About Instruments

So I'm super excited about the instrument system, but I'm wondering. Would it be possible to write a program that takes MP3s or OGGs or what-ever-the-audiophiles-are-freaking-overs and converts them to ABC notation (I think that's what the system was called) to make them playable in Starbound?

 

Quickly found this thread on the LOTRO forums: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showth...e-know-file-conversions-of-mp3-to-midi-to-abc

Seems it can't really work that way. I think it's much easier to try and convert midi files.

 

For some, more simple songs, it is possible to convert mp3s to midi(and then midi to abc) but for the most part you just get a mess of random notes and whatnot because it's impossible for pretty much any conversion program to accurately detect the subtleties and various layers of the song.

Edit- The posts in Molly's link explain it better

 

Thanks for the explanation, Molly!
Seems like if you'd want to do this you'd have to single out each instrument in the song, then convert that to midi, then ABC. Then have each person play each different instrument at the same time.
It would be a lot of work to put together but it would make for a cool youtube video or something.

 

Isn't ABC notation just a string of letters that are the notes/strings/etc you play on the instrument?
All you'd have to do is look up the sheet music and bada bing, bada boom, ABC notation.(more or less)

 

But then I'd have to learn how to read sheet music. Silly person.

 

Or you could search: ABC Notation ________(Song name+Instrument)

 

Changing MP3 to midi is nearly impossible to pull off perfectly.

What you need is a program like Musescore that lets you type in sheet music that it plays as a midi, then take that midi and drop it in a program like Easy ABC which converts it to ABC notation text

You don't need to know how to read music, just be able to copy it over to Musescore. Funny thing is, spend a little time playing with programs like that and you suddenly begin to see the music in the notes

 

I personally prefer FL studio due to it's ease of use and the fact that it's method of composition is more direct in my opinion than standard notation(of course, I'm not used to using it very often)- although I've never used the export as midi functionality so I'm not sure how well it works, and there's certain things that you can do in there that I don't know if midi is capable of recognizing(yet another format I rarely use)

Alternately, if you know how to play, you could get a midi keyboard(or other midi instrument) and midi recording software and then convert that to ABC.

 

Are there songs already coded in the game so that we don't have to convert a song just so that we can play an instrument?