So basically this lets people play music through their own inputs as well as pre-composed MIDI files, as notes mind you, not actual music files. It reminds me a lot of the music system from LOTRO. The only downside is you need the addon to listen in (Naturally) and you can’t really play live with other people due to a 1-2 second delay.
They also note the ‘Storyteller’ addon could be used to quickly sing lyrics while playing something. Neat. And there’s a wide avriety of instruments, also neat.
I could see the creative types using this a fair bit. Only downside is some people might spam it in a major event for lulz, but you can mute people playing music. No idea how you ‘hear’ them though, is it like a proximity game world speaker around the character or does everyone either hear it or not hear it? If the latter that would make tracking down who’s playing Megolavania during RPPvP a bit of a nightmare. But I guess you can always just disable the addon if you don’t want to hear tunes others are playing.
EDIT: Oh and the range is 40 meters (No idea how that translates in-game, dunno if they mean yards like a spell AoE or ‘actual’ meters). Unfortunately it’s a binary on/off with no falloff as you get further away, but that’s a limitation of the addon API.
Update: The add-on has one problem, every time you start playing anyone without the add-on sees an automated emote advertising it. Now I understand the author wanting to get the add-on in the hands of as many people as possible, but turning people into unwitting adverts is a huge no no. The author has said they will add a toggle for this emote in a few days
Fortunately there’s an easy solution in the meantime.
Update #2: Author has said they will add a toggle for the emote ASAP, should be available in a few days.
Way ahead of you. I’m testing the addon as we speak; if there’s the potential to sync up seperate players you bet your backside the regiment is going to have a corps of drummers. No more yelling; beating assembly and piping marches is the way forwards!
Your best bet is to probably just give one guy the midi file or have one or two guys play it. Having a whole bunch risks overlap or sync issues. I’d say two trying to play the file at the same time would be easiest.
The other issue is frame rate, the add-on needs 30fps minimum for inputs, manual or automatic. So if the drummer has a monitor plugged into a potato he’s gonna play like I did in my primary school band every time the screen gets busy.
Well i was just waiting for this to happen.
Well if they will allow this addon to proceed i suppose we all need to get used to have a bard or a band playing some the elevator music in the auction house or going all out with the “Final count down” or “Oops i did it again”.
But to encourage this addon i must say i was playing Lotro for a while and the music system was amazing and people did the best out of it by arranging huge music contests, fun tavern evenings with live bands playing amazing fantasy music inspired from medieval songs with their own twist.
So i am hoping blizzard will allow and let it stay.
Jokes aside, I think this is a splendid addition to RP addons for the added immersion. I can see so many great uses for this. A bard roleplayer can just start playing somewhere, be it on the side of a street or in a tavern and anyone can just come in and listen, giving musically inclined roleplayers a chance to show their stuff with their own compositions and giving you just a bit more immersion. It’s also a good excuse for approaching a musician in character. Tossing a coin in their hat or requesting a song. It’s so good!
There’s the military use, for battle, giving us actual drums, horns and what have you and as an orc roleplayer, any mak’gora better have crazy fast battle drums playing as the fight starts. Get real PUMPED!
I hope the addon will have individual muting, because you just know some comedian is going to take advantage of this. But otherwise this is a great addition to the list of must have RP addons.
It does. I’m uncertain how you can tell who is playing but the addon lets you r-click a portrait and ‘mute’ them.
I do hope there’s some kind of indicator though, as trying to spot a bard who’s playing tunes is going to be difficult without tons of emotes. That and what if it reaches past emote range and you can’t figure out who’s doing cheerful tunes while you’re trying to RP a funeral two streets away?
I can’t test it right now (In the no sub crowd) but I am curious to see what comes of this.
So I just installed the addon and fiddled around with it for a few minutes and I gotta say I’m really impressed with it. I was expecting really abrupt midi notes with no ability to hold on a note for those longer notes, but I was really pleased to find that you can hold onto the key and the note will fade away according to how long you hold the key down. Even someone with no musical knowledge like me was able to noodle around with the addon and get a few pleasing sounds out of it.
I’m even more excited for what actual musicians can do with this.
Yeah the only notable restriction is pitches and volume changes mid-note. That’s a literal limitation of the API apparently, and I have no doubt the author tried to get it in.
I think the main things we need to nail down are:
How multiple ‘bards’ nearby work, do they cause bugs or sound issues?
Can they play in sync either manually or by a MIDI?
Would different people hear different timings from two bards trying to play together?