ePipes has announced the release of The Fred Morrison Sound, a virtual bagpipe instrument for Windows.
The Fred Morrison Sound is a software based bagpipe that, when used with the Technopipes or any MIDI bagpipe, enables you to play high quality studio-sampled Highland pipes, Scottish Smallpipes, Border pipes and even Uilleann pipes.
All instruments can be played with your own bagpipe fingering in any key over a two octave range. Each virtual instrument is composed from sound samples played by Fred Morrison on his own pipes.
The Fred Morrison Sound features
- Volume Control & Panning
- 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.
- Drone and chanter panning can be set independently of one another, allowing for a variety of stereo effects.
- Panning lets you set how much of the drones and how much of the chanter you want to come out of each speaker.
- Tuning & Reverb
- 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.
- Versatile reverb gives an extra dimension to the realism of the sound. It lets you choose whether you want to sound like you’re playing in your living room, a cathedral or anywhere in between!
- Instruments
- 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.
- Recording quality
- Recorded with Neumann U87 and Rode NTV microphones and mastered with iZotope Ozone to ensure outstanding sonic quality.
- Each stage of the production of this virtual bagpipe was personally overseen by Fred Morrison, working along side former Thomas Oberheim engineer, William Evans, and the Centre for Music Technology department at Glasgow University.
- Using a software virtual instrument allows us to use longer samples and therefore produce a much more realistic sound than a purely-hardware eqivalent. For example, the 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.
The Fred Morrison Sound is available as a VST instrument for Windows PC for £70 GBP excl. VAT. Bundles with Technopipes and E-MU Xmidi 1×1 hardware are available as well.
More information: ePipes
