Guild Wars 2

I asked a week back about how hard it would be for anet to make a Midi interface for the musical instruments. At the time I was working on a homebrewed midi interface that would work in Guildwars.

It does that by taking the midi keyboard input and simulating a PC keyboard. I added the ability for it to transpose different keys into C. Currently it works best for harp.

I’ve been performing live every night around 7 and 11pm EDT on dragonbrand’s Divinity’s Reach near the top floor bank.

I remember seeing a bit back a 1 key 1 action thing. The only part where I break that is octave management. I do have some limitations in it.

• No Key changes: I can’t change key out of C. lots of songs do that… this limitation is caused by the next one
• no “Black keys”. There are no half steps with exception of E-F and B-C. This prevents a large number of song keys from being played naturally.
• No accidentals, those one or two times that the composer hits a half step (Bflat in C key for example)
• Sometimes the octave change lags and I end up playing in the wrong octave. Playing on the edges of the range prevents this. Playing in the middle has the highest likelihood of it happening. It happens more with chords that cross the octave boundaries. Arpeggios and single notes don’t have issues.

I’d like to see ANET implement the black keys. Here’s a potential mapping for them:
Q = c#
W = D#
R = F#
T = G#
Y=A#

That’s enough and they could be mappable. Additionally other instruments should be transposed to C Major when possible. I know the flute is in E major while the harp, guitar, and bass are C major.

For the music!

they should release an instrument that’ll interface with a midi device.

Probably not as easy as that, but it’d be awesome nonetheless. I’d buy it, at least.

I’d love for them to do a midi instrument (like a keytar or small piano) but at least having the “black keys” would do wonders for the GW2 music scene.