Any recommendations for bagpipe music software? I've tried the free Bagpipe Player from Doug Wickstrom, but it disables my PC's standby and hibernate functions, which is a bore as well as slightly concerning. Alternatives I have heard of are Bagpipe Music Writer Gold, PiobMaster and Celtic Pipes, but there may be more. Any particularly suited to smallpipes as well as GHB? Any advice, suggestions or comments would be welcome. Thanks, Allan.

I use a mac computer so my experience of the various programmes is a bit limited but "Celtic Pipes" is probably cheapest and I found it easy to use. The website claims it can be used to write music for GHB's, tin whistles and drums and also import files in various formats like abc & bmw for example.
You can download a 30 day free trial from their website, worth a try.

We tried piobmaster on a pc a few years ago and it was ok but then the pc broke and we replaced it with another mac and so didn't really get a good go at piobmaster though looking back I think Celtic Pipes is easier to use.
Again I believe there is a free trial available.

My partner is a music teacher and she uses Sibelius which is fantastic but a bit pricey.

Very helpful Iain. I've had a tour of the Celtic Pipes website and will download the trial version when I get home. I'll let you know how I get on with it.
Thanks & regards

Allan

Another software that I use on my Mac with a technopipes chanter:

www.universal-piper.com/universal_piper/Home/Home.html

Hi,

For music without grace notes, I use Braeburn Music Publisher on my PC. I think it is excellent; it can scan, transpose etc - much like Sibelius at a fraction of the price. I think that a 'trial' version is available. I used it for the Society's most recent music book 'A New Way to Melrose'. For Highland music with full grace notes, I use Piobmaster which I like. The snag with Piobmaster is that it is not totally compatible with the latest Microsoft systems (Vista and later). I believe that a new version is to come out soon and will upgrade mine when it becomes available.
I also use ABC which is a simple 'shorthand' way of writing music. ABC Navigator is available free on the web and there are thousands and thousands of tunes available in ABC on the web. Everyone should know how to write in ABC since you can note down tunes in simple text format on any scrap of paper.

George.

George,

I've downloaded ABC Navigator and retrieved a couple of tunes from Nigel Gatherer's site, but when I play them through ABC Navigator, no sound comes out! Do I need some other bit of software to turn this MIDI (I believe) output into audible sound?

Allan