Here, I will teach you everything you need to know to use the four methods to play music in Rust:
1.) Your computer's keyboard (Press R to open up this mode)
2.) MIDI instruments like MIDI drums or MIDI keyboards
3.) MIDI software like Rustissimo or MIDI Player/Loop MIDI
4.) The Rust console itself. (Pressing f1 will open console)

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1.). Using your computer's keyboard or mouse:

1.) This is the most basic and simple method for making sounds. You can Left Click your mouse to play the default (middle A=440hz) note or Right Click and hold your mouse to play a default ditty.

You can get creative with holding Right Click for a few seconds and then tapping Left Click a few times in different amounts to make some funny sounding remixes.

2.) Pressing R will put a green box around your screen, showing you that you are in Play mode.

Play mode means anytime you press a letter or number on your keyboard, it will send a MIDI signal as if you played a note on a piano. The notes arent perfectly setup and I honestly dont even know the logic behind their default settings, but this is not a perfect way to play because notes are missing.

On the piano, there are only 12 individual notes, and then as you go higher, they get repeated at higher octaves. The notes are A, A# (# = sharp - which means a half step above), B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G# and then youre back to A, but at double the frequency.

In Rust, I think there are only 8 notes in the scale, so 4 of the notes are missing, which means you cant play all the notes of many song melodies. You can re-program them in your settings however, and make it work, but I havent done this since I have a real piano and dont really need to use this method, but you can test this out and set each one up in a logical way.

My recommendation would be something like:
SD GHJ
ZXCVBNM

Where Z=A, S=A#, X=B, D=B#, C=C (nice), V=D, G=D#, B=E, H=F, N=F#, J=G, M=G#

So to make this more clear, if you look at an image of a piano - the white keys are the ZXCVBNM and the black keys are SD GHJ. (Its a bit complicated, but I hope that helps a little.)


2.) MIDI instruments: (real instruments)

To play music using real instruments, simply plug in your MIDI instrument into your computer via USB. I use an M-Audio Keystation 88 and a Simmons 350 Electronic Drums connected by USB.

In the Rust Menu, go to Options>Controls and make sure your "MIDI INPUT" is turned to On. If you want to use a Sustain Pedal which I highly recommend for Piano if you have one, goto Options>Experimental and select SUSTAIN PEDAL SUPPORT.


3.) MIDI player software: (MIDI Player/Loop MIDI or Rustissimo)

MIDI Player/Loop MIDI:

To play music using a 3rd party program (completely legal and widely used), the suggested software is a combination of both MIDI Player and Loop MIDI. MIDI Player acts like a typical media player, and Loop MIDI takes the MIDI signal from MIDI Player and ports it into Rust.

Get more information at the Rust MIDI website:
Rust MIDI website[www.rustmidi.com]

You can find information on the Download page explaining how to get MIDI Player/Loop MIDI as well as an option to download the free 5250+ song MIDI pack.

Step 1 - Open Loop MIDI first and all you ever have to do here is create one track at the bottom right. Type 'Rust' in the bottom right, and then click the + bottom on the bottom left to add a new port. It doesn't matter what you name it, as long as you can recall it later. Using the default name is fine.

Thats it for Loop MIDI. Keep it open while you play music.

Step 2 - Open MIDI Player and go into Settings at the top left 'Cog Wheel' and change only the top section called MIDI Out:
Make sure both 'Use Midi Mapper' is unchecked & Use Bass (Soundfonts/VSTi) are both unchecked.
Output Port: Whatever you named your port to in Loop MIDI.

Thats it!

Now, click and drag a MIDI (.mid) file from your music folder and double click the file in your MIDI Player playlist to begin playing the song. Make sure you are sitting at your instrument or holding your instrument in Rust and it should begin moving and playing the notes of the song.

Every once in awhile, your Loop MIDI program bugs out when you open it the next time, and it doesnt remember your old Loop MIDI port, so simply create a new port with default name and then instantly delete it from the list (leaving only your original port still left), and somehow magically your Rust port will be recognized in the MIDI Player settings once again so you can select it in the Output Port pull-down menu in MIDI Player.

