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Gameplay: Live Midi/MML Music Instrument Playing
Comments
The closest I can think of using only the existing Mabi MML system involves patching the client in such a way so as to read the 'first' note played as 'Melody', the second as 'Harmony 1', the third as 'Harmony 2', and just disallow more than a 3-note polyphony - unless Fantastic Chorus is activated, in which case 4-note polyphony is possible (though using such skills would need a mandatory 'maximum' timer so people can't just play March Song indefinitely).
'Note velocity' output from the keyboard can then be cleanly translated into 'channel volume' and apply directly to a per-note basis, and instead of worrying about 'note length' in making instruments play back it just defaults to the longest note and uses 'channel volume' as an on/off. That is to say, you hit a note, it applies the approximate 'volume' and plays the longest note duration in MML, and when you let go, it tells the game to set the volume to '0'. Kinda like chiptunes in a way - but MML is linear IIRC and has to play each command in full before reading the next... so some sort of 'parallel notation' would have to be implemented for each track, otherwise it'd just set volume to '0' after the looooong note finishes playing.
In the 'Compose' window, there would also need to be some method for the client to automatically add 'rest' notation to make sure the notes line up approximately if you're using your keyboard to compose - this might be a bit more difficult due to the restrictions of how the MML notation works; since you've also got 'note length' and etc. to deal with instead of just a blind on/off trigger. It's not impossible though, it'd just be a bit rough to work with.
There's also the alternative of just a huge music system overhaul and replacing MML with actual MIDI. That might create a different entry barrier to beginner composers, but the benefits would outweigh the cost. Channel volume, note velocity, vibrato, note length, etc., and other automation would need to be implemented appropriately in Mabi. I think the game already uses a soundfont library for instruments, so it should be compatible already at least. Such an update could easily allow song scrolls to have 16 voices too - rr it could be limited to something smaller, like 4, or 8. 32- or 64-voice would be insane though, please don't do this. Unfortunately a switch to MIDI would also make older song scrolls unplayable and untranscribe-able, unless they keep the MML playback/composition system - maybe the compose window could have 'Classic' and 'Advanced' tabs, the former being MML and the latter being MIDI?
Anyway those are my thoughts on it! I definitely would love a 'live play' feature in Mabi, MML code just makes that pretty difficult without some custom implementations - switching to MIDI wholesale would be better for accomodating that kind of thing.
This is very well thought out indeed! I agree, maybe Mabinogi would have to upgrade the music system in the future and not just for live playing, but also for music scroll making.
Personally, I just find it really difficult making Mabinogi music for the game's piano (or maybe I just haven't figured it out, I've been away for 10 years lol!). For example, when I record something from my digital piano going into FL Studio to record something and convert it into midi, and that midi gets imported into 3MLE, suddenly there's like 7 or 8 tracks when all I really used was a piano. If I try to force it all into just one track, then the music sounds lacking as if it's just the melody (or part of it). Stringed instruments are mostly easy due to their nature of not requiring chords or bass lines, but when you're a pianist, you play both melody and the chords/bass lines, and music scrolls just can't seem to provide enough "space" for the notes to be put in.
I think one of the problems is that the music system for some reason, thought that the chords, bass, harmony, should have a lower limit than the melody itself. Aside from that, I think the default 1000+ character or note limit is very restrictive when it comes to having fun with music in Mabinogi. Sure there are quite a few songs that might fit, especially slow ones that are around a minute or two in length, but a lot of real life songs are 4 minutes and 30 seconds or something around that number. Then of course there's classical music and jazz, which can have thousands of notes within a very short time frame. I heard you can use the Scroll of Jabroni or whatever it is which lets you use three different music scrolls in succession, thus prolonging the usual limitations of the music system, but I haven't finished that part of the game yet.
Anyway, the ability to play music is definitely one of the things I love in this game so I hope the developers would indeed upgrade or perform an overhaul of this beloved system
Here's a little video I made earlier when I tried putting my piano recording into Mabinogi. It's there but it's missing so many sounds haha
would be cool if we got something similar to this in mabi. so a feature like this is definitely possible and I believe adding this would greatly improve our bard system, the big question is would a ancient game like mabi be able to handle it or would it lag and have to many problems to work properly.
How many voices does the virtual instrument have?