Supercorder Features Movie Clips
Here are a few movie clips that detail the various features of the Supercorder.
(Apologies for a couple of feature repetitions and my un-fotogenic missing finger tip.)
 
    These videos show the special features and what can be done for anyone who wishes to take up the challenge: making a beautiful and unique instrument that is (so far) not being manufactured by anyone. I intend to upload details for making these instruments, but I'm finding it a challenge to resurrect and add everything at once to my previous Supercorder website. This is the start.


   I've always liked the sound of the "recorder", the strange English name for a flute known as "beak flute" or "sweet flute" in other languages. It's beautiful.

   Many have considered the soprano version as a simple first instrument to play in school, which it is, or just a "toy". In me this perception of the recorder was jolted when I heard Franz Bruggen's playing of Vivaldi's alto recorder concerto RV441 on the radio in about 1973 - so, at least one person had picked it for their university music major! The alto is less shrill than the soprano and seemed to be a serious instrument. It is in fact the usual solo size outside of school use.

   But where all the other woodwind instruments were "modernized" in the 1800's, only the more primitive "Baroque" type with no keys or other advanced features continued to be made. I bought a Mollenhauer "Modern Alto" recorder in the late 1990's and was impressed. This instrument had a feature from earlier Medieval period recorders: a longer bore. The Baroque period alto had been shortened from its proper acoustic length in order that the bottom two pairs of finger holes were reachable by the little finger, which had made its lower notes quite weak. Nicholas Tarasov tried out a Medieval recorder and then convinced maker Joachim Paetzold to make this longer instrument and use two keys for the lowest F# and F holes, the Paetzold "Modern Alto". It was a tremendous improvement and Mollenhauer started producing them.
   By 2000 had I started learning things that could make for further improvements. I had an idea for a B/Bb key (F#/F in transposed terms) wherin the index finger first covered the "B" hole, and then by pressing down also covered the Bb, so there was no need to shift the finger or to cover extra holes. I was on an early recorder discussion list that included people that played and manufactured recorders. I tried to convince some to try making a new instrument incorporating this idea, but no one would take it up. I discovered that most recorder players were "'dyed in the wool" traditionalists who didn't even like the idea of making a better instrument and were annoyed by stronger low notes. But I know that many other musicians who wouldn't play recorder, would love to play this one if it was available! And lots of listeners love the sound, even from this amateur player. People in a concert band said they missed it while I was away.

   With nowhere else to turn I started designing and making  what I called the "Supercorder" myself in September 2003. I knew little about making them and didn't consider myself to be a craftsman. On a lathe I had turned a bowl or two in school. I gradually figured out how to do things and got better. Making keys was unique. It had as much to do with "jewelery making" as "metalwork". (Later people would ask where I got the keys, not understanding that I had had to make them all myself.) As I worked I came up with further improvements. One was by accident: I copied the bore of the Mollenhauer but I didn't undercut the labium in the head. All my cutting went into the upper side because I had read that "shading" the labium - or instead I made it deeper - gives stronger lower tones. This changed the tuning and made for several finger hole placement adjustments which all seemed to improve upper octave fingerings and sound. I found chromatic fingerings for notes way up to F6 instead of just G5. It also made for interesting sound qualities: in the lower octave it has some perhaps "clarinet" like overtones, while it becomes more typically "recorder" like as the scale is ascended. Another improvement was the ability to fine-tune. I learned that opening a small hole near the labium was used to raise the pitch to tune certain duct flutes and I created a mechanism pressed by the lip to open one. Then I simplified it by shortening the beak and changing its shape so the lip directly covers a small hole. That made it much easier to play and to get dynamic range - in tune - and it allows a great pitch vibrato. AFAIK it's still the only duct flute that can stay in tune as it plays louder or softer - just like most other instruments. I also changed the beak and block from being part of the wood to an attached porcelain component. The flute (from which the instrument name "flute" probably derives) is cut (actually molded) into the block instead of the upper beak, to match the lower labium position. I made the windway follow the bore, about 18mm wide. It gives a strong sound. I've played Supercorder in amateur concert bands and orchestras in place of oboe or flute. (I'm not a pro player.) Usually oboe because the lower notes have more presence than a flute when there's no oboe player. It's also good on 2nd flute parts for the same reason.

   I didn't get really good at voicing them until about 2012 and my present instrument sounds gorgeous. (Any good recorder maker would have had no trouble with that - but I was an inventor with no previous instrument making experience!)

   Then in 2007 some tools were stolen, some African blackwood I was counting on didn't arrive in the mail, my mini lathe broke. I got onto other things and quit making Supercorders.

01-Intro-FineTuner.AVI
02-OpenKeys.AVI
03-ChromaticFScale.AVI
04-B-BbKey.AVI
05-VoicingLever.AVI
06-LowNotes.AVI
07-LowNotesPlayed.AVI
08-GKey.AVI
09-LowE.AVI
10-Low-Eb.AVI
11-LOW-D.AVI
12-CSharpDSharpKeys.AVI
13-SameIn2Octaves.AVI
14-SecondOctave.AVI
15-SecondOctave&More.AVI
16-3rdOctaveToHiC.AVI
17-HiCSharpToG.AVI