Synthesiser Whistle?

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Fri May 17, 2002 4:30 am

My anarchic and inventive (OK, senile) mind just came up with this idea so I thought I'd run it up the Chuff & Fipple flagpole and see if it floats. Probably been done or thought of and rejected as stupid before, but here goes:

I was thinking of how the whistle is an ideal travelling companion, but also of the number of times I'd like to play when only I could hear ('cos my practising is so awful, 'nuff said).

Enter the Whistle Synthesiser:

The same size as a Soprano D this electronic whistle has pressure sensitive fingerpads, and a radio transmitter, so you can play through an amp or direct to earphones while on the move (e.g. in a bus, train, or movie theatre during a dull part of the film). It can be switched to play in any key (high G to ultralow Bb), and course has tasty effects (distortion, echo etc) available. Tone and chiff can be tweaked using the built in dials, sound like a Susato or a Burke Pro, or switch to a panpipes, pipes or flute sound.

Available at all leading whistle outlets, $199.00 says goodbye to heavy whistle bag blues - all the keys in one whistle!

Any takers? Comes in a variety of colours, or a wood finish too!

_________________
<marquee>MCM Transatlantic Whistle Detective Agency - No Case Too Small (terms & conditions apply)- Branches in London & Salt Lake City </marquee>

[ This Message was edited by: Martin Milner on 2002-05-17 06:30 ]

ErikT · Post by **ErikT** » Fri May 17, 2002 5:37 am

Yes! Go for it Martin.

Do a search through the archives and the current forum. You will find a few discussions on the matter (sorry, there is no new idea) and find links to several folks that have done something similar. There is not, that I know of, currently someone selling them in mass production, however.

With that said, good luck.

Erik

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Fri May 17, 2002 5:51 am

Durn! I knew it was too obvious not to have been done before.

I was hoping to be the ideas man, and let someone else do all the hard work of actually producing the thing! And I had all the colours worked too!

Now to get retrieve that letter to the patents office!

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Fri May 17, 2002 5:56 am

Great idea...
We've been through this one before.
To have ONE electronic whistle instrument that can change keys and sounds by simply turning a few knobs is a great idea. Currently, there are electronic practice chanters for bagpipes starting around $200US
http://www.songsea.com/electronic.html
On the high end of the scale, Yamaha has a MIDI wind controller for around $500US
http://www.yamaha.com/dmi/products/wx5/
The Yamaha is primarily designed for a saxophone player.
There's nothing I know of to truly replicate a $7 whistle... at any price.

[ This Message was edited by: Tony on 2002-05-17 10:40 ]

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Fri May 17, 2002 7:23 am

Hi Tony,

Wow, that electronic practise chanter is so like what I envisioned it's uncanny! But I didn't have the bright idea of incorporating a metronome into the thing too!

Sorry to have brought up an old thread theme, I've searched the archives for Synthesiser, Synthesizer and Electronic, to no avail. Just me being duuh I expect.

If Yamaha made whistles, I bet they'd have made this by now. As for the electronic chanter, I can see how a silent bagpipe would be appreciated! And I even got the price about right on a guess!

many thanks for the links!

cheers, Martin

BrassBlower · Post by **BrassBlower** » Fri May 17, 2002 7:23 am

CHUFF and Fipple? Is that a typo, or is it not?

Slainte,
BB

Sara · Post by **Sara** » Fri May 17, 2002 8:30 am

Awesome idea - I'd go for it! The echo option would be SO wizard!

WhistlingSouthpaw · Post by **WhistlingSouthpaw** » Fri May 17, 2002 8:40 am

On 2002-05-17 06:30, Martin Milner wrote:
and a radio transmitter, It can be switched to play in any key, and course has tasty effects (distortion, echo etc) available. Tone and chiff can be tweaked using the built in dials, sound like a Susato or a Burke Pro, or switch to a panpipes, pipes or flute sound.

Just out of curiosity, how are you gonna fit all those "bells and whistles" on a little whistle? Seems like it'd be kinda bulky to me.

_________________
A Whistling Southpaw (and proud of it!)

[ This Message was edited by: WhistlingSouthpaw on 2002-05-17 10:43 ]

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Fri May 17, 2002 9:02 am

On 2002-05-17 10:40, WhistlingSouthpaw wrote:

Just out of curiosity, how are you gonna fit all those "bells and whistles" on a little whistle? Seems like it'd be kinda bulky to me.

_________________
A Whistling Southpaw (and proud of it!)

[ This Message was edited by: WhistlingSouthpaw on 2002-05-17 10:43 ]

Gonna fit my whistle with a whistle? Ha!

That's the beauty of being the inventor, I can leave that problem to the technicians.

Actually, I had two approaches. First, with modern Japanese advances in miniaturised electronics, I figured they'd get all that stuff in with room to spare. Very small dials, that's the secret.

