A Virtual Pipe Organ

Pitea resembles the Grönlund organ from the Piteå School of Music on Android. It is based on the samples from Lars Palo available at http://www.familjenpalo.se/vpo/sf2.

The Pitea organ app comes in 2 different versions:

✓ Pitea Pro
The complete organ. This includes all 33 organ stops, 3 manuals + pedal and a keyboard range of 5 octaves – just like the original organ. Pitea Pro then adds 3 predefined combinations.

✓ Pitea Free

A small version the organ with only 1 manual, 8 stops, 3 combinations, no midi support, ad-supported.

If you want to play this organ on an iPad or iPhone, there are iOS versions available from Markus Sigg at http://polaron.de/Napo/index.html.

Dispositions

Combinations

✓ Plein combinations with a “principal tone”. Many people think about this sound as the “typical” church organ sound.
✓ Tutti the “full organ”.
✓ Fonds a combination of “flute” stops.

Great Sound

Pitea comes with multiple high quality samples for all contained stops (different pipe sounds).
The samples have been recorded in December 2010 by Lars Palo. The Pitea apps are based on a sampleset that has been created by Lars Palo, Graham Goode and Panos Ghekas in a joint effort. The sampleset is available from Lars Palo’s site http://www.familjenpalo.se/vpo/sf2. Of course, all stops can be combined and used like on a real organ.

Midi via USB

Pitea Pro supports Midi In/Out for standard-compliant USB-Midi devices if the android device supports USB-Host/-OTG.

You can for example
✓ play Pitea Pro from your external keyboard, organ midi console or other midi source
✓ play an external midi expander or any other midi sound generator from Pitea Pro.

Android devices known to work: Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7, Acer A500, Asus TF101, …

Midi File Player

Pitea Pro includes a player for standard midi files and comes with 17 midi files included. You can easily play midi files stored on your phone or select a midi file in your phones web browser. The playback speed can be adjusted and you can output the midi events via Midi/USB (if your device supports Midi via USB)

Technical Details

Polyphony

Up to 256 pipes can sound simultaneously.

Low Latency Audio

Low latency audio is a weak spot of Android (see http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3434). On the Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.1/Jelly Beans, low latency audio is possible. Pitea is one of the very few apps already supporting this! For all other devices, Pitea provides the lowest latency possible.

Multitouch

Pitea supports multi-touch i.e. you can press multiple keys at the same moment. The number of simultaneously pressed keys is only limited by your Android device.

Hardware Requirements

✓ Runs on android >= 2.2, phones and tablets
✓ Android support for USB-Host/-OTG and thus Midi/USB requires Android >= 3.1. Not all devices with Android >= 3.1 support USB-Host/-OTG. You can use the trial version to test your device. It’s not necessary to root your device.
✓ Pitea Pro supports all class compliant USB-Midi devices and interfaces. Typically, USB-Midi devices that don’t need drivers for Windows or MacOS are class compliant.
✓ Pitea Pro needs ca. 96 MB (typically on your sdcard) for the organ samples and midi files. Pitea Free needs ca. 20 MB.
✓ For the best sound, the device should have at least a 1GHz single core processor
✓ Use headphones / external speakers for better sound; phones speakers are not made for organs

Requested Permissions

Pitea Pro requires the following permissions:
✓ android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE to extract the sound samples onto the sdcard
✓ android.permission.VIBRATE for vibrate on touch support
✓ android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS for better audio support (OpenSL)
✓ android.permission.INTERNET to be able to download midi files if selected e.g. in a browser
✓ com.android.vending.CHECK_LICENSE to check the license

Pitea Free requires the following permissions:
✓ android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE to extract the sound samples onto the sdcard
✓ android.permission.VIBRATE for vibrate on touch support
✓ android.permission.MODIFY_AUDIO_SETTINGS for better audio support (OpenSL)
✓ android.permission.INTERNET and android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE to load ads

Some midi files from John McCoy / http://www.realmac.info/jeux1.htm played with Pitea Pro:

Pachelbel – Allein Gott (2:49)
(Plein)

Buxtehude BuxWV161 – Passacaglia in d (5:36)
(I: Principal 8′, Oktava 4′; P: Subbas 16′, Oktava 8′, Gedackt 8′)

Buxtehude BuxWV223 – Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (7:43)
(I: Principal 8, Dubbelflöjt 8′, Oktava 4′; II: Gedackt 8′, Koppelflöjt 4′, Kvinta 2 2/3′, Waldflöjt 2′, Ters 1 3/5′; III: Borduna 8′, Fl. Oct. 4′, Piccolo 2′; P: Subbas 16′, Oktava 8′, Oktava 4′)