Description

PipeKeys is an expressive, authentic sounding concert pitch 3/4 set of Uilleann pipes (Irish Bagpipes) chanter, drones, and two regulators in the form of a standard two octave piano keyboard.

The Uilleann pipes are a complex, bellows blown bagpipe that is commonly used in traditional Irish music. It is heard quite often in movies with Irish themes because of its very unique sound.

Touch the drone button to switch the drones on and off. The balance between the drones and chanter may be adjusted on the settings page.

Since the chanter does not go below D, I've put four of the standard tenor/baritone regulator chords as sample loops on the top and bottom halves of the lowest two keys. The chords are:
F#/D
G/D
A/F#
B/G

You also may touch immediately above the lowest two white keys in the background image to play the regulators. This makes it much easier to play them along with the lowest chanter keys, particularly bottom D and low E.

Both the low C and C#, or the background touch area can now be used for playing the regulators.

Finger vibrato for expression, as is done on the real instrument, can be added by sliding back and forth along the length of the chanter keys. The note C has an extended pitch bend range as typically used when playing a real chanter.

You may enable an optional stereo flanging effect for the drones on the settings page. This is particularly effective in headphones.

PipeKeys is multi-touch enabled, so you can play chords.

You can even play along with the music on your iPhone/iPod Touch by playing the track and then launching PipeKeys. Double click the home button to bring up the iPod controls while the app is running.

The sounds are recorded from my personal 3/4 set of Uilleann pipes and are extremely high quality.

Please visit the app website for more information and demonstration videos.

Two-tone drone puck image courtesy of Mike DeSmidt, from a 3/4 concert pitch set he built himself.