The second idea was to have the electronic whistle acting as a radio mike, and the bells and whistles fitting into a remote box, which you could use on stage or when performing, plugging it into an amp. For silent travel playing, your earphones would plug straight into the whistle, and you might have to do without the reverb!

I was really thinking of this as being good for tune practise, and Tony's chanter looks ideal; I can't believe it so simolar to my idea.

As the saying goes:

Great minds think alike; fools never differ.

AnnaDMartinez · Post by **AnnaDMartinez** » Fri May 17, 2002 9:02 am

With volume control, too? And it'll still sound like a whistle? Huh?

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Fri May 17, 2002 9:05 am

On 2002-05-17 11:02, Anna Martinez wrote:
With volume control, too? And it'll still sound like a whistle? Huh?

Hey Anna, I thought you'd want to keep it on the silent setting for Deadwood! No street laws against that!

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Fri May 17, 2002 9:14 am

Martin, I love your idea but I think you're making it too complex for the moment! If you're serious about trying to develop something, I would avoid the echo adn reverb and such. I would include some sort of dial for the key, perhaps located on the bottom side of the whistle, opposite the fipple. Make it a single volume because there are inexpensive headphones out there with volume controls on the headphone wires themselves.

I think that with the C&F community we could find enough people with the knowledge or initiative to develop something on a small scale. I'd be willing to help on the mechanical side but I would need someone who knows electronics and how to produce the tones.

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Fri May 17, 2002 9:34 am

On 2002-05-17 11:14, avanutria wrote:
Martin, I love your idea but I think you're making it too complex for the moment! If you're serious about trying to develop something, I would avoid the echo adn reverb and such. I would include some sort of dial for the key, perhaps located on the bottom side of the whistle, opposite the fipple. Make it a single volume because there are inexpensive headphones out there with volume controls on the headphone wires themselves.

I think that with the C&F community we could find enough people with the knowledge or initiative to develop something on a small scale. I'd be willing to help on the mechanical side but I would need someone who knows electronics and how to produce the tones.

Hi Beth,

Actually at this stage the idea was, dare I say it, a pipe dream*. However, knowing the talents & general handydandyness of many the members of the board, especially those who make their own whistles, I fully expect a working prototype to be gracing Dale's in tray within the week.

For myself, I have trouble changing a lightbulb, let alone building stuff and that.

* Pipe dream - a daydream (originally while smoking a pipe) in which with a shimmy here, and a shake there, I cure cancer, solve the third world food shortage, pay off the national debt, and discover the one gizmo that the whistling world has been waiting for that will make me rich, RICH I TELL YOU, hahahahaha. Then my boss rings me to ask where the month end sales figures are, and it all vanishes in a puff of reality as I stare out the grimy window at the litter blowing down a deserted London street. Sigh.

gogo · Post by **gogo** » Fri May 17, 2002 9:46 am

Hi Martin,

Try this link, I think this is the previous discussion of the topic.

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... 74&forum=1

p.s. I'm going with "Chuff & Tipple".

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Fri May 17, 2002 9:49 am

Here's another thread:

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... &forum=1&5

Back when this stuff came up before, I emailed the maker of the Cyber whistle. Here's what he said:

Hello Beth,

The CyberWhistle is a few years old now. My main aim in designing it was
not to make an electronic whistle replacement, but rather to make use of
the finger/shading technique for controlling abstract synthesis. It
turns out you can do some very good whistle impersonations aswell. (Did
you listen to the sound examples?). The main difference with
controllers like the wx7 is that the degree of finger shading is
measured rather than just giving an on/off for each key. Shading is the
key to good whistle playing!

Before producing a 'production model' I would need to find out exactly
what people would want and expect from such an instrument. The
real-whistle player might be a bit disappointed if he wanted something
very close to their real whistle. The response times are pretty good,
but not upto fast whistle playing. On the other hand if you want
something a bit different, but with related playing technique then the
cyberwhistle might be for you.

The hardware of the cyberwhistle just outputs midi information saying
how hard you are blowing and how your fingers are positioned. The second
half of the design job was to write software running a PC that takes the
MIDI and turns it into audio. I used physical modelling synthesis
techniques to generate natural sounding output. The paper you ask for is
somewhere on a cd in a pile of junk in a friends apartment - I've moved
recently. I'll try to remember to fish it out.

I haven't done anything to the whistle since the initial design effort.
The main thing I wanted to do to the hardware was improve the finger
sensing from light based to radio based. Also a wireless transmission
for the MIDI would be very cool. On the software side there is endless
amounts of work that can be done. Initially I would need to port to
windows from SGI, but this is pretty straightforward. On the plus side
any new software can be sent out after the hardware has been sent out.

Its possible that the sound synthesis could be incorporated in the
whistle or some small box. This amounts to designing a small fast,
computer, which would be a lot of work. Alternatively a 600Mhz celeron
or better laptop is easily enough, maybe even some palm computers could
be adapted, since I've heard that MIDI interfaces have been built for
these..

Hope this answers most of your questions,

Dylan