More YouTube Stuff-V pipe demos

marcpipes · Post by **marcpipes** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 9:58 am

There are five short demos of V pipes. I've heard worse. I was surprised by its ability to do slides. Not the greates, but not the worst.

SEAGULL · Post by **SEAGULL** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:24 am

Not bad. I thought it would sound alot worse than that. But, it looks fun. Anyone know who the piper is?

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 11:42 am

I think it's fantastic. What are you guy's complaining about?
How many of you first complained about Photoshop and Autocad... now you cannot live without them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP5sCEY3kN0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsiYyTVGw3Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elEd63OS590
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6WEuf47_Qo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBLoS1Gi-w8

What's next? Perhaps Eric Rigler using v-pipes on the new big musical soundtrack?

bensdad · Post by **bensdad** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 11:51 am

I'd like to hear them played by a piper with a tighter style, see how they deal with that. And I guess you're stuck with that ugly, tinny tone, which doesn't derive from years spent learning to produce it, but the quality of the recording of the original sound samples, and the tone, on that particular day of the pipes they sampled.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:30 pm

bensdad wrote:I'd like to hear them played by a piper with a tighter style, see how they deal with that. And I guess you're stuck with that ugly, tinny tone, which doesn't derive from years spent learning to produce it, but the quality of the recording of the original sound samples, and the tone, on that particular day of the pipes they sampled.

What you heard was probably the built-in microphone of a hand held camera at an outdoor ren-fair played through small monitor speakers.

According to the letter in the other v-pipes topic, the sound samples came from Cillian Vallely playing Rowsome and Froment flat and concert sets recorded at Trevor Hutchinson's studio in Ireland.

bensdad · Post by **bensdad** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 12:37 pm

I realize the sound on the clip sucks, and I've read the post about where the samples came from. My point remains the same. Much as I admire Cillian, I don't want to sound like him or his pipes. It remains to be seen (or rather, heard) whether an individual's style can be heard through someone else's tone production.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:18 pm

Also take into consideration the effect the booming (and questionably played IMHO) guitar, swallowing up most of the sound. An unaccompanied demo is in order.

giggleswicksam · Post by **giggleswicksam** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 12:35 pm

They really should have tuned up before launching into it!

Or, being as that's presumably now the only way to introduce "out of tune-ness", is it to make them "more authentic"??

Actually I'm quite impressed, but won't be altering my christmas list

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 1:17 pm

giggleswicksam wrote:
Actually I'm quite impressed, but won't be altering my christmas list

Ditto.

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:04 pm

Now, don't go wetting yourself over this, but having seen the example clips, I'm starting to have less negative thoughts about these beasts. If the vPipies ever become affordable, I'm thinking they may be a good place to start for beginners.

This thinking was sparked by a friend trying to teach her daughters to drive a standard. One took to it like a fish to water (much to my friend's dismay) while the second just couldn't help stalling the car constantly, even after a couple months practise. Standard drive just seemed too much for her, but when she got into an automatic she was fine. So maybe the vPipes don't teach you bag control or bellows method, but it does give you the opportunity to isolate chanter work without those other distractions. Others have previously noted some of the good things about vPipes, like the physical convenience of no drones sticking out, headphones for private practise, etc.

At their current price, I can't see these things making it, but at half the current price they would be well placed to compete with a regular beginners set.

djm

Doogie · Post by **Doogie** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 2:49 pm

djm wrote:At their current price, I can't see these things making it, but at half the current price they would be well placed to compete with a regular beginners set.

djm

I think the idea is great and am very interested in trying one out, but as djm states I think the price is a little too high as well. Seth

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:04 pm

I'll be a stick in the mud here, but learning fingering without bag or bellows? Why not just go out and buy a mouth blown practice chanter? What is the difference? Niether will do anybody any good when it comes to playing the Uilleann Pipes.

As a practice instrument for those who already can play, this would be the ticket to work out tunes without upsetting the wife, husband, kids, pets, neighborhood... I do not feel it is a good idea for beginners at all.

Just my opinion.

Scott McCallister · Post by **Scott McCallister** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:06 pm

The problem is, is that there is no "automatic" version of the pipes. Bellows and bag control, how to futz with a reed, how to squeeze a different sound from the chanter... these are all things that come with learning the real instrument. Anything you have control over, you have to take control of.

And just like kids who never learn to drive a stick (i guess there is a bit of a pun there) they are at a loss for how to go about operating the real deal with all the extra coordination when they have to. My wife only drives an automatic... which drives me nuts!

This seems to take away much of the contol of the real instrument offers, not to mention if you want anyone else to hear it you are not just buying a stick for almost a thousand Euros, you gotta have at least an amp to plug it into. The monitors, amp and mixer these two were using in the clips would probably also come close to 1000 euros as well.

I would consider this a totally different instrument than Uilleann Pipes. Just like the EWI or EBI instruments. They are unique unto themselves. That said, they sound pretty good to me and really, I could see pipers in pop Celtic bands using these instead of real pipes because they will already have the extra sound reinforcement equipment. Also if they travel much, they won't have any of the headaches that accompany a real set when they get too far from their home climate. For beginners though, This seems like lots of overkill.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:12 pm

Scott McCallister wrote:
I would consider this a totally different instrument than Uilleann Pipes. Just like the EWI or EBI instruments. They are unique unto themselves. That said, they sound pretty good to me and really, I could see pipers in pop Celtic bands using these instead of real pipes because they will already have the extra sound reinforcement equipment. Also if they travel much, they won't have any of the headaches that accompany a real set when they get too far from their home climate. For beginners though, This seems like lots of overkill.

Agreed. I can't wait until work begins on drones and regs.

Doogie · Post by **Doogie** » Fri Oct 06, 2006 3:27 pm

Joseph E. Smith wrote:

Agreed. I can't wait until work begins on drones and regs.

I think they have a switch on them that turns on a droning sound..