This was mainly born to put together two of my passions - that is ITM and programming -, so it doesn't have any claim to be some great piece of software, there are probably many ways to do better than what I did...
Anyway, some days ago while I was messing around with my Tin Whistle and thought I could try and put together a virtual version of a whistle, and as I had looked around for an existing one I couldn't find any.
The result is not that bad, IMHO, and I will still work on it to improve it, as you can read on the web page.
The main issues right now are the shrill sound on high notes (I used a MIDI, I'm looking forward to replace it with sound recorded from an actual whistle) and the short delay from the moment the keys are pressed to the change in pitch.
It's still good to learn a tune, or expecially, I guess, for absolute beginners who play slowly. It could also be good for when you're in your office and really want to play something :P
By the way, I was also wondering if a "tutorial" version could be nice... like a version that guides you through a tune and progresses as you get the next note right. Do you think that would be good?
@MacCruiskeen: No, it's not, the fact is that without being able to have all keys working at the same time the whistle wouldn't work properly. Anyway if you guys prefer, I can put up a version without that limitation, shouldn't take long to do the proper modifications!
If the issue is the number of keys, they're of course thought to simulate in the best possible way the hands' position. I tried to find a solution that didn't work for me alone, but I had no way of checking with more than a couple of friends :o
@ethical blend: As MacCruiskeen noticed, you need to "unlock" it by pressing all 7 keys together, for the reasons mentioned above
@Tirno (or anyone else whose keys won't work together): if you have some spare time try checking if there's some keys combination that works for you on this website http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/demo/
It's also reachable from the link I posted before. It will start on mute, so you won't be surprised by the sudden sound :P
(I need your opinion on this, is it better if I change it to the lower octave? It will be different from a standard D whistle but maybe less irritating, until I manage to change the "synthetic" sound with something better...)
Lol... oh well if someone can make ridiculous amounts of money with a thingy where you throw birds on pigs, this doesn't look like a huge waste of time :P
Plus, that's more or less what I'm studying to do as a job - programming, I mean - so all the stuff I learnt doing this is enough payment for the time lost
Anyway, maybe (and I'm saying, just maybe!) this could be handy to get used to more expensive instruments. Yeah, I know, I'm mental, nevermind :D :D
If you had fun making it and learned from it than it was worthwhile for you and I think that's great! I'm just saying that this has no point for anyone other than you. Whistles are cheap and light and can go any place so why have an awkward app of it in your phone?
I was secretly hoping that it was an unplayable 'joke.' Would've been quite funny to have hundreds of people trying to figure out how to 'play' your unplayable whistle app. That would've been worthwhile! With you comming on every now and then to say "no it works, really it does, you just have to do such and such...but then I have a warped sense of humor...
(I know they're cheap and everything, but I can't start from 0 and code a virtual harp, or uilleann pipe :P)
As you said I had fun making it, and that was the main reason to even begin. I posted it here because I know you at least share my same love fore ITM, and maybe there's some slightly nerdy guy like me around here, who will enjoy this more than the average :D
I get something like Tirno. I can't get J to work unless I skip W. I go right down the scale: X lights up, S lights up, W lights up, and I can hammer J forever, but nothing. I and 9 still work, but no J. (I'm on XP, IE8)
Hmmm. Now we need a "mustard search" for tunes with no F#'s.
I was always under the impression that the USB serial bus wouldn't allow more than 4 key presses at once, however I can occasionally get 5 keys to show on the Maximus keyboard demo. But not reliably, and it appears to be somewhat dependent on which keys, and somewhat dependent on what order.
Now, this is the built in keyboard on an older MacBook Pro, and the built in keyboard is in one of the USB busses, so there goes that theory.
well i had fun playing around on the concertina app, i think this would be fun for a while. for instance, i could fool with fingerings for tunes using ear phones when i was in a place where i didin't want to make noise other people could here. if it were an iphone app, i'd lay out $.99 pretty quick. has no one really made a virtual whistle before? it's about time, then!
And my experience on a newer MacBook Pro, running Lion is that I can't get any of the key presses to work on either the virtual whistle or the keyboard demo. Weird
@full measure: thanks, that's encouraging :P
If I'm not wrong Flash CS5 makes it possible to develop iPhone apps as well, I'll try to understand if that's not too much work and try to do something with it. Only problem is, I don't own an iPhone, neither have access to one... I'm trying to get my hands on some freeware emulator right now... Would you help me with the testing?
I was actually thinking of doing a virtual Concertina at first, then I found there's the iPhone app already, and decided to do the Whistle first. I'm still thinking of trying that someday, it wouldn't have the intuitive tilt->push/pull command, but I could be able to do a 30 keys one on the PC ^-^ It would present some challenges different from those of the whistle, so still enjoyable to work on
@Steve Austin, Reverend: of course the max number of keys should depend on the hardware only, for some reason my laptop seems to be a super one, and can get up to 7 or even 8 keys with a certain number of possible keys' combinations, but it seems the average doesn't go over 5 keys at the same time...
