THE WEB STORE preserving Scotland’s traditions
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PIPING WORLD MAGAZINE
DUNTROON PUBLISHING
RB CAMPBELL & Co
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PIPE MUSIC WRITING COMPUTER SOFTWARE
CELTIC PIPES
CelticPipes is an easy-to-use music notation software application that allows you to create
musical scores for the following traditional 'Celtic' musical (and percussion) instruments:
Great Highland Bagpipe & Chanter
Tin Whistle (or Penny Whistle)
Flute
Scottish Side Drum
Bodhran
CelticPipes has been designed from the outset to be easy to use. It is also very 'open',
allowing a variety of commonly used file formats to be imported and exported.
For example, import formats are: ABC, BMW, BWW and PIO (PiobMaster, for the Highland
Bagpipe - currently Windows only )
With the use of the Transposition tool to change keys, even suitable Fiddle tunes in ABC may be imported and transposed for other instruments!
KEY FEATURES INCLUDE:
Point and click
Very easy to use
Basic keyboard entry
Allows multiple staves on a score
Range of common Import & Export formats
Custom embellishments
Embellishment/ornament timing control
Realistic sound Flexible playback cueing
Transposing tool
Note value checker
Fine printing control
Context-sensitive help
Full support
Free upgrades for life of product!
CELTIC PIPES
CelticPipes is an easy-
Great Highland Bagpipe & Chanter
Tin Whistle (or Penny Whistle)
Flute
Scottish Side Drum
Bodhran
CelticPipes has been designed from the outset to be easy to use. It is also very 'open',
allowing a variety of commonly used file formats to be imported and exported.
For example, import formats are: ABC, BMW, BWW and PIO (PiobMaster, for the Highland
Bagpipe -
With the use of the
KEY FEATURES INCLUDE:
Point and click
Very easy to use
Basic keyboard entry
Allows multiple staves on a score
Range of common Import & Export formats
Custom embellishments
Embellishment/ornament timing control
Realistic sound Flexible playback cueing
Transposing tool
Note value checker
Fine printing control
Context-
Free upgrades for life of product!
INTERVIEW FEATURED IN ‘PIPING WORLD’ JULY 2010
Rod Macleod is the man behind a new notational software program which is gaining a lot of attention.
We asked him to take some time out from his ChorusLogic Ltd. business to ask a few questions ........
PIPING WORLD
Celtic Pipes is a new-ish music notation software program for the piping market; what made you design something new considering that there are already another two or so on the market?
ROD MacLEOD
There are a number of reasons really.
I have a pretty varied musical background - a sort of jack-of-all instruments and I'm certainly master of none.
Still, I enjoy both playing and learning music and also developing software.
Writing a music notation application seemed logical.
I do have previous experience writing bagpipe-related software and I have a particular interest in the way traditional 'Celtic' music can be adapted and played by a range of instruments - from the lowly tin whistle to the Great Highland Bagpipe.
The idea behind CelticPipes was that it can help with this moulding process.
That's why the transposition tool was added, and why there are instruments such as Tin whistle, Flute and Bodhran available.
Another motivation was to provide an application that is cross-platform, at least as far as the PC and Mac are concerned.
CelticPipes will run on both platforms and read and write files created on either, regardless of source or target platform.
PIPING WORLD
As well as pipes, your system also has scope to add four other instrument sounds.
The drum facility is a particularly interesting innovation for pipe bands.
Are there plans to add other instrumentation?
ROD MacLEOD
Yes, there are certainly plans to add other instruments in a future version. #
We would like to beef up the percussion and perhaps add another pipe sound.
We had planned adding more exotic instruments such as the French Bombarde which is often played with the bagpipe, but we'll see.
I briefly thought about the Uilleann pipes, but that's probably a challenge too far!
PIPING WORLD
There are so many other features, such as the transposition tool, that it is hard to ask questions on them all - what about an overview of the important tools for our readers?
ROD MacLEOD
Yes, the transposition tool you mention allows music for melody instruments to be changed up or down either by key, or by a number of semitones.
This can help when taking an existing tune, written for example for the fiddle and adapt it for the Great Highland Bagpipe.
The tool knows about the note range of the instruments so if a note is beyond the dynamic range, it will be wrapped around to the next available octave.
It is only a tool so manual adjustments may be necessary.
Still it gives a good start.
Some of the other available tools are: Combining Scores - this tool allows you to take two or more tunes or scores with the same structure and key, and combine them into a multi-part single score.
Great for creating 'seconds’ and harmonies.
It's good for experimenting with and the original files are left intact.
Note value checker - this tool runs a basic check of the musical values of the root notes to make sure they are musically correct in value.
Any bars that are incorrect are highlighted in red.
Import & Export tools - we've aimed at creating as open an application as possible.
So far, CelticPipes will import from files such as BWW/BMW, ABC, and on Windows it can import PIO and DST files.
It will export to BMW, ABC, MIDI and image file (PNG ad JPEG).
So we've provided as many import and export filters as possible.
We will add to this range and improve them gradually over the next few versions.
PIPING WORLD
What has been the early market feedback to Celtic Pipes software?
ROD MacLEOD
CelticPipes 1.0 was released in 2007 and we have deliberately not advertised it until very recently.
