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I’ve been recording myself trying out several drone reeds recently; seeing what the differences are for my own knowledge. I’ve been a little surprised and curious listening to them back a number of times. After each set was recorded I also then recorded the individual tenor and bass reeds at those settings so I could hear what makes up that overall sound envelope.
Now, thanks to Patrick, I thought I would also share these publicly as food for thought. I will attempt to remove any bias here from the get go by not stating which reeds are which. At least initially. It is only up to your ears (and maybe the headphones/speakers that you have) to decide what you truly like. I will also warn you that there are pressure deviations as my blowing is unsteady. With that said, here is the process I followed-
Reeds
10 different drone reeds. A natural mix across companies of-
Pipe
Jim McGillivray, Dunbar Bagpipes reproduction 1880 Duncan MacDougall “Breadalbane” pipes in Delrin
(absolutely superb, really pleased with these. Though I’ll be the first to admit that despite a deep pedigree in any set of pipes, in general drones in my own opinion are more about player and setup than anything else- hence trying as many sounds as I can here to find mine)
Recording
Listening
These are very short and simple eight second clips in one setting, from one spot in a room, to remove as many variables make-to-make as I can to help better gauge basic reed sounds in my pipes. It's rudimentary and shouldn’t be taken as gospel. But it gives an idea because we all more or less agree that each company’s drone reeds have an overall sound signature to them regardless of the pipes they are in.
Click here to go to Patrick’s post to compare and contrast these different reed sets as you see fit. Then tab back here and see what others thought.
To truly get an idea of reeds in any one set of pipes (if you’re unable to hear them in person) you really need multiple long recordings of each with a mix of indoor and outdoor settings, walking and standing in one place, high quality mic’ing etc, as we do in real life and places such as Patrick’s blog. Thus, it’s important to point out that I’m sharing this more for curiosity and good conversation, not a be-all-end-all or “one is better than another”. It’s just a preference thing not to be taken as a complete picture... a nice change for piping since no one seems to have strong preferences on anything
.
P.S. Maybe I will do some of these longer indoor/outdoor recordings in future from a shorter list of reed choices if this interests anyone. Let me know which sets you like most.
Now, thanks to Patrick, I thought I would also share these publicly as food for thought. I will attempt to remove any bias here from the get go by not stating which reeds are which. At least initially. It is only up to your ears (and maybe the headphones/speakers that you have) to decide what you truly like. I will also warn you that there are pressure deviations as my blowing is unsteady. With that said, here is the process I followed-
Reeds
10 different drone reeds. A natural mix across companies of-
- tongue and reed body materials (polycarbonate/carbon fiber etc. tongues, natural/plastic bodies, etc)
- inverted and regular bass
- new to market + traditional makes
Pipe
Jim McGillivray, Dunbar Bagpipes reproduction 1880 Duncan MacDougall “Breadalbane” pipes in Delrin
(absolutely superb, really pleased with these. Though I’ll be the first to admit that despite a deep pedigree in any set of pipes, in general drones in my own opinion are more about player and setup than anything else- hence trying as many sounds as I can here to find mine)
- drones played only, no chanter
- no mixing different reeds, only one complete set of reeds at a time tuned to 475Hz
- tenor reeds adjusted to tune tenor tops just above hempline. Bass top at hemp line, mid section about ½ way up pin with most makes when tuned, though some as high as hemp line when not adjustable further
Recording
- all recordings made through an audio app on my smartphone, set for stereo unprocessed/unfiltered, .wav encoding/sample rate. Recordings later normalized (volumes matched/set to reference)
- full reed sets are 8 seconds long, individual bass and individual tenor tones are 3 seconds long each (3 files total per drone set)
- same letter for each make across recordings, i.e. tenor “A” is bass “A” is full set “A” = all same set
- given letters A-J are arbitrary, they don’t correlate to anything (such as a particular playing order or a company name)
For full drone set
- I’m playing in the middle of a living room, standing still in the same spot while facing my phone which is recording at waist height, approx. 2 meters away (~6 ft) from me
- reeds played until settled, recorder going
- blowing 72 hPa +/-2 as recorded by a BlowPro (~29 inches water +/-0.8)
For singular reed
- drone bells held by hand approximately 30cm (~1ft) away from the phone
- mouth blowing the reed out of the stock with the same physical settings as just before when full set was being recorded
Listening
These are very short and simple eight second clips in one setting, from one spot in a room, to remove as many variables make-to-make as I can to help better gauge basic reed sounds in my pipes. It's rudimentary and shouldn’t be taken as gospel. But it gives an idea because we all more or less agree that each company’s drone reeds have an overall sound signature to them regardless of the pipes they are in.
Click here to go to Patrick’s post to compare and contrast these different reed sets as you see fit. Then tab back here and see what others thought.
To truly get an idea of reeds in any one set of pipes (if you’re unable to hear them in person) you really need multiple long recordings of each with a mix of indoor and outdoor settings, walking and standing in one place, high quality mic’ing etc, as we do in real life and places such as Patrick’s blog. Thus, it’s important to point out that I’m sharing this more for curiosity and good conversation, not a be-all-end-all or “one is better than another”. It’s just a preference thing not to be taken as a complete picture... a nice change for piping since no one seems to have strong preferences on anything
.P.S. Maybe I will do some of these longer indoor/outdoor recordings in future from a shorter list of reed choices if this interests anyone. Let me know which sets you like most.
. To be fair though one of those is full cane which I still think is pretty great. 
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