Nord User Forum

Hi All,
Does anyone out there have a sample for the Northumbrian pipe?
It is such a haunting sound that I am surprised it doesn't seem to be available commercially.
Please help!
Regards,
Edwards507

That's kind of a specialized request. If Bagpipes won't do here are some links to video recordings of the Northumbrian Pipes. One of them demonstrates the sound of the Chanter and then the Drone Pipes. I would download the video, have it converted to a .Wav file and start dissecting and pulling apart the sounds, tune them and stretch them in Audacity and get a bunch of samples together. Then get to work and bring them into the Nord Sample Editor, looping, etc. Good luck!

Northumbrian smallpipes and their cousins Uilleann Pipes, etc are interesting and challenging instruments to sample. The reason behind this is due to the fact that the chanters are not true concert pitch, they are relative pitch, so as an example, on an uilleann chanter (former player - retired) the chanter as an example Concert D chanter, is only referred to as "Concert due to the needs of the instrument at the time going back to the late 1800's etc. Certain notes like G and A are slightly flat or slightly sharp depending on bore dimensions, etc. A full set of pipes will have drones, uilleann pipes also have regulators, so sampling a set of pipes will mean a few things...

You would need to create 2 associated nsmp's. 1 for drones and regulators (if uilleann pipes / shuttle pipes, etc are being created), so the program referring to that NSMP will require a "hold function) and the 2nd nsmp file for the chanter remembering that a chanter would be between 2 and 2-1/4 octaves. as after top D on a concert chanter, highest note could go to about top F# due to harmonics but is a total pain to achieve on certain chanters due to the bore sizes and reed characteristics.

There are some sample libraries for products like Native Instruments Kontakt where the wav samples are part of the build, so you could use those samples. the issue may be that the samples may also include release samples and velocity samples. So there's a challenge for you.

I've got one on my Electro 5 not sure where I got it from I'll try and find it for you

Here's one to try, not sure where I got it so apologies to anyone else if it's yours. Enjoy

I managed to have found this.
The samples are free but you'll have do some work to create a suitable .nsmp file.
Good luck!

https://www.pianobook.co.uk/library/uilleann-pipes/