Your Favorite Instrument?

[Pontin_Finnberry]

The game currently has 22 instruments with different sounds (though the Student Fiddle same as basic except with knocks/scratches), and wondering what players like playing in Middle-Earth the most? maybe its something you played in real life as well, anyway lots of great music made over the years, and for me i like the Traveller's Trusty Fiddle, good plucking sounds, what about you?

 

[Findu]

I use lute of the ages because it's cheap and accessible to a non-mini player. Although the bassoon from the fall festival sounds really nice! I use the abc files, but yesterday felt like manually playing. So got the note mapping set up yesterday in a piano format on the keyboard, now to learn how to play!

 

[Mireio Calad]

Harp mainly but i started to love the fiddle.
I love guitars and i feels like sometimes the harp gives the best rending of those.
But i am open to learn and test

 

[Luventhariel]

Ooooh. Tough choice. The Lonely Mountain Fiddle really weeps. The Flute can be breathy and love the trills. Then there's the 37-piece drum kit.

Theorbo is what I love to hear though. Groovy, Funky Bass.

 

[Duncadda]

Im with you Pontin regarding the Traveller's Trusty Fiddle. Its great for bluegrass music.

 

[Elamond]

Pibgorn fight me

In all seriousness, for solo playing it's a 5-way tie for me between basic harp, lute of ages, flute, traveller's trusty fiddle, and lonely mountain bassoon.. All of em are great in different ways as solo instruments depending on the song, I can't pick a favorite!

 

[YamyDeAragon]

The game currently has 22 instruments with different sounds (though the Student Fiddle same as basic except with knocks/scratches), and wondering what players like playing in Middle-Earth the most? maybe its something you played in real life as well, anyway lots of great music made over the years, and for me i like the Traveller's Trusty Fiddle, good plucking sounds, what about you?

I used to display cosmetically the Pibgorn on my RK​

& also love the sound on my minstrel because remind me archaic hand craft flute. It was a nice consolation since i can't display my rune stone weapons cosmetically when out of combat & doesn't clip with the cloak. For reasons i do not understand the devs disabled the option to display cosmetic instruments if you aren't wearing them as gear.

 

[Dugunthi]

I just reached level 15 on my first minstrel (and second ever character) so I couldn't yet play all the instruments that interest me. In combat I used to switch them out because the repetitive jingles get on my nerves no matter how much I like the instrument (esp. dissonance ballad, obviously). However I have a feeling that might end now that I have a theorbo, it might be gentle enough to not get on my nerves after a while. For music I mostly use the lute of ages, but I am still in the process of compiling and converting music to add to the game.
I really like the lonely mountain instruments but it'll be a while until I can get my hands on either.

I revile the pibgorn, however. Those sounds are downright misanthropic. In truth most of them could do with better samples though. The sustain on the plucked insturments is really disappointing and severely limits musical expression.

 

[Hoppa Joel]

The game currently has 22 instruments with different sounds (though the Student Fiddle same as basic except with knocks/scratches), and wondering what players like playing in Middle-Earth the most? maybe its something you played in real life as well, anyway lots of great music made over the years, and for me i like the Traveller's Trusty Fiddle, good plucking sounds, what about you?

When I do songs, for our Warders of the Weald band, I write them for MM Harp, Flute, LM Fiddle, TT Fiddle, LM Basoon, and Drum.
It covers a lot of range, those have been my narrowed down choice favourites mainly because we have a 3 person band, so with multi account logging, we cover all three parts. :: Edit:: ( I mean all 6 parts, with three folks ))
In the wrong part, any one of the instruments can sound bad, so a lot of it for me is finding where they go and the best balance ( and to not to need to switch instruments much, as dead-air in a concert makes some folks anxious, and others leave too soon hehe )
TT fiddle, I agree has great plucky sounds, the flute, is best in my opinion for the voice tracks, I will combine all parts for a 'solo' piece, and the harp plays that, this way, if we are missing people you can solo the song, duo it, and so forth. It makes a song feel fuller as well.
The basoon, ( which horn was usually for same part before we got them ) has that mellow rich sound for background. and LM fiddle, fills the rest out with sustain. ( Drum, in some songs are a nessesity )

Other instruments, and variants can be swapped out as needed, but like I said, I try to avoid that.
I mean, if I wanted to do heavy metal, there is brusque bassoon, and the bardic fiddle, ( I really dont want bag-pipes, or clarinet in songs, just not my taste, though pibgorn, can be used in specific places, perfectly. )
While I do pretty okay making the music files, for the band ( and did even better with firefern's in the past, and, with melody assistant, editing midi before taking it to maestro ) I have no realworld music skills. I have a kalimba, I love the sound of, I play a few of my own 'songs' if you wanna call them that, but I really dont have much skill with it hehe.

