post by **rodfish** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 10:31 am

Would you mind if I saved them to my computer so I could learn the tunes?

Rod

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 12:02 pm

Keep them coming.

Just a note: each batch of tunes was recorded in one go. Same circumstances for each group, no editing after recording. So within each group a fair comparison of tone should be possible, I think having the second group improved your chances of getting it right. I did stick to the fast tunes and similar approaches as this would enhance comparability, I had an air, more jigs and a set dance included in the first recording session but decided that would only cloud things so I re-did the whole thing in favour of more uniform playing for each whistle.

I'll leave the clips up until New Year's Day, as I take them down I will spill the beans.

Key_of_D · Post by **Key_of_D** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:16 pm

Peter Laban wrote:I'll leave the clips up until New Year's Day, as I take them down I will spill the beans.

Just don't make a mess.