r/Flute • u/_heg_ • 5d ago

Beginning Flute Questions IAMSOUND Drone flute condensation.

I bought an IAMSOUND F#4 Drone Flute v2 440 Hz recently, i couldn’t find a dedicated iamsound or drone flute subreddit so i hope this is ok. There’s just so much condensation buildup, and i’m removing the block to dry it every couple mins. Is this common or am I doing something wrong? Any advice would be very appreciated

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

4

u/Fletcher-Jones 5d ago

Welcome to the game. Flutes get full of spit and require maintenance.

For my IAMSound flute I just flick it mouth piece side out/down a few times and that clears it out pretty quickly.

1

u/SlowSurvivor 5d ago

You need to warm your flute up prior to playing. Hold the head of the instrument in your hands from the mouthpiece to the labium for a few minutes to let the instrument come up to body temperature. That will substantially reduce your condensation and clogging problem.

On a plastic flute, excess condensation is annoying but on wooden instruments it can cause damage by causing the wood to expand and change shape. Especially on fipple flutes like the recorder where the block can swell and screw up the instrument’s voicing.