My anarchic and inventive (OK, senile) mind just came up with this idea so I thought I’d run it up the Chuff & Fipple flagpole and see if it floats. Probably been done or thought of and rejected as stupid before, but here goes:
I was thinking of how the whistle is an ideal travelling companion, but also of the number of times I’d like to play when only I could hear ('cos my practising is so awful, 'nuff said).
Enter the Whistle Synthesiser:
The same size as a Soprano D this electronic whistle has pressure sensitive fingerpads, and a radio transmitter, so you can play through an amp or direct to earphones while on the move (e.g. in a bus, train, or movie theatre during a dull part of the film). It can be switched to play in any key (high G to ultralow Bb), and course has tasty effects (distortion, echo etc) available. Tone and chiff can be tweaked using the built in dials, sound like a Susato or a Burke Pro, or switch to a panpipes, pipes or flute sound.
Available at all leading whistle outlets, $199.00 says goodbye to heavy whistle bag blues - all the keys in one whistle!
Any takers? Comes in a variety of colours, or a wood finish too!
MCM Transatlantic Whistle Detective Agency - No Case Too Small (terms & conditions apply)- Branches in London & Salt Lake City
[ This Message was edited by: Martin Milner on 2002-05-17 06:30 ]
Do a search through the archives and the current forum. You will find a few discussions on the matter (sorry, there is no new idea) and find links to several folks that have done something similar. There is not, that I know of, currently someone selling them in mass production, however.
Great idea…
We’ve been through this one before.
To have ONE electronic whistle instrument that can change keys and sounds by simply turning a few knobs is a great idea. Currently, there are electronic practice chanters for bagpipes starting around $200US http://www.songsea.com/electronic.html
On the high end of the scale, Yamaha has a MIDI wind controller for around $500US http://www.yamaha.com/dmi/products/wx5/
The Yamaha is primarily designed for a saxophone player.
There’s nothing I know of to truly replicate a $7 whistle… at any price.
[ This Message was edited by: Tony on 2002-05-17 10:40 ]
Wow, that electronic practise chanter is so like what I envisioned it’s uncanny! But I didn’t have the bright idea of incorporating a metronome into the thing too!
Sorry to have brought up an old thread theme, I’ve searched the archives for Synthesiser, Synthesizer and Electronic, to no avail. Just me being duuh I expect.
If Yamaha made whistles, I bet they’d have made this by now. As for the electronic chanter, I can see how a silent bagpipe would be appreciated! And I even got the price about right on a guess!
On 2002-05-17 06:30, Martin Milner wrote:
and a radio transmitter, It can be switched to play in any key, and course has tasty effects (distortion, echo etc) available. Tone and chiff can be tweaked using the built in dials, sound like a Susato or a Burke Pro, or switch to a panpipes, pipes or flute sound.
Just out of curiosity, how are you gonna fit all those “bells and whistles” on a little whistle? Seems like it’d be kinda bulky to me.
A Whistling Southpaw (and proud of it!)
[ This Message was edited by: WhistlingSouthpaw on 2002-05-17 10:43 ]
Just out of curiosity, how are you gonna fit all those “bells and whistles” on a little whistle? Seems like it’d be kinda bulky to me.
A Whistling Southpaw (and proud of it!)
[ This Message was edited by: WhistlingSouthpaw on 2002-05-17 10:43 ]
Gonna fit my whistle with a whistle? Ha!
That’s the beauty of being the inventor, I can leave that problem to the technicians.
Actually, I had two approaches. First, with modern Japanese advances in miniaturised electronics, I figured they’d get all that stuff in with room to spare. Very small dials, that’s the secret.
The second idea was to have the electronic whistle acting as a radio mike, and the bells and whistles fitting into a remote box, which you could use on stage or when performing, plugging it into an amp. For silent travel playing, your earphones would plug straight into the whistle, and you might have to do without the reverb!
I was really thinking of this as being good for tune practise, and Tony’s chanter looks ideal; I can’t believe it so simolar to my idea.
Martin, I love your idea but I think you’re making it too complex for the moment! If you’re serious about trying to develop something, I would avoid the echo adn reverb and such. I would include some sort of dial for the key, perhaps located on the bottom side of the whistle, opposite the fipple. Make it a single volume because there are inexpensive headphones out there with volume controls on the headphone wires themselves.
I think that with the C&F community we could find enough people with the knowledge or initiative to develop something on a small scale. I’d be willing to help on the mechanical side but I would need someone who knows electronics and how to produce the tones.
