As for an Ear Trumpet pilot tool being OP or whatever and being "meta, mundane, and predictable".... we have the spyglass right now. That is it. If you are pilot, you don't take it. If you are crew, you do take it. There is nothing else valid to take. I don't see how adding a tool would make this slot MORE "meta, mundane, and predictable". If you think about it like a navigation tool, the non-pilot crew have two tools by default: Spyglass and Drums.
If drums became a tool, there could be added benefits and strategies. Having one less scope on the crew is already a detriment. With the spyglass, clicking gives you the ability to see further at the cost of character mobility. With an audio tool, clicking could give you the ability to hone in on the direction another ship is coming from, also at the cost of character mobility.
Unlike the spyglass, it would not be a necessary tool. As a person that has played without music since I got the game (I have a very hard time picking out voices from music), I have never used drums. As such, I don't have any practical knowledge of what they are like.
Anyways, yes, music and drums should be separated.
