I started working on some new flutes and I'm using some different tools,anyhoo i'm getting airyness or white noise in about half of them,these are river cane flutes and some of them are closed end flutes and some are open end,the blowing end that is,i've made sure the membrane is removed,mabe my TSH is too big,i havent completely finished the bore yet.

Hi Tony,

Welcome to the forum! I've moved your post to the Flute Making forum since it might potentially become a thread on that subject.

Airiness: There are a lot of things that can make a flute sound "airy" or "breathy". Your material can be a factor, certainly. If the inside of your bore is not clean, or if there are fragments of wood or cane interfereing with the openings of the finger holes, it can dirty the sound a bit.

In my experience the most common cause of airyness is related to the sound mechanism. By "sound mechanism" I'm referring to a collection of things: The size and shape of the true sound hole (the hole in front of the block, for those folks who don't know the term), the width and depth of the air channel beneath the block, and the relationship of the block to the sound hole (does it overhang? Does it have a chimney on the front? Is the air channel in the block or the body of the flute?)

This is where I would look for "airyness". I think about 90% of a flutes sound comes from the design of the sound mechanism and its relationship to the bore size and key of the flute. The wood you choose makes up the last 10%. Other makers might argue differently.

If you have a clean bore and the finger holes are clean, look to the sound mechanism: How deep is your air channel? More than 1/32nd of an inch? What is the ratio of the bore size to the width and depth of the true sound hole?

If you make a flute with a 3/4" bore and you make an air channel that is 1/2" wide and 3/64ths deep, with a sound hole in proportion, you will have a loud, airy sounding flute most likely.

But that is not all. Your true sound hole is another place to look. How deep is it (front to back)? If you have a sound hole that is 3/8" wide and 3/8" deep, you will get some breathiness. Whereas if it is 3/8" wide and 9/32" deep, it will reduce that.

Also take note of how the air coming out of the channel strikes the splitting edge. Does it shoot over the top of it (having the air channel in the bottom of the block increases this phenomena a bit) or is your channel in the body of the flute, causing the air stream to strike the splitting edge head on?

All of these factors come together to make the voice of the flute, and it is almost never a single thing that gives a flutes voice a particular character. My .02 for what it is worth

Hi Tony,

Geoffrey and Ed summed it up pretty well. Make sure all your work is as clean as you can get it - no ragged edges or rough surfaces. Make sure you have no leaks from under the bird - hold the flute up to the light sideways and look to see if any light gets between the bird and the roost. Also, be sure the distance from where the air exits the flue to the cutting edge is not too long. Based on some theoretical reasons, a ratio of the distance across the TSH to the depth of the flue is optimum at about 5:1, but folks have had success with longer (6:1) distances. That means if you flue is just shy of 3/64 deep, the TSH should be around 7/32 inch long.

Mike

Thanks Guys,sorry it's taken so long for me to reply and add my thanks ,youve all hit the nail on the head as usual,my flue is always in the block because of the thin materiel that i use,river cane/bamboo,the nest takes a lot out of it,I do angle the airway,deeper on the back end of the bird than the front to better direct the airflow,My new tool for burning the airway into the block is about a half inch mabe a little smaller and to add conformety i used the same tool on the TSH making it a little too deep I believe,add an air leak to that,I've made some new tools and salvaging what I can,All are good flutes but I'm hopeing to compensate with extra finnish,should add enough materiel to the tsh's that i cut too deep to fetch them around,thanks again .

Is airyness the same as a light buzz? I don't hear a breathy sound just a soft buzz sometimes... even after I have checked for roughness at finger holes and have checked and rechecked the TSH, SAC and searched for air leaks? My buzz is like a pesky skeeter and will appear and disappear even in the middle of a buzz.

Terry

They can certainly be different things (airyness vs. buzz) even though sometime I think the descriptions are misapplied. That is to say, sometimes a flute is sounding airy or breathy and someone uses the word "buzz" (I've heard this a lot when I've talked to folks about different flutes).

For example, Scott Loomis makes flutes that have a distinct buzz if you push them. Not airy at all--just the opposite. His flutes are clear and sweet sounding, but he deliberately makes them so that they have a slight buzz when you push some air through them. It actually sounds like the wood resonating.

However, a controlled, deliberate buzz is different from an annoying, unpredictable buzz that you want to go away!

If a flute is buzzing, the first thing I'd check would be the depth of the TSH from front to back (from mouthpiece toward the foot of the flute). If you have a flute that has a 7/8" bore and is in the key of G (as an example) and you've given it a TSH that is, for the sake of argument 3/8" wide. If the depth of that TSH is 7/32", then that can cause a buzzy quality. I'd experiment with increasing that dimension (if I were making the flute I've described above, I'd make that TSH 9/32" deep).

Certainly not the only thing to look at, but it would be the first thing I'd check.

I went back to one that had half a bee hive in it and worked the TSH just a bit to make it closer to your sugestion and it was like hitting it with a blast of Raid.. No More Buzz!!!!

That is super.. many thanks again!!!!!
Terry