"Uilleann" - iPad Uilleann Pipes Chanter and Drones

Here's some more of "The Trip we Took Over the Mountain".

Uilleann is an authentic sounding Uilleann (Irish Bagpipes) pipes chanter and drones virtual instrument for the iPad.

This app emulates the three drones and chanter of a half set of "concert" pitch Uilleann pipes in the key of D.

The chanter fingerings are essentially identical to the actual instrument. This was made possible by the new enhanced multi-touch capabilities of the iPad. The instrument also supports fingerings that are friendly to pennywhistle and Irish flute players.

To play the chanter, place your fingers over the holes on the two halves of the chanter. The left side represents the "top" hand, the right side is the "bottom" hand.

Touch the drone puck to start/stop the drones.

Touch the green bar on the left side with your left little finger to play the notes one octave higher.

Touch the blue bar at the bottom left center with your left thumb to play the second octave "Back-D" selectable on either a press or release.

Touch the red bar at the bottom right center with your right thumb to stop the chanter sound for staccato techniques.

Touch the purple bar on the lower right with your right little finger to bend the pitch or play finger vibrato.

Rotate the iPad to Portrait orientation to see the fingering chart. Rotate back to Landscape orientation to play.

On the fingering chart, you may touch the blue Back-D bar image to toggle between whether the bar on the main screen plays the second-octave D note on a touch (default) or release (matches real Uilleann pipes chanter).

Also on the fingering chart, you may toggle between "Loose" and "Strict" closed chanter modes by touching the red bar. "Loose" closed chanter mode (default) stops the sound whenever the red bar is pressed on the main screen. "Strict" mode only stops the sound when the red bar is pressed and all the holes are covered and matches the real Uilleann chanter. This mode is used for staccato piping techniques. When in "Strict" mode sample attacks are faster when single holes are uncovered.

You may play along with tunes in your iPad's music library by starting a track using the iPad iTunes app, then launching Uilleann.

For students of the Uilleann pipes, the app supports nearly all of the alternate fingerings for most notes and can be used as a real practice chanter for the instrument. All 128 possible fingerings have been mapped as closely as possible to match the real instrument.

Sound is based on high quality per-note chanter and drone recordings from my personal concert pitch set of Uilleann pipes.

Chanter image based on my Kirk Lynch concert pitch chanter. Drone puck image courtesy of Mike DeSmidt.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• bagpipes
• bagpipe
• Irish
• Uilleann
• Ireland
• iPad

[elligottmc]

First of all just have to say that this is so innovative and exemplifies everything that is great about devices like the ipad. I looked for an uillean pipe app and here I am. Second, please post more vids playing other songs! I'll be honest I'm totally copying your hand movements and getting some decent sounds. Also is it possible to have your app enabled for AirPlay?

[wowhorde12]

@THEFINALHAZARD lol yea same dude i know what your talknig about it dose ahh good music in Wotlk (:

[THEFINALHAZARD]

Amazing. And, I dunno why... But, this reminds me of the Howling Fjord/Grizzly Hills in World of Warcraft.

[SonOfTheSystem]

Wow thats awesome! do you think you can cover Eluveitie - Momento on the ipad? :)

[domsavio]

Have you ever performed live with your apps? They are brilliant.