Mac Client - Music work-around

Return: Mac Client Music

Status as of Update 15.2.? March 2015 (Bullroarer)

Status as of Update 12.3 10 February 2014.

Music under the Mac client currently "works." - The note fixes all reproduce correctly; only the commands are still broken, as noted below.

It simply requires a bit of "Mac Knowledge" to understand what is necessary to make it work.

Music files go in

~/Library/Application Support/com.turbine.lotroclient/Music/

The /play command

The basic functionality works as expected if you know OSX.

/music

/play <songename> works as expected -- No need to specify "<songname>.abc"

The /playlist command

Status as of Update 15.2.? March 2015 - still broken

BUG: /playlist does NOT work. It always fails with the error:

No ABC files found matching "*".

/playlist /* works. Note that the character '/' is required.

Mac Tricks

Note that the "normal" OSX Filesystem is "Case Preserving," but "Case Insensitive."

Put another way

<songname>.abc -and-
<songname>.ABC

LOOK different in the finder, but are treated the same way by OSX.

The same is true of "AmazingGrace" and "amazinggrace"

BUG: The /play command is not processing "spaces" in the filename correctly!

Therefore a file named "FlowerofScotland.abc" will play as expected, but "Flower of Scotland.abc" fails.

However, in typical Unix fashion (OSX is based on Unix), if you "quote the string" it will play!

i.e. the command

/play "Flower of Scotland" works just as well as changing the filename to eliminate the spaces. (In this case, the quotation marks are required.)

Filename LENGTH does not seem to be an issue.
Nor is it necessary for the file to be "executable" -- simply readable.

Example of fix for "spaces" problem

"Princes of the Universe.abc" is an arbitrary ABC filename in your download directory.

A- Start with the file "Princes of the Universe.abc" in, your downloads folder. (Obtained from the fatlute.com or wherever. Or create your own .abc file.)

B- Open a finder window, select the "Go" pulldown and press the Alt (option) key.

Select "'Library"
Select "Application Support"
Select "com.turbine.lotro.client"
Select or create "Music" (or music)
Drag: "Princes of the Universe.abc" from your downloads folder to this folder (Music).
Fix one: RENAME: Princes of the Universe.abc to princes.abc

C- In game

type /music
type /play princes

D- Alternative Fix

type /music
type /play "Princes of the Universe"

After a brief pause, the song should begin playing.

Typical Problems creating a .abc file on the Mac

THE PROBLEM: The same thing is happening; /play seems to be seeing them as .txt files. I may have done something wrong when I saved them in TextEdit.

Answer: It is necessary to understand a number of aspects of OSX and "The Apple Way" to successfully create and save an ABC file. (Note that this is a very simple explanation and omits many options and "branching options." This is primarily a description of "how to use your Mac" -- it is written for the novice Mac user.)

First, the Application Program (app) - "TextEdit." This is the default "text editor" supplied by Apple along with OSX. TextEdit is integrated with "The Apple Way" -- Apple's definition of HOW you should do things. This is compounded by the existence of "iCloud," especially if you are subscribed to it. (You can use any text editor, such as TextWrangler from BareBones Software or Emacs distributed as part of OSX for Command line (Terminal) use. This explanation is directly related to using TextEdit.)

The first thing to recognize is with the Finder. By default, you are NOT shown the "extension" to the filename -- in this case either '.abc" or ".txt".

In Finder / Preferences, make certain that the first option "Show all filename extensions" is checked.

This will allow you to see the "extension" for any filename you are working with.

Music files need the extension - ".abc" NOT ".txt"

Next the thing to recognize is how TextEdit works (under Mountain Lion 10.8.3). Apple changed the way this process works between Lion and Mountain Lion, and it has generated a storm of protests from the community, as well as much confusion.
- When you first launch TextEdit from the dock (or the Applications folder of Finder) rather than by double clicking on an existing text file... you are presented with the iCloud file window. The default view is to display those files you have created or modified with TextEdit and stored in iCloud. (If you click "On My Mac" you will be presented with a typical finder window.) At the lower left corner of that iCloud window is the button "New Document" -- click that to begin.
- At this point you can simply enter text into the window.
- NEXT: when you go to save your work -- BUT ONLY THE VERY FIRST TIME -- using the "File/Save" pulldown entry or "cmd-s" -- you will be presented with a drop-down box: "untitled.txt". There are several important items in this box.
1. "Save As:" This is the name you want to save your work as -- in this case, call it "music\mysong.abc" -- You will need to reposition the cursor to eliminate the .txt portion of the default entry, as the default entry highlights only the "name." Note also that this is a "back-slash" "\" not a "forward-slash" "/"!
2. "Where:" This gets trickey! If you are iCloud enabled, the default is iCloud. You can select other locations using the drop-down -- Select "Desktop" or "Documents" everyone should have them by default, but as with most everything, that display can also be modified by external actions. Select either, (we will change the location in a moment) when you do so, you will note an expansion arrow activate next to the "Save As:" file above. Clicking that arrow will give you a Finder window and allow you to save the file anywhere on your system. (... except in ~/Library unless you have performed certain other actions previously -- which are not for this discussion at this time.) Historically, for the Windows Client, you would have selected "Documents/The Lord of the Rings On Line/Music." However, the Mac Client (ignoring the bug) stores them in ~/Library/Application Support/com.turbine.lotroclient. If you have "Library" "enabled" you can go directly to this location, and store your file there.
3. "Plain Text Encoding" -- the default entry: Unicode (UTF-8) is correct for a .abc file.
4. Immediately below that UNCHECK "If no extension is provided, use ."txt"."
5. Click save.

Now when you use the finder to navigate to the location where you stored that file, you should find the file "music\mysong.abc" if the file name is "music\mysong.abc.txt" -- go back and re-read step 1 "Save as" -- You did not reposition the cursor correctly.

To fix this using the finder, select the entry, click on the filename and "hover" the cursor over it.. in about 3 seconds, it will highlight and you can edit the name. Again You will need to reposition the cursor to eliminate the .txt portion of the default entry, as the default entry highlights the entire "name" and anything you type will replace the entire field. Note also that this is a "back-slash" "\" not a "forward-slash" "/"!

Next, follow the steps in the example above, and you should be happily playing your instrument!