One of the biggest detriments to the public perception of the ocarina is that the most accessible ocarinas on Amazon are generally… bad. Two years ago, I sought to help prevent people from purchasing the unavoidable, cheap, out of tune Ocarina of Time replicas on Amazon, and nearly 100,000 views later, maybe I’ve succeeded.
However, these replicas, what many call the Ocarina of Crap, aren’t the only cheap instruments on Amazon. With brands like Ocarina Wind offering highly-reviewed ceramic ocarinas for under $30, are these just another scam, or are they worthwhile instruments?
Today, I’ll be investigating many cheap ocarinas from Amazon, mainly from the vendor everyone sees: OcarinaWind.
Are any of these vendors legit?
Would I recommend any of their instruments?
…or will I have the same result as last time?
Find out all this and more! I’ve purchased 7 ocarinas from these vendors on Amazon, and we’ll see which are worthwhile and which to avoid. Let’s get started.
The Roundup
All of these ocarinas are 12 holes in the key of Alto C. I have a $27 ceramic one from awef, a $19 ceramic one from ZRAGEK, a $15 plastic one from Woodi, two ceramics from OcarinaWind ranging from $20-24, and two Ocarina of Time replicas from OcarinaWind, a $12 plastic, and a $17 ceramic.
I have affiliate links in the description for each of them, should you want to try any yourself, though wait until the end of the video before clicking ANY of them. Some, you might not want.
All The Single-Samples
awef’s $27 Ceramic Woodfire Style Alto C
We’ll start with awef.
Review:
- Tuning: Good!
- Breath Pressure: Low
- Tone Quality: Good!
- Ergonomics: A bit non-standard but not an issue
- Aesthetics: Good except for a visible seam
DO I RECOMMEND: It don’t not recommend it, but there are better ocarinas.
ZRAGEK’s $19 Porcelain Style Alto C
Next up, the ceramic from ZRAGEK.
Review:
- Tuning: Good!
- Breath Pressure: Medium
- Tone Quality: Good!
- Ergonomics: Normal!
- Aesthetics: Very pretty, except for the visible seam on the bottom
DO I RECOMMEND: Yes, this is the best one I tried, but I might have gotten lucky with the quality control. I had a good experience, but buy at your own risk.
Is Woodi’s $15 Wood-looking Plastic Any Good?
Last before we get to Ocarina Wind, the plastic from Woodi.
Review:
- Tuning: Bad—and you can’t even “hit” the high notes unless you lower your breath pressure so much they’re out of tune
- Breath Pressure: Inconsistent, not good.
- Tone Quality: Airy, bad.
- Ergonomics: Cramped—my right pinky finger
- Aesthetics: The wood-looking plastic was interesting, and that’s about the only good thing I can say about this ocarina
DO I RECOMMEND: No. It’s a bad ocarina.
Aside from the Woodi, I was pleasantly surprised with the ceramics. They were in tune, sounded good, and were outrageously affordable. I certainly might have gotten lucky, and they may have issues with consistensy as many cheap ocarinas do, but I was shocked that they simply didn’t have any glaring issues. The ergonomics were a bit wonky, but that can simply be attirbuted to my muscle memory being built on different ocarinas.
The Ocarinas Wind
Strawfired Up for $24
Review:
- Tuning: Good, but felt a little inconsistent
- Breath Pressure: Low, and overblowing high notes results in squeaking—the high notes have an unnatural breath curve and, for most people, require using the acute bend technique to play clearly.
- Tone Quality: Good, but a bit airy and not stellar.
- Ergonomics: Good! No problems.
- Aesthetics: Pretty! But too dark to see the strawfire details well.
DO I RECOMMEND: No. Sqeaky high notes are a problem.
It’s worth noting that this ocarina and the awef ocarina are very similarly built, of similar quality, and came in nearly identical packaging. It’s possible they might be different companies shopping from the same vendor.
Toot of the $20 Dragon Tooth
Review:
- Tuning: Okay, but breath pressure inconsistencies make it hard to play in tune.
- Breath Pressure: Very low for low notes, very high for high notes. This makes it very easy to be sharp on low notes and flat on high notes, making the ocarina very out of tune. The breath pressure curve is unnatural and bad.
- Tone Quality: Decent, but the tuning issues caused by unnatural breath pressure really ruin the instrument for me.
- Ergonomics: No problem
- Aesthetics: It’s pretty, but a pretty instrument can still be bad.
DO I RECOMMEND: No. Unnatural breath curve and mediocre tuning make this a bad choice.
