I’m looking for uillleann pipe drone notes on mp3 to practice to. Would like to have both single note and 5ths. Anyone know of any quality tracks like this?
Thanks.
I use “The Tuning CD” (it was recommended by Ivan Goff) with my flute. I think it might have what you’re looking for. It’s on iTunes…
Thanks for this, but it’s not what I’m looking for. Want real uilleann pipe drones, not just electronic intervals.
Hmmm … Many uilleann pipe recordings start with drones only before the chanter comes in. Why not just clip and loop?
Also, AFAIK the uilleann tenor, bari and bass drones are tuned in octaves only, not fifths.
Kenny Mc Nicholl offers just drone CDs in d, c, and b
On his website.
http://www.kmbagpipes.com/cd.html
You might have some luck with Michael Eskins apps as well.
I’ve got 2 minutes of my D drones I recorded a while back. It’s just your standard two-octave D, though – no fifths, and I’m not sure how you’d do that without an extra A drone – but it’s something. I also have a recording with the baritone drone flattened just slightly because the drones were so in tune that day it was a little digital-sounding.
If you want to PM me an email address, I’ll send them along.
This is something I’ve been wondering about for quite some time–when is somebody going to design some sort of foot-pump operated drone for fluters, fiddlers, and other pipes-enviers? I already tap my foot…
http://www.target.com/p/airhead-bellows-foot-pump/-/A-10296478?ref=tgt_adv_XSC10001&AFID=shopping_df&LNM=|10296478&CPNG=Sports&ci_src=13736960&ci_sku=10296478&
I know a fiddler who plays along with a Shruti box sometimes. It sounds really cool. 
That’s already been thought of by those of us who have pump organs. 
Lucky me happens to have one, and it has proven very useful for drones. I use some decks of cards to depress whatever notes I want sounded, then turn on the coupler for full octaves. Then I just sit there and play flute/whistle while pumping the bellows with my feet. If its a slow air, which it normally is, i might also use my elbow (or the end of the whistle) to operate the “regs”. 
That’s when it starts sounding really cool! If needed, I guess I could record some of the more obscure notes for whoever.
As MTGuru suggests, there are uilleann pipe samples out in the aether. They are recorded pipes, no synthesis. They are usually meant for Acidized loop construction. I’ve resorted to using one once upon a time. Such samples are usually a few seconds long. They can be cut and pasted into any wave compatible recording package to make longer tracks. If you go the loop route you might trigger the loop with any midi keyboard or other triggering device. If you do not have looping capabilities you could paste enough iterations of the sample to make a static track of any length.. If your recording software supports loop editing you could also change the pitch/key/tempo of the loop as you need (Eb or Bb flute?). That’s not likely needed in this case but it works well enough for many other sampled sounds.
As for adding the fifth, octaves are the norm in my experience. I’m not a piper. There are players that use an extra drone to sound a fifth. If you find a decent sample of a single drone you can use that to pitch shift the note and make your own virtual drone set.
I can’t suggest a quality drone sample but if you Google something like “Ulleann Pipe Drone sample” you will find what is out there. Ray Sloan has some samples of drones on his site. You could edit and loop those. Here’s the D sample.
Feadoggie
http://www.tradlessons.com/3QuarterSet.html
http://www.tradlessons.com/JustDrones.html
Michael Eskin created an app for iPod / iPad that does that called just drones. I have and use the 3/4 app pretty often.
Btw… How much actual interest would there be for a tunable foot operated drone? I’ve often thought of creating one.
Good man! I’d be pretty curious. Price would come into consideration, but I’d love to have the option. Cathy’s mention of a shruti box makes me wonder if it could be done with accordion reeds. So a little foot-powered accordion with just one note (in octaves).
Of course, tunable pipe drones would be the ideal. But now that I start thinking through it more, would it require a bag to maintain constant pressure/sound? Bellows under one foot, bag under the other? This might get weird…
I had actually kicked around an idea involving hurdy gurdy like instrument, instead of a crank it would use a treadle and flywheel. Basically, the foot would “pump” a continuous bow and the fly wheel smooth everything out between pumps. In addition to drones foot operated tangents would provide the same notes as uilleann pipe regs. Amongst other major differences from your standard hurdy gurdy design.
The same thing could be applied to a bellows and an elastic bladder. Free reeds are an idea, very compact and reliable… But i kicked the idea of traditional uilleann drone reeds which are much more straight forward than chanter reeds. Making regs would be awesome, but designing a key system that can be played with feet (both ergonomically and strong enough to take the use) is a tall order.
I honestly had a dream about the drone/reg floory-gurdy thing years ago… It worked great in the dream 
There are downloadable samples in D or E here:
http://ccmixter.org/files/duck/24046
or it looks like you can order a CD of just drones from here