Reddit reviews Night By Noble Plastic Ocarina AC Black

OcarinaWind ocarinas are extremely inconsistent as far as quality; some are virtually unplayable. Get this one instead; you won't regret it.

A ceramic ocarina of this quality would probably cost you upwards of 80-100 USD. You won't find better value for money, I've paid a lot more for worse sounding instruments---Like STL's Water Ocarina; beautiful instrument but mediocre low and high notes and awkward to cover holes

I've purchased two, one is a plastic Night by Noble:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008WYNVAW/

which is the one I'd recommend over the other, a clay one, some dragon-tooth shaped thing that sounds OK, not as good as the plastic one.

If I had to buy another, I'd go with clay, though. The plastic one collects moisture faster, requires draining much faster.

Here is a video from Kissing88 about OcarinaWind instruments

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I would recommend either one of the following ocarinas as a beginner instrument. They are plastic but still have an excellent sound and will be more durable than a ceramic ocarina. These are also demonstrated in the video I linked above.

Night By Noble Plastic Ocarina AC Black - $36.86

Legend of Zelda Inspired 12 Hole Ocarina – Alto C by Focalink - $24.95

The NIGHT by Noble requires less breath and will therefore be easier for a beginner to get started on.

Is there some limited availability in Canada or shipping restrictions or something?


Something like this perhaps?
https://www.amazon.ca/Night-Noble-Plastic-Ocarina-Black/dp/B008WYNVAW/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=night+by+noble&qid=1574313098&sr=8-1


The Night by Noble is good for most levels of play, I believe. It is really good quality and has great sound.
I have one and use it myself.

The ocarina. I recommend the Night by Noble plastic and my wife's ocarina method book.

Together they come in for about $50.

EDIT: oh yeah there's also /r/ocarina

https://www.amazon.ca/Night-Noble-Plastic-Ocarina-Black/dp/B008WYNVAW/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1492671434&sr=8-7&keywords=ocarina

This Night Ocarina is universally regarded as one of the best starter Ocarinas. Easy to play, durable, and has very good sound.

This picture shows the complete range of a standard 12 hole ocarina:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/28/4e/9f/284e9f297206f84309296b20fa56273a.jpg

If you want higher you will need a Double or triple ocarina, which adds additional chambers and mouthpieces to increase the range

The range of a standard 12 hole transverse ocarina will be an octave and a 4th plus an extra three semitones at the bottom end provided by the subholes. Do note that using these notes requires you to slide your fingers over the holes, which greatly limits how fast you can play these notes. There is also a trade-off between the extra range at the bottom of the register and the clarity of the top notes. This can be fixed to some extend by bending your neck to that you're holding the instrument close to your chest. Some ocarinists dislike this and prefer 10 or 11 hole ocarinas instead. Single chamber transverse ocarinas have two slightly different fingering systems, Italian and Asian. Asian style ocarinas have a small left pinky hole and a large right thumb hole, while for Italian style ocarinas, it is the opposite. There are also two different variants with regard to the subholes, Japanese and Taiwanese.

Then we come to multichambered ocarinas. These ocarinas have additional chambers to allow for greater range. The player switches between the chambers by sliding the ocarina between their lips. From personal experience, this can take quite a bit of practice to do fluidly. These ocarinas are also more expensive than single chambered ocarinas. Double ocarinas have two octaves of range while triple ocarinas have two and a half octaves. If they have subholes (and most of the multis I've seen do), you will also have an extra three semi tones at the bottom end of the range. The fingering system on the first chamber is almost identical to a single chambered ocarina. The fingering system on the second chamber may vary somewhat between makers.

Regardless of what ocarina you're playing, there are some fundamentals you should be aware of. Ocarina intonation is very flexible and requires precise breath control to stay in tune. Blow too softly or too strongly and you will bend the pitch flat or sharp. It's possible to bend the pitch by a whole tone or two doing this! A consequence of this is that you will have very limited control of dynamics. No playing loud low notes or quiet high notes. What control is possible is achieved by breath control and hole shading. Different ocarinas may have different breath requirements. High breath ocarinas tend to have steep breath curves and require more skill to control intonation, but allow for more expressive playing. Since breath control is so important, you will want to practice intonation frequently with a chromatic tuner.

