Aifel's Maestro upgrades

I made some upgrades to Maestro. I have sorta kept them to myself and given them out to a handful of bands so far.
After some months of usage it seems there is no jarring issues (at least issues that I have introduced). So therefore I now make it more widely available.

It fully supports 64 bit Java among other things. You can see some of its features here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y39EZPfXl9I


You might not like some of the changes I made, so be sure to read the entire changelog carefully before using my upgraded version.
You can find the changelog as a file in the download link below:

Download link to Google Drive

Thank Aifel, this is good news. Will check it out :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Splik

You might not like some of the changes I made, so be sure to read the entire changelog carefully before using my upgraded version.
You can find the changelog as a file in the download link below:

Link to Google Drive

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Hey,

I read your list of changes and it sounds quite good to me ( which may have something to do with the fact that all those things you added - except one - were something that I considered and implemented for my converter already years ago .. hehehe).

I'd really like to know more details about the selection algorithm for overloaded chords. Back when I implemented it I couldn't decide and so the user selects to throw out lower pitch or higher pitches first. I could easily add a third option with your algorithm. I assume you analyze the chord and/or through out some tones from octaves first?

Also way to go with the volume adjusting, that has always been something Maestro was messing up quite a bit! It won't be enough to align the instruments at one pitch though. The game has volume variations in every tone and the .sf2 file uses only a few samples for the entire range, meaning that the volume of each tone will most likely be different from the game. Did you actually modify the .sf2 file to align the volumes or did you manipulate the volume in the midi player? My approach was to adjust the sf2 file rather, because sf2 files can also be used by other midi players than Maestro. Digero didn't like my way to add the instruments to the .sf2 files though and made sure his maestro wouldn't be compatible to the way I did it, so we can't easily interchange those anymore. You could have saved yourself quite some effort with the volume aligning if you would have just adopted the sf2 file from BruTE instead of going through the effort of volume measuring yourself.

Anyway congratulations on those changes, I will do some testing!

Bruzo

I didn't think about checking Brutes sf2.

The volume changes I did was in the sf2 file, per instrument, not per sample.

I did some other changes to the sf2 file as can be seen in the changelog, like for example the decay was changed.
I also changed which instruments have all their samples in the sf2, and which have only some and then how many.
It takes more CPU the more samples has to be interpolated, and more memory the more samples are included, especially the longer samples ofcourse. And the default heap space for people still using 32 bit java, is hit easily.
So it was a balance act, and for some instruments the samples sound very even with each other, and some they differ alot, so that was a consideration also.

Sure, you can have the prune note algorithm, allow me some time to write it down.

First tracks are combined into 1 track.
And notes playing at same time is combined into same chord.

Then that chord is pruned until only 6 notes remain in it.

It does that by sorting the notes. Then keeping the top 6.

Sorting works by comparing notes by notes, 2 at a time.

Notice: The highest/lowest pitch comparisons happen before too high or too low notes have been octave transposed into the 3 playable octaves.

Here is the sorting compare algorithm: (starting from 1, if a bullet point has a resolution it don't go further down)
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1: If one of the notes is a rest then the rest gets higher priority. (this is only used for preview, so you can ignore this point)

2: If one of the notes is a continuation of a tied note then give that note higher priority. Unless non-sustained instrument, and at this point longer than 1.1s (which is max time for non sustained instruments) then give that note lower priority.

3: If it is the highest pitched note in the chord then give higher priority.

4: If it is the lowest pitched note in the chord then give higher priority.

5: If notes differ in volume then give the loudest priority.

5: If the notes have same pitch and volume, then give the longest priority.

6: If one of the notes has octave spacing from lowest or highest note, then give it lower priority. (eg. 12, 24, 36, 48 semitones between etc.)

7: If the 2 notes have octave spacing between each other then give the highest pitched higher priority.

8: Lastly give lower priority to notes that are closer to center of the chord.

I have played with this a bit to test out, and some of the features are nice, but in many cases the song does not sound the same as in game I've listened through both versions of Maestro and in game going between each window to hear differences, the old Maestro sounds just like in game, Maestro upgrades does not, in some ABC files they are all the same but most are not. other then the sounds i like idea of the new features such as Zoom.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pontin_Finnberry

I have played with this a bit to test out, and some of the features are nice, but in many cases the song does not sound the same as in game I've listened through both versions of Maestro and in game going between each window to hear differences, the old Maestro sounds just like in game, Maestro upgrades does not, in some ABC files they are all the same but most are not. other then the sounds i like idea of the new features such as Zoom.

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I would like to narrow this down. Could you perhaps try with the old Maestro .sf2 file, just copy it into the installation. Does it then sound more to your liking?
Any chance you could tell me more, which instruments you feel sound worse? Is it short notes, longer or both, or you mean volume?
Is it small band pieces or many band members, or both?
Or maybe give me an example piece of music to try?

And what about stereo, you sure you didn't get tricked by the mono Maestro, vs. having some stereo in Lotro? And is it Maestro only, or you also think AbcPlayer sound worse (and if so did you run Abc Player with stereo or mono option)?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Splik

I would like to narrow this down. Could you perhaps try with the old Maestro .sf2 file, just copy it into the installation. Does it then sound more to your liking?
Any chance you could tell me more, which instruments you feel sound worse? Is it short notes, longer or both, or you mean volume?
Is it small band pieces or many band members, or both?
Or maybe give me an example piece of music to try?

And what about stereo, you sure you didn't get tricked by the mono Maestro, vs. having some stereo in Lotro? And is it Maestro only, or you also think AbcPlayer sound worse (and if so did you run Abc Player with stereo or mono option)?

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I could try .sf2 later.

And It sounds different on flute which I can clearly notice it on, among other wind instruments, I made a quick video just show what I get from the sounds on one of my songs testing only the flute part so you know. First part is new Maestro upgrade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBVU9FVLI0o

Thank you very much.

