It’s a fact of life: Sometimes you just need your bagpipe on the go. And what exactly is a bagpipist to do if their bagpipes prove too large and cumbersome to play, say, on an airplane, or in a phonebooth? They turn to electronic bagpipe technology, or at least they should; the $35 DIY eChanter Electronic Bagpipe is an elegant solution to nearly all of the traveling bagpipist’s myriad of problems.
The eChanter is a pretty simple device, ideally built out of a small length of PVC pipe, a body, and some electronic guts. While there is an in-depth step by step guide out there, there isn’t much in it that needs to be adhered to directly, at least from an aesthetic standpoint, so you can build your eChanter to look like whatever you please. There is, however, one distinct decision point in the build process: Deciding whether or not you want your eChanter to be really annoying.
You can do the considerate thing and build your eChanter with a headphone jack, meaning that you can use it without driving those around you to homicide. If you choose that, you can still use an FM transmitter if you feel like being obnoxious. On the other hand, you can commit to noisiness by just going crazy and installing a speaker, but you’ve been warned.
All in all, the assembly process is deceptively simple, but you don’t really care about any of that, do you? You want to know what it sounds like. Well, not unlike an electronic recorder, on steroids. But you don’t have to take my word for it, check out this annoyingly quiet clip of a fellow playing his own eChanter.
If that doesn’t cut it for you, you can listen to a substantially louder mp3 recording on the build page.
And there you have it folks, a DIY electronic bagpipe without the bag and just one pipe. Give it a try if you’re so inclined, and maybe start development on an electronic kilt to match.
(via Hack a Day)
Published: Feb 23, 2012 11:55 am