.ABC File Troubleshooting

[Northwoods]

Chords will sometime cause a "Note already sounding" error (It's been bugged). Until it's fixed, here's a work around.

If you see
[zC3DE] C

Chances are you'll get the error on the second C.

The simple fix is to change the length of the previous instance of the note (In this case, the C3) to match the length of the shortest note in the chord (the rest, in this case). I've tried this a few times and it seems to do the trick, without messing up the overall timing of the song.

[Lantash]

I'm having the same problem. I'm using Vista, not sure if you are. I think it's some sort of security restriction. I moved a bunch of abc files into a Music directory I created and it still won't play them. It seems to be a permissions issue that won't let the LOTRO client open those files.

Everytime i try it it says it can not open the file. I did everything correctly. And i tried another song from some1 else but it wasnt in Abc format. I typed /music mode then i typed /play Road but of course it couldnt open the folder. Any ideas? Maybe its becuase i had to Download the game off the site becuase the disks were corrupted? I don't Know.

[Carthagenian]

I followed the instructions, but it won't let me /play songs. It say something like "song not found". Can anyone help me?

EDIT: Never mind I figured it out. I'll say what I did wrong in case anyone is as stupid as me :P
I typed /play <filename> With the brackets, well not brackets.. whatever you call those things.

They are called angle brackets or chevrons, ain't wikipedia great!?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_b...evrons_.3C_.3E

[kilroy64]

If the music folder is not in the LOTRO my document folder, can we just create it?

[durinsbane]

If the music folder is not in the LOTRO my document folder, can we just create it?

Yes, just go to your My Ducument folder, then LOTRO folder and create a "Music" folder inside of it.

Put all Abc files in music folder.

[DATmadild]

Does it mater that my folder is under Trubine then LOTR then Music

[durinsbane]

Does it mater that my folder is under Trubine then LOTR then Music

Yes, it maters. Whne u play a ABC file in game, the Game looks for the file in your music folder that is in your LOTRO folder, that is in your My Documents folder. If there isn't a Music folder in your LOTRO folder, simply make a new folder there and rename it music.

Durinsbane

[Tweek]

Yeah so what do we call the .txt file?

I keep getting this:

Couldn't open file C:\Documents and Settings\*******\My Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\Music\Adams.txt.

[Northwoods]

First, make sure that "Hide Extensions for Known File Types" in Folder Options is unchecked. That way you can see if the file is really Adams.txt or Adams.txt.abc or somesuch. Make sure it's actually <file>.abc or <file>.txt with no spaces in the filename.

If the system can see your files, they should appear when you type /playlist

[Enigma2060]

Hello there

When I /play I get the following message
Couldn't open file C:\Users\Robert\Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\Music\song.txt.

Im running Vista and I think im saving the file correctly according to the save as guidlines listed above.
Is the file still being read as *.txt.abc?

[Saxzon]

Some people need to be learning basic computer skills instead of playing video games....

Normally when you go to save an existing file "AS" a different file extention. It leaves the OLD file extention on the name and appends the new one. You have to remove the old file extention. It clearly shows the old file extention in the File name: box.

Files can be named ****.txt or *****.abc
As long as the contents of in the correct format.

[Drasn]

I have the same thing as the guy above. It is saved under Turbine, lotro, then music. Does this matter? I don't think I can change this?

[Witch-King.of.BC]

thanks a ton, Agamemnon582bc1, for posting this sweet graphical walkthru! so many people have asked me how i was playing the songs and explanations were takin a TON of time!

now i can just link them here and the hills will be alive with the sound of music!

i think i'll even put this link in my sig if i ever get around to making one!

[DeathFromBelow]

Nevermind - I'm an idiot :x

[Hobbittybobbity]

I did everything the instructions stated and I g into music mod I type /play music1, then I get the error Couldn't open C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\Music\music1.txt

[durinsbane]

I did everything the instructions stated and I g into music mod I type /play music1, then I get the error Couldn't open C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\Music\music1.txt

Are u still having problems?

if so, make sure your song file has only one .txt or .abc extension, not songtitle.abc.txt.

Make sure your file name has no spaces.

make sure that the file you want to play is in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\Music

Make sure that this is the correct path to your music folder. C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\The Lord of the Rings Online\Music

these sugestion you may have already looked into, if so sorry to give u information u alredy know.
it really should work at this point,

If not, please let me know.

[BaBaBaBlazin]

I'm totally stuck, i go to lotro-music.com, see a huge list of songs, download them, then it says "unable to open zip file" so abc. files = worthless? or do i copy/paste the .abc file into my lotro music thingy and typle /music f52.abc or something? help a guy who doesn't know much about this technical mumbo jumbo, seems a lil' too sophisticated just to play some tunes. do you need a certain keymapping for notes in order for these ".abc" files to work?


