[sdiy] Electro-mechanical bagpipes (was: Roland accordion...)

[Steve Ridley]

> Why couldn't they have chosen to be more creative and made a truly
> imaginative product that doesn't offend the ears, 

?

> and made virtual bagpipes instead?  I love the sound of bagpipes 
> and have contemplated building an electronically controlled set of 
> electro-mechanical bagpipes.  Then I could sit out on my wildlife 
> habitat lawn and play them, giving the neat-grass-only-lawned 
> suburb-dwelling neighbors something else to like, drowning out the 
> racket made by their noisy children.  ;-)

I assume you are referring to the Scottish small pipes.  Roland 
are wise not to involve themselves with these things as they
are primarily a weapon of war, to scare and confuse the enemy (c:
(I nearly bought a cheap set when I had a noisy neighbour.)
They're relatively simple - designed for battlefield conditions -
and have a limited range and play in a strange scale - not quite 
major or minor.

There are bagpipes originating from Egypt to Ireland, and
most of them sound more pleasant and offer a wider musical 
range.  My personal favourites are the Northumberland Pipes,
and I've had several goes at making an electronic version.

The first attempt used sub-miniature push switches with some
crude logic to select the note.  Although the action of a push
switch seems light enough, holding down several at once while
switching just one or two is surprisingly hard work.  Try it on your
TV remote and you'll see what I mean.

Sub-miniature microswitches were a great improvement.  They
have a very light action, and by using the normally closed contacts
on the switches, a standard keyboard resistor chain CV circuit
can be adapted to give an approximation to the correct fingering,
and can even be duophonic if you're not a purist.

The problem with using switches is you loose the ability to bend
notes by partially covering holes. This applies to many bagpipes,
reedcap and woodwind instruments and I don't know of any
electronic version that deals with this problem.  I'm working
on a touch sensitive version of the pipes, but it's barely off
the drawing board...


Steve