ABC Player for LotRO

[Digero]

Precautionary FYI: I was afflicted by a bit of malware immediately after downloading and installing the Player a few nights ago.

I can't pin down the source of it, but the only uncommon thing I did that evening was DL and install the Player.

Digero, I apologise, but I just wanted to put it out there just in case. I hope I'm mistaken as to the source.


As for the program itself, well-done Digero. Thanks for developing and sharing it.

What URL did you download ABC Player from? I can only vouch for downloads from http://lotro.acasylum.com/abcplayer/. The files didn't have malware when I uploaded them to the server, and I just did a virus scan on the files on the server and it came up clean. Did your antivirus program say that any files included with ABC Player were infected?

[Banaticus]

They probably are jealous of other programs and don't want you to use anything other than their program, so it's inserting something that doesn't appear anywhere in any version of the ABC standard...

Ok, I was an idiot. I was looking at some sheet music today and noticed that there was a double barline at the end of each song so || does appear in the standard (at least implicitly). According to Wikipedia, a || is also sometimes used to demarcate different sections of a single song. I still don't see why it would be put at the beginning of a file, though. If you're going for looks a %%score directive is more in keeping with the standard (what little we have, anyway) like:
%%score {(soprano alto) (tenor bass)} [piano1 piano2]
[V:soprano]...

[Digero]

Ok, I was an idiot. I was looking at some sheet music today and noticed that there was a double barline at the end of each song so || does appear in the standard (at least implicitly). According to Wikipedia, a || is also sometimes used to demarcate different sections of a single song. I still don't see why it would be put at the beginning of a file, though. If you're going for looks a %%score directive is more in keeping with the standard (what little we have, anyway) like:
%%score {(soprano alto) (tenor bass)} [piano1 piano2]
[V:soprano]...

The problem isn't so much that there is a double barline, but that there's more header information after the double barline. ABC Player requires that all of the header information come before any music notation.

Normally it is valid to change things like the tempo, time signature, key, etc. in the middle of the song. However, LOTRO doesn't support that, so ABC Player doesn't either.

[auximenes]

What URL did you download ABC Player from? I can only vouch for downloads from http://lotro.acasylum.com/abcplayer/. The files didn't have malware when I uploaded them to the server, and I just did a virus scan on the files on the server and it came up clean. Did your antivirus program say that any files included with ABC Player were infected?

Yeah, I used the URL from your original post. Nothing I ran after the infection pointed to the Player as a source of the malware. The only connexion to your Player was the timing of the DL and install. I just wanted to get the word out in case the Player or website was the source. Thanks for double-checking on your end.

[Banaticus]

Normally it is valid to change things like the tempo, time signature, key, etc. in the middle of the song. However, LOTRO doesn't support that, so ABC Player doesn't either.

Wait, what? It's ok to change the unit note length, right? I just finished making an ABC version of "For unto us a Child is born" from Handel's Messiah and one accompaniment voice sometimes has 16th notes moving around during the "Wonderful, Counselor" parts and sometimes quarter note chords and to avoid putting in lots of 2's, 4's, or //'s, I changed the L field 49 times over the course of the 6-part song. I'm not going to have to go back and redo half the bloody song, am I?

Honestly, LotRO can't handle tempo changes and key changes? Cheese.

Edit: can LotRO player handle volume changes in music? +ff+, etc., in the original ABC before it becomes a MIDI (the volume changes can be heard in the MIDI when it's played in Windows Media Player)?

[Siegfriedpf]

Are you creating the tune directly as an ABC file? or making a midi, and then running it through LOTROMidi (also from Digero)? If the latter, tempo changes should be picked up when you export the midi to the separate tracks. At least, I think it will...

[Hoppa_Joel]

Are you creating the tune directly as an ABC file? or making a midi, and then running it through LOTROMidi (also from Digero)? If the latter, tempo changes should be picked up when you export the midi to the separate tracks. At least, I think it will...

yes doing it this way does seem to get the tempo changed sounding right

[Astleigh]

Honestly, LotRO can't handle tempo changes and key changes? Cheese.

Tempo changes are not supported by LOTRO, it will pick the last tempo in the file and apply it to the whole song. However I was surprised to discover that key changes are supported, and I've since used them in hand-written ABCs.

As others have mentioned, the tempo-change issue is not a problem for LOTRO MIDI Player, because it picks a single tempo for the entire song, and then sets the absolute value of all the note durations (if that makes any sense). Its sort of a work-around to the lack of a real tempo change feature, but not the way you would normally write ABCs.

[Hoppa_Joel]

Yep
back when we all were just starting with ABC
I did it manually a few times, then for awhile I used strictly Melody Assistant to export, but even when you think you have things right some times you have errors lotro wont read.

My new "streamline" process (hehe )
Works much easier.
I open the midi in Melody Assistant,
I combine staves to get the number down, for parts that work together, I make
some piano staves, since they are all in the same range, rename them lute theorbo flute horn ( or more as needed )
Then I copy and paste staves into my piano staves,
I move them up 12 or down 12 in octaves, til they are within range that lotro uses,
Then, I export out a new midi file, open that with LOTRO Midi, and I have a song, all perfectly set up with no errors.
At this point all I need to do is export out the parts

an easily worked song I can have ready to play in a couple minutes with this method.
In the past some songs took weeks.