Reminder: You never need to change any settings in MIDI Player other than making sure the top 2 boxes are unchecked and selecting the port you created in the top most pull down bar. And you must open Loop MIDI first so that when you open MIDI Player next, it can read your open port, otherwise youll have to close the player and open Loop MIDI first.

Rustissimo:

The recommended program for playing MIDI files with more than one person simultaneously is a program on Steam called Rustissimo which also works similar to MIDI Player except it can connect multiple players together to play different instrument parts of the same song.

Download the free version or pay for the full version of Rustissimo, and the setup is similar to with the previous example. Open Loop MIDI and then Rustissimo, go to the Settings Cog wheel on the top right and select Rust or whatever you named your port in Loop MIDI.

You can create your own concert if you have the MIDI files, or you can join a friends concert who has already set one up, or you can setup Quick Concerts which is like your regular music playlist that will start/stop song.

Disclaimer: I have actually not gotten this to work yet with multiple attempts over the last few years, but have heard other people can do it so I wanted to share. I've been creating music using MIDI instruments and Digital Audio Workspaces for over 20 years, so the fact that I cant get this to work after trying with multiple musician Rust player friends is concerning. But I wanted to share it anyway because it works for some apparently.

4.) Using Rust F1 Console:

Using the console is simple and easy, and is a built-in system to play music in Rust.

First, you'll want to locate your Rust 'instruments' folder to store your MIDI Files. Navigate to your Rust folder. The easiest way I would recommend is to Right Click your Rust game in your Steam Library, click Properties, and then go to Open Source Folder or whatever it's called, and it will take you to your Rust folder.

Within that, there is a folder called 'instruments' in the root of Rust folder. If not, create it.

This is where you must keep the MIDI files you wish to play using the console. It's also recommended to rename your MIDIs to one simple word instead of having spaces because using spaces in console requires " " and that can complicate things when you want to just quickly type in a song. So usually people rename their songs like (Bohemian Rhapsody) 'bohrap' or (Save Your Tears) 'savetears'

(no '/' required or allowed for console commands)
The commands for playing/stopping a song is:
instruments.playrecording [filename]
instruments.stoprecording [filename]


The keybind for it is:
bind n instruments.playrecording [filename]

Note: Do not write '.mid' or '.midi' after the song in the console. It already expects MIDI format.
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The first step is setting up the controls for your drums. Rust by default doesn't have the Left and Right hands setup for proper animations (it uses your right hand for everything and your left hand sits idle) so we need to change the controls to fix that. You have the ability to program two keys for each instrument to be able to play fast parts, just as if you were using 2 hands to play the drums.

In my setup, I have the snare drum programmed twice for L and R hands, the bass drum setup for L and R feet (only right foot animation) and the hi-hat setup for L and R hands, while the rest of the instruments are all setup with one key per instrument for the R hand like cymbals and 3 toms. Its the best/most realistic setup you can do with a 10 key Numberpad.

Here is a list of what controls you should set to your drum set. You'll find these in Options>Controls and scroll down towards the bottom section called Instruments.

This setup is ergonomically laid out so that its easy for two hands to use and your fingers wont trip over each other so much while playing sick drum beats.

A Note - Floor tom [1]
A#Note - Closed hi-hat R hand [+]
G Note - 2nd tom [4]
G#Note - Snare drum right hand [.]
C Note - Bass drum 1 [2]
C#Note - Bass drum 2 [3]
D note - Snare drum left hand [5]
D#Note - Snare weird patter sound [0]
E Note - Closed hi-hat L hand [6]
E#Note - Loose hi-hat [8]
F Note - Small tom [9]
F#Note - Cowbell [enter]
B Note - Ride cymbal [7]
B#Note - Crash cymbal [9]
If your drum sounds don't play, make sure to try pressing the [num lk] key (Number lock on the right side of your keyboard on the keypad) which you will accidentally bump occasionally while playing.