Soundbytes has released a public preview (Release Candidate 1) of BagPipes, a new sample based VST plugin instrument for Windows.

BagPipes specialized control engine makes it easy to play authentic sounding bagpipe styles and techniques on a simple MIDI keyboard with just basic modulator input through pitch bend and modulation wheel. It may be used to play authentic parts with convincingly sounding ornaments, cuts, taps and staccato runs. A specially designed pipe filter adds another layer of realism to vibrato, fades and pitch slides.

Features:

• The BagPipes instrument includes six distinctly sounding pipes from different european traditions (it is possible to switch instruments while playing):
  1. Galician gaita
  2. Swedish saeckpipa
  3. Bock (germany)
  4. Flemish pipe
  5. German shepherds pipe
  6. Bohemian dudy
• True drone instrument behaviour.
• Attack noise variation for naturally sounding trills and ornaments.
• Vibrato, bag pressure and two user configurable chanter modulators are controllable through MIDI.
• Rate and amplitude of the random drift modulator can be fine tuned to simulate different stages of the pipers proficiency and drunkenness.
• All modulators act simultaneously on pitch, volume and tone color for increased realism.
• Very low demands on CPU and memory.

BagPipes is available for a discounted introductory price of €39 until April 30th 2007. After the release of v1.0 the regular price will be €49.