Uilleann-b Classic - Irish Bagpipes Flat Set Chanter And Drones In B App - Uilleann-b Classic - Irish Bagpipes Flat Set Chanter And Drones In B for iPad & Reviews

Uilleann-B Classic is an authentic sounding set of Irish bagpipes that are played like the real instrument.

This version has the same split chanter interface as the older version of my "Uilleann-B" app for those who prefer the split layout over the new one-piece vertical chanter in the newer versions of that app.

Free for the first week on the iTunes App Store.

The chanter fingerings are based on those used for the Uilleann pipes and will also be immediately familiar to Irish pennywhistle and flute players, who can use the fingerings they already know just by keeping the right little finger down.

The Uilleann pipes are a bellows driven set of bagpipes with a two octave range. They are most commonly used for playing traditional Irish dance music and slow airs. In recent years they have been made popular by shows such as Riverdance, as well as many motion picture soundtracks such as "Waking Ned Devine", "Titanic", and "Braveheart".

This app emulates the three drones and chanter of a half set of "flat" pitch Uilleann pipes in the key of B, three half-steps lower and with a mellower sound than a concert D pitch set.

You may choose between Kirk Lynch or Crowley-style drone sounds.

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 'i' icon at the upper right corner of the main screen to show/hide the live performance controls. All settings are saved and restored the next time the app is run.

Optional pitch bending is done by sliding the finger up or down very slightly on the root tone hole for the note or simply tilting the finger as one would do on the actual instrument to half-hole a note.

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. You may also perform finger vibrato on the chanter for most notes with the right middle and/or ring fingers.

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.

Play along with tunes in your iPad's music library by starting a track using the iPad iPod app, then launching Uilleann-B Classic. Adjust the chanter and drone volume using the real-time performance controls.

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. Crowley drone sample courtesy of Vinnie Kilduff.