Thread: MIDI2KEY - MIDI keyboard to LOTRO music system utility (v0.9.0.0)

Come to think of it, transpoing could be added internally without the need to swap ini files.

Assuming some sort of table wherin the keystroke echoed back is indexed by the midi note received:

keypress[midi_value]

so if midi_value is a C2, for example, the table returns a Z. C2_sharp and it returns X, and so forth. To transpose, just add an offset equal to the number of half steps between keys.

keypress[midi_value+key_offset]

For Key C, offset is 0. D, offset is 2. F, offset is 5. And so forth.

edit: Been playing with this idea some more, and have ini files in 7 different keys now. It's a great way to completely change the tone of the melody without having to relearn it. It also give you more flexibility. Narnia Lullaby starts off on a B, so you can't play it on the lowest octave. Transposing to Eb, puts the two "breath notes" of the clarinet on the A and Bb keys, making the B the first playable note. Sounds very haunting played that low, too.

Transpose trick:
Since the program is so small, it shouldn't bother too many people to have several copies of it.

What you do is have different MIDI2KEY.ini in different folders in different transpositions (say folders labeled C or D or E or F or FS or etc. for each key) as well as a copy of MIDI2KEY (0.9.0.4) in each. To start in a different key, launch the program from the folder in that key.

YES! Stickied!!!!

This is an official nod that this type of stuff is acceptable!

(Sorry. I couldn't resist. Well... I could, but I didn't wanna.)

Oh man, I can't wait to try out the new music system tonight!

Edit: Having 3 octaves is glorious! However, the bottom octave doesn't sound that good on the lute. The notes kind of blend together. The clarinet is much crisper and more distinguishable.

Originally Posted by Tarindel

However, the bottom octave doesn't sound that good on the lute. The notes kind of blend together. The clarinet is much crisper and more distinguishable.

I would not recommend going below LotRO's E2 for the Lute or the Theorbo (bass) for the best sound. For historic accuracy, you might not want to go below LotRO's G2 on the Lute or Theorbo.

This program support keys such as = and - ? how about ; , . ?

i read it doesnt support extended keys. Not sure what keys all fall into that category.

Wow! This rocks! It's sooo much easier playing on a MIDI keyboard than a regular one. I might spend more time playing my instruments than questing now

To seem to be having a very bad time trying to get this setup.

It finds my keyboard and all and plays notes, though regardless of what keymap .ini file I edit / change or just a default renamed to midi2key.ini it seems to stay at the exact same key setting after the program is restarted.

When I go up all 3 octaves on my keyboard it looks like this is notepad:

awsedftgyhuj 1w2e34t5y6u7 8w2e34t5y6u7

The first octave works, but the second and third have tons of repeat numbers and letters and I can't figure out how to change it D:

The ini file APPEARS like it should be totally different, but it's not.

Any help would be appreciated

EDIT: ugh, nevermind. after the reinstall of windows I forgot that the extensions were still hidden so things were being named midi2key.ini.ini
My bad. All is good now :O

Works great

Originally Posted by Stalarian

This program support keys such as = and - ? how about ; , . ?

i read it doesnt support extended keys. Not sure what keys all fall into that category.

Yes, it supports ,.;`-=\[] (not sure about "? { } < >") Does not support shift, ctrl, enter, backspace, etc...

However, you only need 37 keys. So I used 0-9, A-Z and , to map my keyboard. Just did them left-right top-bottom since I won't be using my computer keyboard to play the instruments anymore.

Bravo!

Thank you, NolaquenTaurina, this works fabulous and was very easy to install and configure. (well, setting the key bindings in LOTRO was tedious, but I had midi2key installed and set up in about five minutes)

P.S. I have this installed on Windows Vista in case anyone's wondering if it's compatible.

Originally Posted by Eomund

(not sure about "? { } < >")

Theoretically, it should support those, but I haven't tested it. Basically, anything you can represent with one character it should be able to handle. Things like Insert, Delete, Numpad1, etc, you can't represent with a single character, so it doesn't support those keys.

How does this even work? When I try to run the program, I get an error message saying, "ERROR: Sorry about this, but I can't seem to find any MIDI input devices installed in your computer. My advice: check to make sure you have drivers for it installed properly. Beyond that, I can't help ya, I'm afraid. :-("

Are you saying that I MUST have some sort of third-party plug-and-play thing for this to work?

Yes, Aga. MIDI2KEY is an interface to LOTRO. It assumes you already have a midi-compatible keyboard and an interface (sound card or maybe a USB interface) to your computer.