At the note end, the upgraded Maestro release is too steep, I failed to realize that sf2 release is linear in dB, not linear in power like lotro (lotro is 200ms) so my release of 200ms gives way too steep a curve, will revert back to Digero's release which is 500ms, its not perfect, but a better approximation.

There should be a 2.5.0.61 release in the download link now.

Once I figured out I shouldn't be trying to do my arrangement from the Maestro.jar, but the Maestro64.exe it works fine and the instruments, to me sound like they should. When I tried to do the arrangements from Maestro.jar nothing sounded as it should, especially the bassoons, and I kept hearing stringed instruments instead of horns or woodwinds. When I opened the Maestro64.exe in the folder and used that I breathed a sigh of relief.

The volumes do seem louder and I am sure I'll need to make more adjustments with that than I had before using the old system. I'll continue to keep the old maestro and compare the outcomes.

You people impress me with all of your hard work and knowledge. I applaud your effort and skill. Thank you.

Hannariel that does sound like something went wrong in the installation. I most of the time use just the Maestro.jar and it always work fine for me.

Notice that the installation instructions changed between 2.5.0.59 and 2.5.0.60+. See the new instructions in the changelog that is in the download link.

Added a slider in v2.5.0.63 to adjust how much stereo spacing you want when listening to preview. All the way to down mono if you prefer that.

Ok, so the music sounds great in game, however we did notice an error. In Songbook, for all of the instruments except lonely bassoon and drum, it said Basic Drum required....So that's probably not on your end but on the person who last did Songbook.

I suspect this comes from Digero's move to rename the instruments, and adding 'basic' as prefix. But if you only get it from my upgraded version vs. Meastro 2.5.0, then I don't understand. (unless the name/band of your song contains the word "drum").

Which version of songbook are you using? There is at least 3 public available ones:

Songbook: https://www.lotrointerface.com/downl...-Songbook.html
Songbook - The Badger Chapter: https://www.linawillow.org/home/plugins-2/songbook/
Songbook Legendary edition: https://www.lotrointerface.com/downl...ryEdition.html

I personally use the badger chapter with some modifications, so I don't have your issues and cannot check it.

Maybe try upgrade to Lina's The Badger Chapter songbook, it handles it a bit better than the basic songbook if I remember correct.
The badger chapter was made before fiddles and bassoons I believe, so it probably don't do it right for all instruments though.
I haven't tried the legendary edition but maybe it handles it even better yet.

Not sure if there are any other versions of songbook floating around.

Also be mindful of the "Pattern for ABC Part Name" inside Maestro options, to be sure that the instrument name is output in the part name.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Splik

I suspect this comes from Digero's move to rename the instruments, and adding 'basic' as prefix. But if you only get it from my upgraded version vs. Meastro 2.5.0, then I don't understand. (unless the name/band of your song contains the word "drum").

Which version of songbook are you using? There is at least 3 public available ones:

Songbook: https://www.lotrointerface.com/downl...-Songbook.html
Songbook - The Badger Chapter: https://www.linawillow.org/home/plugins-2/songbook/
Songbook Legendary edition: https://www.lotrointerface.com/downl...ryEdition.html

I personally use the badger chapter with some modifications, so I don't have your issues and cannot check it.

Maybe try upgrade to Lina's The Badger Chapter songbook, it handles it a bit better than the basic songbook if I remember correct.
The badger chapter was made before fiddles and bassoons I believe, so it probably don't do it right for all instruments though.
I haven't tried the legendary edition but maybe it handles it even better yet.

Not sure if there are any other versions of songbook floating around.

Also be mindful of the "Pattern for ABC Part Name" inside Maestro options, to be sure that the instrument name is output in the part name.

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I'm using Zedrock's beta version. When I went to the badger page to copy the link it isn't working so I left a comment. I like that you can make several rows for the instruments.

Is it possible to make a new instrument in Maestro .. lets call it StudentFX .. where you can adress only the "special" FX like you adress the drums?

Thanks for your work, Aifel and Splik!!
Have you considered making a tempo increase/decrease possible in the section editor? This would be helpful if the arranger wanted to have a section accelerate or decelerate.
Also, I've thought of using the fade on the level of phrase of music, increasing volume in the middle and decreasing it toward the end. (The tempo adjuster would be nice this way, too.) The problem with the tool as is would be the limited number of measure sections you can alter if there are many phrases in the piece.
I'm someone who edits the ABC files directly, but I'm asking on behalf of anyone who might want to use Maestro for more in-depth editing, which is the role you seem to be taking it toward, which is great! The added flexibility you're bringing to the tool is wonderful and welcome.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by palantorio

Is it possible to make a new instrument in Maestro .. lets call it StudentFX .. where you can adress only the "special" FX like you adress the drums?

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This sounds entirely possible. But it will mean that .msx you save from the upgraded Maestro wont really work in 2.5.0 Maestro anymore. I will certainly consider it, I think its a good idea.

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Originally Posted by FreePeoplesUnite2

Have you considered making a tempo increase/decrease possible in the section editor?

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Yes. But the way the UI is organized that would be really hard to make I think. It would become out of sync with the UI, as even after editing the ABC stuff, the UI really shows MIDI bars, tempo and notes.
Its not likely I will do this, but you never know in the future.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FreePeoplesUnite2

Also, I've thought of using the fade on the level of phrase of music, increasing volume in the middle and decreasing it toward the end. (The tempo adjuster would be nice this way, too.)

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If you refer to phrases as the definition which most often spans several measures, it should entirely be possible to do as the tool is now, even if the phrase stops/starts in middle of measures (for that use fade values of greater than 100 or less than -100).
Just split the phrase up into smaller sections when you edit with the section editor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FreePeoplesUnite2

The problem with the tool as is would be the limited number of measure sections you can alter if there are many phrases in the piece.

