Go to My Documents The Lord of the Rings Online Music then select 'Save' You should now be able to /play the abc file in game while in /music mode. Multi-part songs (.zip files) may require you to use Winzipor WinRARto extract the individual tracks. By Iranon in ABC files, Instruments, Music Tags: ABC file, classical music, LotRO, LotRO music, Ralph Vaughan Williams Not much of a post. I made an ABC file for Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Seventeen Come Sunday and felt the need to share the link.

• Lotro Abc Songs
• Lotro Abc Player

Music NOTE: In this build the ABC playback feature does not work so notes will need to be played manually. This should be corrected in the next build. The updates to the music system have once again been put into the game. Instruments have had their notes updated, cleaned up, retuned, and volume re-leveled to be consistent. Please let us know what you think.

Has anyone been able to get any sound at all from their instruments with this build? I understand that ABC playback has been disabled, but it seems manual playing via the keyboard has been switched off too. No matter what instrument I equip, there is no sound coming when I press associated keys, and no 'floating notes' appear over my head. The key presses register, though, because if I mash the keyboard, I get the 'Too many requests, slow down' message. They just don't convert to music in-game. And yes, I have checked to see that my player music slider isn't set to zero. The keyboard just don't work as input to player instruments.

Which makes it a bit hard to test the changes I have bugged it. Has anyone else had more luck, though? Last edited by Linawillow; Jan 18 2015 at 12:44 PM.

Managed to get things to work by rolling up a new character. Also make sure that 'Quantize player music' under audio options is enabled, seems it it necessary for manual playback in this build. I haven't had the time to do any real testing, but I saw quite a few issues on my end:. Some rather nasty twangy string notes. Strings are pretty loud in general. One high-pitched bagpipe note that will have folks running for cover.

If I am not mistaken, that problematic clarinet note from the previous attempt has issues still. The pibgorn sounded rather silent. This was just from 5 minutes messing about a bit. I'll try do more proper work tomorrow Last edited by Linawillow; Jan 18 2015 at 12:46 PM. U15.2 beta build 1, instrument by instrument, note by note playthrough.

It is a boring 17 minutes, but perhaps somewhat enlightening too? Quite a few dodgy notes, not least for the harp, although I haven't had much time to go into details yet. (Sound capture based on generic software playback through an Asus D2X sound card).

Here is also an image of the volume levels across instruments, just a visual based on the audio output from the same video: If you want a larger version of the same image, Clarinet, Flute, Horn, Lute and Bagpipe are somewhat evenly matched (although the flute seems to be the loudest). Pibgorn is silent, Drums are somewhat quiet (but with large internal volume differences), while the strings totally dominate. Especially the Harp and the Theorbo. I'll see if I can make a similar video/image from the instrument sounds currently live, to compare. Last edited by Linawillow; Jan 19 2015 at 05:58 PM. Thanks for the new build! It seems some problematic notes from the first build has been fixed: A4 on the bagpipe and all C#-notes on the harp were one octave higher than they should last time, but that's good now!

One problem: The harp plays so loud now, I got crackling/distortion if I played at full player music volume. Playing a file at +f+, I had to knock Player Music Volume down to about 0.65 to avoid the distortion. The same thing is there for the theorbo. Else, I tried a duo song with another musician. The first reaction was that 'er, it is a bit like playing in a bathroom'.

It might be because the general boosting of volumes, but it felt like the strings had a sharp reverb sound to them. Will have to try more songs, though. Here is a video from the same duet: Last edited by Linawillow; Jan 20 2015 at 06:16 PM. Thank you Turbine for continuing work on the Lotro Music system!

I can confirm that especially the harp but also the theorbo will cause quite a good deal of distortion in the sound they play over the speakers with high player music volume settings! The tresshold for eliminating it seems to be around 65 to 70% of the player music volume setting. It seems to me that the distortion of the harp sounds at 0.9 of the player music volume setting was even worse than how it plays in the above posted video! Thanks for the new build! One problem: The harp plays so loud now, I got crackling/distortion if I played at full player music volume.

Playing a file at +f+, I had to knock Player Music Volume down to about 0.65 to avoid the distortion. The same thing is there for the theorbo. Else, I tried a duo song with another musician. The first reaction was that 'er, it is a bit like playing in a bathroom'.

It might be because the general boosting of volumes, but it felt like the strings had a sharp reverb sound to them. Will have to try more songs, though. I was experiencing that distortion with more than just the harp, but I just thought it was my cheap headphones. I compared the BR harp to live by logging into live on an alt account while my main account was open on BR. The BR harp is five times as loud as on live.

