I was at a Scottish session a few months ago where somebody was putting everything on a CD-quality miniature digital recording machine. I was mainly playing recorders of various kinds and there were a couple of other people with (expensive, good) whistles. We had all played together before a few times so we knew how each other played.

For a lot of the tracks I couldn't tell afterwards which sound was me.


The recorder (wooden) was my first instrument (age 6 - 10).

Unless you had very rich parents it will have been garbage. Cheap plastic recorders are far better than cheap wooden ones.

"Breathy" tone doesn't distinguish whistles from recorders, and if you're any good on either and have an okay instrument, you can play in such a way that nobody can tell which you've got.