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Are we talking about the 6 available sections you can edit now? Increasing that number is trivial (only it makes the UI look less neat).
I originally thought of 12 sections, but I have never myself used more than 5, so I set it to 6.
Tell me, how many sections do you need?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FreePeoplesUnite2

I'm someone who edits the ABC files directly, but I'm asking on behalf of anyone who might want to use Maestro for more in-depth editing, which is the role you seem to be taking it toward, which is great!

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Yes, the philosophy I use, is that most of LOTRO's music transcribers probably feel that editing a MIDI is a daunting task. And many MIDIs editors can be a bit hard to get into, especially if your not a musician.

Some features is simply not possible to do proper in MIDI though. For example some odd delay on a track. If you put a 85ms delay on a track in the MIDI, you probably wont get that 1:1 in the ABC output from Maestro, since Maestro operates with a grid that it quantizes everything onto (different grid for each tempo section). And it may get uneven in timings. The only good option is to edit the ABC after its output, do some fraction math and workout how to get the delay you want. But now you can easily do that in Maestro, only limit is that you cannot hear it in Maestro preview, you have to save the ABC and listen to it in Abc Player or test it inside Lotro.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by palantorio

Is it possible to make a new instrument in Maestro .. lets call it StudentFX .. where you can adress only the "special" FX like you adress the drums?

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I made an attempt at this. Please check that it works like you imagined:

MSI:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RH7...ew?usp=sharing

ZIP:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CPW...ew?usp=sharing


Note: This is a preview release, so don't chop my head off if there is some bugs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Splik

I made an attempt at this. Please check that it works like you imagined:

MSI:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RH7...ew?usp=sharing

ZIP:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CPW...ew?usp=sharing


Note: This is a preview release, so don't chop my head off if there is some bugs.

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now downloading and installing.. will comment it later ;).. thank you for this work so far

good work .. found now bugs so far in V67.. instrument is working as intended. thank you for this good work.

Version 2.5.0.68 released.

- It has ability to treat Student's Fiddle like percussion where you can assign those 3 special sounds to whatever you like. It's listed as an separate instrument.
- The delay you can set on instrument tracks now can now be heard in abc preview inside Maestro.
- Section editor is now enabled for percussion also (Drum, Cowbells, Student's FX Fiddle).
- Fixed that when loading up an ABC file into Maestro 64bit and not having volume at max, the volume could gradually become lower when skipping around while ABC previewing.

Some great work here, i do like all the changes going into new version of Maestro. keep up the good work.

Here is a preview of the section-editor in next version. Not sure if those features are something people are interested in, but I have some times missed them myself, so I thought why not.
Hope the UI do not come across as too messy.

https://i.postimg.cc/3Jb7S39w/Maestro-doubling.png

The Idea of doubling and transposing is nice.. but maybe not doubling and only transposing parts of the tracks.. usually you do this with Anvil..

Another Idea i have is : Usually the rattles in the Drumparts are way too loud so you make two drums.. one with rattles and very quiet and one Drum with Bass,Toms etc and make i loud ( very loud ;) )..
Is it possible if you have ONLY one drumpart in the Midi and you want only ONE part in the ABC to adjust the volumes of the rattles and toms .. you can only adjust the volumes of the whole drums not of every single druminstrument.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by palantorio

Is it possible if you have ONLY one drumpart in the Midi and you want only ONE part in the ABC to adjust the volumes of the rattles and toms .. you can only adjust the volumes of the whole drums not of every single druminstrument.

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That will in most cases not work nicely.

Problem is: if for example you have a 4/4 measure with say Rattle every beat and Bass every second beat. Then you increase volume of Bass and decrease it for Rattle.
What will happen is that the 2 Bass sounds will have increased volume, but so will the 2 Rattles that start at the same time as the Bass. So the 4 Rattles will have uneven volume, 2 of them will have same high volume as the bass and the other 2 will the lower volume you designated for Rattle.

This is a limitation in lotro, all notes that start at the same time is grouped in chords (also drum), and they have to share volume. And Maestro just picks the loudest.

The best solution is the one you already use; to have 2 drums. That also gives you benefit of for example have Bass full volume on first drum, and then have Bass again in the second drum with Rattles also, at lower volume. That way you get lower volume rattles plus bass sounds that is louder than max volume. Is also how I do it for some songs.

Version 2.5.0.69 has been released at usual link. It features the octave doubling and a bugfix.

I am now working on better triplet/swing timing handling when such notes is mixed in with even notes in same song. For example drums doing triplets for a couple of measures, while flute continue doing even notes.
I call this feature Mix Timings, will be an optional checkbox.

Below is an example result.

This is the input that I made the midi from: (Thanks to Jersiel for making the initial piano staff)
https://i.postimg.cc/d0L6TVyH/Maestr...-v2-5-0-70.png

And this is the result:
https://i.postimg.cc/k5zcNPNn/Maestr...-v2-5-0-70.png


I am very happy with it so far.
Notice how normal can handle a 4th triplet but ruins the timing for the 8th triplet, it also semi-fails the 4th sextuplet probably due to it being less legato than the 4th triplet (if you look close you will see the gaps between the sextuplet MIDI notes are not the same as the 4th triplet).
Triplet/swing setting on the other hand can handle them fine, but fails the 16th and 32nd notes, the swing timing is spot on while normal swing was not so precise.
As for Mix Timings, it handles 16ths, 32nds, triplets, sextuplet and swing as good as I could wish for. Didn't really expect it to handle the nonuplet gracefully, but it's also not catastrophic, still better than either normal or with swing/triplet checkbox.
Another thing to notice is that Mix Timings seem to produce same result with triplet/swing checkbox on and off. That is only because this input is so simple, you will still have to make a good judgement whether you want it on or off as before.