The Zelda Replicas
Ceramic… at the low price of $17
Maybe this Ocarina of Time isn’t an Ccarina of Crap?
Review:
- Tuning: Some notes simply out of tune on top of the same tuning problem as the dragon tooth caused by breath pressure.
- Breath Pressure: Same problem as the dragon tooth. Unnatural curve means low notes are easy to make sharp and high notes are easy to make flat.
- Tone Quality: Airy, not great.
- Ergonomics: Not one of its many problems.
- Aesthetics: Too dark a shade of blue to be an accurate Ocarina of Time replica.
DO I RECOMMEND: Absolutely not, but it’s better than many Ocarinas of Crap
Welp, it’s not in tune. It’s an Ocarina of Crap. Don’t get this one. Next.
Will the $12 Plastic Ocarina of Time Fare Better?
My expectations are on the floor, let’s hope they don’t go lower.
Review:
- Tuning: In tune!
- Breath Pressure: Medium with a natural curve
- Tone Quality: Airy—not great
- Ergonomics: No problems
- Aesthetics: It’s the right shade of blue!
DO I RECOMMEND: Yes, at least for the price. It isn’t usable for performance, but it’s in tune and natural to play. There are many far superior plastic ocarinas foir just $10-20 more, so I would recommend those instead.
It’s not great—it’s not good even, but it’s better than the ceramic ones from ocarina wind and actually could be used.
Is OcarinaWind (or any Amazon Vendor) Legit?
While I got some okay instruments from OcarinaWind, their ceramic Ocarina of Time replica was basically trash. On that note, aside from airiness, the plastic one outperformed all the ceramics I got from them. The fact that they even considered including such low quality ocarinas in their selection leads me to infer that they don’t care much about quality control or consistensy, even if they have some decent instruments in there. Just one piece of crap makes the entire shop stink—even if there are worthwhile instruments at OcarinaWind, I simply can’t trust them if their quality control won’t rule out unplayable ocarinas.
To complicate matters more, OcarinaWind has shady Amazon practices. The Ceramic Ocarina of Time that I bought is listed as unavailable, yet they have another listing of the same instrument for the same price. The listing name is different, and the number of reviews are different. This leads me to believe OcarinaWind is doing something shady on Amazon—maybe they make a model unavailable while they prune bad reviews or artificially inflate it with good ones, re-directing traffic to a different listing with more positive reviews? The point is, because of potentially shady business practices on top of mediocre-at-best instruments, I recommend that you do not purchase from OcarinaWind. I don’t want to discount good experiences folks have had with OcarinaWind, but as it stands, I will not purchase from them again, and I urge others to be careful if they even consider doing so.
Awef and ZRAGEK also profided good instruments, but it’s too small of a sample size to say I’d wholeheartedly recommend them—what if I got lucky, and they have quality control issues as well? That said, Awef and ZRAGEK had the only ceramic ocarinas in this review that I might actually recommend, but your experience may be different.
The Verdict: Would I Recommend Any of These?
Yes and no. I was surprised at how good some of these inexpensive ocarinas are (from Awef and Zragek), but I strongly believe it’s best to support reliable vendors and makers like Songbird, Imperial City, STL, Luna Celta, Night, and the like.
That said, if you’re looking to try a ceramic Ocarina and don’t have a high budget, I offer two options:
- Save your money until you can afford an instrument from a reliable vendor—among these vendors, Imperial City is the generally most affordable
- If not, buy one of the ocarinas I rated highly today! Again, affiliate links in the description
And if you’re in the market for a plastic ocarina, either get the ever-reliable Night by Noble or try a Mountain Ocarina! They’re back, and they’re great. Once again, affiliate links in the description.
Amazon Does Have Good Ocarinas, but…
Unless you know where to look, don’t browse Amazon for ocarinas. Ocarinas are an amazing instrument, and it hurts to see so many people think they are the problem when it’s actually a poorly made instrument. There were some surprisingly good instruments among the cheap ceramics I tried, but I’d wager that these are the exception rather than the norm.
Support reliable ocarina vendors—they’re the lifeblood of the ocarina community. And if you musy use Amazon to buy an ocarina, always, always make sure it’s from a reliable brand. Buy from Night, Mountain, Songbird, STL, one of those brands. Otherwise you’re gambling your money away on an instrument that might not work.
This all said, I want to help people on their ocarina journeys! If you’re only curious and haven’t bought one yet, read my post listing 7 reasons to buy one. If that doesn’t convince you, I’ll CRY.
Andy Cormier 