WIDesigner v2.0.0 has just been released. As far as I know, this is the first general-purpose wind instrument tuning calculator and optimizer to support single-reed and double-reed instruments, including bagpipe chanters. See About WIDesigner for more information. For uilleann pipes, unfortunately, it doesn’t yet handle closing the end of the chanter; that is still to come.
WIDesigner is a Java application to assist woodwind instrument designers, an open-source program hosted on GitHub, available for free under the GNU Public License. As a stand-alone Java application, it should run under Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, and more, with a suitable JRE installed.
WOW I have just had a brief look. I always thought there must be a better way to check instruments and their playing
I am going to download flutinni an RTTA. (no iphone)Who has used this software? what should I expect?
Flutini and RTTA can help you test if an instrument is playing in tune. WIDesigner can help you design a new instrument that plays more in tune.
While you don’t need to understand the physics behind it to use WIDesigner, there are a lot of numbers to keep track of: detailed measurements of the instrument, and the frequencies of each note. That alone can make it intimidating.
You could use Flutini to help calibrate WIDesigner’s tuning model, but it has limitations. When I tried it a few years ago, Flutini could handle only diatonic notes within one octave, and got testy if you went beyond an octave. WIDesigner, on the other hand, can handle as many octaves and chromatic cross-fingerings that you care to throw at it.
Does it understand register holes for reed instruments? If so, do you need to tell the software that a hole is acting a a register hole or does it figure it out itself?
You don’t need to identify a hole as a register hole. You define the hole, specify whether it is open or closed for a particular note, and give a target frequency for the note. WIDesigner looks for a playing frequency for that fingering close to the target frequency. Because you’ve specified the target, WIDesigner doesn’t need to keep track of which register it ends up in.
An interesting example is OXXXXX on a whistle. WIDesigner can find three different pitches for this fingering, depending on whether the target is high D, middle D, or a flattish C-natural. All three pitches are possible, depending on how hard you blow.