Over the thanksgiving break I was able to try out an Electronic practice chanter for bagpipes. Check it out : http://www.deger.com/
Anyone seen anything similar for a whistle? I thought it was pretty cool for quiet practice or learning new tunes.
I saw something on Youtube a while back about electronic uilleann pipes. Look up Vpipes. It’s not a whistle, but the principles are similar.
Hi bigpow5,
I have a possible alternative solution for you. It’s not as whizzy as an electronic whistle, but it is a lot cheaper! If you just want to tone down the volume (or not) but still blow and finger properly, have a look at my “Every” whistle. I hate to toot my own whistle as it were, but as they are fairly new someone else may not point you to them.
Some reviews can be found in the “Every” whistle tour thread at http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=54312 and the web site is http://www.parkswhistles.com
I just (minutes ago) got an e-mail from a customer who has a dB meter, and he says the results are impressive. But I have to Google on dB’s to understand what he said. His goal was to be able to practice in a hotel room, which apparently he can now do.
Cheers,
Carey
(Dale - lemme know if this counts as a CP.)
This has been asked many times. Here’s a few:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=4077
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=2474
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=16839
I’ve been watching for such a thing for about four years now and sadly have never gotten anywhere. have spoken with a few electronic pipes developers who are toying with the idea but if I recall correctly the biggest problems appear to be 1) how to indicate an octave switch, which is done by pressure rather than fingering and 2) how to create distinct notes via the absence of sound. These are issues that don’t come up in pipes but are very important for whistle. Either the problems are too difficult for the pipemakers at this time or the market isn’t worth the expense/effort at this time, because nothing has come of my inquiries.
It might have something to do with the fact that you can get a full set of regular whistles in all keys for less than $100 but the same can’t be said for regular pipes!
Reference my post in http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=46771 … it didn’t generate as much discussion as I’d hoped!
These are issues that don’t come up in pipes
Maybe not in Scottish ones, in Irish pipes they most certainly do.
Thanks for the links to previous discussions. From what I could gather it seems that manufacturers of electronic piping chanters could easily port their existing design to whistle fingering. The only sticking points preventing this are handling 2 octaves and half holing.
I think we are looking at this the wrong way. Do we really want a whistle replacement? No, I think we want something to practice our fingering privately. Why not simply to the point where we are basically the same as the available practice piping chanters ?
Half Holing - Simply do not support this feature for the first iteration. Not everyone uses this technique. This would be a future enhancement requiring some research (semi circle contacts seems like a good place to start).
2 Octaves - This could be implemented by moving a contact from the body to the mouthpiece. Placing your tongue on the contact would switch the midi output to the upper octave, removing would bring back to lower octave.
Seems to me that the product is just about there. The modifications that would need to be done would be :
- create a fake mouthpiece
- move 1 contact from body to mouthpiece
- change logic that creates midi output notes to handle the mouthpiece contact octave shift.
I’m guessing a lot of whistlers would buy a product with those features.
I have to disagree with you here. You’re likely to spend more on this item
than you would on most whistles, so I’d think you would want it to grow
with you. At my stage of whistling, I would want this for practicing my
breath control and ornaments, and for quickly scoring what I play.
Half Holing - Simply do not support this feature for the first iteration. Not everyone uses this technique.
I agree with you here, but the problem avanutria was referring to was
cutting and tapping, which require a break in the sound. I guess you could
just change the type of sampled attack in the MIDI, but it’s still a challange.
2 Octaves - This could be implemented by moving a contact from the body to the mouthpiece. Placing your tongue on the contact would switch the midi output to the upper octave, removing would bring back to lower octave.
I wouldn’t like that at all. I use my tongue for tonguing. To use it for octaves
would confuse me when I went back to whistle.
I’m guessing a lot of whistlers would buy a product with those features.
Maybe. I bet a lot of people who think they’d buy it would balk at a realistic
pricetag.
… Dang. Now you’ve got my mind going again.
The “Every” whislle from Park has a mute function. I don’t own one, but I gather it works well.
Perhaps I’m a minority here but I think such a thing is just a waste of time (and money). No disrespect intended, this is just my solid opinion. Given the fact that the whistle is such a simple instrument, I think such a tool would be way overboard; especially if we’re talking having to learn new techniques (using tongue to change octaves, etc.) in order to “practice” your playing. Practice makes permanent so why would I waste my practice time making my “practice whistle” work only to go back to my real whistle and find that the things I’ve been practicing (tonguing to change octaves, etc.) hardly benefit me when I pick up the real thing.
Given the nature of the thing I can’t imagine any benefit to it other than having a quiet intstrument to practice on (and even that is still pointless in my book). I live in an apartment and simply putting a piece of scotch tape to cover half the window on my Generation has served me just fine at home and in many a hotel room. If you only want to practice fingering and need to keep quiet then only play in the first octave and apply the above mentioned muting rig. As far as intonation goes, there simply is no way to practice this quietly. If there was a way to control the aspects of breath pressure, etc. on this electronic whistle to practice intonation and octave changes then those breath requirements will change when you pick up a different brand of whistle anyways so, again, your “practice” is in vain… so where’s the benefit? I just don’t see it.
The whistles I enjoy playing most are often cheapies so I know my views won’t match with many here. Still, even from a different perspective, the cost of this little invention (as previously mentioned by a few here) will likely be more than most will want to pay. If you don’t enjoy playing cheapies then I’d imagine you’d rather spend money on a Burke, Overton, Copeland, etc. if you had the dough to shell out.
You may be thinking too much inside the box, straycat.
To me, a big benefit of a v-Whistle type device would be not as an ersatz whistle, but as a MIDI whistle controller for people like me whose piano keyboard skills are limited, but who would love an easy and familiar way to 1) Use MIDI input in a notation package like Finale or Sibelius; 2) Control a MIDI synth module for live or recorded performance with patches like strings, bass, bells, etc., easy transposition, and so forth.
(And yes, as a sax player, too, I know that a wind controller would fit the bill if I were really that interested in MIDI.)
Also, MIDI instruments take on a life and character of their own, with their own expanded expressive and sonic possibilities beyond simply imitating the acoustic instrument they’re based on. For example, I’d say a good acoustic piano sound is not the only (or even main) attraction for most MIDI keyboard players.
But I do agree with you that a complex high-tech solution to simulate only approximately what can be done perfectly with a $5 real instrument is a bit silly. 
Dang, now I want to make one just for funsies. I found an air pressure sensor.
Anyone know how the finger sensors work in the vPipes (or similar designs)?
EDIT: Woah! Air pressure sensors are expensive. Holy cow.