April was a busy month developing three new Uilleann piping related apps for the iPad. The iPad supports up to 10 simultaneous touches (compared to the 5 on the iPhone/iPod Touch), so building full chanter emulation apps is now possible.
Uilleann and Uilleann-B - Concert-pitch and flat-set chanter/drones:
Website:
http://www.tradlessons.com/Uilleann.html
Main screen for both apps. In this image all the side control touch panels (octave, back-D, closed-chanter, pitch bend) are shown activated, closed chanter holes are highlighted in green while playing:
Help screen is displayed when the iPad is rotated to Portrait orientation:
The fingerings shown are just a tiny subset of those available in the app. All 127 possible fingerings on the chanter are mapped to sensible choices that will be familiar to both pipers, whistle, and flute players.
Uilleann Demo Video: "The Trip We Took Over the Mountain"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFRzjlXa-vA
Uilleann-B Demo Video: "An Phis Fhliuch"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uuC1sDJA6U
The drone chorus effect enabled in the Uilleann demo can be toggled on/off by touching the drone image on the help screen.
AirPipes - WiFi-based wireless MIDI Uilleann Pipes control surface for the iPad:
This app allows an Uilleann piper to play a software VST instrument or hardware MIDI synthesizer connected to a PC or Mac using the iPad as a wireless controller.
Supports individual MIDI channels for the drones and chanter, with individual volume and velocity controls. Pitch for either may be individually transposed up to one octave up or down in semitone increments.
Website:
http://www.tradlessons.com/AirPipes.html
Images:
Main screen showing MIDI settings sliders, closed holes get highlighted in green while playing:
AirPipes Demo video: "The Trip We Took Over the Mountain"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d67HuP-jY2c
All three of the apps are played identically:
To play the chanter, place your fingers over the holes on the two halves of the chanter. The left side represents the "top" hand, the right side is the "bottom" hand.
Touch the drone puck to start/stop the drones.
Touch the green bar on the left side with your left little finger to play the notes one octave higher. The full chromatic range of the instrument from bottom to 3rd octave D is available.
Touch the blue bar at the bottom left center with your left thumb to play the second octave "Back-D" selectable on either a press or release.
Touch the red bar at the bottom right center with your right thumb to stop the chanter sound for staccato techniques.
Touch the purple bar on the lower right with your right little finger to bend the pitch or play finger vibrato. The middle finger of the right hand can also be used for finger vibrato on many notes.
Rotate the iPad to Portrait orientation to see the fingering chart. Rotate back to Landscape orientation to play.
On the fingering chart, you may touch the blue Back-D bar image to toggle between whether the bar on the main screen plays the second-octave D note on a touch (default) or release (as would be the case on a real chanter).
Also on the fingering chart, you may toggle between "Loose" and "Strict" closed chanter modes by touching the red bar. "Loose" closed chanter mode (default) stops the sound whenever the red bar is pressed on the main screen. "Strict" mode only stops the sound when the red bar is pressed and all the holes are covered and matches the real chanter. This mode is used for staccato piping techniques. When in "Strict" mode on the acoustic apps sample attacks are adjust to be faster when single holes are uncovered.
Cheers and thanks!
Michael