It gets harder when there is tempo changes in the mix, around those it revert to whatever the triplet/swing checkbox is set to. And that is also what it defaults to when it cannot decide if a group of notes is even or not. So this feature will not make the triplet/swing checkbox obsolete.

Version 2.5.0.71 has been released.

Changes:
Mix Timings checkbox added.
Fixed that after loading a Maestro Project from .msx file, existing drum-parts would not instantly update the preview audio when individual drum notes were changed.


The drum change is something that has bothered me for years, glad I found the cause. :)

The Mix Timings is by far the most significant change I have made to Maestro.
Advice: Enable it always, unless you plan to do post-export ABC editing, see more details in the changelog text file.


Friendly reminder: I really really recommend that you do not use abc files as masters, unless you no longer have access to the orig MIDI. If you want to change some stuff in a song you made, best option is to do it with a saved Maestro Project using original MIDI or start from scratch with a MIDI. There are several reasons for this; timings can be shifted a bit if used delay on the abc, student FX will not be editable, transposed out of range notes cannot be recovered, octave doubling cannot be undone, some volume changes cannot undone etc. etc.

No rest for the wicked, I made a couple of improvements I hope.

- Octave doubling will now show visually in the notegraph also. This is helpful for evaluating out of range notes.
- Less interruptions in very long sustained notes.
- Improved Mix Timings algorithm near tempo-changes.
- For drum parts, Mix Timings will now only use note start times, not end times for evaluating rhythm.

Here is download links if you would like to preview next version:

[Links removed] as it has been released in usual link (see first post).

Released 2.5.0.73

Released .74 and .75:

Version 2.5.0.75
- Fixed that a MIDI Note ON event after a Note ON for same pitch, would remove the first Note ON event if the second had non-zero velocity.

Version 2.5.0.74
- Mix Timings now no longer consider section silenced notes when determining rhythm.
- When a Lotro instrument part stop using a section edited track, also stop visualizing the section edits, even though it remembers them.
- Fix that when attempting to load a Maestro Project that has parts assigned to MIDI tracks that does no longer exist in the MIDI,
Maestro would sometimes give the user no feedback on why it does not open. It was due to flooding of whitespaces to main Maestro window,
which forced the important message out of view.


The Note ON bug, has degraded several songs for me. I couldn't understand why the MIDI played in Maestro would sound correct but the ABC preview and output would not.
I eventually decided to dig into how Maestro interprets MIDI signals, and found an edge case which was not treated correctly, hence some songs, would sometimes have missing the first note of unisons.
Anyway, fixed now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Splik

Released .74 and .75:

Version 2.5.0.75
- Fixed that a MIDI Note ON event after a Note ON for same pitch, would remove the first Note ON event if the second had non-zero velocity.

Version 2.5.0.74
- Mix Timings now no longer consider section silenced notes when determining rhythm.
- When a Lotro instrument part stop using a section edited track, also stop visualizing the section edits, even though it remembers them.
- Fix that when attempting to load a Maestro Project that has parts assigned to MIDI tracks that does no longer exist in the MIDI,
Maestro would sometimes give the user no feedback on why it does not open. It was due to flooding of whitespaces to main Maestro window,
which forced the important message out of view.


The Note ON bug, has degraded several songs for me. I couldn't understand why the MIDI played in Maestro would sound correct but the ABC preview and output would not.
I eventually decided to dig into how Maestro interprets MIDI signals, and found an edge case which was not treated correctly, hence some songs, would sometimes have missing the first note of unisons.
Anyway, fixed now.

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Wow.. you are going very deep into the materia..
Ihave some ideas for the abc-player.. but i am not sure if you are willing to this.. (making playlists for concerts..etc)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by palantorio

Wow.. you are going very deep into the materia..
Ihave some ideas for the abc-player.. but i am not sure if you are willing to this.. (making playlists for concerts..etc)

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I would like to hear your suggestions. You can write them here, or send a private message to me.

Playlist in abc-player? Do you mean like queue up a list of abc songs, to check that they sound good in that order, therefore is good for a concert set?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Splik

I would like to hear your suggestions. You can write them here, or send a private message to me.

Playlist in abc-player? Do you mean like queue up a list of abc songs, to check that they sound good in that order, therefore is good for a concert set?

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Yes and No ;).. i will tell more in the next days per PM ;).. ( i will have to draw and write a lot about what i really mean).. But first.. yes.. queue up a list of abc songs was my first thought.. but after 10 min of thinking about i had more and more ideas..

PM sent ..

I have been digging more at how Maestro interprets MIDI files.
It treated all midis as GM type. So GS (Roland extension), XG (Yamaha extension) and GM2 (General MIDI v2) midis are actually treated as GM. And oh did I open a can of worms..
I have been coding in support for detecting those extension's drum/sfx stuff. There is actually many of those midis out there, especially XG.

What this wont do: It wont change how the playback of the MIDI sounds. It wont show you the true name of the instrument used when its not one of the regular 128 GM ones. But good news is that in most cases it will not far off from the GM standard instrument, for example it will say the standard "Bright Acoustic Piano" when its really a "Detuned Bright Piano".
What it will do: Show you which notes are drums/sfx belonging to the GS/XG/GM2 extension. Separate out extension drums from normal drums and note tracks.

Edit: I just made it able to show the true instrument.

This means that in some midis you will all of a sudden see more tracks at the bottom than was there before. You will see some tracks previously being melodic being flagged as drums tracks.

For me personally this has been important. I don't know if you have had this experience, but sometimes I would make a abc and one of the instruments like maybe a lonely mountain bassoon would sound totally off and not fit at all in the song. What really was going on was that it was playing drum/sfx sounds as melodic notes, result would of course be bad. Or some midis drum track would sound weak, as if half the drum sounds were missing, they were just in other tracks that were not marked as drum tracks.

