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[Kat]

So, I have numerous temples and a tavern and so on. Now, I want to make, build, and use, musical instruments.

So how do I go about this ? I know about making instruments and instrument pieces and assembling instruments.

But how then do I use them in the temples & tavern ?

If I build some of the large stationary musical instruments, does it matter where I place them in the temple or tavern ? (as long as the dance floor is big enough)

There seems to be multiple stationary musical instruments of type "keyboard" in my game. Does it matter if I only build one type of keyboard instrument ? There's 4 kinds of instrument - keyboard, string, percussion, wind - should I have a set of one of each where possible ?

[vjek]

From what I've seen..

Once assembled/created, and the appropriate box/container is built, placed, and configured within the Tavern, the instruments should be stored inside the container (if they fit, normally they do).
Then the patrons will use those respective tavern stored instruments in place of pretending to make the sound of it.
In short, if you have instruments, they'll use them.  If you don't, they'll fake it.

However.. Not all songs, dances, or similar use the same instruments.  In fact, the appropriate instrument can apparently vary within a race, by civ.  So, for example, (using entirely random examples) one Dwarven Civ might require a Tuba for their square dance, while another Dwarven Civ, in the same world, might require a Flute for their round dances.
Or a 6 stage bagpipe made of forgotten beast leather and fire clay tubes.  Whichever.

An examination of the songs & dances they know (and/or are good at) often will reveal what the instrument they might desire could be.

[PatrikLundell]

As vjek said, each piece of music specifies exactly the instruments to use (although the numbers of each instrument can be flexible), and nothing else will do, so if it's not available (or not picked up) they simulate the instrument.
Dances are referring to music for the sound part, and thus are subjected to the same rules as music when it comes to instruments.

Each civ generates its own set of instruments so there are a lot of them, and, to add insult to injury, most of the music migrants know comes from other civs, and thus use instruments you can only get through trade (in the very lucky case that the music is from one of the few trading partner civs) or raiding, plus the random instruments brought in by performers (instruments you may actively or passively relieve them of, through theft or dirt naps).

[Kat]

Hmm.

Well, I seem to have 17 native instrument types, 6 of which are stationary.

Remind me of the dance floor sizes that are necessary ? Temple is 5x5 minimum, what about the tavern ?

And if I build the static instruments, does it matter where I build them ? Like, as long as they leave the dance floor clear, does it matter if they're not all next to each other ?

[feelotraveller]

Some dances require bigger spaces,  In my experience 10x10 is sufficient for the largest of them both in the temple and the tavern.  I've always just built the static instruments in the location without regard for any other consideration and never had any problem.  Of course overseer aesthetics are another consideration. 

[Mobbstar]

I've always just built the static instruments in the location without regard for any other consideration and never had any problem.

Can you confirm if dwarves actually use the static instruments?  Some people discussed never having seen them get used, and though I myself don't always build a tavern or temple, the few times I've had music did not involve large instruments (not "simulated" ones either).

[Moeteru]

It has been a while since I've played, but I'm about 90% sure I've seen stationary instruments being played in my tavern.
To get a good idea of what instruments your dwarves would like, keep a look out for dwarves with "simulate [instrument]" jobs. Sometimes your civ knows how to build an instrument but none of your dwarves know any music which uses it.

[brewer bob]

If I build some of the large stationary musical instruments, does it matter where I place them in the temple or tavern ?

I don't think it matters in Fort mode, but if there's "not enough space", you won't be able to use them in Adventure mode. Had this happen when I visited a retired fort with an adventurer. It was a bit unclear how much space would've been enough (I think the instrument was at the edge of a 7x3 dance floor, but it's been a while, so I might remember wrong).

[Thisfox]

To get the largest chance of the instrument being used, you should place every instrument you can. I still haven't had much luck getting a stationary instrument used, but we had a set of stone panpipes that were very popular once, everyone played the damn things. I've made a few gamelan (soooo many parts!), but so far not one of them has ever been used.

Current fort doesn't have a gamelan, but it uses single huge stationary bells. They are installed.... and not in use. I've even installed some of them in a temple, seemed appropriate. The humans have been selling us amazing stringed instruments made with spoiler-origin silk strings. Those are also installed in a tavern, and also not in use.... Maybe I should find out if anyone wants some panpipes.

I do wish we could invent instruments, like we can invent images when we're decorating furniture with gemstones. But I guess no one would play those instruments either.

[PatrikLundell]

In order for player designed instruments to be usable the underlying system would have to change such that instruments would belong to categories within which one instrument could be replaced with another, although it would probably be a bit crude, as real world instruments aren't 1:1 replaceable, but rather parts of one instruments functionality is replaceable by one instrument, which another part is better replaced by another (akin to how words in different languages don't really match up, and thus aren't suitable for 1:1 replacement).

[feelotraveller]

Can you confirm if dwarves actually use the static instruments?  Some people discussed never having seen them get used, and though I myself don't always build a tavern or temple, the few times I've had music did not involve large instruments (not "simulated" ones either).

I have seen dwarfs using static instruments in fortress mode. 

If the instrument is one for dances the dwarfs don't know then it will never get used by them (I guess a travelling performer/visitor might use it eventually).  Dances use specific instruments so a static instrument not being used for a given dance it doesn't mean that it's broken.  If a dwarf was simulating a specific instrument rather than using the built version that would indicate something untoward happening, but I haven't really looked for that since I've not noticed a problem...

[Kat]

is there anything in dfHack, or legends viewer, or any other tool, that can provide a list of instruments available to you ?

Or do I just have to go through all the instruments and write down the names ?

[PatrikLundell]

I'm not aware of any script written for that purpose, although it should be possible to write one. Each civ ought to have a list of the instruments belonging to it, so it should be possible to go through that list.

The manual method is to go through every workshop capable of producing instrument parts and note the names. All instruments containing more than a single part are assembled in the craftdwarf shop, but the single piece ones are visible only in the workshops that produce them.

Obviously, you should be able to do it manually using gui/gm-editor. "Obviously" since it's a tool that allows you to look at all mapped data structures in DF, and thus you can get at essentially any piece of info a script can reach.

[vjek]

unit.status.current_soul.performance_skills.musical_instruments can have entries
a.k.a. vector<unit_instrument_skill*> in gui/gm-editor

I suspect there is a way to iterate through each civ and gather that list.

EDIT:
Possible ID values for that unit_instrument_skill[0].id field are:
itemdef_instrumentst
item_instrumentst
building_instrumentst

and the itemdef_instrumentst entry I looked at has a civ reference within the entry (source_enid, ref-target: historical_entity), and the .name of the instrument.

[PatrikLundell]

The vector in the individual contains the instruments that individual is proficient with, and shouldn't care about which civs those instruments belong to. Going through what your dorfs know is likely to still fail to uncover some of your civ's instruments.

Another non tool way to find instruments would be to perform the check on the embark screen, with my primary target being to see what instruments you can make the dorfs proficient with, and if that option doesn't exist, I'd turn to the selection of stuff to bring on embark, which should include all instruments (and their parts, but that would just be redundant clutter).