This second pipes project is currently being built in my workshop. The instrument is MIDI controlled and plays an actual Great Highland Bagpipe set .

The successful creation of my first bagpipe project ( AngusTurragh in 2005 - see below )  led to planning the creation of a machine which could play a set of pipes.

Cheap bagpipes can be found on ebay starting at around £65 often mass produced in Pakistan. However the sound quality can be poor  ; a decent set of bagpipes may cost in excess of £2000 .

Cheaper pipes simply dont perform properly and need a lot of work to get the sound correct. Drones may have cane reeds supplied with them which are short –lived and are very unstable. Synthetic drone reeds with plastic tongues prove much more reliable .

Additionally the wooden chanter which may produce notes nowhere near correct. Professional bagpipe players advise to buy a “plastic” chanters which are very accurately machined from Delrin and produce clear, true notes. They are widely used by professional pipers and Pipe bands, although true die-hards and the assiduously punctillous still use chanters made from African Blackwood ; a wood so hard and dense that it sinks in water  ! 

McLOUD, the robot bagpiper is thecombination of several mechanical elements :

Firstly, the wind supply is much greater in pressure than that used for mechanical organs. Bagpipes play at a pressure of about 35 inches Water Gauge, or about 1.25 Pounds per Square Inch. A normal organ blower will not reach this pressure so I built a blower consisting of the motor and turbine unit from an Electrolux vacuum cleaner, housed in a large aluminium tube and a wooden box. This is capable of producing an enormous pressure and air-flow if used without any control system.

In order to reduce the noise of the blower there is a wooden labyrinth built around the air input and the box has several layers of sound-deadening material. The mains-electric motor has a variable electronic thyristor speed controller so that the unit can produce precise pressures. The speed control has several stages that are switched by MIDI signals from the music in order to give the various different pressures required for the drones alone, drones and chanter etc.

A MIDI controlled pressure release valve is included in the wind pipe to instantly release the pressure at the end of play, thus avoiding the wailing noise of the drones as the pressure dies slowly. The wind from the blower is carried in plastic (plumbing) pipe to the bag via an inconspicuous hole in the side of the piper’s blow-stick.

Secondly, the drones begin to play as the pressure reaches its first stage. Bagpipers using traditional drone reeds frequently need to strike the bag in order to get the reeds to start playing, but synthetic reeds play at a certain pressure without striking.

There are three drone pipes, each with its own reed at the base of the pipe, within the pipe-stock. Two of the drone pipes play the same note, tuned to the note A one octave below the low A on the chanter. The third, longer drone pipe is tuned to A an octave lower still. The three drone pipes play together in unison continually whilst the bagpipe tune is being played on the chanter.

Thirdly, the chanter is the pipe that actually plays the tune. The chanter plays continuously and only one note at a time; it has nine notes in all, the lowest note being low G – when all the finger holes are covered. The details of chanter fingering are shown on the chart opposite.

McLOUD uses leather-faced pallets to cover each finger hole and each of these is actuated by a MIDI controlled solenoid. Because of the tubular shape of the chanter, the holes are oval shaped and flat pallets would not seal them, therefore the pallets are sections of leather-covered tube seated crosswise over the holes, giving a perfect seal. Springs hold each pallet in place.

 At the top of the chanter, where it fits into the stock attached to the bag, is the chanter reed. This is a double reed made of cane. A great deal of experimenting with chanter reeds was necessary before good results were obtained. They come in various grades from Easy to Medium to Hard, and stages in-between. The best results so far have come from using an Easy reed. Much better and louder sounds are produced with a Hard reed, although much more pressure is required to blow one.

The position of the reed in the top of the chanter is very critical in determining the accurate pitch of the notes. The reed is raised or lowered in its housing to lower or raise the pitch of the various chanter notes respectively, and tuning is an acquired art.

Electronic control of McLOUD is done using General MIDI. The units comprise an SD card MIDI player connected into a MIDI decoder board (supplied by John Wale). The outputs of the MIDI decoder go to a finger-sequence encoder I designed, using a diode matrix, opto-couplers and driver transistors. The finger solenoids operate at 24 volts. Thus for any given MIDI note, a number of finger solenoids operate simultaneously, creating the correct note on the chanter.

McLOUD also has a small drum with four 24-volt solenoid operated beaters, controlled by MIDI as outputs from the decoder board. This allows it to perform rapid drum rolls as the music plays. McLOUD’s eyes light up with green LEDs and a solenoid moves them up and down. The pipe music and the drum strokes are written into the MIDI files, together with control notes for the eye movement, the blower pressure and the pressure relief valve. Whilst McLOUD is playing bagpipe music to an acceptable standard, more work needs to be done to control the wind pressure more accurately and to make decorative cosmetic improvements.

My thanks to several Piper friends for their advice and support when things got difficult, and to Tom at Bagpipes Galore, Edinburgh for his input.

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'AngusTurragh'  is a ' Bagpipe simulator ' ; an instrument designed to replicate the sound of the Great Highland Bagpipes. Designed and built in my workshop , Angus has been used to entertain at formal dinners and Burns` Night events where it has been used to " pipe-in " the haggis.

Like the Great Highland Pipes, it has nine chanter note reeds and three drone reeds.

The chanter notes, from bottom to top, are nominally G,A,B,C#,D,E, F#,G, and high A. This means that, in reality, the true scale is something similar to that of an orchestral B flat.

The nearest equivalent scale would thus be Ab, Bb, C, C#, D#, F, F#, Ab and A.

They are tuned in a harmonic mixolydian scale, with A= 470Hz (Normal concert pitch has A= 440Hz)

Angus has a blower delivering 9 inches Water Gauge (WG) of wind. The reed pallets are operated by MIDI control. The music is supplied on MIDI files played on a Floppy-disk player.

Two of the Drone reeds play Tenor A, (Ab) - one octave below the low A on the chanter. These are pitched to give an undulating beat. The third Drone reed plays Bass A, one octave lower still.

Angus Turragh is named after the wild highland piper of Auchitsnaebother , Glencampbellshire , Scotland.