Regarding suggested models and makers, there are several that I would recommend. The Night by Noble (NbN) is the number one community recommended ocarina for new players and one of the best plastic ocarinas on the market. Plastic ocarinas are good for getting the hang of your basics since they're inexpensive and you don't have to worry about breaking them while you're learning how to hold the thing (and it does take a bit of practice). These cost around $30-$35. Focalink is a highly regarded producer of ocarinas from Taiwan and produces are large variety of ocarinas. Their western brand name is Stein. Their ocarinas can be purchased directly from them, as well as through Songbird Ocarina. Some of their double and triple ocarinas can also be bought through thomann.de. The ones sold through Songbird have Japanese subholes instead of Taiwanese subholes. STL is another possible option. A lot of their ocarinas have pop culture themes (LoZ included) and many are more about looks than anything else, but all of them should be in tune and playable. The ocarina I would recommend from them is the Aria. It's designed for ergonomics and can be purchased with a black matte finish which makes the subholes easier to use (or a nice looking glaze if your prefer that). There is also a smaller version in G. STL also sells a plastic model, which I've heard is decent. Imperial City Ocarina (ICO) sells possibly the most inexpensive multichambered ceramic ocarinas on the market. A good choice if you're looking for a double or triple ocarina. There is also Hans Rotter, in Austria, who produces a variety of single chambered ocarinas in both Asian and Italian styles. These can be bought through his site or via thomann.de. Mr. Rotter has been gradually working on closing down his business after the unfortunate death of his wife last year, so I'm not sure how much longer he will be selling his ocarinas.

Phew, that was a wall of text. I hope this is helpful to you!

Links:

Night by Noble: https://www.amazon.com/Night-Noble-Plastic-Ocarina-Black/dp/B008WYNVAW

Focalink/Stein: http://www.steinocarina.com/

Songbird Ocarina: https://www.songbirdocarina.com/collections/for-professionals

Imperial City Ocarina: https://www.imperialcityocarina.com/

STL Aria: https://www.stlocarina.com/aria.html

Hans Rotter: http://ocarinashop.com/epages/ncs24972088.sf/en_US/?ObjectPath=/Shops/4972088/Categories

Thomann: https://www.thomann.de/gb/ocarinas.html?viewMode=block

I wouldn't really recommend starting out with a soprano C anyway, unless you were desperate to spend less money. Here is the alto version from Amazon. I'm not sure if that will help you out.

Osawa Alto C ocarina

With a little looking you could find the soprano one on Amazon as well.

Amazon also has the Night by Noble

Night by Noble

You can also buy the Focalink/Stein ocarinas from Songbird Ocarina if that will help with shipping.

The single chamber plastic ocarinas from STL Ocarina are also some of the cheapest decent twelve hole ocarinas you can get.

I don't know how shipping from these various US ocarina stores will work out for you.

en el foro de ocarinas me recomiendan esta https://www.amazon.es/Night-Noble-AC-Ocarina-pl%C3%A1stico/dp/B008WYNVAW, pero es de plastico :c

I'd recommend the Night by Noble over almost anything else plastic I've tried. Good tone, even scale, good intonation, and virtually none of the condensations problems that are the bane of pretty much any other plastic ocarina.

I noticed on a few of the amazon ocarinas there's a guy that's posted mini-review videos in the comment sections. He really liked the Noble.. I'm just iffy about spending $30 on a piece of plastic (or 25 on the bravura). Did you look at the noble one too?

I must say that Night by Noble seems to be very interesting. I am reading about it and can only find positive comments. I will calm down before moving to more advanced stuff :p

Is there any site (except Amazon) where I can purchase it?

PS.: I am excluding Amazon because we have a weird tax policy here in Brazil. Taxes are huge but products below $100 are not taxed. Amazon always consider an importing fee even if the price is below $100.

For example, this ocarina:

https://www.amazon.com/Night-Noble-Plastic-Ocarina-Black/dp/B008WYNVAW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495573040&sr=8-1&keywords=night+noble

Will cost for me $81.60 => 33.50+ 8.32(ship) + 39.72(estimated import fee)

Such a pain!