Welp, I’ve finally come to the conclusion that even my quietest whistle is too loud for our household. My GHPs are too loud for our neighborhood. I’ve started researching electronic pipes. I searched the archives and didn’t find much.
Does anybody out there have experience with any of them? So far I’ve been able to uncover three brands; Deger, Fagerstrom and Ross (all carried by songsea.com). Are there others out there?
Thoughts and opinions are welcome. Thanks in advance,
Eric
http://home.inreach.com/tmcvey/macp.htm
-Try this URL for the MacPipe sales pitch-they’re expensive but some features distinguish them from the others. -I’m not a piper, and have no experience with these or others- but am intrigued.
Brian O.
[ This Message was edited by: brianormond on 2002-10-24 23:55 ]
[ This Message was edited by: brianormond on 2002-10-24 23:56 ]
I’m sure there’s no money and thus no incentive in it - but wouldn’t it be cool if someone would develop an electronic whistle that could be piped through a headset when you wanted to play without bothering anyone else?
Chuck,
One of the guys in my Mom’s band has a midi clarinet, or at least that is what it looks like! It works just the way you are suggesting, it can be heard with an amp or through head phones. You can also assign different sounds to it like you do a keyboard. You blow it and use finger positions. Strange eh?
Sandy
Sandy, the midi clarinet sounds interesting. By the way, didn’t I read somewhere that you were working on a whistle chanter? How is that coming? I’m really on the edge of my seat!
Brian, I checked out the links and it looks very interesting. I’ve added it to my “research” project.
Chuck, I think it would be col too, to have an electronic whistle. Check out http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?topic=2474&forum=1 for an interesting conversation about it.
If it’s a midi device, or an elctronic device of any sort, don’t have high expectations of it sounding like a real bagpipe or whistle or anything else you get by flicking a switch. It might do so, but the good things tend to be costly.
I have a bagpipe patch on my synth. I decided to record something using that sound in the mix. I played a slow air I’d composed myself through twice just on guitar with overdubbed whistle. Then the second time through I overdubbed synthetic pipes doubling the melody. I played it for a couple of people. First time through they said, ‘that’s nice’, then when digitipipes came in they said ‘what the hell is that!!!’ I got the message.
Now, if you just want something that’s silent for practicing and sounds enough like the real thing for you to tell if you’re getting the notes right or wrong, there’s no harm in that at all.
you might give parlour pipes or small pipes a try first . They’re much quieter than GHB. you can even play them in a Celtic jam/session. just my 2 cents 
Phiz
Sandy didst scribe…
“One of the guys in my Mom’s band has a midi clarinet, or at least that is what it looks like! It works just the way you are suggesting, it can be heard with an amp or through head phones. You can also assign different sounds to it like you do a keyboard. You blow it and use finger positions”
It sounds (pun) like a Digital Horn, made by Casio.
It looks like a little clarinet, and has 8 different voices. You can also put in a ROM pack and it will play different backing tracks.
There used to be a complete school band equiped with these from Wolverhampton in the UK.
Dunno if they are still made, but used to cost around £70 in the mid '80’s.
The MACPipes look just like the Ross.
Eric and I have already exchanged posts about this. Essentially the Deger looks and has the weight and balance of a practice chanter. This is easier on the hands since you don’t have to do any balancing acts while you play. The tone is better from my experience on others. Plus it uses just a 9-volt battery which is handy. And not only can you amp it and put headphones on it, you can connect to your computer to make Midi files. It’s a bit pricier than the others but like I told Eric, it’s the most like an instrument and the least like a toy than the others.
Cheers,
Aaron
We have come accross an electronic bagpipe made by Hevia last year at a festival. It is quite expensive though if I remember right it was about $6000,–. From what I understood you could play different bagpipes simulations with it so in the term of being flexible and having an all-in-one-set it was really interesting just the “empty-purse-factor” may be a problem at that price range. It sounded great even the player just had received it at that time and was not really used to it. It also looked very nice.
The only thing about it is that I have never seen in advertised by someone so I presume you can only get info direct from Hevia.
Hope this helps
Brigitte
P.S. Deger is based in Germany and does also work with musicians direct.
I was the one who started that older topic about MIDI wind instruments. My research led to Yamaha and Akai producing some very sophisticated wind controllers costing upwards of $2,000… Hardly the right instrument to replace (or emulate) a simple $4 whistle.
Though not today, someday we may see a self contained electronic whistle for less than a high end wooden one.
I have the Ross pipes, and have a lot of fun with them. They are by no means ‘real’ pipes in any way other than the fingering and a bit of the sound. They shouldn’t be considered as ‘practice chanter’ but as an instrument in itself. It is much chunkier than a real chanter, and not balanced, but fairly comfortable to play.
I like that I can set the base pitch and volume, plug in earphones, etc. The set I have automatically drones, but there are fancier ones where you can kill the drones and set the pitch variably.
On another tack, though, if you want a quiet whistle, the Hoover C I just got is extremely quiet. EXTREMELY quiet. It doesn’t suit my purposes at all, and if you’d like to try it, you’re welcomed. Let me know.
On 2002-10-25 01:31, Chuck_Clark wrote:
I’m sure there’s no money and thus no incentive in it - but wouldn’t it be cool if someone would develop an electronic whistle that could be piped through a headset when you wanted to play without bothering anyone else?
Actually, I remember seeing a website a year or so ago with just such a homebrew project. It used a tube with a circuit board inside. Either a gas pressure or velocity sensor, and optical sensors under the holes. I seem to recall that the project used a microcontroller chip but I don’t remember whether the guy was directly driving a synthesizer or if he was using the microcontroller to generate a stream of midi commands.