On 2002-05-17 11:14, avanutria wrote:
Martin, I love your idea but I think you’re making it too complex for the moment! If you’re serious about trying to develop something, I would avoid the echo adn reverb and such. I would include some sort of dial for the key, perhaps located on the bottom side of the whistle, opposite the fipple. Make it a single volume because there are inexpensive headphones out there with volume controls on the headphone wires themselves.
I think that with the C&F community we could find enough people with the knowledge or initiative to develop something on a small scale. I’d be willing to help on the mechanical side but I would need someone who knows electronics and how to produce the tones.
Hi Beth,
Actually at this stage the idea was, dare I say it, a pipe dream*. However, knowing the talents & general handydandyness of many the members of the board, especially those who make their own whistles, I fully expect a working prototype to be gracing Dale’s in tray within the week.
For myself, I have trouble changing a lightbulb, let alone building stuff and that.
Pipe dream - a daydream (originally while smoking a pipe) in which with a shimmy here, and a shake there, I cure cancer, solve the third world food shortage, pay off the national debt, and discover the one gizmo that the whistling world has been waiting for that will make me rich, RICH I TELL YOU, hahahahaha. Then my boss rings me to ask where the month end sales figures are, and it all vanishes in a puff of reality as I stare out the grimy window at the litter blowing down a deserted London street. Sigh.
Back when this stuff came up before, I emailed the maker of the Cyber whistle. Here’s what he said:
Hello Beth,
The CyberWhistle is a few years old now. My main aim in designing it was
not to make an electronic whistle replacement, but rather to make use of
the finger/shading technique for controlling abstract synthesis. It
turns out you can do some very good whistle impersonations aswell. (Did
you listen to the sound examples?). The main difference with
controllers like the wx7 is that the degree of finger shading is
measured rather than just giving an on/off for each key. Shading is the
key to good whistle playing!
Before producing a ‘production model’ I would need to find out exactly
what people would want and expect from such an instrument. The
real-whistle player might be a bit disappointed if he wanted something
very close to their real whistle. The response times are pretty good,
but not upto fast whistle playing. On the other hand if you want
something a bit different, but with related playing technique then the
cyberwhistle might be for you.
The hardware of the cyberwhistle just outputs midi information saying
how hard you are blowing and how your fingers are positioned. The second
half of the design job was to write software running a PC that takes the
MIDI and turns it into audio. I used physical modelling synthesis
techniques to generate natural sounding output. The paper you ask for is
somewhere on a cd in a pile of junk in a friends apartment - I’ve moved
recently. I’ll try to remember to fish it out.
I haven’t done anything to the whistle since the initial design effort.
The main thing I wanted to do to the hardware was improve the finger
sensing from light based to radio based. Also a wireless transmission
for the MIDI would be very cool. On the software side there is endless
amounts of work that can be done. Initially I would need to port to
windows from SGI, but this is pretty straightforward. On the plus side
any new software can be sent out after the hardware has been sent out.
Its possible that the sound synthesis could be incorporated in the
whistle or some small box. This amounts to designing a small fast,
computer, which would be a lot of work. Alternatively a 600Mhz celeron
or better laptop is easily enough, maybe even some palm computers could
be adapted, since I’ve heard that MIDI interfaces have been built for
these..
Pipe dream - a daydream (originally while smoking a pipe)
Actually, pipe-dream comes from smoking opium, since an opium ‘high’ tends to leave a person in a hazy half-asleep state where they have something in-between vivid-daydreams and actual dreams (or so it is/was believed; this description of an opium high is based on the beliefs expressed in contemporary writings, not any scientific method…)
Nowadays, of course, people tend to equate it with ‘smoking crack’, along similar logic, despite the fact that nobody thinks crack causes hallucinations or daydreams (it’s pretty much a straight-up euphoric, maybe a little bit of a stimulant…) so, I think it’s more an updating of the phrase than any real reflection of the actions of the drugs.
Erm… okay, enough of that digression. When can I buy a synth-whistle? I need one to play at 2 AM when housemates are asleep, on the bus, the train, in my cubicle at work…
–Chris A.
(PS, is the upcoming synthwhistle going to be breath-pressure sensitive? If not, the playing experience is going to be very unsatisfactory… )
Anna you ought to hire whistle mimes (traditionally dressed as mimes) to wander around and annoy the people who are not letting you play. Is there an ordinance against pretending to whistle?