I'll look for some way of discovering what your "max keys number" is without having to go through a long trial-and-error process.
@Reverend: I have close to no experience with Macs, so I really wouldn't know the reason, except that perhaps the hardware interrupts from the keyboard are propagated in a different way to the system...? Have you ever trued that newer Mac on other Flash stuff that requires the use keys? :o
I considered trying to find an alternative way too, like buttons for "multiple holes" (Dunno, maybe a button to cover the 3 upper holes at the sime time or something of the sort...), but it would turn out to have a weird fingering, maybe too different from the real one... :|
Oh what the hell, I will give it a try and implement a number of keys settings that I'll be able to test myself, including "cheat" keys (e.g. with the current keys layout, using "D" to cover all of the 3 high holes, or something like that).
If you couldn't get the virtual whistle to work cause of the number of keys but would like to try, you could try a couple combinations to find if one works for you on the keyboard demo.
A couple that might work (3 top holes - ("cheat" key) - 3 bottom holes - high octave), keeping in mind that the max number of keys together is with the bottom 3 + "cheat" (+octave):
Some layout familiar to whistle players could also be obtained bye using keys on an imaginary horizontal line (like ASDKJL - stupid example), but it probably isn't a great idea :P
You'll run into problems trying to do an iPhone whistle/flute/bagpipes, since the hardware only supports 5 simultaneous touches. That's why <all> flute/whistle/pipes apps on the iPhone, including mine have to make really unpleasant tradeoffs and all end up being glorified toys.
The iPad, on the other had, supports 10+ touches and can be used for all kinds of realistic instrument emulations including flutes, Uilleann pipes, etc. Some of my apps use all 10 touches.
That's interesting to know beforehand! Of course you have way more experience than I do, seeing the amount of apps you produced. By the way, do you ever use Flash to develop iPhone/iPad apps?
All my apps are written using the standard iOS Objective C and built using the Apple XCode IDE. To get the low latency audio mixing I'm using an engine I built in C on top of OpenAL streaming. I don't know anything about how one might do iOS app development using Flash, Objective C isn't that hard to deal with, many good tutorials and books on the subject are available.
I updated it (same URL) with a "cheat" key to cover the top 3 holes in just one press, therefore the max number of keys pressed at the same time is 5.
By the way, in case anyone wondered about that, the high D is obtained both through:
+ XOO OOO
and
+ OOO OOO
I also added the possibility of changing keys, they don't always display correctly but should work, I hope to fix that soon, when I'll have some more time to play with the code
OK, I tracked my problem on the newer MacBook to a faulty Flash player that was automatically installed during a recent install of the Flex/Flash Builder 4.5. I upgraded to the latest version of the Flash Player, and it fixed the issue.
It was strange, because it was allowing the older AS2 key scripts (Key.isDown(...) events) to function, but was rejecting event listeners (KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN...) in AS3.
Regardless, I still can't really get more than 4 down at once. (Your new version with the D key for the left hand does function, though)
Wow weird.... i guess the part handling sound wasn't recognized as well, as it's only in the most recent version!
I'm glad the D key is useful and gives more people a way to play with the thing a bit :P I'm trying to come up with a way to "free" one more key, that isn't too uncomfortable or unnatural :/
Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
This was mainly born to put together two of my passions - that is ITM and programming -, so it doesn't have any claim to be some great piece of software, there are probably many ways to do better than what I did...
Anyway, some days ago while I was messing around with my Tin Whistle and thought I could try and put together a virtual version of a whistle, and as I had looked around for an existing one I couldn't find any.
http://netspider86.altervista.org/eWhistle/eWhistle.php
The result is not that bad, IMHO, and I will still work on it to improve it, as you can read on the web page.
The main issues right now are the shrill sound on high notes (I used a MIDI, I'm looking forward to replace it with sound recorded from an actual whistle) and the short delay from the moment the keys are pressed to the change in pitch.
It's still good to learn a tune, or expecially, I guess, for absolute beginners who play slowly. It could also be good for when you're in your office and really want to play something :P
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by netspider86
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
By the way, I was also wondering if a "tutorial" version could be nice... like a version that guides you through a tune and progresses as you get the next note right. Do you think that would be good?
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by netspider86
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
This 'Press all seven keys to start playing' is a joke, isn't it?
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by MacCruiskeen
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
Well, the lights light up when I press the keys. But there's no sound ... is it me or the site?
