I have been thinking of getting some tab software. I am currently using Tabledit in trial mode. It has alot of capabilities but isn’t a natural interface for me. Larry’s post on another thread got me thinking I should see who likes what before spending money or time learning something. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
Tablature software
I use Guitar Pro. I like it, not extremely expensive and lots of options
Gamb,
I’m checking out Guitar Pro’s website. It looks good. Do you know if there is a way to translate between tef and gpx files and vice versa? I guess I could dump to MIDI and read as MIDI.
Thanks,
— Begin quote from "mreisz"
Do you know if there is a way to translate between tef and gpx files and vice versa? I guess I could dump to MIDI and read as MIDI.
— End quote
Here’s my experience with that. Tabledit has their little downloadable conversion tool, but it won’t work with the new .gpx file format of Guitar Pro 6 (or, if I remember correctly, the .gp5 format of the previous release). I guess if you could manage to get Guitar Pro 4 it might work. I tried dumping to MIDI also, and was able to convert from .gpx to .tef, but not without glitches, so I still had to go over the tab note by note, which was about the same as starting from scratch.
As for comparing tab editors, I’ve used Tabledit and Guitar Pro 6, plus the free Powertab and TuxGuitar. Guitar Pro has the simplest learning curve, by far. Everything is laid out graphically and you can pretty much just jump in without any help. It can do most anything you want musically. My only complaint being that there is no mandolin soundbank (but Tabledit doesn’t have one either).
Tabledit is full featured, too, but not nearly so intuitive. It relies to a great extent on hotkeys (which is really fast if you’re a knowledgeable user, but takes some getting used to).
The other two are okay for free programs (I think Tuxguitar is the better of the two), but both are lacking in features. For instance Tuxguitar doesn’t have a way to zoom in on the musical staff, which is tough on my old eyes.
I think Guitar Pro would be my first choice if ease of use were the only consideration, but Tabledit is also valuable because so much bluegrass music is already tabbed that way.
Thanks Larry,
Great comparisons. Thanks for the translation background as well. I’m not sure which way I am gonna go just yet… GP looks like a great interface. On the other hand, having tablEdit as essentially a free player download makes it really handy. I give beginner group lessons and being I have used Tabledit to provide tefs of what we covered for practice (limited to 16 measures thus far). They are cheap enough to buy both, but I don’t want to learn both programs. Grrr-arrrgh, I hate decisions.
I don’t need tab sofware, but if I did, I’d really be swayed by the fact that the tabledit author really seems to bend over backwards to help out banjo and mando players, even though they’re only a small fraction of the total market.
Okay, I need to update my opinion on tab editors. I’ve been doing quite a bit of tabbing the last couple of days, loading some of my “50 Solos Every Parking Lot Picker Should Know” books into TablEdit. As I suspected TablEdit gets a lot faster with a little use. The trick is to use it on a full keyboard (with the numeric keypad for the right hand). Then, you can pretty much get rid of the mouse and it moves along pretty quickly once you get the rythmn of entering the data.
Guitar Pro has the pretty interface and is probably best for the casual user, but I’m thinking TablEdit may be the choice for more serious usage.
Thanks Larry!
I write software and part of that is interface design, so part of me is still resisting buying an interface that makes me involuntarily cringe. With that said, after your last post, I am 90-something percent leaning the way to TablEdit. Sounds like it has a bunch of great things going for it once you get used to it.
Do I want the sexy looking one that will let me move fast at the start or the not-as-sexy looking one that I think will serve me for years? I guess I always wanted to be a Ginger guy, but when it comes down to it, I am more of a Mary-Anne type.
— Begin quote from "Banjo Ben"
once you learn your hot keys (s-slide, h-hammer, p-pulloff, .-rests), it flies! And, you can set it up so that your cursor immediately jumps to the next place after you enter a note
— End quote
That’s what I was discovering this morning. Once I had the hotkeys memorized, and could forego the mouse, it was pretty fast. The automatic cursor advance sounds pretty neat, but it’s really not that much trouble to just pound the Tab key instead. What really got me up to speed was memorizing the F keys for note duration, instead of pointing with my mouse.
— Begin quote from "mreisz"
I am 90-something percent leaning the way to TablEdit.
— End quote
I’m with you on the interface. I prefer smaller, cleaner programs when possible. I don’t know too much about programming, but I bet a big portion of Guitar Pro’s files are dedicated to the interface.
And as you pointed out earlier, having the free Tefview player available is a big plus when it comes to sharing tabs.
Interesting thread, guys. I also use TablEdit and try to use hot keys as much as possible. The automatic cursor advance is pretty handy, I also like the custom chord editor.
jim
— Begin quote from "mreisz"
I have been thinking of getting some tab software. I am currently using Tabledit in trial mode. It has alot of capabilities but isn’t a natural interface for me. Larry’s post on another thread got me thinking I should see who likes what before spending money or time learning something. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance,
— End quote
TablEdit can convert what you play on your MIDI instrument direct to tablature as well.
I don’t know if you knew that or not but that would be a great way to tab out .I copied that from the list of things it can do . I am not to sure what that means but it seems you can play through midi and directly to tablEdit and it will tab it out. If you know let me know it could be a game changer for me also as I am thinking of getting soft ware that is easy to use . The wife has been so good about me getting things out of the way so wish me luck on that also as we are in this retirement thingy together and her input is well heeded .
Hey Welder,
I have purchased the full version of Tabledit. I do like the software. I am a software developer, so there are many things I would like to change about the interface. With that said, it seems to be an extremely functional piece of software. I haven’t tried the midi interface (I don’t have any MIDI equipped instruments). If someone else doesn’t post a response to that question, I can grab a midi file and convert it to see what it does. It won’t be the same as recording straight from an instrument, but I would guess it would basically work the same within the software. That would be neat to play something and have it automagically be tabbed out.
— Begin quote from ____
would be neat to play something and have it automagically be tabbed out
— End quote
But, I’d have to play in time. I’d probably have it all screwed up.
I don’t have a MIDI instrument, either, but I’ve considered a keyboard. My DAW has a bunch of virtual instruments, but it’s tedious work programming it without a controller.
— Begin quote from "mreisz"
Thanks Larry,
Great comparisons. Thanks for the translation background as well. I’m not sure which way I am gonna go just yet… GP looks like a great interface. On the other hand, having tablEdit as essentially a free player download makes it really handy. I give beginner group lessons and being I have used Tabledit to provide tefs of what we covered for practice (limited to 16 measures thus far). They are cheap enough to buy both, but I don’t want to learn both programs. Grrr-arrrgh, I hate decisions.
— End quote
Aw! go ahead and buy them both you need to learn more any ways more knowledge is key to learning mmm>? that was a dumb statement . I am also thinking of buying tabledit but am interested in the guitar pro, seems like you do have steep learning curve but hey if it was easy we would not be doing music would we . the free version is great and you can save 16 bars which you could save 16 on one and do another on a separate window .