Maestro MIDI to ABC converter for LOTRO

[Orlor]

Ok, I ran into a new problem. I have recently upgraded my OS from Windows 7 32 bit to Windows 7 64 bit and have just re-installed Maestro. It works but it doesn't seem to see the drums for some strange reason. I hear the drums in the midi but if I make a drums instrument, all the drums are set to NONE. Any idea why this would happen?

ETA: I just used Firefern and it sees the drums no problem.

[Mellana]

Hello Orlor,

with some midis I downloaded I had a similar problem: i could not allocate a certain instrument.
In my situation the reason was the midi itself: there were multiple instruments in one track.

Is there a dedicated drum track in your midi and maestro won't allow allocating drums to it?
Or do you hear drums listening to the midi while there is no drum track?

If its the first: I never ran into a problem like that.
If its the second: go on using firefern (I never used it) if it works, or try to edit the midi using a midi software. Sometimes small changes make a midi work well in maestro.

By the way: is there any announcement when Maestro and ABC Player will get the new instrument sounds?
I'd love to work on some of my songs to adjust them to the reworked music system.

Mel (Smila)

[Edit]: ... and thank you very much for Maestro and ABC Player. My band would not exist without them, I am sure! *bows*

[Orlor]

Hello, Mellana.

The problem is not the midis. These are midis that I have previously made abc's of and had no problem with. And I have no problem assigning the drum parts by hand. The problem is that Maestro is supposed to assign the drum parts automatically from the midi and it is not doing that. What it is doing instead is assigning NONE to all the drum tracks instead.

ETA: Another weird thing I found. When changing how the program generates the index numbers, I can type the starting numbers in the boxes but as soon as I click on the next field, it forgets what I typed in the previous box. So far, the only boxes that I am having this problem with are the boxes in the options panel. On the program itself, I have no problem with changing any of the texts in the boxes.

I am not certain how important a point this is but when I re-installed Maestro unto this machine, it did not place a icon on the desktop. I am pretty certain that it used to do that before.

[Emere]

Heya Orladan,
I had a couple more thoughts and went to the site to double check my memory on it. I found this on the site.
"Maestro and ABC Player require Java 7 (32-bit) or later."

I know you have Windows 64 bit but unsure which Java version was installed. By default it should be Java 32 bit I think but honestly dunno if that is the default you get or not at the Java site.
Verify that you have Version 8 Update 40. Also, be sure to remove older Java versions.

[Orlor]

Hello Fin.

When I downloaded Java, it did not give me a option of which bit to use. The Java files are in the Program Files (x86) folder so I would assume that it is 32 bit. And yes, it is version 8 build 40. And as I had to do a clean install of Windows, it is the only version of Java on there.

[Emere]

The only other thing I can think of is to reinstall maestro and run it as administrator, though that makes no sense to me since I don't have to do that.
I would also do a windows update from the control panel as well, just to make sure you got everything you need updated. Keep in mind, that may take a while for it to download all the updates you should have, unless its already been done.
Last but not least, you might contact Digero and see if he has any ideas. I know you can contact him from the download site.

[Emere]

Oh.....
Just thinked this. Try to upload a drum map and then try the drums again Orladan. If I remember correctly, that was something Ereylen had to do when she ran into this same trouble.
For some reason, she didn't recieve the default drum maps when she reinstalled Maestro.

[Orlor]

Earlier, I had imported your drum map to see if it would take and it did. I didn't bother to try again. Just ran maestro now and the drums did come up. Still getting that annoying bug with the index numbers though.

[Emere]

Well, at least we got the first one figured out

[Tulipan]

Hello Digero!

As you may already know, earlier this week we had Update 15.3 with major changes to Player Music Instruments. This means (among other things), that ABC Player and Maestro are now less useful than they could be and so please let us all know if you are planning on updating these tools and, if you are, when new versions can be expected.