BR Player Music volume had to be brought down to 0.20 to be the same level as live at full volume. Most of the other BR instruments are also louder than on live (except for drum), though not equally louder (at 0.20 some BR instruments were quieter than live, most notably horn). The major changes in harp are in tone.

This new BR harp sounds completely different. Live harp sounds like my nylon-stringed folk harp played with fingertips (not long nails). BR harp sounds like a metal-stringed Celtic harp played with fingernails (very like the harp used by Patrick Ball).

The attack is hard, loud and full of reverb. It's actually a beautiful sounding harp! But, it is not going to be compatible with existing ABC songs where the harp is being used precisely for it's soft mellow sound and full sustain. And it changes the character of solo harp songs. A change this drastic almost needs a whole new instrument, such as a Rohirrim harp (more appropriate to their Anglo-Saxon heritage) or like the harp seen in Gondor on NPCs.

Here is my take on the new music. First, there are no dead notes! That is a improvement over the last upadate.

Lute: Generally, I like the direction they are going. The notes sound much clearer and I can play the instrument in the lower octave without it sounding like a muddled mess. However, there are one or two notes that sound 'Twangier' then the others. When I am playing, it sounds like I am playing two different instruments at the same time sometimes. It's not a huge deal but it is noticeable and on some songs that I played, it even gave a interesting sound.

However, I am not sure I want that interesting sound in all my songs. Also, the volume was increased needlessly. There are not too many people who complained about not being able to hear the lutes. Drums: I haven't really noticed that big of a difference in the drums. The shakers might have been brought down a bit but I would have like to see the bass and toms be brought up a bit. It looks like that Turbine can't seem to make up their minds on this instrument.

In the old music system, the Theorbos were soft and needed to be brought up a bit or even doubles to get the desired volume. In the last update, they made it even softer.:O In this update, they went to the other extreme. Now it pretty much drowns out everything else. Plus, like the Lute, there is one string that is 'Twangier' then the others.

You might get away with it in a full blown band song but in a duet, it is very noticeable. Bagpipe: I don't see much of a difference in the bagpipes except that they may have brought them down a bit. I don't really have a big problem with it. Flute: The Flute has been brought up some and I think it sounds pretty nice. I don't have any problems with the flute. Horn: Once again, no big change except for a vol adjustment. No problem with this one as well.

Clarinet: Not noticing a big change in this one except that maybe they tuned it a bit better. There is also that one note that gave us problems the last update but it is barely noticeable now. Cowbells Regular/Moor: I noticed no change in either of these instruments.

Pibgorn: The less said about the pibgorn, the better.:P Which brings us to the Harp. I know people were complaining about the softness of the harp (I was one of them) but this is ridiculous. It drowns out every single instrument. And the sound! It sounds more like a harpsichord then a harp.

I know both instruments have the word 'harp' in their names but one does not sound like the other. Out of all the problems I mentioned, this one is the most serious and needs to be addressed before this is released live. I appreciate the developers working on this but please listen to us this time and don't release this live before addressing our concerns. I just played some of my solo ABC files on Bullroarer and things are sounding pretty good to me. There's three changes I would make tho. Lute: It's a bit loud.

I would return the lute volume to what it was in the old system. Don't change anything else just the volume. Therobo: To loud now. I'd like to see a happy medium between what it is on Bullroarer and what it was in the old system. Harp: Made my ears bleed it was so loud, and as Orly said sounds more like harpsicord than harp. I'd return harp volume to what it was in the old system, and make it sound like a harp again.

Pighorn: I never use it so I'll leave it to those that do to comment on it. All the other instruments sound pretty good to me. Make those 3 changes I suggested and I'll be a happy camper Oh and I want to thank you folks at Turbine for taking the time to work on the music system again. The major changes in harp are in tone.

This new BR harp sounds completely different. Live harp sounds like my nylon-stringed folk harp played with fingertips (not long nails). BR harp sounds like a metal-stringed Celtic harp played with fingernails (very like the harp used by Patrick Ball). The attack is hard, loud and full of reverb.

It's actually a beautiful sounding harp! But, it is not going to be compatible with existing ABC songs where the harp is being used precisely for it's soft mellow sound and full sustain. And it changes the character of solo harp songs.

A change this drastic almost needs a whole new instrument, such as a Rohirrim harp (more appropriate to their Anglo-Saxon heritage) or like the harp seen in Gondor on NPCs. While I love the new harp, I'm afraid it's going to ruin the pieces I've arranged that rely on those gentle, peaceful sounds.

