This page provides information about

1. didjeridoo sounds and how to better appreciate listening to didjeridoos
2. how to set up your computer to listen to MP3 audio files (if you aren't set up for MP3 already)

1 About didjeridoo Sounds

Our Different Sound Qualities

Since 1993 we differentiate our didjes into these five basic sound qualities:

2nd - 2nd class sound quality
1st - 1st class sound quality
Cl - low concert class sound quality
Cm - medium class concert sound quality
Ch - high concert class sound quality

In each batch of didjes we produce we compare all didjes in the same key directly with each other and with reference didjes. These ratings have been developed to ensure consistent supply for our wholesale customers and we spend a lot of time to arrive at an objective rating for each didj. Our wholesale customers have been (and still are) happy with the consistency of our grading for over 30 years.

2nd class sound quality didjes

We do not recommended these to be used as musical instruments. We class didjes as seconds if their sound is not clear. So these are better used as artifact. They are also perfect if you do not intend to become a didj musician, but you just want to show your friends what a didj sounds like.

A didj might have good resonance or excellent back pressure, but if its sound is not clear, its a 2nd. Some of these might be good to learn on and if the sound is not too dull, we will list those as Learners Didjes. In fact our wholesale retailers tell us that our 2nd class didjes have a better sound than most didjes they can buy elsewhere.

1st class sound quality didjes

Our first class didjes we consider to have a good clear sound superior to the majority of genuine termite hollowed didgeridoos on the world market. They are of similar or better sound quality than a PVC pipe.

If you want to learn playing didj and/or circular breathing attempt to do so only on a real didj if you can be sure it's a good one. Otherwise it is better to learn on a PVC pipe.

We have heard from too many people who believe they cannot learn to play the didj when really the problem is the didj they are trying to learn on. So if you have problems learning to play or circular breathe, get yourself a PVC pipe and learn on that.

So our 1st class didjes are comparable in sound quality to PVC pipes, except that they have a nice wooden sound rather than a 'plastic sound'.

low concert class sound quality

All our concert class didjes are of good enough quality to be used on stage or in recordings. We have divided them into three sub groups as there are still vast differences. All our concert class didjes are graded using the below sound attributes. Our low concert class didjes are guaranteed to be of better sound quality than a PVC pipe and as good or better than most didjes used by didj players around the world.

medium concert class sound quality

Our medium concert class didges we consider to be as good or better than most didjes used in recordings and performances. For us to call a didj medium concert it has to rate 4 out of 5 in most sound attributes and cannot have less than a 4 in either clarity or resonance. We guarantee that any professional didj player will be satisfied with their quality.

high concert class sound quality

These have excellent sound quality and we guarantee that any professional didj player will be thrilled with their quality. They represent the best 1-2% of didjes we play and select from.

Considering that we are widely known in the industry for the general sound quality of our didjes, we are sure you will be hard-pressed to find comparable quality elsewhere.

A word of warning:

By now many of our competitors are imitating our sound grading terms. We find that most of them are simply trying to improve their chances of selling their didjes by calling them concert class didjes. We have done some comparisons and most didjes we found in local shops marked as concert didjes we would rate as 2nd class didjes. So please be aware that it is impossible to compare the sound quality ratings of different suppliers unless you buy one of each supplier and then compare them (if anyone of you has done this please let us know).

Listen to different Musical Keys

Samples of our Sound Qualities

To give you a better idea of the way we judge the different sound qualities of our didjeridoos, you can listen here to recordings done on five didjeridoos, which are all in the key of C#, but differ in their sound quality.

To help you even more we have recorded these same five didjeridoos with two different Australian Aboriginal didjeridu players:

• Dennis is a great didge player, who plays in an indigenous band 'The Padboys'.
• Trevor is an another didge player with many years of experience.

For further comparison there is a sound file played by Trevor on a PVC pipe, also tuned to C#.

When you listen to these sound files, try to hear the differences in clarity, resonance and variety in the sound and you will be able to hear how these qualities improve with higher sound quality didjeridoos. You should also be able to hear that this effect is more pronounced with a less experienced player. Note: if your computer lacks good speakers, you might have a better sound experience using headphones.

How we Judge Sound Quality

We judge the sound quality of our didjeridoos considering the following factors:

Back Pressure

Some didjeridoos need a lot of air to play and are therefore much more demanding on the player. They are less desirable than a didjeridoo with high back pressure of the same sound quality. The higher the back pressure, the longer you can play between breath and the easier it is to learn circular breathing. This is the most important criterion for learners.

Clarity

Denotes the clarity of the sound. Many didjeridoos have a dull, muffled or flat sound. They are 2nd quality didjeridoos in our books. For us, this is the most important measure of overall sound quality.