Here is 5 examples:

Here a piano is being flagged as drum/sfx track.
Before:
https://i.postimg.cc/7L2WJ95H/Maestro-xg-gs-A-old.png
After:
https://i.postimg.cc/sg8L2qDH/Maestro-xg-gs-A-new.png

Here a piano and guitar tracks is being flagged as drums/sfx plus a new drum/sfx track is added with drum sounds from a track that had both notes and drums mixed.
Before:
https://i.postimg.cc/7YZtnw5Q/Maestro-xg-gs-B-old.png
After:
https://i.postimg.cc/KjJqhsHN/Maestro-xg-gs-B-new.png

Here is an extreme example of a midi where melodic track was switched to drum and drum switched to melodic.
Before:
https://i.postimg.cc/505Knt5D/Maestro-xg-gs-C-old.png
After:
https://i.postimg.cc/j5YkHffz/Maestro-xg-gs-C-new.png

Continued in next post..

..continued from previous post

Here a celesta track is being flagged as a drum/sfx track.
Before:
https://i.postimg.cc/jqXkfLS7/Maestro-xg-gs-D-old.png
After:
https://i.postimg.cc/2yzcJf2y/Maestro-xg-gs-D-new.png

The last is an interesting case. The old Maestro would take track 10 and 11 and pull out what it determined was drum notes and make new track (17) with those drum notes combined.
It would incorrectly think remaining notes in track 10 and 11 was strings.

However, the new Maestro will take what old Maestro thought was strings in track 10 and put them in new track (17) as a drum track (What they really is, is orchestra sounds. Most if not all are probably Roland Timpani, but not sure thats the case as the orchestra timpani from GS extension share the voice with other orchestra sounds. Note also the author of the midi has named track 10 as TIMPANI although there was non-timpani notes in it). As for track 11, new Maestro will separate what was drums on normal drum channel plus those from another channel and make another new track (18) that would contain those drums declared on another channel. This is done to make sure to make a new track, else old Maestro projects might not open in new Maestro as it will complain the midi is missing a track, as the old meastro thought track 11 was a mix of melodic and drum notes and separate and make new track.

So I had to make a compromise to make old Maestro Projects made on midis like this open. Ideally, the track name "TIMPANI" would be on track 17 now instead of 10.
I general recommend when/if using this new Maestro and opening old Projects using XG/GS midi files, to take a close look and verify that lotro instruments are assigned sensibly.
Note that GS/XG/GM2 Drums tracks don't necessarily use another drum kit than the standard GM kit.

Before:
https://i.postimg.cc/XYZ2tLcf/Maestro-xg-gs-E-old.png
After:
https://i.postimg.cc/sDH6nqSf/Maestro-xg-gs-E-new.png

In the very last image notice the radio button "Original" now informs what kind the source MIDI is, in this case it will say (GS) for the Roland extension.

I plan on soon making a beta Maestro available with this GS/XG drum support. :)

PS. This version will also have an option to enable a counter for simultanious played notes. It will in some cases count too high for fast notes though, as Maestros release is greater than lotro's. I can remove the feature again, if people find it confusing, but it do not count lower. So you can be sure that if it says 45, there is MAX 45 notes playing at the same time at this point in the song.

Here is a BETA version of the above mentioned changes.

MSI:
Old beta link removed, see newer post

ZIP:
Old beta link removed, see newer post

It is very nice to see that you arrive at a lot of the conclusions I came to years ago :)

Like not exactly using the ending time of tones exactly and also asking folks to keep their MIDIs rather than to edit ABC files. In terms of keeping MIDI files you are fighting windmills though - the idea that lotro-ABC is a lossy format compared to the original MIDI I could only get across to very few people.

The final conclusion that you still have to come to is that you need to rewrite the entire ABC generation engine of Maestro and think of the problem of making the ABC rather as a sampling problem than a musical score with measures and so on.
To reach the real limit lotro-ABC provides you need to treat lotro-ABC like a flexible grid with a gridsize of minimally 50ms with tones having to be minimally 100ms long. All the grid-cells can also be an arbitrary amount of ms longer than 50ms ( like 51, 52 etc). Then all you need is the starting and ending times in milliseconds of all the tones and map them on that grid, while trying to set the grid-cell starting times to be as exact as possible. Afterwards resolve as many conflicts as possible without changing starting times, then do some nasty conflict resolution and then generate the ABC from that. That's how I did it with BruTE. If you do it like that all the rythm issues and tempo change issues will automatically resolve themselves.

Keep up the good work, you already did quite a good job on Maestro so far!

Bruzo

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SchorschiSchrumpf

The final conclusion that you still have to come to is that you need to rewrite the entire ABC generation engine of Maestro and think of the problem of making the ABC rather as a sampling problem than a musical score with measures and so on.

---

I was toying with the idea actually.
But then I figured out an algorithm for what I called Mix Timings, and it works so well that I wont rewrite how Maestro translate timings.
It basically switches between 2 grids all the time, the size of the 2 grid depends on the tempo in currently in use, and the two grids met up precisely every couple of grid sections, to make sure everything is synced exact. These sections where I can flip the grid are very small, so the result is good. Whether to flip a small section, depends on note starts and note endings in that little section, I have an algorithm for that, it heavily favor note starts over note endings.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SchorschiSchrumpf

To reach the real limit lotro-ABC provides you need to treat lotro-ABC like a flexible grid

---

Yes, I looked at BruTE and did some tests of its output. You got the start timings of notes spot on whether triplets or whatever.
Note durations only had to suffer slightly, at least in the test-case I ran on it, although that's hard to notice when listening to it.
If I were to write Maestro from scratch I would maybe have done something very akin to BruTE.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SchorschiSchrumpf

Keep up the good work, you already did quite a good job on Maestro so far!

---

Thank you sir, I will. :)

I have polished some details since I posted the first beta links. Also corrected some handling of instrument names.

