I usually play by taking off my fingers very little. Is a-pipes for me?

Electronic bagpipe sets based on optical technology, therefore also a-pipes, require a sufficient distance (a few millimeters) between the hole-open position and the hole-closed position in order to decide whether or not the hole is open.

For those who barely lift their fingers, optical technology is therefore to be avoided and resistive or capacitive technologies are preferable. Indeed, a barely covered hole will then be considered completely covered, while a finger that just loses contact will be considered a wide open hole.

Can I play birls with the a-pipes ?

Yes, totally identical to a real bagpipes chanter. It's even one of a-pipes strengths, especially compared to a practice chanter.

Are a-pipes usable for performing on stage ?

Because a-pipes higlight all imperfect fingerings, there are mostly dedicated to personal work and are not recommanded for performing, except in case of high level playing technique.

Moreover, the wireless version of a-pipes + a-box is also not suitable for performing on stage. Indeed, the low electric power of the a-pipes (powered by a simple 1.5V battery) requires playing in front of the a-box and not farer than 4 meters.

In addition, the electromagnetic environment due to the presence of the many modular phones of the public can have a disturbing effect on radio transmission with the a-box.

Is it possible to change the sounds embedded into the a-pipes (standalone use via the jack output)?

No, that's not possible. Only sounds played by the remote PC / Mac computer software can be changed.

Can a-pipes be used with a Bluetooth headset or a commercially available Bluetooth speaker?

No, the a-pipes uses Bluetooth only to communicate with the remote software (on PC, Mac or Android device).

On the other hand, it is possible to connect a commercial Bluetooth transmitter to the jack output of the a-pipes; in this case, a more or less sensitive latency time will appear between the moment of the fingering and the note heard.

Can a-pipes be used with mobile phone headsets?

No, cellphone headsets have a 4-pin jack because of the mic; the jack output of the a-pipes has only three pins.

With headphones, the volume of the a-pipes is very high, even when the sound is low.

Indeed, the a-pipes was designed to be used with standard ear buds (8 ohms) and be audible in an airplane.
If used with some headset, it could be necessary to use a male-female jack extension with potentiometer (a few euros on the WEB) to lower the sound at will.

Can a-pipes be used with any guitar amp?

Some guitar amps come into resonance when drones are in use. It's so unpleasant that one should mute drones.
The Cube by Rolland is one of the amps that sounds very well with the a-pipes.

What is the Chinese baguette for?

The stick allows to take support on the left shoulder so that the top of the chanter can not move back, as on the real bagpipe.

Can we use any Chinese baguette?

Yes, for example the disposable chopsticks found in Asian restaurants. However, it may be necessary to adjust the tip of the wand with a knife or a knive.

Is there a functional difference between the wood version and the plastic version?

No, except that the current wooden version has a removable top adapter for Chinese baguette. On plastic model, the wand fits directly into a conical hole located on the non removable top stock piece.

Which other differences are there between the wood version and the plastic version?

The wood chanter is slightly thicker than the plastic chanter.
The exotic wood (padook) is initially orange but darks with the time and the exposure to the light, to draw on the brown chocolate in more or less long term.

The plastic chanter has the same external dimensions than McCallum chanters.
Its body is made by molded resin. It is then lacquered with two-component polyurethane spray paint.
The plastic chanter is very heavier than the wooden one: 180g. Extreme rigidity and very solid.

I have some issues when using the remote software with USB on Mac.

The USB "CH341" driver use by the remote software is worldwidely used but has never been supported by Mac OS X.
The fact that the CH341 component is not an American product is likely the cause ... and it should last.
It is therefore necessary to use one of the drivers available on the WEB.
But since Mac OS X is very unstable, every time the system is updated, a specially ported driver must be found and installed.
Some of these drivers are offered on this site.

Is there a version of the remote software for iPhone / iPad?

No, the iOS system is not supported. No development planned.

The a-pipes play the sound of two gaitas and support the fingerings of the Seivane gaïta, but the diameter of the holes and their position are those of the Scottish bagpipe. What to do ?

It would be quite possible to produce a real size "gaïta" plastic chanter, provided that there is sufficient demand. Contact us if you are interested.

With all the other electronic chanters, I have trouble playing at night, when my fingers dry. Will I have this issue with the a-pipes?

No never.

Does a-pipes work in absolute darkness, despite its optical technology?

Yes perfectly.

It also works in environments with atypical brightness (full sun, strobes, spotlight ...).

Can I use the a-pipes mounted on my bagpipes bag?

Yes, just adjust a-pipes top end vith hemp to fit into you bag's stock.

It is then possible to play in real position. You even can blow into the bag because the a-pipes let leak as much air as bagipes set with three drones. It is also possible to prevent air leak with an adhesive tape.

Does a-pipes output MIDI ?

One prototype with embedded MIDI output was build, but because a-pipes is powered at 3V3, only MIDI 2 compliant devices can interoperate with it on a reliable way. Because it is not possible to guess which device is compatible, embedded MIDI output has been abandoned.

On the other hand, the remote software is able to output played notes to a MIDI port. If this port is a virtual MIDI port, it is readable by softwares as Universal Piper, running on the same computer.

Is the MIDI a-box compatible with 5V MIDI synthesizers ?

Generally not: the MIDI a-box outputs 3V3. So only MIDI 2 compliant devices can interoperate with it on a reliable way.