The story
Probably my most inadvertently recorded sound; my own whistling has featured at the tail end and other dead space in countless recording sessions. When I found myself in need of a whistling sound for a ‘spaghetti western’ themed track and couldn’t find something that suited me online, it was time to finally record it with intention, and I decided I might as well put in a few extra hours to make a sample instrument so that I (and now, you!) can use it for other projects in the future.
There are two velocity layers, several round robins, and a number of different pitches that will hopefully help to create a realistic sound (and I left some imperfections in the tuning for the same reason). I’ve also employed the excellent WIPS scripts from ‘Big Bob’ Villwock for adjustable legato, vibrato and more.
You can also play with the ADSR and other controls to make a pad sound, but I wanted to keep this build as simple as possible, so I haven’t added loops to all the notes to let them go on infinitely.
Reviews for Human Whistle
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Very useful instrument!
Perfect, just what I have been looking for. It has just the right level of imperfections to sound human. I haven't played with the settings much yet but the legato sounds good!
The Human Whistle That Became Something Else
This instrument is so interesting to me.
I'd argue that whistling is second only to the human voice as a deeply familiar and recognizable sound that one can immediately notice if there is something inaccurate or "off" about.
So, in practice, this whistling instrument doesn't sound entirely like an accurate representation of a lone person whistling. That doesn't mean it's without its charms. The controls - both the UI created by Eamon, as well as the WIPS controls on subsequent tabs - provide a lot of control over things like depth & speed of vibrato, tremolo, glide and other legato settings.
In practice, the sound straddles the line between whistle, flute, synth, and... something else entirely.