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by ethical blend
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
I can't get more than 4 lights to light up at the sme time (macosx snow leopard with chrome)
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by Tirno
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
@MacCruiskeen: No, it's not, the fact is that without being able to have all keys working at the same time the whistle wouldn't work properly. Anyway if you guys prefer, I can put up a version without that limitation, shouldn't take long to do the proper modifications!
If the issue is the number of keys, they're of course thought to simulate in the best possible way the hands' position. I tried to find a solution that didn't work for me alone, but I had no way of checking with more than a couple of friends :o
@ethical blend: As MacCruiskeen noticed, you need to "unlock" it by pressing all 7 keys together, for the reasons mentioned above
@Tirno (or anyone else whose keys won't work together): if you have some spare time try checking if there's some keys combination that works for you on this website http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/demo/
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by netspider86
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
Yes, I did unlock it by pressing all 7 keys together. But, although the lights lit up on each key in turn when I pressed them, there was no sound.
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by ethical blend
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
Here you, go, there's also the version without the "'Press all seven keys to start playing' joke" now, so you can still play around with it a bit.
http://netspider86.altervista.org/eWhistle/eWhistleB.php
It's also reachable from the link I posted before. It will start on mute, so you won't be surprised by the sudden sound :P
(I need your opinion on this, is it better if I change it to the lower octave? It will be different from a standard D whistle but maybe less irritating, until I manage to change the "synthetic" sound with something better...)
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by netspider86
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
@ethical blend hm, ok, try the second link, where the keys shouldn't give you any trouble (I mean, at least you should hear some sound...)
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by netspider86
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
It seems like far too much trouble for what it's worth. What's the point for anyone other than the progammer?
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by shanty
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
@shanty: What's the point of these apps then? http://mashable.com/2010/04/11/musical-instrument-iphone-apps/
:P
Of course it's just for fun, I'm learning to do some new stuff with Flash and someone could find it fun as well as me
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by netspider86
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
christ almighty ... what a monumental waste of time
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by ...
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
Lol... oh well if someone can make ridiculous amounts of money with a thingy where you throw birds on pigs, this doesn't look like a huge waste of time :P
Plus, that's more or less what I'm studying to do as a job - programming, I mean - so all the stuff I learnt doing this is enough payment for the time lost
Anyway, maybe (and I'm saying, just maybe!) this could be handy to get used to more expensive instruments. Yeah, I know, I'm mental, nevermind :D :D
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by netspider86
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
If you had fun making it and learned from it than it was worthwhile for you and I think that's great! I'm just saying that this has no point for anyone other than you. Whistles are cheap and light and can go any place so why have an awkward app of it in your phone?
# Posted on September 11th 2011 by shanty
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
I was secretly hoping that it was an unplayable 'joke.' Would've been quite funny to have hundreds of people trying to figure out how to 'play' your unplayable whistle app. That would've been worthwhile! With you comming on every now and then to say "no it works, really it does, you just have to do such and such...but then I have a warped sense of humor...
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by shanty
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
Hey I should actually do that! :P
(I know they're cheap and everything, but I can't start from 0 and code a virtual harp, or uilleann pipe :P)
As you said I had fun making it, and that was the main reason to even begin. I posted it here because I know you at least share my same love fore ITM, and maybe there's some slightly nerdy guy like me around here, who will enjoy this more than the average :D
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by netspider86
XRM SEO
go look at http://xrumer.mobi - Xrumer
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by xrumer
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
I get something like Tirno. I can't get J to work unless I skip W. I go right down the scale: X lights up, S lights up, W lights up, and I can hammer J forever, but nothing. I and 9 still work, but no J. (I'm on XP, IE8)
Hmmm. Now we need a "mustard search" for tunes with no F#'s.
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by Steve Austin
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
I was always under the impression that the USB serial bus wouldn't allow more than 4 key presses at once, however I can occasionally get 5 keys to show on the Maximus keyboard demo. But not reliably, and it appears to be somewhat dependent on which keys, and somewhat dependent on what order.
Now, this is the built in keyboard on an older MacBook Pro, and the built in keyboard is in one of the USB busses, so there goes that theory.
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by Reverend
You wont believe
go look at http://xrumer.mobi - Xrumer
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by xrumer
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
well i had fun playing around on the concertina app, i think this would be fun for a while. for instance, i could fool with fingerings for tunes using ear phones when i was in a place where i didin't want to make noise other people could here. if it were an iphone app, i'd lay out $.99 pretty quick. has no one really made a virtual whistle before? it's about time, then!
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by full measure
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
And my experience on a newer MacBook Pro, running Lion is that I can't get any of the key presses to work on either the virtual whistle or the keyboard demo. Weird
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by Reverend
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
@full measure: thanks, that's encouraging :P
If I'm not wrong Flash CS5 makes it possible to develop iPhone apps as well, I'll try to understand if that's not too much work and try to do something with it. Only problem is, I don't own an iPhone, neither have access to one... I'm trying to get my hands on some freeware emulator right now... Would you help me with the testing?