These tools of yours are great and while there are alternatives to Maestro, there is AFAIK no alternative to ABC Player - except ingame test which can be impractical while developing music arrangements for larger bands.

[Laire]

Hello Digero!

As you may already know, earlier this week we had Update 15.3 with major changes to Player Music Instruments. This means (among other things), that ABC Player and Maestro are now less useful than they could be and so please let us all know if you are planning on updating these tools and, if you are, when new versions can be expected.

These tools of yours are great and while there are alternatives to Maestro, there is AFAIK no alternative to ABC Player - except ingame test which can be impractical while developing music arrangements for larger bands.

Came here also to see if there would be an update to Maestro soon. Not sure what to do with my songs until then, hehe.

[Emere]

Hello Digero!

As you may already know, earlier this week we had Update 15.3 with major changes to Player Music Instruments. This means (among other things), that ABC Player and Maestro are now less useful than they could be and so please let us all know if you are planning on updating these tools and, if you are, when new versions can be expected.

These tools of yours are great and while there are alternatives to Maestro, there is AFAIK no alternative to ABC Player - except ingame test which can be impractical while developing music arrangements for larger bands.

I haven't heard anything myself, but my guess is it will be held off on since there will be so many changes coming in future updates...or at least, we are hoping for some fixes still. As for the horn or clarinet, I should think transcribing them as lutes and then changing the abc file in notepad to reflect clarinet or horn will allow you to have the two missing notes that have been added. If volume tweaks are a concern, and you are already use to how abc player sounds as opposed to in game, then adjustments should be relatively painless for the most part. As a basis to go off of, I have concluded that generally speaking, lute needs to be at least one step down in volume, theorbo no longer needs to be cranked way up in volume, bagpipes usually need to go up a step from what we are used to, and flutes still need a bump in volume depending on if they are the melody or not. That is a very basic opinion however and everyone has their own opinions on it I am sure. I fear we will have no choice but to test in game none the less since abc player never has been accurate to in game sounds. Turbine has never worked with those that make the tools we use in order to allow them to make the tools closer to in game sound and volume from what I have been told in the past by Digero. I know if it was me, I wouldn't want to dump a ton of time into redoing abc player and Maestro if Turbine is just going to keep changing stuff over the next several updates.

(Edit) I may have been a bit hasty. Seems bagpipe volume is fine on most of my songs where it is. I think its more of a song to song thing for volume. Some needed adjusted up a notch, but tonights testing I tweaked it up and every one of the songs was too loud on pipes. At a loss as to why but that is what I am running into for volume adjustments.

[Halgoreth]

When I downloaded Java, it did not give me a option of which bit to use. The Java files are in the Program Files (x86) folder so I would assume that it is 32 bit. And yes, it is version 8 build 40. And as I had to do a clean install of Windows, it is the only version of Java on there.

A couple weeks late on this reply. . .sorry.
This page https://www.java.com/en/download/faq/java_win64bit.xml (I don't know why they marked it up as an XML instead of HTML) appears to confirm Fincin's suspicion that, even when running a 64-bit OS, the 32-bit version of Java is installed by default for compatibility reasons. You can replace it with the 64-bit Java from that page, but, since Maestro doesn't require it, it seems unlikely that that would be a cause of your difficulties.

Note, too, that 64-bit Java might not play nicely with your browser if that is also a 32-bit version (which is the default for IE, again, even under 64-bit Win7). However, that page implies it is acceptable to run with *both* Java versions (and both IEs) present at the same time.

Even so, you might check if they have archives of Java 7 available and see if the downgrade brings back your drum parts.

Also, I would follow Fincin's suggestion of making sure that obsolete versions are removed. There is a tool on the page above to do that. (As I recall, it also appears on the confirmation web page that opens after running a Java update or installation.)

