Bagpipes Pro is five extremely realistic sounding sets of bagpipes for the iPad that are played using standard Scottish piping fingerings.
Bagpipes Pro is five extremely realistic sounding sets of bagpipes for the iPad that are played using standard Scottish piping fingerings.
The instrument may be transposed up to +/- one octave in semitone increments as well as tuned up to +/- 50 cents.
It includes five authentic sounding sets of Scottish, Irish, and Swedish bagpipes.
The five sets of bagpipes are:
Great Highland Scottish Bagpipes - The most popular Scottish marching pipes, in the traditional key of Bb.
Scottish Border Pipes - A Scottish smallpipe in the key of A with a sound distinctly different from but similar to the Highland pipes.
Scottish Smallpipes - A Scottish smallpipe in the key of A, one octave lower than the Border Pipes, and has a rounder, bubbly sound.
Irish Uillean Pipes - Bellows blown pipes in the key of D
Swedish Säckpipa - A set of Swedish bagpipes in E, with a very haunting sound.
All of the instruments use fingerings based on the standard Scottish Highland bagpipes chanter.
IMPORTANT: Since this app requires as many as 8 fingers on the screen at the same time, before playing, disable "Multitasking Gestures" on your iPad (in the Settings app, under the General section, turn the Multitasking Gestures switch to the off position).
Start/stop the drones playing by touching the drone puck. Select standard or alternate drone note from the controls.
Use the Transpose slider to set the overall instrument transposition in semitones. Touch the transpose value to the left of the slider to reset the transposition to zero.
Use the Tuning slider to set the overall instrument tuning offset in cents. Touch the tuning value to the left of the slider to reset the tuning offset to zero.
To play the chanter, touch the bar at the top left with your left thumb. This bar is the hole normally on the back of a real chanter and must be covered for the lower notes to play.
Next, touch the top three holes of the chanter starting with the tips of your left index, middle, and ring fingers.
Finally, touch the bottom four holes of the chanter with the tips of your right index, middle, ring, and little fingers.
Touch the "i" to show/hide the live performance controls.
Touch the "?" for on-screen help.
Audio samples for the Säckpipa provided by Jonathan Parker from an instrument made in 1986 by Leif Eriksson.
Drone puck image courtesy of Mike DeSmidt.
This app (along with the uilleann pipe app too) is about as close to the real thins as an app get get. The only two critiques I have are that 1. the drones aren't fully in tune. You can really notice it on "room" mode with no echo.And 2. The area for the thumb should definitely be bigger and/or more sensitive. My biggest problem while playing on this app is that sometimes (because my thumb is only touching the iPad with the skinnier outer edge rather than with the part normally used to play the actual pipes) the iPad screen has a tough time detecting my finger in that small area. My thumb is never outside that area, but it continues to have trouble picking it up.Anyway, great app overall. Maybe you can include these in your next update.
Sound options
Alden Vines
I'm not a piper, but I think this app needs a closed fingering option (one finger off the chanter at a time). Also, this app needs the Bohemian bock, Northumbrian smallpipes, and kaba gaida as sound options. Thanks!
Excellent For Anyone
The Pad Piper
A friend of mine who plays a real set of pipes turned me on to this app. I have never played pipes and was intrigued. I can't afford a real set and this is the next best thing. I have learned quickly and can play a small variety of classics. My friend who plays real pipes says that this application is the closest I will come to real pipes and he loves it too because you can turn down the volume. My friends and family also love the music and have nicknamed me, "The Pad Piper." Thank you for creating this awesome application Michael.
Great way to explore the world of bagpipes!
Seisiuneer
I don't know what Magpipe is doing wrong, but I'm the developer of the app and able to play all kinds of pipe tunes on the app without any problem. I'm primarily a Uilleann piper and have found the app a great way to explore both Scottish and Sweedish piping traditions. The Scottish bagpipes sounds, from ePipes.co.uk, are the best I've heard on any platform which is why I use them for the app. It's been a lot of fun playing Säckpipa tunes from the Olle Gällmo online tutorials.If you visit the app website, be sure to check out the links to drum corps files that you can download and play in the background on the iPad while playing tunes on the app. That is really fun.The app sounds great and is very quick and responsive.
Bug fixes
Version 4.7
The developer, Michael Eskin, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