Resonance

Gives the didj sound its fullness. Resonance is a measure of the strength of a didjeridoo's vibration. If you have a good sub woofer you can feel it. This is a definite prerequisite for any didj used in sound healing and our second most important criterion for overall sound quality.

Loudness

A measure of the volume of the didjeridoo. We measure this with a decibel meter.

Vocals

The didjeridoo's ability to produce different sound variations and vocal sounds (some didjeridoos are good at reproducing many different overtones, but not so good at vocals).

Overtones

The ability of the didjeridu to produce different sounds at the same time - referred to as overtones, or sometimes harmonics. These are usually produced by playing around with the tip of the tongue just behind the opening in the lips while playing the didj.

Speed

Indicates how fast or slow a didj can be played. Some didjes, especially longer ones, have to be played slow while others, especially short ones, have to be played fast. And others can be played either slow or fast.

About Our Sound Recordings

The sound recordings for all didjes on this site are done in the following format: first the base drone of the didj is played for about three seconds, then comes overtones and tongue variations, next comes vocals followed by cheek pumping and finally the hoot. Each individual recording is kept at under thirty seconds. This way you should get maximum information about the playing ability of each didj while keeping download times down. All recordings are in the same format to make it easier for you to compare different didjes on our site.

To best compare several didjeridoos, we recommend that you download their individual pages (with picture, code number, weight etc.) and then their sound files to your hard drive. You can then easily compare those sound files and relate them to their pictures (the name of each sound file is the order number of the didj).

Please keep in mind that these short sound files can convey only limited information. They cannot do justice to some of the better instruments because the difference in the recording between say medium and high concert class seems to be a lot smaller than in live playing Please also keep in mind that Trevor typically does over one hundred recordings in one day and not all are perfect. The quality of the recordings is also affected by the fact that we do not have a professional recording studio nor do we use compressors or any other sound optimizers.

2 Getting set up to listen to MP3 audio files

What is MP3?

MP3 is a relatively new standard for audio files which is taking the world wide web by storm.

MP3 combines high compression (for speedy download) with high sound quality. All audio files in the Didjshop web site are in MP3 format and are identified by this speaker symbol: 

How do I play MP3 files on this site?

Because of the wide variety of operating systems, web browsers and plug-ins in use, it's impossible to provide one simple statement which correctly advises all newcomers to MP3 how best to download and play these files.

If you're not sure whether you can play MP3 files, the first step is to try! Click on one of the sound links in this site, such as one of the ten links higher up this page

This should trigger a download of the MP3 sound file to your hard drive.

If you're using a recent web browser (Netscape version 4+ or Internet Explorer version 4+), on the Windows or Macintosh platforms, you may find the file downloads, automatically locates and launches a suitable MP3 player application, and plays the sound. It may even start playing while the file is downloading ('streaming audio').

If that doesn't happen, you need to do one or more of the following:

• upgrade your web browser
• download and install a suitable MP3 player plug-in / application
• reconfigure your web browser

Excellent up-to date advice on how to do these things can be found in various places on the web. We recommend the web site askMP3.com.

The same site also features a page called MP3 Software Players which gives easy-to-follow, current advice on getting set up for MP3. It covers most well-known operating systems, web browsers etc.

Saving Didj Sounds to Compare Later

Make sure you remember where you save the sound files you download!

Play them back at your leisure to help decide on the didj that best suits your musical taste. You can set Windows Media Player and many other MP3 players to open different windows for each sound file (check their help files to see how to do this). This allows you to directly compare small sections in two or more sound files.

Every sound file in the Didjshop - except the 'generic' sounds on this page - is named after the specific product code for that individual didjeridoo. All these didj product codes start with two letters followed by three numbers i.e. aa035.

This helps you ensure you order the right didj from our shop. If you choose a didj by it's sound file (eg. aa035.mp3), take care to order the didj with the corresponding product code (in this case, aa035).

Different Size Sound Files

The individual sound files for a didj are on it's product page. You get to this page by clicking on the picture or the 'More Info' link of a didj on its department page (a department page is where you see a list of didjes with their thumbnail images - go to our Shop Front to see a list of all our shop department pages).

On a product page with sound files, you will see two sound icons which look like this: .

One is labelled 'high quality'. This is a streaming 64bit mp3 file. If your MP3 player supports streaming and you are not on a very slow connection, this will give you the best experience.

The other sound file is labelled 'fast loading'. It is a non-streaming 24bit MP3 file which will take only a third of the time to download, but its quality is not as good. If your connection is slow and / or your sound card or speakers are of low quality, these will save you time, yet still give you some idea about the sound of the didj.

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