Quieter drones

[Feardorcha]

Hi Piping People.
Anyone got tips on how to quieten down the drones a little on my Rogge set?
Regards F

[kmag]

Are they cane or some other construction? Many, not all, of the synthetic drones I have heard sound like a vacuum cleaner running.

[Feardorcha]

They are a composite material with a plastic 'flap' or tongue. After much searching I have only found one suggestion and that was to insert a flattened drinking straw into the end of the drone.

(When I get out the vacuum cleaner, the kids, dog and cat all run from it - likewise when I switch on the drones.)

[kmag]

I am not sure where you are located but I would get hold of Ted Andersen on the forum. He goes by Ted and lives in California and harvests his own cane. He is great to work with and I had a drone reed made by him that sounds great and I never had any problem with it whatsoever. A very interesting man to talk to as well and has other hard to find piping materials as well.

[MarkG]

I spoke with Andreas about this a few weeks ago, and he told me that he often rushes drones to make them quieter. The rush (something like a piece of wire should do the trick) is inserted into the standing part of the drone (next to the reed). I've not tried this myself so have no idea how well it works.

-Mark

[Feardorcha]

Thanks kmag, I'm in the West of Ireland. With all the material published on tuning pipes, there must be some source that can answer this question. I have trawled through many, many pages and searches but so far only the drinking-straw solution.
Regards, F

[an seanduine]

You might look at David Daye's videos on making composite reeds . As I recall he suggested putting a slip of paper on the lay of the drone body to mellow out the sound and eliminate 'klang'.

Bob

[geoff wooff]

Drone loudness is usually the product of several things in combination; the reed , the bore and any resonator box attached to the bore. The material that the drone is made from can affect volume and tone, in that a drone tube made from a metal might (will) have a sharper tone than one made from say Balsa wood.

A process of elimination will help to determine where the excess noise is coming from. Test each drone seperately to hear which one might add the most to the overall sound and begin working on the loudest pipe.

Although the Reed material and construction is a candidate for blame I would try to reduce the bore size first. So the idea of putting some sort of rush in the bore will be the easiest way to test if a bore reduction will suffice. However, putting obstructions in bores can have negative effects on stability and if this occurs then the method suggested in the next paragraph will be more permanent and less likely to cause other problems.

A simple way to do this is to cut a piece of paper to the approximate length of the drone bore which you wish to reduce. Now roll the paper around a rod of smaller diameter than the drone bore ( a knitting needle, a skewer, tent peg, chop stick etc. ???) and when you have one or two layers of paper rolled up tight ,try to insert this into the drone and use the rod to work the paper neatly onto the inner surface of the drone bore. Be carefull not to push the paper in so far that you cannot retrieve it if you don't like the effect.

Other sources of unwanted noise can come from 'resonators'. These are found at the far end of drones particularly the 'PUCK' of the Bass drone which is often a hollow box. If you have one of these on you Bass Drone try removing it or stuffing the cavity with cotton wool (or a small sock ) . Other drones can have these cavities just before the end cap ( or in the end cap) which are there to provide stability to the drone.

Another thing that can be adjusted is the 'exit hole' size; try reducing its diameter with sticky tape or Blue Tack ( Poster Putty) or chewing gum......

Some of the above 'fixes' can affect the pitch of your drone... smaller bore = lower pitch.

If in the end it is the ' Composite Reeds' that are annoying you then a change to Cane, or other natural material, reeds is the way to go.

Good luck.
Geoff.

[pudinka]

Just curious about the construction/mechanical effects of the reed itself...saying that other factors are not a problem.

Let's say that I have some cane reeds that seem a bit too loud. I'm wondering if the mass of the tongue and/or the stiffness of the tongue section are factors. I would assume that a "stiffer" reed and heavier reed tongue would want to be louder than a weaker and lighter tongue. If so, is there some way to help such reeds?

Would/should reducing the tongue stiffness greatly - weakening it by scraping it "flat" along its back side (if the lay is the face side) to reduce the extreme fiber distance help this? I'd assume that the tone of the reed might change, the reed might become unstable or might be ruined it taken too far. But is there a "mechanical" fix to help this problem?

[Feardorcha]

I am much obliged - and somewhat in awe - of such detailed and learned replies and will hasten slowly, starting with the paper insert.
I will report back in the near future with the results. Thanks.

[geoff wooff]

Just curious about the construction/mechanical effects of the reed itself...saying that other factors are not a problem.