Please retain the current harp and create an alternative. Since we now have both versions already, I'm hoping this should be an easy implementation. The more options the merrier! I agree that the new harp does sound way too different from the old one, and would probably not work with most of the player created music pieces. Why it changed so much from the previous version and the old harp sounds I do not know! As far as I'm concerned the development of the music system should at this point mainly be focused on implementing the new instruments in a balanced way so they will work as well as possible with most of the music created by players over the years! The first attempt at new instruments was a pretty good one, with the main issue being the unbalanced volume of the different instruments.

Now again I'm wondering why the volume differences between the new instruments individually are so huge, as clearly shown by the graph posted above! Trying to get the volumes of the new instruments to the same level of volume the old instruments have would be the best basis to start, even though not everyone agrees that is the best balance! Clearly great events like Winterstock show that the old system is very workable! Thank you everyone for the valuable feedback. We are working on the following changes for the next build: 1.

Lower the volumes on a couple of the instruments 2. Switch the harp back to its live version We hope those changes will get us to a place that will please the musicians and festival goers! Thanks for the quick updates! Volume adjustments are grand! Here is what I get myself when comparing outputs from U15.2 build 2 and live volumes (just playing continuous scales at +ffff+, 100% master and player music volume), so the harp and the theorbo should definitely be among the top candidates for volume lowering: 2.

Regarding the harp, is there a way to keep both the old and the new version in the game? After the initial shock, I see lots of potential uses for the new sound, and I personally could see it used in some of my already coverted tunes too (albeit with lower volume and with a scaled-back reverb). The old harp sounds nice enough, but it also feels bit muddy, especially the low notes. Else, there are some problematic individual notes here and there.

There are many minor problems, but some larger ones I have heard are: Lute: D#2 is exceedingly twangy B3 and B4 sound like they use harp samples instead of the lute Theorbo: E2 has an odd dull 'thud' to it, compared the surrounding notes B3 sounds like it uses the harp sample instead of the theorbo Flute: F3 is rather loud and breathy. Other notes with a similar problem are C#3, A4 and A#4.

There are issues with other notes than these too, though. Also, there are volume variations between different notes on the same instrument. Last edited by Linawillow; Jan 21 2015 at 03:43 PM. I would be curious to hear from the developer who is working on this what criteria are being used to scale the relative volumes of instruments and their individual notes. Just looking at graphs like Linawillow posted above and scaling the samples so they all look roughly the same height would give you a pretty coarse approximation of what you want.

In particular, it wouldn't account for a couple of major factors that affect the perceived loudness of the notes. There's been a lot of research over the last century or so into what causes people to perceive some things as louder than others.

One result is that we know the human ear perceives tones at some frequencies as louder than others, even if they have the same amplitude. This graph shows the frequency response of the human ear, at various sound levels.

You can see from the graph that the frequency we hear the 'best' is around 3000 Hz (which you can hear ). If the frequency is lower or higher than that, then you have to significantly boost the tone in order for it to be perceived as the same loudness. Another major factor that isn't reflected in Linawillow's graphs is that some instruments (strings, drums) have notes that vary in loudness over time (attack and decay), whereas other instruments (wind instruments) have notes that maintain the same loudness for their duration. When trying to scale the lute to be the same perceived loudness as the horn, you would have to scale the lute note such that it is louder than the horn at the beginning of the note, but softer at the end. There are existing algorithms that take account of these factors which could be used to automatically scale the notes such that all notes of all instruments are perceived to be the same loudness by a majority of the population.

But I don't think it's necessary to be that precise in this application. If I were a software engineer working on this problem, I think I would just concatenate all of the notes into a single huge.wav file, and distribute it to the musically-inclined players such as Linawillow. Let them apply the scaling according to their subjective judgements and send the.wav file back to you.

Then use those results to scale the notes in the game. I'm sure there's some bureaucratic red-tape reason why that can't happen, though.

Last edited by Thurallor; Jan 21 2015 at 04:04 PM. If we can keep 2 harp sounds, it sure would make Gleowine's Harp pretty special.

Tie the old sound to standard harps and the new sound to Gleowine's Harp (or vice versa), and then make Gleowine's Harp a barterable item with the Survivor's of Wildermore for players who didn't keep theirs. Then the harps will not just look different, but also sound different.

That is a brilliant idea, though I kinda fear it may be another one of those changes that look easy on the surface but are a lot more work as far as programming goes. As I posted on BR forums a while back I don't think volumes should be changed from the old system at all. We have already compensated for volumes when we made our ABC files.

