Musician

Hear and play music with nearby players. For the first time in World of Warcraft, your character can literally become a bard!

Join our Discord server (EN/FR) and our Battle.net group for help, bug reports, good music and more!

Download the optional module MusicianList to add in-game loading and saving features.

Un Guide en français est également disponible. 🇫🇷🥖🍷

Musician is also available for WoW Classic, be sure to install the right version of the add-on.

tl;dr

Left-click on the minimap button to open the main menu.

Type /mus help in the chat window to get the command list.

How to listen to music

All you need is to have the add-on installed. Nothing more is required.

• Enable nameplates with SHIFT+V (or from the add-on options) to see cool animations on characters playing music and show a 🎵 next to the name of your fellow music addicts.
• To mute a player, right-click on his/her name or portrait to open the menu then select Mute. Do the same to unmute.
• You can also just stop the song being played by clicking the [Stop] hyperlink in the player's emote.
• Right click on the minimap button to enable or disable all the music from the add-on.

How to play music

Musician plays music files in MIDI format. MIDI files have a .mid, .midi or .kar extension and do not contain any sound like MP3s, but a sequence of notes. This is why a MIDI file sounds differently according to the software or musical instrument it's played on.

You can find millions of MIDI files very easily by searching for MIDI + music genre/title/etc. on Google. I also made a selection of cool music files you can try with the add-on.

How to play a song

1. Open the MIDI import tool located at musician.lenwe.io/import in your web browser. (You can also find the import tool in the Interface/AddOns/Musician/MidiConvert folder.)
2. Drag and drop a MIDI file.
3. Copy the generated music code by clicking the Copy button.
4. Back in WoW, left-click on the minimap button to open the main menu then choose Import and play a song to open the main window (or type /music).
5. Click the Select all button then paste the music code in the edit window (Ctrl+V or CMD+V on Mac).
6. Click Play.

Save and load songs in game

Songs can be saved and loaded back in game using the optional add-on MusicianList.

Play as a band

Songs can be played in sync as a band, in which each member is playing a different part.

To allow synchronized play, all band members should be grouped in the same party or raid.

1. Load the same song as the other members of the band from MIDI of from the list.
2. Open the Song Editor then check Solo for the tracks you want to play with your character. Adjust other track settings as you like.
3. Click the Play as a band button  when you're done (the green LED starts blinking).
4. When every member is ready, the band leader clicks the Play button for synchronized start (the green LED turns on).
5. Song stops playing if the band leader clicks the Stop button.

Remarks:

• The song should be loaded from the same MIDI file to work.
• Mouse over the Play as a band button to check which members of the band are ready.
• Each band member can do all the changes they want in the Song Editor, except changing the start and end points that would result in being out of sync.
• Keep in mind that the overall polyphony is limited and is shared among all the members of the band.

Play live

Live Mode literally turns your computer keyboard into a piano.

Click Open keyboard in the main menu or type /mus live to open the live keyboard.

Configure the keyboard

Before using the keyboard for the first time, you have configure it to determine its physical layout.

This process is straightforward and takes approximately 30 seconds to complete, just follow the on-screen instructions.

The live keyboard

The live keyboard consists in two layers, Upper and Lower, respectively the two first and two last rows of your keyboard (or the right and left side, depending on the layout used). Each layer has its own instrument setting so 2 different instruments can be played at the same time or the same instrument can be set to both layers to take advantage of the full keyboard.

Various keyboard layouts are available, including simplified ones with limited notes but a wider range of keys.

In Live Mode, the other players hear you playing while in Solo Mode, you play for yourself. In Live Mode, keep in mind that if you hear the sound playing instantly at the press of the key, the other players will hear it after a slight delay of approximately 2 seconds.

The keyboard settings can be saved in 12 program slots, accessible using the 12 Function keys:

• Press the Function key to load a program.
• Press Ctrl (or Shift on Mac) + the Function key to save the current settings in a program.
• Press Delete + the Function key to erase a program.

Play as a band

It's possible to play as a band in Live Mode. All the members of the band should be grouped in the same party or raid.

Click the Play live as a band button  on the live keyboard window to turn on the synchronization. In counterpart, this may result in some latency so you won't be able to play fast paced songs in this mode.

Use the Solo Mode if you need to do some adjustments you don't want the other members of the band to hear.