If you want to try out version 2.5.0.78 (still consider it Beta), here is the links:

[Beta links removed, see first post for regular releases.]

I am not final releasing it yet because it might slightly change some old projects made on GS, XG or GM2 midi files as I explained some posts ago. And I want to make sure it is done the right way and not rush it.

Alright, version 2.5.0.79 can be downloaded now.


Changelog:

Code:

---

- Added option to show polyphony count while previewing abc song.
- In the delay dialog the time can now be entered using comma as decimal point.
- In XG, GM2 or GS midis, drums tracks will no longer get assigned some random GM instrument voice.
    They will be named "XG Drums", "GM2 Drums" or "GS Drums", and might still some times still sound wrong when playing the midi.
    But now at least they will be marked as drum track so people don't assign melodic instruments on them.
- Added support for showing GS, XG and GM2 instrument and drum kit names. If it does not know the name then it fall back to GM name.
    Number of known instrument and kit names has gone from 129 to 2446 in total.
    The name lists was compiled mostly by github.com/jazz-soft and then edited and expanded by me.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Splik

Alright, version 2.5.0.79 can be downloaded now.

---

You are amazing!

Ohhhh, the next big thing would to be able to arrange for more than 14 parts! Kenghis (Mardi Gras Party) and Aedon (Old Winyards/Lonely Mountain Band) organized a classical music concert in Bree Park on Landroval this last Sunday and we had some people arrange 24 parts for our raid. Amazingly they were so well done and no dropped notes in game.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hannariel

be able to arrange for more than 14 parts!

---

You guessed what I am working on. :)

I will be able to guarantee 15 parts. For more than that it will depend on the music and how you arrange it.

Released it, preview now has soft limit of 15 instead of hard limit of 14.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Splik

Released it, preview now has soft limit of 15 instead of hard limit of 14.

---

This is great. I was able to get to 18 parts before I got a warning. Now, onward to 24!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I so appreciate all of the work you have put into this! You are phenomenal.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hannariel

This is great. I was able to get to 18 parts before I got a warning. Now, onward to 24!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I so appreciate all of the work you have put into this! You are phenomenal.

---

The issue with the more than 15 parts is the midi engine and the limit of classical midis to 16 voices ( one is only drums ).
I think Splik would have to find another midi engine for Maestro to get around that issue.

@Splik: there could be a way to mix down all the ABC tracks into a single Midi0 track with a lot of instrument changes

Also: there is that tone limit of 64 simultanious sounds in the game .. you need a note counter to warn ppl if their huge arrangements have too many tones, it'll create lags and missing tones when played in the game.

edit: the other issue is if you split it into 2 midis then there is always the problem that a lot of midi editors skip the breaks in the beginning and the two files are not synchronous anymore

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SchorschiSchrumpf

Also: there is that tone limit of 64 simultanious sounds in the game .. you need a note counter to warn ppl if their huge arrangements have too many tones, it'll create lags and missing tones when played in the game.

---

Didn't you notice the counter in the lower right corner ? ;)

I am thinking about removing support for 32 bit Java.

PRO
For those who use 32 bit now, it will mean less issues related to memory in big arrangements.
Also it will mean I can ship it with more note samples, which will make it sound more like lotro. (and possibly make Maestro use less CPU)
Double-clicking on a abc/mid/msx file will start the 64 bit version instead of the 32 bit. So no longer have to start Maestro through windows menu shortcut to get 64 bit version.

CON
For those of you still using 32 bit, it means slight bit of hassle as you will have to go to java.com and download and install the 64 bit java.
The Maestro download will be larger due to shipping more samples.


So what is the opinions on this?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Splik

I am thinking about removing support for 32 bit Java.

PRO
For those who use 32 bit now, it will mean less issues related to memory in big arrangements.
Also it will mean I can ship it with more note samples, which will make it sound more like lotro. (and possibly make Maestro use less CPU)
Double-clicking on a abc/mid/msx file will start the 64 bit version instead of the 32 bit. So no longer have to start Maestro through windows menu shortcut to get 64 bit version.

CON
For those of you still using 32 bit, it means slight bit of hassle as you will have to go to java.com and download and install the 64 bit java.
The Maestro download will be larger due to shipping more samples.


So what is the opinions on this?

---

For me it is ok

I'm fine with only 64.

64bit Maestro is fine by me as i only use 64bit, I'd imagine not many use 32bit anymore these days.

Released 2.5.0.81 and 2.5.0.82:

Version 2.5.0.81

Code:

---

- Maestro now accept karaoke midi files with .kar ending.
- Added Close Project to main file menu. Suggested by Paane.
- Polyphony counter now goes orange above 54 notes. Suggested by Jersiel. Will still go red at 64+.
- Fixed that rare MIDIs with very low Pulse Per Quarter Note (PPQ) resolution could change note and rest lengths in non-swing mode and in mix timings mode.
    The fix makes the output in sync and correct tempo when using non-swing timing or mix timing or both.
    It does however not solve the imprecise timings of such MIDI when converted to ABC.
    I suggest for such MIDI, edit them to a finer resolution (for example PPQ of 480) in a MIDI editor.
    Thank you to Jersiel for hearing the issue in the first place.
- Fixed that final rest in a abc part would start where the event that began last would end,
    instead of be sure to pick the event that actually ended last and use that ending.
- Fixed that the very last chord of a abc part would not be broken up and tied,
    but instead would just be output even if notes in had different lengths.
    Lotro would not complain, but for consistency it will now also be broken up and tied.

