Please identify this instrument for me

Zedro

I want to know what instrument is being played during the first 39 seconds of "Small Two of Pieces" from Xenogears (awesome soundtrack, btw).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Uz0otnpeqx8

I think it's a flute, but i'm not sure what kind. It kind of sounds too low to be an ordinary flute, though. So, can anyone with a good ear and knowledgeable in music identify the instrument for me, please?

Ninja Bot

Yeah that's definitely a flute, or a synth imitating a flute.

ChopperDave

Sounds a bit like a woodwind to me, actually.

edit: ANOTHER woodwind. I never knew flutes were considered woodwinds...

Thanatos

Sounds sorta like a recorder to me.

It's definitely some sort of flute-ish woodwind, though.

Peter Principle

It's some sort of wooden flute.

KurnDerak

Edit: Ah, recorder. I knew it wasn't a flute, but recorder sounds close.

Thanatos

KurnDerak wrote: »

Makes me think of an alto sax. Doesn't sound close enough to a flute to me, unless its a synth flute.

Not anywhere near guttural enough for a saxophone. Definitely no reed in there.

KurnDerak

Thanatos wrote: »

KurnDerak wrote: »

Makes me think of an alto sax. Doesn't sound close enough to a flute to me, unless its a synth flute.

Not anywhere near guttural enough for a saxophone. Definitely no reed in there.

I'm not quite sure where I came up with that, but for some reason it reminded me of that. And as you notice, I completely recanted it and went with the recorder concept.

Aurin

Definitely a recorder. You can hear the breaths during the song, so it's not a reeded instrument.

And I love this song so much.

Dammit, but I listen to the rest of the song and it sounds like a flute. >.<

Mad Jazz

Too low to be a recorder, I think. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say alto flute, but I haven't listened to the whole song yet.

Szechuanosaurus

Recorders go pretty low. Not the typical descant you play in primary school, but a tenor or bass recorder would probably hit those notes.

However, it's most likely some form of Japanese Flute (or a synthesised version of a japanese flute), although you could probably play it on a recorder (my sister played a few traditional japanese numbers at my wedding on recorder that I believe were originally composed for a Japanese flute of some variety).

Japanese flutes actually look quite similar to recorders, although somewhat more basic.

MP3 of a Hocchiku Japanese flute

Fawkes

Szechuanosaurus wrote: »

However, it's most likely some form of Japanese Flute (or a synthesised version of a japanese flute), although you could probably play it on a recorder (my sister played a few traditional japanese numbers at my wedding on recorder that I believe were originally composed for a Japanese flute of some variety).

Japanese flutes actually look quite similar to recorders, although somewhat more basic.

Wins the prize.

First, it's synthed, so might not be a de facto instrument, but a constructed flute sound.
Second, it's definately meant to be a flute, the breathing, tounging and glissando are all wrong for a recorder or vertical flute.
Third, it's almost impossible to pin down any ethnic woodwind (there are tons of the things), but my educated guess (trained in orchestration) would be a transverse Japanese flute, or possibly a South American pan-flute.

Like I said, there are hundreds on hundreds of different ethnic flutes which have evolved seperately but sound quite similar; my guess is it's a synth constructed to sound roughly like them.

PS Though it might be a synth made to sound like a Hocchiku, I doubt it's the real thing, range was too great and melody a bit fast & complex for a vertical flute. Also, the sound was way too clean.

Szechuanosaurus

Fair enough. Japanese flute (or an imitation) would be my guess simply because it's a Japanese cartoon. But like you say, it could equally be some sort of Celtic or native American woodwind. It's most likely a synth (and the rest of the music sounds synthed so it'd make sense) although a pretty good synth considering the audible breathing. Can you get that sound from one of those mouth-pieces that plug into synths?

Fawkes

Hmm, you might be right. I'm not sure that is breathing, instead of just breaks in the line, but on the last breath before the verse starts it does sound like it. Thought it was the singer first time round. I'm not so up on the production side re: synths and stuff, so don't know how far they've advanced, but I have heard some very convincing stuff that is almost impossible to distinguish.

Still think it's not a traditional Japanese vertical flute, the sound is definitely far, far too clean (essentially, imagine wind passing over wood, the wood has a thousand lines and impurities which diverts the wind and produces the sound; wind passing over metal moves much more smoothly, and thus the sound is cleaner). It could, in fact, just be a western low-register flute, flute d'amour, one of the various baroque flutes or so on.

Also thought of Japanese flute simply because it was a Japanese cartoon, my point about Andean pan-flutes is that they sound very similar, sof if the OP likes this, they'll probably like Andean pan-pipes and so on.