digital Piper - happy with the vPipes

[Christian Tietje]

i often play in the evening while my wife watches TV with low dimmed light 5 meters away - less light than necessary for reading books. I never played in darker sessions. That was always pretty enough and did not change the tone and did not create any difficulties. Sometimes, when I play in the sun on a porch the re-calibration has to be done. But I did that months ago last time.

[bobkeenan]

Some times i play with ear phones but sometimes with a jambox or other speaker. Although both work great, I am not a big fan of wires necessary to do make these connection. So i got a bluetooth transmitter and tried it with both the jambox and my lg tone+ ear buds. And there is a lag or latency that just will not work as the notes sound way too late.

Does anyone know or any BT transmitter that have little or no lag?

[bobkeenan]

Hi,
in the "Tightness and Proximity Adjustments" you can modify acc. to your needs. As the sensors are light-sensitive electronic sensors they react by incoming light between chanter survace and finger. So if your finger lets some little light through you can decrease the tightness value. My value-setting there is "10" at the moment. Factory preset is 15 which was too high for me at the beginning on this new instrument.

Menu: "Setup Mode" - "Sound Settings" - down arrow - "Sensitivty" - right round button & down arrow to "Tightness" 0 ... 25. A high value means more difficult to close.

Christian, the sensors have nothing to do with light. I think that they are some form of capacitance sensors that react to the touch of a finger. Just to make sure I just went into a pitch black closet.....so there I was playing in the dark

[m muir]

Thanks Christian. I'll give adjusting the sensetivity a go and see what happens. Incidentally does any one know whether the Vpipes work just as well running through a guitar microamp as a jambox. All I have at home at the moment is a 20 watt bass amp. Probably not the most suitable speaker for the Vpipes. Certainly not very portable for taking the Vpipes on trips!

[bobkeenan]

Thanks Christian. I'll give adjusting the sensetivity a go and see what happens. Incidentally does any one know whether the Vpipes work just as well running through a guitar microamp as a jambox. All I have at home at the moment is a 20 watt bass amp. Probably not the most suitable speaker for the Vpipes. Certainly not very portable for taking the Vpipes on trips!

I think that there is something in the manual that talks about doing this and if i remember it was something like switching to mono and selecting the left channel. I probably have that wrong and i am too lazy to look it up. I did not change a thing and just plugged it in. Worked great. I felt all powerful with the volume all the way up and effects on..... Until my wife came and told me to stop.

[ImNotIrish]

Thanks Christian. I'll give adjusting the sensetivity a go and see what happens. Incidentally does any one know whether the Vpipes work just as well running through a guitar microamp as a jambox. All I have at home at the moment is a 20 watt bass amp. Probably not the most suitable speaker for the Vpipes. Certainly not very portable for taking the Vpipes on trips!

I think that there is something in the manual that talks about doing this and if i remember it was something like switching to mono and selecting the left channel. I probably have that wrong and i am too lazy to look it up. I did not change a thing and just plugged it in. Worked great. I felt all powerful with the volume all the way up and effects on..... Until my wife came and told me to stop.

I am trying to figure out how to record the v-Pipes. I have Garage band on a MacBook Pro, and am using M-Audio's Fast Track as an interface. I am running all through a 16 channel mixer. So my question is this: I took the output from the v-Pipes and put it into the direct connect for the line -n on the M-audio. The signal is weak in Garage band, though it did record. What's going on?
Arbo

[MTGuru]

Christian, the sensors have nothing to do with light. I think that they are some form of capacitance sensors that react to the touch of a finger. Just to make sure I just went into a pitch black closet.....so there I was playing in the dark

That makes more sense. I've tried the vPipes once, and the sensors seemed capacitive not optical to me.

All I have at home at the moment is a 20 watt bass amp. Probably not the most suitable speaker for the Vpipes.

Actually, why not? Bass amps often make good all-purpose instrument amps because they tend to have a flatter and broader frequency response with less coloration than guitar amps. With a 6" or 8" speaker, a 20 watt bass amp should sound pretty good for vPipes. For portability (but not necessarily travel), a battery powered Roland Cube or Pignose may fit the bill. My playing partner has used a Roland with his mic'ed full set for gigs with very good results.

[MTGuru]

I am trying to figure out how to record the v-Pipes. I have Garage band on a MacBook Pro, and am using M-Audio's Fast Track as an interface. I am running all through a 16 channel mixer. So my question is this: I took the output from the v-Pipes and put it into the direct connect for the line -n on the M-audio. The signal is weak in Garage band, though it did record. What's going on?
Arbo

Is your mixer ahead of the interface in your audio chain? If so, why not run the vPipes through the mixer so you can adjust for level, input bias, etc.?

[m muir]

Christian, the sensors have nothing to do with light. I think that they are some form of capacitance sensors that react to the touch of a finger. Just to make sure I just went into a pitch black closet.....so there I was playing in the dark

That makes more sense. I've tried the vPipes once, and the sensors seemed capacitive not optical to me.

All I have at home at the moment is a 20 watt bass amp. Probably not the most suitable speaker for the Vpipes.

Actually, why not? Bass amps often make good all-purpose instrument amps because they tend to have a flatter and broader frequency response with less coloration than guitar amps. With a 6" or 8" speaker, a 20 watt bass amp should sound pretty good for vPipes. For portability (but not necessarily travel), a battery powered Roland Cube or Pignose may fit the bill. My playing partner has used a Roland with his mic'ed full set for gigs with very good results.

Thanks MTGuru. Would you recommend a micro or portable amp over a jambox?

[MTGuru]

Thanks MTGuru. Would you recommend a micro or portable amp over a jambox?

Can't say I really know anything about the Jambox, if you mean the branded Bluetooth device. But I admit it does seem like a here today / gone tomorrow gimmick to me. I choose my music electronics to last, and much of it I've been using for 30+ years. And despite its flaws, I'm still an Original Pignose fan.

[Nanohedron]

And despite its flaws, I'm still an Original Pignose fan.

Consider this a virtual high five.

[MTGuru]

And despite its flaws, I'm still an Original Pignose fan.

Consider this a virtual high five.

The first time you have a friend hold up your Pignose amp and flap it open and closed to produce a nice vibrato effect, you just know you're in the presence of a very special piece of equipment.

[ennischanter]

They'd sure be a great alternative when the real set is not working due to reed, climate issues!

[Christian Tietje]

I'd contacted the manufacturer Ramon Castro regarding another issue and besides that he stated indeed that the sensors are in fact capacitive, not optical. The vPipes has never used optical sensors because they limit the behaviour and do not respond as well. Capacitive sensors detect your fingers at a distance and in consequence react to the presence of the fingers as if a column of air where coming out of each hole on an acoustic chanter.

And two weeks ago I've tested an amp "Marshall AS50" for about 350 €/16 kg weight. Sounds quiet nice, realistic, warm. Wired during test via stereo-cinch. To do it better it should be plugged in by "left channel mono" with a mono cable and settings in the software of vPipes for "left mono". Unfortunately a Roland-Battery-Amp did not sound so well.

[ImNotIrish]

Well, I am sad to report that I am very disappointed with my set of v-pipes. I have contacted Ramon and asked to have my set replaced, and if he is unable to do that, requested a full refund. Several issues have surfaced: Namely, the unit freezes up in play mode frequently, and I am unable to move to any other parameter.... The 1/4" audio out jack is loose and there is constant 'crackling' in the signal ( I have tried several different cord, including a very high end one!).... I am distressed as I sold a nice set of C pipes to fund this..... Arrgh!

Arbo