 

[Hoppa Joel]

I used to display cosmetically the Pibgorn on my RK & also love the sound on my minstrel because remind me archaic hand craft ​

flute. It was a nice consolation since i can't display my rune stone weapons cosmetically, when out of combat & doesn't clip with the cloak. For reasons i do not understand the devs dissable the option to display cosmetic instruments if you aren't wearing them as gear. ?

I created a hobbit minstrel that uses a brusque basoon which also, looks a bit like a katana sheath on his back, I always thought it was cool like that.

 

[Dugunthi]

( I really dont want bag-pipes, or clarinet in songs, just not my taste, though pibgorn, can be used in specific places, perfectly. )

A tip to make bagpipes better: add a monotonous drone in the background so it feels like a real bagpipe. http://castledangerous.com/reprtoir.htm has some good midis, though you need to transpose the drone up. Makes it much more enjoyable to use. Though here again the short-comings of the LOTRO music system are revealed. It absolutely can not deal with piobaireachd embellishments at all, you need some really simple bagpipe pieces.

Now that I got bagpipes they are definitely my go-to for battles! The theorbo samples sound too much like modern music, it's jarring.

 

[Mistlos]

The harp for me, definitely. Look-wise, the normal harp, specifically the Summer Celebration Harp. Tone-wise, the Misty Mountain/Summer Celebration Mountain Harp.

 

[Thanatos]

Drumms for fighting as minstrel because they are the most silent instruments.

 

[Gildoriel]

My minstrel currently uses the Lonely Mountain Bassoon (at least cosmetically).

(EDIT: Corrected a spelling error.)

 

[LadySaoirse52]

The Misty Mountain Harp/Gléowine's Harp is my favorite! I love the tone of it.

 

[Khaz]

I only play solo, so it's a tie between the Lute of Ages and the Basic Clarinet. I'm also very fond of the Lonely Mountain Fiddle and the Basic Flute, both of which I use for slower songs and the more largo adagio melodies.

 

[PO-TAY-TOE]

Depends mostly on the song I'm playing, but I find the Lute of Ages most versatile. I always imagine my minstrel not having the full range of instruments on them when they're travelling, so the lute fits most occasions.

I must admit I have a problem with fiddles though, the sound feels grating to me, unless they are part of an ensemble.

 

[Dornvald]

Lute, as in real life.

 

[Devolved]

COWBELL!!!!! [Bell of Slaying comes in second. ]
(It had to be said.)

When my Mini is out questiing, it's all about the Drumming.

Harp works best with the ABC's I have.

I gathered quite a pile of MIDI's when those were the thing. Maestro was great while it worked for me to make conversions & modifications, but started arguing with my system and died.

 

[Rheniogil]

When I both healed and dealt damage on my minstrel, I fought with theorbo (killer bass line, dude!) and healed with sexy, sexy horn. As much as I love the idea of War Pipes, the bagpipe samples used for combat animations all sound tragically sick and weak. What would it take to get better sound samples for those skill animations?

Musically...it's devilishly hard to choose a favorite, and my answer will be different in different situations. Boujee of Mushroom Stew really opened my eyes to the unrealized potential in Traveller's Trusty Fiddle and in the past couple years I've expanded my use of it. I love Lonely Mountain Fiddle unreasonably much (Summer Celebration fiddle, the white one, has the same voice) but to get a complete sound with both attack and sustain, I often have to pair it with Sprightly Fiddle on the same part. Sprightly is absolutely indispensible if you like Irish, Scots, Cape Breton or Bluegrass tunes - there is simply no other instrument for the jigs and reels! Basic Lute has a brighter, brassier sound than the gentler Lute of Ages; I tend to use Ages for rhythm and Basic for lead. (And horn for distorted guitar; I not only abhor the cheap artificial tone of Bardic Fiddle but at times actually find it painful and have to turn my volume way down.)

By the way, take it from a bodhrán (Irish frame drum) player IRL - you really can get a remarkable range of tones out of the drum you see in game. I can do on that one skin what it takes a kit drummer a whole rack of toms plus floor toms plus kick to do.