I was actually thinking of doing a virtual Concertina at first, then I found there's the iPhone app already, and decided to do the Whistle first. I'm still thinking of trying that someday, it wouldn't have the intuitive tilt->push/pull command, but I could be able to do a 30 keys one on the PC ^-^ It would present some challenges different from those of the whistle, so still enjoyable to work on
@Steve Austin, Reverend: of course the max number of keys should depend on the hardware only, for some reason my laptop seems to be a super one, and can get up to 7 or even 8 keys with a certain number of possible keys' combinations, but it seems the average doesn't go over 5 keys at the same time...
I'll look for some way of discovering what your "max keys number" is without having to go through a long trial-and-error process.
@Reverend: I have close to no experience with Macs, so I really wouldn't know the reason, except that perhaps the hardware interrupts from the keyboard are propagated in a different way to the system...? Have you ever trued that newer Mac on other Flash stuff that requires the use keys? :o
I considered trying to find an alternative way too, like buttons for "multiple holes" (Dunno, maybe a button to cover the 3 upper holes at the sime time or something of the sort...), but it would turn out to have a weird fingering, maybe too different from the real one... :|
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by netspider86
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
Oh what the hell, I will give it a try and implement a number of keys settings that I'll be able to test myself, including "cheat" keys (e.g. with the current keys layout, using "D" to cover all of the 3 high holes, or something like that).
If you couldn't get the virtual whistle to work cause of the number of keys but would like to try, you could try a couple combinations to find if one works for you on the keyboard demo.
A couple that might work (3 top holes - ("cheat" key) - 3 bottom holes - high octave), keeping in mind that the max number of keys together is with the bottom 3 + "cheat" (+octave):
XSW-(D)-JI9-Z
CDE-(F)-JI9-Z
CDE-(F)-JI9-X
VDE-(F)-JI9-Z
VDE-(F)-JI9-X
VDE-(F)-NJI-Z
VDE-(F)-NJI-X
Some layout familiar to whistle players could also be obtained bye using keys on an imaginary horizontal line (like ASDKJL - stupid example), but it probably isn't a great idea :P
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by netspider86
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
You'll run into problems trying to do an iPhone whistle/flute/bagpipes, since the hardware only supports 5 simultaneous touches. That's why <all> flute/whistle/pipes apps on the iPhone, including mine have to make really unpleasant tradeoffs and all end up being glorified toys.
The iPad, on the other had, supports 10+ touches and can be used for all kinds of realistic instrument emulations including flutes, Uilleann pipes, etc. Some of my apps use all 10 touches.
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by Michael Eskin
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
That's interesting to know beforehand! Of course you have way more experience than I do, seeing the amount of apps you produced. By the way, do you ever use Flash to develop iPhone/iPad apps?
# Posted on September 12th 2011 by netspider86
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
All my apps are written using the standard iOS Objective C and built using the Apple XCode IDE. To get the low latency audio mixing I'm using an engine I built in C on top of OpenAL streaming. I don't know anything about how one might do iOS app development using Flash, Objective C isn't that hard to deal with, many good tutorials and books on the subject are available.
# Posted on September 13th 2011 by Michael Eskin
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
I updated it (same URL) with a "cheat" key to cover the top 3 holes in just one press, therefore the max number of keys pressed at the same time is 5.
By the way, in case anyone wondered about that, the high D is obtained both through:
+ XOO OOO
and
+ OOO OOO
I also added the possibility of changing keys, they don't always display correctly but should work, I hope to fix that soon, when I'll have some more time to play with the code
# Posted on September 13th 2011 by netspider86
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
OK, I tracked my problem on the newer MacBook to a faulty Flash player that was automatically installed during a recent install of the Flex/Flash Builder 4.5. I upgraded to the latest version of the Flash Player, and it fixed the issue.
It was strange, because it was allowing the older AS2 key scripts (Key.isDown(...) events) to function, but was rejecting event listeners (KeyboardEvent.KEY_DOWN...) in AS3.
Regardless, I still can't really get more than 4 down at once. (Your new version with the D key for the left hand does function, though)
# Posted on September 13th 2011 by Reverend
Re: Virtual Whistle (eWhistle 1.0)
Wow weird.... i guess the part handling sound wasn't recognized as well, as it's only in the most recent version!
I'm glad the D key is useful and gives more people a way to play with the thing a bit :P I'm trying to come up with a way to "free" one more key, that isn't too uncomfortable or unnatural :/
# Posted on September 13th 2011 by netspider86