
Studio Piper is a software-based bagpipe allowing you to play and record Highland pipes, Uilleann pipes, Border pipes and Scottish Smallpipes through your PC or Mac. Pipers wishing to play Studio Piper will need an electronic bagpipe with MIDI output (we recommend the Technopipes), a computer to run the software and a MIDI to USB cable to connect the two. Studio Piper can also be controlled by any other MIDI instrument (e.g. keyboard, wind instrument etc) and runs in all VST/AU compatible hosts. Studio Piper comes as both stand alone and plugin for Windows and Mac.
- Truly authentic bagpipe sounds
- Ideal for practice, performance and recording
- Highland, Uilleann, Border and Smallpipes

Border Pipes - Andy Renwick's Ferret
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Highland Pipes - Cha Till MacCrimmon
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Small Pipes - Rocking the Baby
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Uilleann Pipes - Hector the Hero
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As well as allowing you to set the overall volume of the current instrument, the relative volumes of the drone and chanter can also be set.

Play any of the instruments in any key over a two octave range, making it simple to play along with any other instruments. You can tune by semitones and even by individual cents so you are always perfectly in tune with whatever instruments you want to play with.

The Uilleann pipes sampled were made in the late 1990s by the late, legendary craftsman Dave Williams. They are based on a Crowley design. The chanter was made in 2006 by Benedict Koehler with its form derived from a Rowsome chanter.
Both the Border Pipes and Small Pipes used were developed by Fred Morrison and Stuart McCallum and were manufactured by McCallum Bagpipes. They appeal to pipers of all kinds because of their acoustic compatibility with other instruments. Both default in the key of A (440) with an extra E drone creating a harmonious chord.
The Great Highland Pipes sampled were McCallum drones with a McC2 chanter designed by top competing piper Willie McCallum, again manufactured by leading pipe maker McCallum's Bagpipes.

The
audio samples used in Studio Piper were recorded with Neumann U87 and
Rode NTV microphones and mastered with iZotope Ozone to ensure
outstanding sonic quality. Studio Piper was developed with audio
researcher and former Tom Oberheim software engineer, Bill Evans, and
the Centre for Music Technology at Glasgow University.
Being a software based instrument allows us to use much longer samples. Studio Piper therefore produces a much more realistic sound than a purely-hardware eqivalent. For example, our drone samples are up to one minute long. This produces the minor variations and phasing that make a recording sound real, while remaining perfectly in tune.

- Processor: 1GHz (2GHz recommended)
Memory: 256MB RAM (512MB recommended) - PC: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, 32bit & 64bit - Interfaces: Standalone, VST (32bit and 64bit), RTAS (32bit only)
- Mac: OS 10.5, 10.6 and 10.7 - Intel Mac recommended (PPC G5
working, not supported) - Interfaces: Standalone, AU, VST, RTAS (32bit)