Enable nameplates to see who is playing what.

Play with a MIDI keyboard

There is no support for MIDI keyboards in World of Warcraft. However, it's possible to emulate keystrokes with a MIDI keyboard using third party software. Check out this tutorial to learn how to do this.

Song editor

Some basic modifications can be made to the imported song in the song editor, which is accessible from the Edit button or the main menu:

• Set start and end points, to use a part of the song
• Mute and solo tracks
• Change track instruments
• Transpose tracks

The song editor also shows some information about the tracks (MIDI instrument, start and end points, number of notes...) and the activity while the song is playing.

You can still change the track settings of the song currently playing by clicking the Synchronize track settings button , as long as you have the same song loaded in the editor.

Cross-faction play

Cross-faction (and cross-realm) music can be achieved through the Cross RP add-on by Tammya-MoonGuard.

This add-on is very straightforward, just install it and it works!

Cross RP relies on a peer to peer network established by the players who run it so the faction/realm you want to play with may not be always reachable. Feel free to encourage other players to install Cross RP and expand the network!

You can see what realms and factions you're connected to in Musician's options or by mousing over the Cross RP minimap button.

Cross-faction play is not available on WoW Classic.

Integration with role-playing add-ons

Musician integrates with role-playing add-ons Total RP and MyRolePlay to benefit from some of their features, such as roleplay character names and tooltips.

Total RP's map scan feature shows players who also have Musician with a 🎵 icon. The icon blinks for players who are currently playing music.

Tips

• You can preview the song at any moment prior to playing it for other players by clicking the Preview button or using the song editor. If another song is playing nearby, it will be muted for you only.
• If another player has Musician, it will be shown in his/her tooltip. Just hover the other players with your mouse cursor to see who can hear you!
• You can add lyrics by combining Musician with the StoryTeller add-on!
• Load the next song while the current one is playing to reduce waiting time between songs.
• The radius for hearing the music is approximately 40 meters.
• Play songs that are relevant with your "band" composition. It's nonsense to play orchestral music with only two bards ! 😃 However you can still role-play as if your character owns a kind of gnomish Music-o-Matic jukebox machine that is capable of reproducing a whole band.
• A text emote is shown to the players who don't have Musician when you play a song. You can disable this emote in the add-on options.
• Nameplates animations and icons are compatible with the most popular nameplate add-ons (KuiNameplates, Plater, ElvUI...).

Compose your own music

You can compose music for Musician using any MIDI sequencer such as MidiEditor (free and cross-platform).

The 16 instruments available are:

• Bagpipe (109)
• Bassoon (70)
• Cello (42)
• Clarinet (71)
• Dulcimer (15)
• Male voice (52 Choir Aahs)
• Female voice (53 Voice Oohs)
• Fiddle (110)
• Harp (46)
• Lute (24 Acoustic guitar)
• Recorder (74)
• Trombone (57)
• Trumpet (56)

And also:

• Distorsion guitar (29)
• Clean Guitar (27)
• Bass guitar (33 Fingered bass)

The other instruments are mapped to the closest-sounding instrument among the 16 available (violin → fiddle, piano → dulcimer, guitar → lute etc.).

The drum kits are replaced by traditional percussions such as a bodhrán (frame drum), a tambourine and a shaker. A standard drum kit is also available for heavy metal songs.

Check the full mapping in Musician.MidiMapping.lua for details.

Unfortunately, due to limitations of the WoW UI, velocity and controls (volume, padding, pitch bend, modulation...) are not supported. The polypohony is roughly 12 notes.

Limitations and known issues

Here is a summary of the problems you may encounter:

• There is no support for velocity and modulation. This is actually not possible with the WoW UI.
• Wait for the preloading process to complete before playing to ensure good conditions.
• Sound latency may be experienced with the live keyboard on Windows, depending on your sound card model and drivers.
• Music playing relies on the refresh rate of the screen so stuttering may occur on slower computers. Adjust your settings to maintain a framerate above 30 FPS for good results.
• The polyphony is limited, some notes may drop if there are too many playing at the same time.
• Songs having an overly high note rate may stutter.
• Clipping may occur for some songs if you have all your volume settings maxed out. Just reduce in-game volume to avoid this.
• Play as a band features do not work with trial accounts in raid mode.