Let's say that I have some cane reeds that seem a bit too loud. I'm wondering if the mass of the tongue and/or the stiffness of the tongue section are factors. I would assume that a "stiffer" reed and heavier reed tongue would want to be louder than a weaker and lighter tongue. If so, is there some way to help such reeds?

Would/should reducing the tongue stiffness greatly - weakening it by scraping it "flat" along its back side (if the lay is the face side) to reduce the extreme fiber distance help this? I'd assume that the tone of the reed might change, the reed might become unstable or might be ruined it taken too far. But is there a "mechanical" fix to help this problem?

Yes.

There are several things that can be done to change the drone sound when using a Cane reed, amongst these things is the " try a different reed" method. The reason for this is that when making Cane drone reeds we use the whole of the cane tube and therefore certain given factors are not easy to change, like the diameter and wall thickness/ original stiffness or hardness of the piece etc.

I think that many people try to make these reeds to 'play' at the fundamental pitch of the drone; in other words they select a piece of cane and go through the basic 'making' process, put the reed in the drone and test for pitch and adjust the reed up or down untill they arrive at the desired note and that is it. Minimum work after splitting the tongue. The result can be too much noise and not enough musical tone and harmonic content.

I usually scrape the bark off the whole outside surface of the tongue and often thin it towards the attached end. This makes it lighter to blow and less Noisy but it also lowers the pitch which might appear to be undesireable but......

Often when a cane drone reed is made the resultant pitch of the drone note is not just what one is looking for and for me it is usually a little low of the goal note. Now ,the first thing that is thought of is to put a bridle on the reed to shorten the tongue and raise its pitch. I suggest that the opposite is more likely to render a good result. So, I lower the natural vibrating speed of the reed tongue by scraping towards the fixed end and ,often, adding a weight to the free end. Thus the pitch of the drone note is lowered untill it reaches such a pitch that the reed starts to overblow like a chanter reed does when playing the upper octave.

Being that Parallel bores do not overblow an octave then a drone will react to overblowing like a Clarinet. So when the drone reed is changed sufficiently by scraping and weighting and has dropped the drone pitch by approximately 8 semitones, the reed will start to react to a different harmonic ( perhaps the second harmonic, but we don't really need to know this) and the drone pitch will jump up by about 9 semitones.

In practice the first pitch I often get from a drone reed is about a semitone lower than the target note and as I work on the reed in the above fashion the pitch will drop to about F# (in the sense of a D instrument) before it jumps back to about Eb.... a little more weight on the free end of the tongue and the pitch is just right.

Now the advantages of doing this is a much more stable, air efficient reed with a much sweeter tone!

This method is most usefull for the Bass drone but does also work for the others.

One other thing to remember; with a single beating reed... either the body or the tongue must be curved or progressively angled so that the springyness of the material is allowed to come into play... the tongue must 'FLEX' ... it is not like a door opening and closing in a stiff fashion. So with a cane reed gently bend the tongue up at the free end by putting your thumb on the centre of the tongue back and using your first and second fingers each side of the free end to give the tongue a very slight curve.

Under no circumstances jamb a hair in under the base of the tongue to keep it open this only causes leaks and does not ultimately cure anything. See next bit.

Next other thing to remember; a Drone reed must be 'air tight'.. test by holding the drone tongue closed and suck through the open end. Same goes for a chanter reed.... less than perfectly airtight reeds will work but not so efficiently. You want the reeds to Buzz and Tap their rhythm but gently.

[geoff wooff]

I am much obliged - and somewhat in awe - of such detailed and learned replies and will hasten slowly, starting with the paper insert.
I will report back in the near future with the results. Thanks.

Hope it was usefull. I was awakened in the night and could not get back to sleep so writting some ,hopefully, helpfull hints also helped me to doze off again.
I'll be interested to see how you get on.

Geoff.

PS; there is supposedly a Pipes Maintainance book being written by members of NPU and I had volunteered to 'proof read' it... not that I have seen hide nor hare of the thing.... such a tome ought to cover such subjects I would have thought

[Feardorcha]

I was at a maintenance class in NPU Dublin with Dave H. [don't know if I should use his full name without permission] and he had notes that were to form the basis of this manual. I'm sure it is being rushed, in the Irish fashion, and will surface at some stage.
I have those notes and could have dropped them over to you if you hadn't gone and moved to France. If you like, I can forward a photocopy set but I'm sure the NPU will do that for you.
Regards,
F.