[Digero]

Tempo changes are not supported by LOTRO, it will pick the last tempo in the file and apply it to the whole song. However I was surprised to discover that key changes are supported, and I've since used them in hand-written ABCs.

As others have mentioned, the tempo-change issue is not a problem for LOTRO MIDI Player, because it picks a single tempo for the entire song, and then sets the absolute value of all the note durations (if that makes any sense). Its sort of a work-around to the lack of a real tempo change feature, but not the way you would normally write ABCs.

Unfortunately it causes some songs with tempo changes to sound bad in the parts where the tempo is different from the one that LOTRO MIDI Player picked. There is a better solution, where you multiply each note length by CURRENT_TEMPO/SONG_TEMPO (I might have that inverted) to get much better-sounding tempo changes. So for example, if the song is 120 BPM for most of it, but has a 100 BPM section, a C3/2 note in the 100 BPM section would become C300/240. But LOTRO MIDI Player doesn't support that.

[Fionnuala]

Tempo changes are not supported by LOTRO, it will pick the last tempo in the file and apply it to the whole song. However I was surprised to discover that key changes are supported, and I've since used them in hand-written ABCs.

I'm surprised by that too. I was taught that LOTRO doesn't actually interpret the key, only reads the notes, and that any sharps or flats inherent in the key need to actually be notated on each relevant note in the file. So I guess that's just not true?

Digero, I have yet to encounter a song where LOTRO Midi Player did a bad job with tempo changes and I've worked on some tricky stuff. I don't know how it does it, but whatever it does, it works well.

[Banaticus]

It depends on whether or not you use measure bars. If you don't use measure bars, then you must note sharps/flats everywhere. If you do use them, a sharp/flat lasts until the end of the measure. Putting in the key in the header (using K:whatever, like K:C or K:Bb or K:F#) means that the proper sharps/flats will be sharpped/flattened by default. See the Circle of Fifths for more on key signatures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths

[Siegfriedpf]

Since I work from a MIDI, and LOTROMIDI doesn't pass through measure bars, I only put them into my ABC files as a troubleshooting aid when looking for stuck notes or flub notes (something I need to start a thread on, actually...) But that would explain some unusual behavior I got a couple of times when doing that troubleshooting!

[Fionnuala]

It depends on whether or not you use measure bars. If you don't use measure bars, then you must note sharps/flats everywhere. If you do use them, a sharp/flat lasts until the end of the measure. Putting in the key in the header (using K:whatever, like K:C or K:Bb or K:F#) means that the proper sharps/flats will be sharpped/flattened by default. See the Circle of Fifths for more on key signatures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths

Thanks, but I understand how key signatures work. The question is how LOTRO actually reads the abc file.

As far as I can tell, midi conversion programs (at least both LOTRO Midi Player and midi2abc) place the key in C major and just include all the relevant sharps and flats from the music with the notes themselves. I was told this was because LOTRO can't/doesn't actually read the header for the key, it only reads the notes. Perhaps this has changed at some point? If that is so, the question is, what else might have changed?

[Digero]

Thanks, but I understand how key signatures work. The question is how LOTRO actually reads the abc file.

As far as I can tell, midi conversion programs (at least both LOTRO Midi Player and midi2abc) place the key in C major and just include all the relevant sharps and flats from the music with the notes themselves. I was told this was because LOTRO can't/doesn't actually read the header for the key, it only reads the notes. Perhaps this has changed at some point? If that is so, the question is, what else might have changed?

LOTRO understands and correctly parses key signatures. It might not have always been the case, but key signature support has been in for a while now. ABC Player also reads key signatures. However, LOTRO MIDI Player only outputs in the key of C major because it works, and it was simpler for me to code.

[Fionnuala]

I'm not sure if this has come up yet in the thread, but we just noticed tonight while practicing a couple of songs that abc player registered them as having too many notes in a chord at one point, but they played fine in game.

[Fredelas]

I have noticed that ABC Player does not sustain the bagpipe pitches the same way the game does. As long as the 6-voice polyphony rule isn't violated, the game can sustain the 12 drone notes from C, to B, indefinitely. (Or at least it appears to be indefinitely, for practical purposes. I'm not sure if note durations are integer multiples of the base tick or if they're floating point.)

If you inspect the waveforms directly from the game data, you can see they actually still have sampler loops built into them, although it's unclear if the game respects those or just loops the entire sample.

Edit: After further experimentation, the minimum parsed duration for any individual note is 1/1000th of a minute (0.06 seconds) and the maximum parsed duration for any individual note is 1/8th of a minute (7.50 seconds). However, notes can be tied together for as long as you want. I've had a bagpipe drone playing continuously for 10 minutes now.

I've also noticed that the song duration listed in ABC Player appears to fail to take into account the duration of the final note of the tune. One other feature request I have for this very fine piece of software would be a volume slider, like the tempo slider.