---

Version 2.5.0.82

Code:

---

- Made 64 bit the default version.
- Removed support for 32 bit.
- Included more samples for Horn and Bagpipe.
- Polyphony counter now also shows peak concurrent playing notes. Suggested by Jersiel.
    But do remember again that due to technical reasons Maestro note fadeout time is longer than in lotro,
    and since notes in fadeout phase is counted, the polyphony numbers have a tendency to be too high.
- German and French words for 'center', 'left' and 'right' in part titles will now also change stereo pan.
    The words recognized is now: left, links, gauche, right, rechts, droite, middle, center, zentrum, mitte and centre.
    Upper or lower case does not matter.
- Added limited support for Songbook variants based on The Badgers Chapter.
    It can output title, genre and mood.
    There is also an option to output all parts played for convenience.
    There is no way to select individual parts to be played.

---

I'm having a couple problems with maestro and the abc player. If either isn't open I can click on an .abc song or .mid song and it will open the abc player or maestro respectively. Once I have a song in the players I can't click on another song and have it automatically play. I have to drag the file into the respective player. Previously I was able to click on a midi file or abc file and go down the list and have them play. Now I have to drag them into the player.

Alright, I will look into that. Thanks.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Splik

Alright, I will look into that. Thanks.

---

i am having the same problem since i upgraded last year to your AifelMaestro in ~August..

Should be fixed in 2.5.0.83

Thank you for changes, and your mod! Is there a way to edit the .abc file within Maestro? Let's say you wanted to shorten a long piece, maybe snip out a section that is annoyingly repeating is that possible within Maestro? If not, what would be the best way to do that?

If the section you want to shorten is in the middle, then there is no way to do that from maestro.

But if you want to cut out something from beginning or end, then that is very easy. Just use the section editor (Press the 'S' button of parts to open it).
The instructions for using the section editor is in the document "Changes since Maestro 2.5.0.txt", there is both a link to a video and in the changelog there is instructions, just scroll down a bit to the parts about section editor.
Plus section editor has lots of tooltips and text explaining how to use it.

Also another thing. For annoying repeating sections in middle of a song, there is some tricks you can use:

The tricks all rely on section editor, lets say you have 3 sections each doing the same thing:
1st section - Try muting one or more instruments only in this section.
2nd section - Octave transpose one or more instruments only in this section.
3rd section - Octave double 1 or more of the instruments only in this section.

I hope you get what I am hinting at. With section editor there are many ways to make some dull repeating section become more varied. Many options, could also silence drums in some parts etc etc.

2.5.0.85 released.

It has a new drum feature which was done as a collaboration between Jersiel and me.

Code:

---

Version 2.5.0.85
- Made extra check to be sure no duplicate drum notes are output as lotro will accept them but not double play them.

---

Code:

---

Version 2.5.0.84
- Added 8 new drum sounds that each is a combi of 2 drum sounds, their names start with "Xtra".
    The sounds are some bass, snares and a crash cymbal. Jersiel supplied the combis, except one.
    Note that because they are 2 sounds, they will sound louder, and will eat into the 6 note limit fast, plus add to the 64 full song limit also.
    Note pruning down to 6 for a part, might split them up too, prune one of its sounds but not the other.
    So be very mindful of how the track(s) and song is made when considering to use these.
    Its mostly a convenience for small bands. If you need combis and have band members enough,
    consider choosing 2 drum parts instead and make combis yourself to circumvent the 6 note limit.
    Note that the new Xtra combi sounds cannot be listened to as solo drum sound, but you can still listen solo to the whole drum part.
- Note pruning down to 6 for drum is now less arbitrary. Louder notes are prioritized and bass notes too.
    Note that pruned drum notes is not shown in yellow even if that feature is enabled.
- Made a new comment field in each part that tells which lotro instrument it was made for (%%made-for).
    Since transcribers might not use the instrument-name when they name a part, or use it in another language,
    this is added so can choose the right instrument in AbcPlayer and Maestro when loading abc files, less guessing.
    Only forward compatible. If loading old abc files, it will work the old way with guessing from %%part-name or part title (T:).
- Made sure peak counter is reset when opening new song. But if notes from previous song is still in decay phase then they might increase the counter anyway.
- Changed font of polyphony counter.

---

V. 2.5.0.86 is out.
I have together with Jersiel refined the algorithm for which notes to discard when there is more than 6 on a part.

Code:

---

Version 2.5.0.86
- Refined the note pruning algorithm for staying under 6 simultaneous notes per instrument. Done in cooperation with Jersiel.
- Removed the "Show discarded notes in yellow" feature.
    It could get confusing when only part of a note got discarded, but the UI would show entire note as discarded.

---

2.5.0.91 released.

Code:

---

- Support for very long MIDIs.
    Tested up to 2 hours and 11 minutes, but probably can handle much more.
- Fix for missing "Delete" part button on MacOS.
    It will make the left panels wide enough to show LM Bassoon as a part. Which will then also make room for the delete button.
- LCM algorithm improvement for mix timing. Result should be the same, but slightly faster.

---

New version released.

Code:

---

Version 2.5.0.92
- Added an Edit menu item for (de)selecting all tracks in AbcPlayer.
- Added a Recent Opened files menu item in AbcPlayer.
- Prevent clearing tracks and mess up MIDI player by not having an abc part selected (does not matter if its assigned or not),
    so often only MIDI drum tracks would play. Wouldn't mess up ABC preview playing though.
    This is the new mechanisms:
    - Prevented Delete part button from deleting the last remaining part from the list.
    - When deleting the first part in the list, the new first part will now be properly selected.
    - If CTRL-clicking the selected part, the first part will now be selected, so a part is always selected.