It looked interesting but awfully complex, and you probably couldn’t get near the expression you can with a $3 Generation. On the other hand, it might be cool to play a “whistle” using other instrument patches…
John
There are a couple of conversations that have taken place about the electronic pipes in the past. I can only talk about the one I have. It is a Deger chanter, purchased by my mother (grade 1 piper) before US companies started to carry them. She got one for herself and one for my dad. The price direct was pretty close to what you pay Song of the Sea or most other retailers.
This chanter is a really nice design. It is the size and shape of a long practice chanter. It also has some features that make it really nice. It has a metronome, drones that can be turned on or off, louder or quieter, volume control overall, it allows for the alternate fingering on C natural, it can be switched between GHB sound and “smallpipe” sound (sounds like a practice chanter) and it is merciless in exposing your fingering flaws.
I use it to practice after the kids are asleep. It works wonderfully for that. I don’t think it is worth the cost of admission just for that, though.
Downsides are: lack of tactile feedback (my mother hardly pays hers, which is why I now have one, she says that if she can’t feel the responsiveness of it, she isn’t really happy with it), no breath needed (you are not building the lip strength you get when you play a PC, also this leads to playing longer than you probably should because the wrists giv out before the lungs, while with the PC, it is usually the other way around), and really there is no way to make it sound like a real bagpipe. Also, nobody else can hear you play. This is a good point or a bad point, depending on what you want.
So, that’s my take on what I believe to be the best electronic chanter on the market. For around the same price, I would get a Walsh shuttle pipe or else one of his smallpipes in D. But, having one on indefinite loan has helped me a lot. It makes it possible to play the chanter when others are asleep.
I just wish I could afford one of Yamaha’s silent violins for my wife to practice fiddle!
-Patrick
Vapour lock
The chanter whistle is coming along quite nicely. I have one ready to send out to a customer, but am reluctant to put them up on the site as I am still finetuning the lowest notes. The biggest challenge left is getting a solid, loud low G. Because the G is in effect an extra note tacked onto the end of the scale, it required the tubing to be longer than a whistle of the same key would be. The size of the holes is an interesting challenge too. I had to move the G note further down the tube that I would prefer but it has to be that way to be big enough to let enough air through to voice properly. Moving the A down to join it makes the A too big! AHAHAHAAAA!!!
Aside from the cursed low G issue, the chanter whistle works great. It has 2 octaves just like a whistle (some notes can be played two ways… high G etc) and is in tune with the bagpipe fingering.
We are revamping the site and will have some pictures of it up in the next week or two.
Sandy
I echo Patrick’s thoughts re: electronic practice pipes. My first thoughts were, you get none of the physicalworkout/ practice necessary for keeping up with pipes.
You really should consider some Walsh shuttlepipes. They are not too loud and have a very pleasing sound that most folks find enjoyable to hear. Along whistle lines, my Laughing Whistle is extremely quiet, I don’t even disturb others if I’m playing in the same room.
-Per inspiration from Phizillip-Here’s a link to the smallpipe page at McGillivray
Piping Partnerships, with sound sample links for the Walsh, Nigel Richard and Fairylore smallpipes.
http://www.piping.on.ca/products/instruments/scotsmall/index.htm
just for newbies, and i know everyone else is aware of this.
to the best of my knowledge, electronic pipes are for a very different repetiore than whistles. they have only 9 notes, and do not do well with irish traditional music. of course, the entire repetiore of the GHB, small pipes, borderpipes and even older northumbrian smallpipe music is open to you, so you will never run out of good music. it is just different.
ditto for scottish smallpipes and shuttle pipes. btw, if a whistler is interested in scottish smallpipes, why not go for the bellow blown kind? the chanter and notes are the same but you learn to manage bellows if you ever want to go to uilleann pipes. in fact, you can from the outset buy a bag and bellows which will be ideal for ups. then you just get a smallpipe chanter and drones, and later go to a up chanter. private message me with any questions.
meir
Thanks for all the replies. Smallpipes or shuttle pipes would be awesome, but the problem is my two year old. She has ears like a bat and when she’s sleeping she is tuned in to any whistle noises at all…they mean “Daddy is awake!! Party time!!” On the other hand, my teenage daughter can bang away on her piano without disturbing her. I have a Hoover narrow bore sop D and a Dixon low D. Both are very quiet. Even stealth blowing (blowing over the top of the windway instead of through the air channel) will wake her up. So something with earphones is a must for afternoon (during nap) and nighttime practice. Looks like I’m gonna save my pennies for a “set” of Deger pipes.
Brian, I visited your link page. Wahoooo!!! They’ve got some fantastic pipes. I really liked the Fairylore Parlor Pipes in D. Have you seen the Gibson Fireside pipes and their Ceilidh pipes? I have a Gibson long practice chanter and it is great. Their Ceilidh pipes really interest me, but I have yet to find any soundclips of them. A whistle is one thing, but I really think it’d be tough to convinve my wife that I need another set of bagpipes, though.
Hmmmm…maybe…
Hey there. I have one of the Ross electronic chanters. I pretty much like it. HOWEVER, if you are actively competing on the bagpipes, i would not recommend it as a practice tool to use for that purpose. Its fun to play stuff on it, and its also good to learn tunes on. Unfortunately there is not a substitute for playing the (real)pipe excecution-wise. If you just play for fun I think you’ll really enjoy it though. Drop me an email if you have any other questions.