What makes WARBL unique? ×

A distinctive characteristic of many traditional wind instruments is the ability to shape the sound by "shading" toneholes with your fingers. WARBL's infrared optical sensors detect how far a finger is from each tonehole, and WARBL uses the sensor information to send MIDI pitch-bend messages that allow for realistic slides and vibrato. Algorithms for cancelling the affects of ambient light mean that the sensors are accurate in nearly all lighting conditions.

WARBL uses breath pressure to allow "overblowing" to jump to the second octave, making playing easy and intuitive. In fact, WARBL is in many ways easier to play than actual wind instruments. Constant monitoring of breath pressure and sophisticated modeling detects the player's intentions by responding to breath or a bagpipe bag in a natural way. Settings can be changed to simulate the way that a variety of instruments respond to overblowing, or you can choose to be limited to one octave (like with a bagpipe chanter). Alternatively, you can play without using the pressure sensor, instead using a button click to start and stop the sound.

A feature of the WARBL pressure sensor is that it is a closed system, so no air escapes. This means that you never have to take a breath or refill a bagpipe bag. While this generally makes playing easier, it also changes the way that breath can be used for articulation. If preferred, a mouthpiece with a small hole can be used to let air escape and more closely approximate a real instrument.