Changing volumes now will make all our files sound different when played in game. So if as you say, you are trying to even out the volume levels, then when I play an ABC file that I have turned the volume on lute down a bit to play softly in the background and turned up the volume of a horn to play the melody and you for example have turned the volume of lute up and horn down or even left it the same. Then you have completely changed the way that file will sound when played in game. The lute will now be dominating the song. Get the instruments in tune? Fix any wonky notes?

But I say leave the volumes as they are in the old system. Does anyone get what I'm saying or am I just babbling nonsense? THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™ interactive video game © 2017 Standing Stone Games LLC. Standing Stone Games and the Standing Stone Games logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Standing Stone Games LLC. The Lord of the Rings Online, Shadows of Angmar, Mines of Moria, Siege of Mirkwood, Rise of Isengard, Riders of Rohan, Helm’s Deep, Mithril, Middle-earth Enterprises logo, The Lord of the Rings, and the names of the characters, events, items and places therein are trademarks or registered trademarks of The Saul Zaentz Company, d/b/a Middle-earth Enterprises (SZC) under license. Middle-earth Poster Map © 2007 SZC under license.

The Lord of the Rings online boasts a robust music system that allows players to play music free-form using their keyboard or via the 'scripted' ABC notation system. Whether you're just banging away on the drums for fun or keen to compose your own music and participate in Orchestra or Band play, this guide is to help you get used to the music system from the very basics through to more advanced techniques. Even if you're not a musician and can't even play an instrument it is still possible to play music in Lotro, via the ABC notation system, which will be covered in the next sections.

Who Can Play? The Minstrel, of course, gains the ability to play all instruments as well as how to teach others to play. However all classes are able to play an instrument right from the beginning of the game generally starting with the lute and some gain the ability to play additional instruments as per the table below. Image courtesy of Music is thus not the sole prerogative of Minstrels but can be enjoyed by all classes.

Where do I get Instruments? Instruments are available from Bards who are normally located at the Major hub of each area. You can purchase the appropriate instrument for your class, from them for 2s each.Note that only Minstrels are able to play the minstrel instruments.

If you are a class other than a minstrel you have to use the basics instruments supplied by the Bards. There is no difference in sound quality between crafted instruments or basic ones. How do I Play? Once your instruments is equipped (much as how you would equip a weapon). You need to enter the music stance.

Lotro Abc Songs

The command for this is /music. Music stance will mean that the number keys no longer activate your quickslots but will instead play a range of notes. You can alter the notes by utilising the additional keys (ctrl, alt, shift) whilst pressing the number key. By default shift will increase the notes by an octave, and ctrl will sharpen (or flatten) the notes.

You can also alter the key mapping to utlise the entire keyboard which will be covered in the next section. Due to latency and connection issues, it is probably best to avoid manual play in groups, however it is easy enough to play solo in this fashion.

However the default setup is somewhat awkward so its enjoyable to rather set up the entire configuration of your keyboard. This setup is obviously based on individual preference and style of music. Keyboard Mapping To set up keyboard mapping you need to go to Options, Select Key Mapping from the side menu and then scroll down to the music section.

Each note is displayed so just edit each one until you are happy with your layout. ABC files are a musical notation system that uses letters instead of musical notes. It corresponds to the keymapping of the Lotro system so enables one to play music through the game system. If you are not a skilled musician this is the easy way to fake your state of rock star awesomeness! ABC files need to be created, saved or downloaded into the Documents Lord of the Rings Online Music folder. If you do not have a music folder in the Lord of the Rings folder just create a new one.

The file extension for ABC must be simply.abc However they can be opened with a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad. You can even compose in a text file and simply rename it to a.abc file after you're done! Playing the files in game is done by activating the Music stance then typing /play The blue Playing bar should pop up across your screen as well as a message saying the Title of the song you're playing. There are a number of plugins that can assist with playing music in Lotro. Foremost amongst these is www.lotrointerface.com by Chiran. This plugin enables you to not only sync playing with others but also to play music at the touch of a button as well as browse abc files in game. It is an invaluable resource for any prospective bard.

Lotro Abc Player

The second plugin for those of you who are avid roleplayesr and wish your characters to sing along with their music is the Lyrical plugin by Astleigh. Available www.lotrointerface.com. ABC files with multiparts (seperate tracks for different instruments) Allow multiple players to play together. It is highly recommend to do this with the Songbook plugin due to its synchronised play command.

