I’m looking for a MIDI (or synthesizer) wind controller (instrument) that plays whistle fingering. I’ve seen the Yamaha WX5 played live and it’s WAY more complex than I’d want.
http://www.yamaha.com/dmi/products/wx5/
Though pricy ($500-600) It does a great job for a saxophone (or flute) player looking to extend their instrument arsenal.
In addition to the MIDI support, it has built in sounds that can be connected directly to headphones for silent practice or any music amplifier for live performance without using the MIDI support.
I briefly scanned the archives and found some talk about electronic bagpipe practice chanters, which are closer to to the idea, though not much cheaper than the WX5.
Has anone tried the WX5?
Yes… PLEASE someone make an electronic practice whistle. I’m tired of watching the “in flight” movie and “Sky Mall” get’s old after the 20th read!
Man…talk about Futeristic
Dan
I’ve tried the WX5/7/11 plus the more expensive AKAI EWI 3020. The WX5 plus VL70M combination is very good.
Main difference is the WX5 has moving keywork whereas the EWI3020 has touch sensitive keys. In both instances, though, they are not terribly portable (WX5 is much more portable than the EWI, which is attached to a 2U boat anchor).
The biggest problem with all these instruments is that many of the techniques which you use on your whistle simply don’t work the same way, so much of your fingerwork is wasted. However, if you are interested in using one for it’s own sake, I must say that they are incredibly fun to play. Michael Brecker plays one a lot (the AKAI). If you want to hear what can be done with one check out his first solo album “Michael Brecker”.
Richard
Hi!
Don’t know about midi whistles but I’ve played the techno chanter by fagerstrom
quite a bit. Great fun when you commute to work. Even if you don’t plan to pic up on piping it’s a good way to practice ornamentations such as cuts, taps, rolls and crans. Even though the fingering is a bit different I’ve found that my whistle playing also improved.
Take a look:
http://members01.chello.se/technochanter/</a](http://members01.chello.se/technochanter"><b>http://members01.chello.se/technochanter/</b></a)>
STIFF WINGS!
/MR
MR… that’s close to what I’m looking for. I suppose if enough whistle players contact a manufacturer of electronic bagpipes they might produce a model for whistle.
I just sent off an email to the technochanter people asking if they would consider making an electronic whistle. I for one would love to have such a beast as I can never seem to find the opportunity to practice far away from other people.
I’ll post back when I get a reply.
[ This Message was edited by: IguanaGuy on 2002-02-06 08:15 ]
On the whistle side, there was a post on the old board in May 2001. It was about the CyberWhistle. It used optical sensors of some sort to determine the pitch of the note. It was really nifty. If it wasn’t $1,100.00 U.S., I may have been interested. I found the URL for the post on Google. Here is the discussion topic from Coolboard.
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/archive/whistle/50/94383343341381.html
Dylan’s web page has changed and has only broken links. His web address is:
http://205.188.247.10/dylanmenzies
But there is no use going there if the linkes are broke.
His e-mail address is:
dylan.menzies@bigfoot.com
I think the best post on this was as follows:
At 05/19/01 9:33 PM, dbingamon wrote on coolboard:
RE: RE: CyberwhistleI have a Yamaha Wind Controller. One of these days, I’m going to figure out how to sample with this Virtual Acoustic Tone Generator.
I remember reading about the cyberwhistle, but it doesn’t use sampling. Interesting though the use of Cadmuim Sulfide cells to calculate the amount of light block by fingers to simulates hole shading. This is something that expensive wind controllers don’t have. (But we do have a pitch bend contoller on the WX-5’s.)
What’s really amazing is thinking about the $1100 bucks to emulate a $10 whistle.
Here’s my latest…
From: Anders Fagerström <technochanter@chello.se>
To: “Michael Harrison” <michaelh@dragonseye.com>
Subject: SV: Electronic whistle?
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2002 21:45:10 +0100
Hi Michael!
Thanks for your mail. Your idea is really quite interesting. I’ve received
similar suggestions about making a chanter for the Irish pipes. The problem
as I see it is the same with both these instruments, namely the need for a
pressure sensor to be able to switch octaves. As I understand you sometimes
play the same fingering for a note in different octaves, so you need to tell
them apart somehow. The highland pipes only plays at a constant pressure so
I haven’t bothered to put a sensor in my chanter.
There’s also the issue with the half covered holes in the whistle fingering.
That’s a major problem. I understand from the wonderfully instructive and
funny
webpage Chiff and Fipple that there are alternative ways of fingering that
perhaps might work instead of the half covering of holes.
If I were to come up with a solution to the pressure sensor problem, where
do
you think it should be placed? At the end of the tube to mimic the
whistle…?
I’m not so sure … can you see yourself on an airplane silently fiddling
with a piece of plastic tube having one of its ends in your mouth? That
would
look a bit stupid to say the least. This is a tough one.
It would be interesting to hear any ideas you, or others, might have.
Regards,
Anders.
and my reply…
The pressure sensor could be placed in an imitation fipple at the top of the instrument. I certainly wouldn’t feel odd practicing in public since I’d be wearing headphones (and thereby showing other people that I’m probably doing something other than just messing with a plastic tube 
)
I don’t have any suggestions for half-holing other than what another manufacturer has done. Use cadmium sulfide cells rather than electrical connections and vary the tone according to the light reaching the cell. Unfortunately that other manufacturer apparently sold their instrument for something like $1000. That’s a bit of a jump from $10 or $50 to $1000 just for a practice instrument.
Guys… thanks for the research. The complexities of digitally reproducing a $4 whistle sure got out of control.
I suppose if I pursue this, I would purchase the WX5 and ‘accept it’ for the instrument it is.
[ This Message was edited by: Tony on 2002-02-08 08:04 ]
More Info…
Reply-To: <technochanter@chello.se>
From: Anders Fagerström <technochanter@chello.se>
To: “Michael Harrison” <michaelh@dragonseye.com>
Subject: SV: SV: Electronic whistle?
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 18:01:20 +0100
Michael,
Thanks for your reply.
Regarding the pressure sensor, it might be possible to hook the chanter up
to a
Yamaha BC3 breath controller (at $79.99 at some website I saw). That would
make
the total price some $80 + £245 which is still quite steep compared to “the
real
thing” you would get for $10. I’ll have to look into designing my own
imitation
fipple as per your suggestion.
Now, is half-holing an absolute requirement? If so, I’m afraid it would mean
a major
investment, and would probably make the whistle much more expensive.
Regards,
Anders
And another reply…
Half-holing isn’t a requirement for me but others may feel differently. My guess would be that if one is doing a lot of half-holing, you probably have a place away from people to practice in and don’t need technology to solve that problem.
btw, I’m also keeping the Chiff members updated, so they may also chime in.
IguanaGuy,
Here’s a thought for ‘half-holed’ notes. Instead of using pressure or light sensitive switches that send variable signals to the onboard computer or device controller, two semi-circular switches could be placed side-by-side. When you lift your finger slightly then only one of the two connections is made. This might get complicated in actual placement or angle of the switches as some might ‘roll a finger up’ instead of lifting (or just pressing) from the side. But it’s a possible, less expensive solution to half holed notes.