Advance apologies to the purists out there. I'm kind of one of them. However, i'm wondering if anyone has had any direct experience with electronic bagpipes--GHP, smallpipes, uilleann pipes, etc. Do these things work? Well? Do you "blow" into them or just flip a switch? And so forth. Thanks.
I saw a midi chanter in Achill in Mayo a couple of years ago. Andreas Rogge had it. It was a ghb chanter. all you had to do was turn the thing on, put the headphones on and let fly, no blowing or anything. At that stage there was no uilleann pipe chanter available. Probably great for finger excercises and playing on the subway, bus or whatever. Nothing beats the real thing though.
Hi Cliff, I've just had a German made midi chanter for three weeks. Incredibly funny and as Geb says, useful to practice in crowdy conventions and boring meetings. A friend of mine was playing it for 5 hours, everybody in the bus was a bit scared about him. Good job that he didn't played his real pipes outloud!
PRO'S:
1- Don't bothered neighbours (just imagine yourself Highlanding at 3 AM
2- Tuning. My chanter had a progressive pitch button. You could tune nicely all along the scale
3- Sound: Could sound reasonably similar to smallpipes or highland. Modern models can play as Galician, Uillean even double the sound and add a background whistle or flute parallel melody. Besides I could switch off and on and regulate the volume of the drones.
CON'S: It's good for fingering practice, but it's not a real bagpipes. No blowing, bellows, reeds control, air pressure amke the chanter a bit sissy. Too easy to play even for me. No challenge; besides, no sliding from note to note, no keys and no vibratos
P.S. In second thoughts...CONS may really fit on PROS category! grin
Electronic Pipes
Electronic Pipes
Advance apologies to the purists out there. I'm kind of one of them. However, i'm wondering if anyone has had any direct experience with electronic bagpipes--GHP, smallpipes, uilleann pipes, etc. Do these things work? Well? Do you "blow" into them or just flip a switch? And so forth. Thanks.
CliffA
# Posted on April 20th 2002 by cliff
Re: Electronic Pipes
I saw a midi chanter in Achill in Mayo a couple of years ago. Andreas Rogge had it. It was a ghb chanter. all you had to do was turn the thing on, put the headphones on and let fly, no blowing or anything. At that stage there was no uilleann pipe chanter available. Probably great for finger excercises and playing on the subway, bus or whatever. Nothing beats the real thing though.
# Posted on April 21st 2002 by geb
Re: Electronic Pipes
Hi Cliff, I've just had a German made midi chanter for three weeks. Incredibly funny and as Geb says, useful to practice in crowdy conventions and boring meetings. A friend of mine was playing it for 5 hours, everybody in the bus was a bit scared about him. Good job that he didn't played his real pipes outloud!
PRO'S:
1- Don't bothered neighbours (just imagine yourself Highlanding at 3 AM
2- Tuning. My chanter had a progressive pitch button. You could tune nicely all along the scale
3- Sound: Could sound reasonably similar to smallpipes or highland. Modern models can play as Galician, Uillean even double the sound and add a background whistle or flute parallel melody. Besides I could switch off and on and regulate the volume of the drones.
CON'S: It's good for fingering practice, but it's not a real bagpipes. No blowing, bellows, reeds control, air pressure amke the chanter a bit sissy. Too easy to play even for me. No challenge; besides, no sliding from note to note, no keys and no vibratos
P.S. In second thoughts...CONS may really fit on PROS category! grin
# Posted on April 22nd 2002 by Rmcordoba
Re: Electronic Pipes
P.S. In second thoughts...CONS may really fit on PROS category! Exactimon mon frere (pardon my Francais)
# Posted on April 26th 2002 by cliff