Here's a tune that will play a bagpipe drone for 30 minutes:

X:1
T:Drone Test
M:4/4
L:1/4
K:C
Q:8
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,-|
C,-C,-C,-C,-|C,-C,-C,-C,|

[Digero]

I'll configure the bagpipe drone notes to loop indefinitely for the next version. I hadn't realized that it was only some of the bagpipe's notes that loop, so I was confused when people said that bagpipe notes didn't fade out but I couldn't reproduce it myself. Thanks for pointing that bit out.

I also did the work to integrate the volume slider in with Win7/Vista's per-application volume controls last night, before I saw you edited it into your post . So it should be there in the next version if you have Win7 or Vista (no love for XP, sorry).

I'm not sure what you mean by ABC Player not taking into account the duration of the final note of the tune? If the final note is on a stringed or percussion instrument, then ABC Player (like LOTRO) ignores the length of the note, and plays it until the sound fades out (ABC Player actually just makes all string/drum notes ~1s long). So if you have a long lute note at the end of the song, ABC Player might report the song being a few seconds shorter since the lute note fades out within a second. Also, if the final note is a rest, ABC Player won't take it into account for the length of the song.

[Fredelas]

I'm not sure what you mean by ABC Player not taking into account the duration of the final note of the tune? If the final note is on a stringed or percussion instrument, then ABC Player (like LOTRO) ignores the length of the note, and plays it until the sound fades out (ABC Player actually just makes all string/drum notes ~1s long). So if you have a long lute note at the end of the song, ABC Player might report the song being a few seconds shorter since the lute note fades out within a second. Also, if the final note is a rest, ABC Player won't take it into account for the length of the song.

If the final note of my tune has a duration of 1/8th of a minute, ABC Player reports the tune as being 7.5 seconds shorter than it really is. ABC Player will never be off by more than 7.5 seconds, since that's the absolute maximum parsed duration of any note; I just felt for consistency that the last note's full duration should be included, whether its sample is playing any sound or not. It seems strange for the length of the tune to change when I switch its instrumentation.

[Digero]

Version 1.2.0 is here. Visit http://lotro.acasylum.com/abcplayer/ to download it.

New Features

• You can now export songs directly to MP3! Requires the (free) LAME mp3 converter.
• The volume slider is back. If you're using Windows Vista or Windows 7, it will use the system's per-application volume (kept in sync with the volume set for ABC Player in the system volume mixer).
• Changed the stereo effect to be less dependent on the order of the parts in the file, and more on the instrument used for the part. For example, flute will always be panned to the left. If the same instrument is used in multiple parts, the second part will be be panned to opposite speaker, and the third part will be panned to the center.
• If a part name includes the word "Left", it will always be panned to the left speaker. Likewise for the words "Right, and "Center" or "Middle".

Bug Fixes

• When a long note is held on a woodwind instrument while stringed instruments are playing many fast notes, the note on the woodwind should no longer be cut off before it actually ends.
• If the same note is repeated quickly on a woodwind instrument, the difference between notes is sharper, and sounds more like it does in LOTRO.
• Staccato (short) notes on woodwind instruments are more... staccato, to sound more like they do in LOTRO.
• Bagpipe drone notes (C, through B,) now sustain forever rather than fading out after ~8 seconds, to match how they sound in LOTRO.

[Fredelas]

• Bagpipe drone notes (C, through ^D,) now sustain forever rather than fading out after ~8 seconds, to match how they sound in LOTRO.

I realize this is nitpicky, but the bagpipe notes that sustain indefinitely are C, through B, (twelve notes total).

[Digero]

I realize this is nitpicky, but the bagpipe notes that sustain indefinitely are C, through B, (twelve notes total).

Sorry that was a typo, the fix actually affects C, through B,

[Fredelas]

Sorry that was a typo, the fix actually affects C, through B,

I discovered that shortly after downloading version 1.2. Thanks for creating this great tool!

For a couple years now, I had been using my own SoundFont built with samples extracted from the game data files to preview my tunes. However, since your tool actually parses the ABC notation using the same quirks and limitations as the game, I find it much more helpful!

[Fionnuala]

Digero, does abc player automatically default to having "Ignore LOTRO-specific errors" checked whenever it encounters a LOTRO specific error? Or does it just automatically default to being checked whenever you reopen the program? Because I know I have turned it off in the past (even though I never actually turned it on) but just now encountered a song that had a LOTRO specific error and inexplicably that option was checked so the error wasn't caught until we were attempting to play it in game.

[Digero]

Digero, does abc player automatically default to having "Ignore LOTRO-specific errors" checked whenever it encounters a LOTRO specific error? Or does it just automatically default to being checked whenever you reopen the program? Because I know I have turned it off in the past (even though I never actually turned it on) but just now encountered a song that had a LOTRO specific error and inexplicably that option was checked so the error wasn't caught until we were attempting to play it in game.

That option should only get enabled if you check the box in the warning dialog or select it in the menu. If it's getting enabled otherwise, then that's a bug. I haven't seen that myself or heard anyone else mention it -- is it possible you accidentally checked the box in the warning dialog?

Also, the lotro-specific error checking isn't perfect, there may still be some files that don't have errors in ABC Player, but won't play ingame.