Woodstock DCS17 Encore Collection Silver Chimes of Mars Windchime

I use wind chimes not in the standard way (I live in a small flat in a social housing scheme), but I take them out to wild places and make professional grade recordings of natural soundscapes including the wind chimes. The Chimes of Mars were among the three different really small and light sets of chimes that I bought in the spring of 2013 to take out on some of my Cornwall coast path hikes, to suspend on tripods on clifftops so that I could have the chimes sounds in soundscapes of often really interesting and sometimes dramatic sea action. The Mars chimes are actually the next-to-smallest / highest-pitched of those that I bought. To my ears they are getting close to as high as a set of chimes could go while one would still be able to clearly hear and differentiate between the pitches of each note. Go anything much higher and one would hear rather undifferentiated tinklings. Their sound is more penetrating and 'carrying' than that of various other similar-size Woodstock chimes, apparently because the walls of their tubes are a little thicker relative to their diameter - which can be an advantage or a nuisance, depending on one's own situation. For my purposes I put the small chimes relatively close to the recorder and the larger ones further back, in order to get a good balance, but the Mars chimes always need to be a bit further back than the Mercury or rather larger Polaris chimes. The tuning of these chimes is to a really strange scale, which you may or may not like. I wasn't too sure of it myself at first, but it did actually come out with a strange beauty all of its own in the various clifftop soundscapes that I recorded. It also made an incredibly beautiful and musical combination with any of the pentatonic chimes, such as the Woodstock Pluto, Polaris and Mercury chimes. The only thing is that these bronze chimes are rather shrill toned. If I'd wanted the Mars chimes for more normal use I would have chosen the silver finish version, for that finish has a smoother and more refined tone. However, I deliberately chose the bronze finish version of this and the Mercury chimes in order to have some variety of tone in my chimes ensemble recordings - and I think that worked extremely well. Actually I have made available a lot of CDs of my 'Wind Chimes in the Wild' series, which include Cornish clifftop recordings some of which use the Mars chimes - all of which you can find if you Google "philip goddard e-store" (not in quotes).

The sound these chimes make is crystal clear and very tuneful but I want to mention that they are tuned to a minor key. If you know the song "The Rains of Castermere" then you will get a better idea of my meaning as these chimes hit almost all those notes. That is something I would have liked to know before I bought these chimes so I thought I might pass that tidbit on. Now, it's not unpleasant but I think I would have preferred something a bit more upbeat in my garden rather than the Theme to the Red Wedding! That said, it is a beautiful sound - almost ethereal - and I won't be returning the chimes. They are sturdy and well made so it looks like I'm going to be pottering around in my garden whilst humming in the minor key for a long time to come!

Beautiful chime wonderful sound like harps of angels . Lovely quality perfect size and price what not to like. I rarely write reviews but bought this gift for my recent birthday highly recommend buying your own gifts I adore it

We have a few windows that we open at home which are still without wind chimes so we have about 6 or 7 now and always looking for another one. Thankfully these days you can usually find previews of the chime sounds online to give an impression of what you will hear (in a decent breeze, at least). I tend to prefer larger chimes and usually rate smaller ones less highly simply because they can all start sounding alike at the smaller sizes (the longest tube on this one is 7 inches, but we have others with longest tubes at 15 inches that produce nice comparatively deep resonant tones). The length of the tube influences the harmonics that it can produce. So, for me, buying a smaller chime becomes more of an exercise in colour matching! Having said that, the bronze tubes seem to be slightly mellower than silver tubes, slightly less bright-sounding, but at these sizes that difference is small. The Amazon description for some reason says 6 tubes, but the chime is pentatonic (5 tones) and therefore has 5 tubes. Larger chimes will also have room for more tubes, and our two largest chimes cover an octave (8 tubes, obviously) which does wonders for the variety of tones and chords the chime can produce. For a nice background sound, all chimes work for me, and as a small 5-tube chime, this is amongst the best, since Woodstock make efforts to tune their tubes and create pleasant harmonious chimes as opposed to some of the nasty discordant ones you can still find if you look hard enough.

Beautiful chime, good quality. I bought this as a memorial to my little doggy that I lost.

These are lovely and so well made (also come with instructions on how to care for them which was helpful). If you want a beautiful melodic chime then these are for you. Was going to put them outside, but have placed them just inside the front door and tinkle them when I come in - my two dogs come running - they really like the soft sound - it's like the chimes play a gentle tune! To anyone that prefers a loud clangy chime they should stick to the cheap type. These are absolute quality. Am going to buy a couple more Woodstock chimes for outside.

Woodstock chimes are really the best I've heard, this is my 4th one! More expensive than most but they are made so they play a tune rather than a clang and they last a very long time. You can go online and listen to a sound room so you can hear what tunes you like then do a search on Amazon to buy the one you prefer. If you want lovely tunes in your garden, then I would definitely recommend Woodstock Chimes. The Mars chime is quite high and delicate sounding... I love it and want Pluto next! 👽👍🏻

lo trovo davvero bello e piacevole da ascoltare nella brezza; forse il pallino di legno centrale che fa da percussore avrebbe potuto essere un po' più grande in modo che possa risuonare più spesso, ma essendo facile provvedere autonomamente non è certo questo un difetto.

Yes, it is small, almost delicate-looking, but it is very pretty, both visually and auditorily. I don't know what other reviewers mean about the chimes needing a strong breeze to work. I hung mine at the back stoop, which is protected under a metal awning. They still need only a soft breeze to quietly, peacefully chime. In a stronger breeze, all the chimes are rung for several seconds and then fade away. I like the difference in tone and loudness with different "breeze strength". This is my first set of chimes from Woodstock, and I'm impressed by the quality difference that tuning seems to make. None of the tinkly, sometimes irritating quality of ordinary cheap wind chimes. I can't say I know the difference between Mars, Pluto, and Earth ones, but my Mars chime really does sound like music. I'm happy with my purchase and would consider buying a larger, more expensive Woodstock chime in the future for another spot. Definitely worth the money.

dzwonki przy średnim wietrze nie dzwonią :(

J'ai mis ce petit carillon à l'extérieur accroché à ma tonnelle. Il tinte au moindre petit vent et produit un son très mélodieux. Il n'est pas grand donc distrait et souvent les gens ne le remarquent pas sauf quant il tintinabule.

Bellissimo colore, suono melodioso, cercavo proprio qualcosa di rilassante e meditativo ed è questo il caso. Non è troppo grande il che lo rende perfetto per il mio albero di mandarini, nello stesso tempo spicca per questo colore molto bello; mi piace che il Wind catcher sia staccabile e personalizzabile, ho delle idee in mente! Molto soddisfatta del mio acquisto