What is the use of curved windway of a recorder? After my first Yamaha YRS-23 I bought YRS-302B and I'm still puzzled about that difference.

It feels like the blowing into 302 gives slightly more resistance... But I could not find clear explanation of difference in tone quality or how properly use the curved windway. Though I found this related question which still left me confused. (I hope it is not a kind of thing which only could be taught personally by teacher in a music school?)

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    For the same diameter of the instrument, a curved windway and labium will give a "wider" wind stream (measured around the curve) than a straight one, which will tend to make the instrument "play louder" for the same volume of air. I think more detailed explanation than that would need either a lot of experimenting with different designs, and/or some detailed l(and difficult) computer simulations. There isn't a universally agreed-on objective definition of the "best sound" for a musical instrument, or course. – user19146 Apr 11 '15 at 1:46

I think this is an "all other things being equal" answer... and all those other things are never equal! The curved windway is a subtle influence that is easily dwarfed by other aspects of craftsmanship and design. My experience is that curved windways offer a bit more resistance and this gives something a bit more to "push against" with the air column. Very subtle, but it seems to be real.

Everyone says a curved windway gives a more complex sound, but I don't know this to be true. Acoustically, it's hard to understand how this would be an important influence, and we have many centuries of careful flue design in organ pipes... if curved windways were superior, I'd think we would see more of them in organ pipes. Perhaps the curved windway, if combined with a curved blade, would give more surface area for the blade (and the "wind reed") which could lead to more volume and presence... but I'm speculating.

I think this is a minor impact at best and probably shouldn't figure too strongly in your choice of instrument.


Curved windways are usually considered to give a more interesting, complex tone quality, but I couldn't give an acoustic reason for this. They're definitely more difficult to produce I've also heard it suggested that a curved windway is superior because it allows condensation to drain to the edges of the windway more easily, where it will interfere less.

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