Edit: Oh sweet, I figured it out and it works perfectly. Just busted out the Chocobo song, and a crummy version of "Every Breath You Take" by the police, lmao.

[durinsbane]

Edit: Oh sweet, I figured it out and it works perfectly. Just busted out the Chocobo song, and a crummy version of "Every Breath You Take" by the police, lmao.

Glad u got the songs to play. Many of the songs on lotro-music.com are from before the book 11 updated that gave us chords, so many of the songs on the site are limited in the way they sound.

Try to download more recent songs, I would say from this past Aug. to now. Having said that, there are some wonderful songs that were done prior to the update, but it is a matter of playing them and deciding for yourself which ones u like.

[Ara007]

is there anyway around note to high or to low errors?

[durinsbane]

is there anyway around note to high or to low errors?

Only way around is to either change the offending notes to a rest (z), or try to bring the notes up or down one octave to make them legal.

While many lower notes will sound just fine if you change just them, ie. |A,A, B,, B,, C, C, B,,| will (most of the time) sound perfectly fine if you change it to |A,A, B,B, C, B,| Higher notes are harder to change to make sound right, ie. |c'c' d' d' a b| to |c'c' d d a b| would 99% of the time sound awful.

Of course changing seperate notes could make the any song sound completly different, best thing to do is bring the whole song up or down one octave, If possible. This could make other notes not playable though!

It really is a matter of playing around with a song. Some parts (read Instruments) will transpose perfectly, but then other parts of the same song will be out of range, so they won't merge properly with the other part. Those are the parts you should raise or lower by as a whole by themselves and then merge into the other part.

There is a lot of things that can go wrong when changing notes to fit into the music system, But again, keep playing around with it and you will find a way for the song you want to transpose to work.

[AvalonMists]

Another option could be to transpose the whole piece (and if you are doing it in different parts for different instruments, then those too) to a different key signature. If you don't have much of an idea of music though it's probably more of a headache you don't need! Doing it in abc too might be more of a hassle than you really want.

I have just started arranging songs to play in-game in abc from midi files. Basically I open a midi file in another program, select the parts I want or combine instruments to reduce the number of parts, then have a look at where the notes are. With one particular song I changed the key (from A to Eb) so the notes that were too high in the melody would then fit to the game's requirements. Bass notes were too low for the theorbo then, so I put that whole part up an octave. Then it's put into abc. Then of course you also have to watch out for those C, and D, notes that a clarinet in reality doesn't play, and sound like a boar grunting when you play them in-game!

Oh, and while I'm at it...
Is it documented anywhere what abc notes play what percussion sounds for the drums in lotro? I've searched the net and tried searching here (search function is playing up for me at the moment though for some reason), and I haven't been able to find anything. I had a memory of coming across something a while ago, but didn't bother making note of the info as I wasn't interested in it at the time.

[durinsbane]

Oh, and while I'm at it...
Is it documented anywhere what abc notes play what percussion sounds for the drums in lotro? I've searched the net and tried searching here (search function is playing up for me at the moment though for some reason), and I haven't been able to find anything. I had a memory of coming across something a while ago, but didn't bother making note of the info as I wasn't interested in it at the time.

We have all been screaming (or asking nicely) for a map to the drum sounds for a while now. Alas, no one has offered it yet.
I tried to listen and map them myself, but there are some sounds that sound the same or are just a tad different, or, the "is that a tom-tom or a floor bass".

I would love not only to have the drums mapped, but I would also love to get some better drum sounds. I know Turbine is trying to keep everything "lore correct" but I think they can get away with some better sounds for the drum.

[AvalonMists]

Ah, thanks for that. I know one of our other band members attempted to do a bit of mapping himself, and I was going to have a go too if I couldn't track anything down elsewhere. Not being a percussionist myself I was imagining there would be some sounds I just couldn't quite place. Looks like it will have to do for now!

[AvalonMists]

I'm currently working on We Are The Champions and am having problems with the tempo of the song. The song originally had these fields
M:6/8
L:1/8
Q:1/4=99
but it plays way too slow in-game (plays fine in the program I use to work with midi/abc files though). I've tried altering a few things, and combinations of things, but it essentially comes down to just Q I can get to 1/4=125 or the equivalent before I get a 'note duration is too short' error. I could alter the rhythm a little and remove the hemi-demi-semi quavers that the game obviously doesn't like at faster tempos, but considering there's a number of them in the drum part I'd like an alternative if possible.

Any ideas?

[vestansan]

Any clue to how to do this if you didn't install the game in the default location?