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How to Use the Music Discs Reference

  1. Scan the table for a disc’s item id, its comparator signal strength when placed in a jukebox, and how it’s normally obtained.
  2. Use the comparator signal column if you’re building redstone that reacts to which disc is currently playing.
  3. Check the separate goat horn table below for the 8 real goat horn instrument item ids, a related but distinct musical item.

How Jukebox Comparator Signals Work

Every music disc has a fixed comparator signal strength from 1 to 15 – when a jukebox with that disc playing is read by a comparator, it outputs exactly that redstone strength, letting you build contraptions that detect or react to which specific disc is spinning (or that a jukebox is playing at all). This is a real, checkable game mechanic, not a cosmetic detail – most of the classic discs (13 through Wait/11) share incrementing signal values in their original release order, while some newer discs share a signal value with an older disc (for example, bounce and stal both output signal 8) since the signal range only spans 1-15 across a much larger total number of discs.

Obtain methods vary by disc generation: most of the original discs (13 through Wait, plus 11) come from an ultra-specific creeper-killed-by-skeleton-or-stray combat combo – a creeper has to die specifically to a skeleton or stray’s arrow (or vice versa isn’t quite right; the creeper must be the one that dies to the arrow) for a disc to drop. Newer discs branch out: Pigstep and Precipice come from ordinary loot chests, Otherside and Relic come from Ominous Vaults inside trial chambers (requiring an Ominous Trial Key, which itself requires the Bad Omen effect), Creator also comes from an Ominous Vault reward, while Creator (Music Box) is a rare drop from an ordinary trial chamber corridor pot – no vault or key needed. The rarest of all is Lava Chicken, which needs a baby zombie riding a chicken to be killed while still mounted (killing the zombie first is what matters – the chicken alone won’t drop it), and Tears, which drops from killing a ghast with its own fireball deflected back at it.

Always double-check exact chest and loot-table drop odds against the current wiki for your specific game version – loot tables get rebalanced between updates.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a music disc’s comparator signal actually let me build?

Since each disc outputs a distinct fixed strength (1-15) from a jukebox to an adjacent comparator, you can build redstone logic that reacts differently depending on exactly which disc is currently playing – for example, triggering different effects for different discs, or simply detecting that any disc is playing versus an empty jukebox (which outputs 0).

Do all the classic discs (13 through 11) drop the same way?

Yes – nearly all of them are rare drops from the specific combat interaction of a creeper being killed by a skeleton or stray’s arrow. The exceptions are the newer trial-chamber and specialty discs (Pigstep, Precipice, Otherside, Relic, Creator, Creator Music Box, Lava Chicken, Tears, Bounce), which each have their own distinct, unrelated obtain method.

What’s the hardest music disc to get?

Lava Chicken is widely considered the most fiddly – it requires killing a baby zombie specifically while it’s riding a chicken, and killing the zombie (not the chicken) is what triggers the drop, making it easy to miss by killing the mobs in the wrong order or separately.

Are goat horns the same kind of item as music discs?

No – goat horns are a separate item category (8 total instrument variants) played by using the item directly rather than placed in a jukebox, and they don’t have a comparator signal mechanic the way discs do.

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