I just got this to work successfully with my M-Audio Keystation 49e. It was very simple. Thanks for the utility!! What a time-saver!!

First of all thank you, this program works great.

I would love to see more arpeggo functionality:
- Tempo for Arpegiation.
- Octave Range: the ability to pick 1-3 octaves
- Differnt Patterns: Random, steping(2 notes up, 1 note back, etc)
- Being able to bind a few extra keystrokes to toggle various settings


Thanks again.

Midi doesn't seem to be working since the July 11 upgrade. Anyone else having problems?

Originally Posted by Eomund

Midi doesn't seem to be working since the July 11 upgrade. Anyone else having problems?

Working just fine. Pretty much has to, unless the game stops accepting keyboard input, since all MIDI2KEY does is allow the MIDI keyboard to mimic the QWERTY keyboard.

All I have to say is THANK YOU!
When I started tinkering with the music system I though to myself, "How could I make this easier to play?"

Then I too tried mapping out the keys just like the white and black keys on a piano but it was quite unwieldy to play. I thought to myself, "I wonder if there's a way to do this with a MIDI keyboard, it would take some programming but I bet it's doable." Well I guess I was right and great minds think alike. I'm going into storage to dig out my MIDI keyboard but then again I may just buy a new $50 3 octave KB from my local music store (which has a built in USB as well). I'll definitely be coming back here to find people to jam with in game.

This is fantastic. Just got into the game today, discovered the pretty neat music system. Google "lotro midi" found this thread. Within 5 minutes I had my lotro remapped, and the ini setup, and was jamming away.

Works flawlessly, Thanks for the great program.

Now if only we can get people to turn off their quantizing, because it sounds horrible.

For those who do not know. Quantizing moves notes to a bar. For example, lets say the lotro quantize works on a 4/4 beat. if you hit a note between beats 1 and 2, it will move the note to beat 2. Delaying the note, and possibly making it sounds REALLY awful.

Thats a crude description, and I'm not sure it quantizes to bars, half notes, quarter notes, 8th notes etc etc..

The quantize might not be so bad if they could add a tempo section where you can place a set tempo and a metronome to follow. This would even things out a bit. but trying to guess makes it impossible to work with.

I'm ranting..

Shutting up.

can anyone help me get this file? the links seem to be down..

nvm got it _ it didnt like IE, go firefox

no matter how I map the .ini file I get the same crazy results.

I changed the midi2key.kwee file to midi2key.ini and remapped my ingame to match the ini mappings. but no matter what I do it doesn't seem to work.

any ideas?

doh, I had 'hide extensions for known file types' active

Added source for v0.9.0.4 since I haven't been able to work on it in a long while. Hopefully someone has more time than I and can contribute! (hint, hint!)

What language did you use? I know some C, and VB.Net.

It seems like a fairly simple program. I might be able to add a few features to make it more simple to use, such as cfg importation, as well as a GUI button binder.

But I can't promise I can do anything at all. I'm sure if you made it open source someone somewhere will pick it up and make it a super program.

This is funny; I have a midi pickup on my guitar and so I tried this program to find I could control the movements of my player with my guitar....in fact I can type with my guitar now into a text file....kind of fun....

Ok, maybe I'm missing something, but...Is there an easy way to map keys on a midi keyboard so that the notes match the keys for each octave available?

All I can say is WOW— I had been wishing for this kind of thing for a long time and never knew it was already in my grasp! Thank you *so* much, I'm going to try it out as soon as I can!

Originally Posted by Lichbane

OMG! I'm going to have to dust off my old keyboard (and it's think dust I might add) and find a USB/Midi converter. This sounds like fun.

Same here I tried to connect my Yamaha only to find that they removed the input >:0
But I bet there some USB converter for it. Maybe I should get a new cable, because the starter kit that the cable came with was for Windows 98!

Thank you very much for doing this, as playing songs on LOTRO for hours gave me the confidence to actually start learning piano again. (Full circle, hmm....)

Also: M-Audio Keyrig 49 up in this joint!

I finally have a midi keyboard to try this with, but the link in the OP throws an error. Super sad face.

Haven't had the chance to look close at this because I'm at work but if what midi2key does is interpret between midi sent from a midi controller like a music keyboard and turn it into computer keyboard info then there are a few shareware utilities that do this. I have a freeware app that does this to trigger video from my Axiom keyboard during Ableton Live music sets.

Should be what midi to ABC on the fly needs

I look more closely later and if i was correct i'll try to post links

Just use LOTRO MIDI Player. It has MIDI keyboard support and is still being actively maintained.