[Digero]

Hi guys! I've updated Maestro with the new instrument sounds. You can get it here:

https://github.com/digero/maestro/releases


Sorry for the delay, it's very time consuming to get the new sound samples from the game's data files and into Maestro. The good news is that in the process I wrote some tools to help automate some of the more time consuming parts, which means that it'll hopefully be less work for me if Turbine happens to update the sound samples again in the future.

I also moved Maestro to be hosted on GitHub, since Google has decided to shut down Google Code. However, I haven't had time to move the wiki yet, so in the meantime you can still find documentation here: https://code.google.com/p/lotro-maestro/wiki/Home

[Katiepie]

Sending thanks and virtual pies for all your hard work.

[Digero]

I just fixed a bug that was causing Maestro to break when opening .abc files that are missing the "M" field. It's in v2.2.1.

Katiepie: Why do you want to install version 2.0.0?

[Katiepie]

Hey there, I just deleted that question as I had resolved the issue. I want to keep the old version of Maestro as well as have the new version installed, which I have done.

I do not like the new samples It's a shame as I was always a positive supporter of the music update.

Again thanks for all your efforts.

[zedrock]

Hi guys! I've updated Maestro with the new instrument sounds. You can get it here:

https://github.com/digero/maestro/releases

Yoohoo!
Many many thanks for this highly anticipated Maestro/ABCPlayer update Master Dig'

Bara salutes You!

./toasts

Zed'

[Crowlady]

On behalf of The Rolling Kegs (Laurelin), thank you very much for this new Maestro. Whatever the faults of the new music system, now we can get on with adjusting our songs, and resume concert planning.

These are the heroes of our game, those who selflessly donate time and effort to making it a better place for the rest of us :-)

Rosamundi: The Chosen Few
Thrandili: The Rolling Kegs
Doc Marping: Brandywine n Biscuits founder
Woodrose: The Oliphaunts

[Halgoreth]

Hi guys! I've updated Maestro with the new instrument sounds.

/cheer Digero

[Emere]

I stand corrected. /blush

[Urwendil]

Hi guys! I've updated Maestro with the new instrument sounds. You can get it here:

https://github.com/digero/maestro/releases


Sorry for the delay, it's very time consuming to get the new sound samples from the game's data files and into Maestro. The good news is that in the process I wrote some tools to help automate some of the more time consuming parts, which means that it'll hopefully be less work for me if Turbine happens to update the sound samples again in the future.

I also moved Maestro to be hosted on GitHub, since Google has decided to shut down Google Code. However, I haven't had time to move the wiki yet, so in the meantime you can still find documentation here: https://code.google.com/p/lotro-maestro/wiki/Home

Thanks! Downloading rightaway...

[Lolorndinfey]

Thank you so much Digero. 363 multi-part songs going thru the chute as we speak. Your tool is invaluable to the Harlequins.

Are you on the player council by chance? Turbine really needs to get your opinion in there early I think.

Makes you wonder if QA or Devs ever use your tool. It really illustrates how different the volumes and off-tonal notes are in the songs.

[Katiepie]

Hi Digero,

I know you have spent a heap of time updating all these files. My Maestro works as it should as does my abc player. Thank you for all the joy I have had creating music in your creation. I have one issue - My new Maestro has auto updated the old and I wanted to be able to keep and use both 2.0.0 and 2.2.0. plus different sounding .abc players. I know this sounds crazy but I can't now even enjoy listening to my old songs, and that makes me a little sad Also for comparison from old and new LOTRO music systems.

Is there any way to have old and new systems on my computer simultaneously?

[Fratonia]

Is there any way to have old and new systems on my computer simultaneously?

Sure. You can have several folders with different versions of Maestro on your HD all the time. I have 1.4.1, 2.0, 2.1.1 and 2.2.1 available at the moment.
My advice is to download the ZIP version of the package and just unpack it to a new folder. In that folder can execute Maestro.jar directly. You can run several Maestro clients of different versions at the same time if you like. There is no need to start Maestro.exe or install the software at all.