---

Code:

---

Version 2.5.0.93
- A more elegant solution to not allowing to delete last part.
- Disable Close Project menu item, when nothing is opened.
- Add copy/paste buttons to section-editor. Works across parts. Will only copy the bar starts and ends plus if they are enabled.
- If open a msx file and had to find the midi file in another than the original location, then the project will now be marked as modified.
- When opening a MIDI it will now do a better job of guessing the artist and title from the filename. Sometimes it might switch them around though.
- When suggesting an abc filename, it will now remove extra dots, as lotro do not like them.
- Add an export timestamp to the abc header, like this example: %%export-timestamp 2022-10-22 08:26:11

---

New version released

Also I made some videos explaining how to get from installing Maestro and making first song to understanding how Maestro deal with triplets, long notes, pitch bends, doing more than 15 parts and other stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...Stpj8JPXjCGR_Q

Code:

---

Version 2.5.0.94
- Added a note button next to zoom button. The note you write will be saved in the msx project file, not the abc file.
    You can use it to keep notes of why you arranged it a certain way,
    or what still needs to be done. Or to keep track of the lyrics.
- A 99% fix for Soundblaster Audigy 5 not respecting master volume setting when skipping in certain MIDIs.
- Added a Numerate button to auto assign numbers to identical instrument part titles
    So "Lute" and "Lute 4" will become "Lute 1" and "Lute 2".
    It doesn't work when part titles is not in English or if an instrument name is not recognized.
    Basically it does not attempt to modify or count parts that does not start with an instrument name and then ends or have a number at the end.

---

Version 2.5.0.96 released

It has a new feature.
I explain how it works in the video "Timing 2" in the Youtube playlist that I mentioned in last message.

Yay, version .100 :)

Code:

---

Version 2.5.0.100
- Added a Tune editor that allows setting tempo changes and seminote transposing for certain bars.

---

V. 2.5.0.103 is out.

Code:

---

- Doubled the number of available sections in section-editor and tune-editor. Moved the help text into a tooltip, just hover mouse over 'Help'.
- When manually changing a part number so that the numbering scheme no longer applies for 1 or more parts,
    those parts will not be auto assigned new numbers but will keep their numbers.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Splik

New version released

Also I made some videos explaining how to get from installing Maestro and making first song to understanding how Maestro deal with triplets, long notes, pitch bends, doing more than 15 parts and other stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...Stpj8JPXjCGR_Q

---

You do such great work. I appreciate the effort and time you put into helping make LOTRO music better!

Version 2.5.0.104 released

Code:

---

- Removed the exe files, it will now use the bat files instead.
    This should solve the issue some users have experienced with running out of memory.
    The first time you run Maestro or AbcPlayer, your firewall might ask you to allow Java to connect to network. You can allow or disallow, it does not use Internet, so either should work.
      Technical explanation: It use ports locally for passing file path to already running program when opening files, hence why firewall asks.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Splik

Version 2.5.0.104 released

Code:

---

- Removed the exe files, it will now use the bat files instead.
    This should solve the issue some users have experienced with running out of memory.
    The first time you run Maestro or AbcPlayer, your firewall might ask you to allow Java to connect to network. You can allow or disallow, it does not use Internet, so either should work.
      Technical explanation: It use ports locally for passing file path to already running program when opening files, hence why firewall asks.

---

---

So when I updated my Maestro file the AbcPlayer.exe & Maestro.exe file that are still in the folder would not run. At first I wasn't able to open the .bat files. But when I clicked on the AbcPlayer.jar or the Maestro.jar (both with the java icon), they opened up. It was a little confusing because there are still the .exe files in my folder. Then I tried the .bat files again, and after giving it permission, it would open. However, they don't have the cute little maestro and abc icons. Is there anyway to change that?

I'm reluctant to have my band members update to this latest version, because I'm not sure they'll understand to click on the bat file instead.. (I changed it by creating a shortcut...but windows won't let me pin it to my taskbar.)

How did you install? Using MSI or ZIP?

If you installed using MSI, the exe files should be gone. I forgot to remove the exe files from the ZIP, will be done in next release.

When you talk about giving them permission, what kind of permission do you mean?

No, you cannot change the icon of the bat files, but you can make a shortcut to them, and change the icon on that.

If You installed using MSI, there should be automatically made shortcuts inside the window start menu, that you can pin to your start bar, taskbar or desktop as you like.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Splik

How did you install? Using MSI or ZIP?

If you installed using MSI, the exe files should be gone. I forgot to remove the exe files from the ZIP, will be done in next release.

When you talk about giving them permission, what kind of permission do you mean?

No, you cannot change the icon of the bat files, but you can make a shortcut to them, and change the icon on that.

If You installed using MSI, there should be automatically made shortcuts inside the window start menu, that you can pin to your start bar, taskbar or desktop as you like.

---

I installed with the MSI file. I didn't remove the old files first though, should I have?

The installer should have done that automatically. Weird.

May I ask what are your exe files called? Maestro.exe or Maestro64.exe?

In any case you can safely delete them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Splik

The installer should have done that automatically. Weird.

May I ask what are your exe files called? Maestro.exe or Maestro64.exe?

In any case you can safely delete them.

---

I have both.

2.5.0.108 released

Fixes some odd error messages that could pop up when clicking on a music file while Maestro or Abcplayer was already running.

More releases

Code:

---

Version 2.5.0.111
- Added option to convert most extended ascii and diacritical marks in ABC to simple latin letters and remove unicode chars.
    This will be enabled by default.
    It is useful for most LUA based songbooks that have trouble with many non-latin letters.

---

Code:

---

Version 2.5.0.110
- Fixed that some unicode chars in filenames could prevent an already running Maestro/Abcplayer from opening the file by double-clicking in Windows.

---

Code:

---

Version 2.5.0.109
- Fixed a regression in the auto part numbering scheme introduced in v2.5.0.102
- When changing an instrument to another that has same number scheme, for example Lute of Ages to Basic lute, the part number will now not change.
- A fix for that when switching auto part numbering scheme it would sometimes not convert all instruments to new scheme.

---

Important notice:

Updating Java to latest version will reset ALL Maestro and AbcPlayer options (on Windows 10 at least).

So be sure to write down your options before updating Java next time.