in band we recorded a cd. when i listened to i realised the flutes are so quiet (there were 10 of us). i realise this could be for a few reasons (rubbish recording, we weren`t playing loud etc) i was just wondering is your flute section quiet aswell.

The whole point of playing in a band or orchestra is for instruments to blend. While it could have been a bad recording, and probably was, I think it is actually a good thing your group blended. Unless something in a piece is solo or soli everyone should blend together to play as one whole sound and should not stand out.

There are exceptions to this of course in various pieces where an intended melody is supposed to shine above the others.

Yeah...we are kinda quiet...thats why my the flute fits my personality and the trumpet (my sister plays that) fits hers.

I tried recording myself on the flute, but it made my flute tone terrible.

I recorded my flute several times and it sounded fine.
And in band we sounded fine and audeble,
Now I play on sax and in last row and you can hear flutes solos all the way back.
It was the recording .
Becouse in band we recorded our preformance.
And you could not hear Tenor sax`s or a lot of other instruments.

[quote]I tried recording myself on the flute, but it made my flute tone terrible.[/quote]

Many cheap recording devices are not suitable for upper woodwinds. For example, do not expect to sound good when using the "voice memo" feature of a cell phone.

The word is audible guys.

Flutes are audible but in a different way than many of the other instruments. The trumpet for example is very directional in that it has a bell which projects the sound forward away from the player. This does two things. It makes the sound much stronger for those in front of the bell and it makes the apparent sound quieter for the player. Multiply this times the number of trumpets, trombones, saxophones, etc... in the band and then divide by the number of flutes.

Our flute sound is less directional in that the majority of the sound comes from the embouchure hole. (Yes I know that a smaller amount of sound comes out of the open key holes and the FJ end.) The embouchure hole is very close to our ears and as a result we can be lulled into believing that we are projecting a loud sound when we are covering too much of the embouchure hole or not supporting very well.

Then there`s the flute quality issue. A badly aligned flute does not project and some brands aren`t very loud to begin with.

If you combine those issues with the fact that the microphone(s) may not have been placed properly for good balance of the band instruments or the tone reproduction of the recording equipment was sub par then you may not hear the flutes very well in a recording. Remember that a good quality professional recording such as background music for a movie may very well have one microphone for every instrument and is expertly balanced in the studio.

~Bilbo