GDPR#2569513
1. That depends on what you play and what kinds of sounds you prefer. I alternate between Lute of Ages, Clarinet, and Lonely Mountain fiddle, with a very strong preference for the lute of these three. A lot of solo bards in-game seem to gravitate to the lute, with the clarinet and/or fiddle as their second choice. (These are also the ones that most classes can learn without mentoring from a bard, so there's some natural selection going on there as well.
2. Assuming you don't want to create abc files yourself, yes, there are a few collections you can download. There's at least one linked in the pinned posted in #player-music-and-bands in our Discord server. There are also some uploaded to the File Library here (behind Gallery in the forum menu bar), look for zip archives with "music" in the file name.
3. This again depends a lot on the song. One of the (few!) shortcomings of the lute, that caused me to branch out a bit, is that it can't hold long notes for very long at all. So I created one with lots of long notes for the clarinet instead. It still sounds like the same song if I play it on the lute... it just doesn't sound as good.
Solo music is awesome and fun and rewarding. Keep the questions coming!
Mostly of what Khaz had to say. A lot of the time you can interchange plucked instruments like lute, harp, mm harp, tt fiddle and the song will work, but have a different feel to it. I have heard some really excellent clarinet solos, flute and lm fiddle as well.
Just a note, if you don't have a Lonely Mountain fiddle, the white Summer Celebration fiddle from midsummer festival has the same sound so you could pick one up now :) The rest of the snazzy looking instruments have the same sound as their basic counterparts, as far as I know.
I can confirm that the Midsummer Festival Lute and Clarinet both sound like their respective Basic <instrument name> counterparts.
I haven't collected any of the others.
All the Midsummer instruments are skins. All the Midsummer instruments are Basic versions of the instruments, with the single exception of the Midsummer Fiddle, which is a white skin over the Lonely Mountain Fiddle.
I did the research myself using solo abcs with two alts on my two identical twin laptops, and having one alt play the normal instrument and another alt play the Midsummer instruments in a separate location, took a few tries, but hitting play on both at the same time, and I could hear zero difference, tonally or otherwise.
If you want to experiment with Lonely Mountain Fiddle (beautiful sustained notes), Sprightly Fiddle (excellent for jigs and reels!), Traveler's Trusty Fiddle (pizzicato), Lonely Mountain Bassoon, and/or Brusque Bassoon - they're only available at festivals, but I have many stored in my house chest open to all kinfolk for Just Such An Occasion!
My house is at 1 Garden Street, Bronshaw, Bree-land. There's a premium Universal Ingredient Pack crate there too, so help yourself.
Here's the Discord post with my zip file of solos to share: Rhen's Solos
Rheniogil the Lutenist, The Rakes of Kilkarill
(I have nothing useful to say. Others have already given good responses.)
1) For playing solo, do some instruments sound better than others? Clearer perhaps??
Anything sounds better than Pibgorn.
2) Is there a collection of songs that would be good to play solo?
Anything is fine if ‘solo’ means no one else is in the room.
3) Are songs created for a particular instrument? For example, a song played on a lute sounds great but terrible on a flute?
Yes and no. Generally, a simple melody line arranged for one instrument will sound fine on another. But, if it has sustained notes or chords (simultaneous notes), it might not work well on an instrument that doesn't handle it well. Other than that, just give it a listen to see if some notes fall outside of your chosen instrument’s “sweet” range.
I'm not as prolific as Pontin, but I have a couple dozen solo pieces made, mostly for Lute. I did make it a point to make solo pieces for nearly every instrument though, as certain songs lend themselves better to certain instruments. Enya's Caribbean Blues needs a Harp. Henry Purcell's Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary (A Clockwork Orange Theme) uses Bassoon. Twilight Zone on Theorbo. And Perr has a dozen one minute long drum solos taken from Drumline Cadences.
Halg will thank me...I made zero Pibby solos...
Everything Luven said, its good to make tunes for various instruments, and its what I do cause some songs sound really good on one instrument but not so much others, I'm picky about sound and quality only keep what i like, I do tend toss out quite a few midi files just cause I don't like sound as ABC solo.
I would like to one day find something cowbell solo, yet to find anything that works for me, only instrument I will never do solo is Pibgorn my ears hate the sound of it, so to me a Pibgorn is only useful for firewood.
to me a Pibgorn is only useful for firewood.
And this is why Pontin is our Leader.
Rheniogil the Lutenist, The Rakes of Kilkarill