Hearthsong

Light a campfire. Pull up a seat. Play together.

Hearthsong turns your party into a campfire band. Up to five players each take a seat, pick an instrument and a riff, and the whole band plays together in time. You don't need to know any music: every riff follows the song's chords, so whatever you pick sounds right. Players standing nearby who also have Hearthsong hear the music too, so your fire becomes a little concert.

How it works

1. Form a party and type /hs (or click the minimap button).
2. One player clicks Light the fire. They become the host.
3. Everyone picks a seat and clicks Sit here. First come, first served, one seat each.
4. Pick your instrument and a riff card. That's it, you're in the band.

The host picks the Sound, the Song and the Tempo for everyone. Anyone else can click those too, which sends the host a suggestion.

The band

Every Sound has five seats, each with two instruments to choose from:

• Melody: the tune on top
• Strings / Guitar: strums, picking and plucked patterns
• Chords / Keys: the harmony underneath
• Bass: the low end
• Rhythm: a drum kit where you choose the sound of each drum (high, middle and low)

Six songs

Pop, Rock, Jazz, Country, Tavern and Epic. Each has its own four-chord progression, tempo and feel: Jazz and Tavern swing, Country shuffles, Epic marches. The chord coins at the top of the window light up as the band moves through them.

Tempo: keep the song's own tempo or pick one of six set speeds: 90 (Slow), 100, 110, 120, 135 or 150 (Driving).

Riff cards

Every instrument has its own riff cards: strums, arpeggios, walking bass lines, fanfares, drum grooves and more. Each seat shows 8 cards: 6 that suit any song, plus 2 picks for the current song (marked with a little flame). Not sure what to play? Hit Surprise me.

Drum cards can change the kit too. "Bells on 1 and 3" swaps in the tubular bells, for example. Some percussion (glockenspiel, marimba, tubular bells, temple bells) is tuned and plays notes from the current chord.

Write your own riffs

The Tweak tab is a step sequencer for your seat: click the chart to place notes (whole, half, quarter, eighth or sixteenth), click a note to remove it. Everyone at the fire hears your changes right away. Name your riff and Save to My riffs. Saved riffs are kept with your account and work on any instrument (drum riffs on any drum seat).

Play for the whole camp

• Nearby players hear your jam. Anyone within about 60 yards who has Hearthsong hears the band automatically, even if they're not in your party. Walk away and the music fades out.
• Find the music. When a fire is lit within 300 yards, the minimap button moves onto the minimap and points the way to it.
• Everyone stays in time. Each player's game times its beat to the host's, so the whole band lines up, even for listeners.
• Solo this seat lets you hear just one instrument while you learn a part. It only changes what you hear.

Sound packs

Hearthsong comes with the Acoustic Sound built in. Five more Sounds are separate, optional downloads, so you only install what you want:

Don't have a pack someone else is using? No problem: you hear the same riffs played on the Acoustic instruments, so you're never left out. Packs you don't have show greyed out in the window.

Install a pack the same way as Hearthsong (it's a separate addon in its own folder, e.g. Hearthsong_Orchestra). Restart WoW completely after installing: the game only finds new sound files when it starts.

Settings

Right-click the minimap button (or type /hs settings) to change:

• How close you need to be to hear a fire, and how far away the minimap button looks for one
• Hearing nearby jams on or off, and sharing your own jam with nearby players on or off
• Minimap pointing on or off, or hide the button
• Tooltips on or off, and how long they wait before showing
• Which sound channel the music plays on (Master, SFX, Music, Ambience, Dialog)

Commands

Good to know

• Everyone who plays or listens needs Hearthsong, and the same version, since jams only connect between matching versions.
• If you play with two WoW windows side by side, tick Settings > Audio > Sound in Background, or the window you're not using goes silent.
• Music plays from your own game, so it costs nothing extra on the network: players only share which riffs they picked.

Credits

Every sample was trimmed, retuned and levelled for Hearthsong.

• Versilian Community Sample Library (VCSL), public domain (CC0): Folk instruments, Tenor Sax, Guzheng, Temple Bells, and most of the percussion
• VSCO 2 Community Edition by Versilian Studios, public domain (CC0): Muted Trumpet, Tubular Bells, Glockenspiel
• Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra (Mattias Westlund and contributors), Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0: Trumpets, Horns, Marimba (University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios recordings)
• Fluid R3 GM soundfont by Frank Wen, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0: the remaining instruments

Made by: Iro. Found a bug or have an idea for a riff? Leave a comment. I'd love to hear what your band sounds like.