The idea was to build up the facilities over time, incorporating as much customer feedback as possible.
Early adopters could see some of their suggestions appear over time with the advantage that they would receive all future upgrades at no extra cost.
So, the feedback has been very positive and we're constantly receiving good feedback.
When the feedback is less than favourable (it does happen!) we do our best to overcome any obstacles highlighted.
The 30-day evaluation download is a useful feedback tool.
PIPING WORLD
You have a great product; how frustrating is it trying to make inroads into what has always been a very conservative piping market?
ROD MacLEOD
It can be a bit frustrating. Being later in the market means that you are constantly compared to the established software.
For example, CelticPipes is designed to use point and click to add notes to the musical score.
Some existing programs did not use this method but instead required users essentially to learn a new language to input the notes on the stave.
It was a perfectly logical way of doing things in the DOS days, but modern notation software generally uses the mouse to input notes and change configuration parameters, fonts etc.
It is understandable that once time and effort has been put in to learn the coding system and one is happy with a system that works, there is a reluctance to change to a different way of working.
Certain things can be done more easily with the mouse.
So, arriving late in a market means you have to be compatible with your competitors, before your own ideas even start to become noticed.
PIPING WORLD
Finally, what are your future plans - or at least those that you want to share?
ROD MacLEOD
We have a very long list of additions and enhancements, most received from our customers, and we are currently working on adding some exciting new features.
As you have hinted it is difficult to be too specific without letting the 'cat out of the bag' earlier than we would like. We hope to provide a significant update at least each year. Each update will include bug fixes, probably add more instruments, new ways of entering music and hopefully ways of making CelticPipes a better tool for learning music. I don't know if that tells you a lot, but watch this space!
Rod Macleod is the man behind a new notational software program which is gaining a lot of attention.
We asked him to take some time out from his ChorusLogic Ltd. business to ask a few questions ........
PIPING WORLD
Celtic Pipes is a new-
There are a number of reasons really.
I have a pretty varied musical background -
Writing a music notation application seemed logical.
I do have previous experience writing bagpipe-
That's why the transposition tool was added, and why there are instruments such as Tin whistle, Flute and Bodhran available.
Another motivation was to provide an application that is cross-
PIPING WORLD
As well as pipes, your system also has scope to add four other instrument sounds.
The drum facility is a particularly interesting innovation for pipe bands.
Are there plans to add other instrumentation?
ROD MacLEOD
Yes, there are certainly plans to add other instruments in a future version. #
We would like to beef up the percussion and perhaps add another pipe sound.
We had planned adding more exotic instruments such as the French Bombarde which is often played with the bagpipe, but we'll see.
I briefly thought about the Uilleann pipes, but that's probably a challenge too far!
PIPING WORLD
There are so many other features, such as the transposition tool, that it is hard to ask questions on them all -
Yes, the transposition tool you mention allows music for melody instruments to be changed up or down either by key, or by a number of semitones.
This can help when taking an existing tune, written for example for the fiddle and adapt it for the Great Highland Bagpipe.
The tool knows about the note range of the instruments so if a note is beyond the dynamic range, it will be wrapped around to the next available octave.
It is only a tool so manual adjustments may be necessary.
Still it gives a good start.
Some of the other available tools are: Combining Scores -
It's good for experimenting with and the original files are left intact.
Note value checker -
Import & Export tools -
It will export to BMW, ABC, MIDI and image file (PNG ad JPEG).
So we've provided as many import and export filters as possible.
We will add to this range and improve them gradually over the next few versions.
PIPING WORLD
What has been the early market feedback to Celtic Pipes software?
ROD MacLEOD
CelticPipes 1.0 was released in 2007 and we have deliberately not advertised it until very recently.
The idea was to build up the facilities over time, incorporating as much customer feedback as possible.
Early adopters could see some of their suggestions appear over time with the advantage that they would receive all future upgrades at no extra cost.
So, the feedback has been very positive and we're constantly receiving good feedback.
When the feedback is less than favourable (it does happen!) we do our best to overcome any obstacles highlighted.
The 30-
PIPING WORLD
You have a great product; how frustrating is it trying to make inroads into what has always been a very conservative piping market?
ROD MacLEOD
It can be a bit frustrating. Being later in the market means that you are constantly compared to the established software.
For example, CelticPipes is designed to use point and click to add notes to the musical score.
Some existing programs did not use this method but instead required users essentially to learn a new language to input the notes on the stave.
It was a perfectly logical way of doing things in the DOS days, but modern notation software generally uses the mouse to input notes and change configuration parameters, fonts etc.
It is understandable that once time and effort has been put in to learn the coding system and one is happy with a system that works, there is a reluctance to change to a different way of working.
Certain things can be done more easily with the mouse.
So, arriving late in a market means you have to be compatible with your competitors, before your own ideas even start to become noticed.
PIPING WORLD
Finally, what are your future plans -
We have a very long list of additions and enhancements, most received from our customers, and we are currently working on adding some exciting new features.
As you have hinted it is difficult to be too specific without letting the 'cat out of the bag' earlier than we would like. We hope to provide a significant update at least each year. Each update will include bug fixes, probably add more instruments, new ways of entering music and hopefully ways of making CelticPipes a better tool for learning music. I don't know if that tells you a lot, but watch this space!
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