It is theoretically possible to play as a group manually but due to issues of ping it can be somewhat difficult to get the group to synchronise effectively. In order to play as a group one needs to join a fellowship or raid (depending on the number of instruments to be played).

And everyone needs to have the same abc file, so that the timing and key are all correct. The just start up the song via the Songbook plugin.

It is recommended to turn off latency and quantize player music in the Options menu as this allows for better sound quality. Unfortunately there is an in game bug where you are sometimes unable to hear player music, the only fix at present is to relog and hope that the sound will become available. There are a number of programs that are able to do this. Most notably firefern.rklotro.com and the plugin.

Although it may seem fairly simple to just go ahead and click convert, there are a few things to remember. Midi files play a 5 octave range whereas The Lord of the Rings Online can only play a 3 octave range. As such you may need to edit the midi file until all notes are within the required range.

A good tool to do this with is www.anvilstudio.com. The Maestro LOTRO MIDI Player can transpose as well however its functionality is somewhat limited so it's better to manually transpose with Anvil.

To illustrate the note ranges further I include this picture by Fionnuala: As you can see some instruments may need to be left as normal however high instruments such as the flute may need to be lowered an octave. Whereas low instruments such as the Theorbo may need to be raised an octave. This is so that all the notes will be able to be played within the range ascribed by the Lotro system. (Note: In Midi an octave is not 8 notes but actually 12, so to shift an octave its either -12 or +12, and to shift two octaves is -24 or +24. This is due to the inclusion of the sharpened and flattened notes as numbered values). Changing values outside of the 12 range will actually change the key of the song so only do so if you are familiar with musical theory. Midi files offer the option to have seperate instrument tracks.

When converting be aware that you can add multiple instrument tracks onto one instrument. For instance if you wish to have a solo song and the midi file contains seperate tracks for melody and rythmn you can still play both tracks on one instrument in game. On the other hand if you are creating an abc with multiple parts you can assign different instruments to different midi tracks. Since Lotro does not include a violin or cello (or other string instruments) it is recommended to use either the flute or clarinet for these parts or the Harp or Lute depending on the note duration. For longer notes the flute and clarinet will convey the music more effectively, however for faster tempo songs with quick note changes and short intervals the Lute and Harp are more effective. There is a large community of musicians about on Lotro, although they do predominate on the Landroval server. A number of them have posted up resources around the internet here is a brief selection.

Guides and Music Discussion lotromusic.mymiddleearth.com This site is run by Fionnuala and includes a brief introduction to the music system as well as abc files. She also handles requests for content and displays a list of concert times on various servers. www.lotro.com A link directly to the official forums where abc requests, issues of the system and other related topics to the music system are discussed. www.thefatlute.eu The Fat Lute sadly closed down over a year ago. However the songs are still available to download via an ftp system.

Midi Transposition and ABC Resources firefern.rklotro.com You'll need to make an account to join the site. Once in though Firefern offers an excellent midi transposer as well as the ability to share and download other.abc files. By Digero This replaces the former LOTRO Midi player. It includes an ABC player as well to test compositions offline. It syncs with Lotro allowing you to play new songs in game as well as allowing you to transpose midi files into ABC format. www.anvilstudio.com Free software that allows you to edit midi files or compose directly yourself in Anvil Studio. Also useful for turning sheet music into midi files.

Have a site you wish to see featured here? Or a site to recommend for inclusion?

Please leave a link in the comments! I actually have their version of Highway to Hell and it worked fine for me.

Try make sure the notepad file is still not registering as a.txt file. (I remember I had a problem simply resaving files as.abc the name showed as 'song'.abc but the file was still actually a.txt file). I ended up solving the problem by opening an actual.abc file, deleting the song, copying, pasting the new song across and then selecting save as to rename the file to the new song. It's a bit laborious but it did work.

Likewise I had to use this method to copy paste from html sources. I had to open an actual.abc file and paste the new notes into the, now blank,.abc file. The problem lies in notepad itself as the dropdown file box, only has text output options. You can alternatively try edit in wordpad as well, but it also sometimes gives problems, so just use an existing.abc base. I have to ask something: I have tried multiple times to copy an.abc file from lotro abc files site. I paste it into my notepad and save it in the music folder as an.abc file (and set it to all filtypes (or whatever it was)).

Everything should be working, but when I log onto LOTRO and type /play (songname), it just says 'you start playing a song' and there is no sound at all. I dont know why it is not working, but I suspekt it could be the file on the site.

If you want to check for me, I've tried pokemon theme and highway to hell.