Best method to create SG tab and how to post it on the SGF?

[Greg Cutshaw]

Here's a typical file:

http://www.gregcutshaw.com//Tab/Don%20R ... 0Intro.xls


Lately, I've just been erasing all the notes from a file like the one above leaving just the string grid lines and then penciling in the notes at my guitar then going back to the computer to formally enter them.

[Michael Hegedus]

To print several pages to one file:
If you are working in Guitar Pro in Windows, you can print the entire file to a pdf file by going to the print menu and selecting Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer. When you select Print, a Save As menu will pop up asking for a pdf file name.

Once you have the pdf file, it is easier to to play from it right on the computer screen or to send it in an e-mail, etc. rather than juggling multiple png or jpg files.
Mike

[b0b]

Here's a typical file:

http://www.gregcutshaw.com//Tab/Don%20R ... 0Intro.xls


Lately, I've just been erasing all the notes from a file like the one above leaving just the string grid lines and then penciling in the notes at my guitar then going back to the computer to formally enter them.

That file opened in OpenOffice on my Mac. I exported it as a PDF from there, opened the file in Preview (the Mac's default PDF viewer), saved it as a PNG, then cropped the white space from that and saved it again. This is how it came out when I uploaded it to the Forum:

[Ed Baker]

There's another nifty thing about doing tab work with Tabledit, GuitarPro or MuseScore.

You can play back what you've entered.

It may not sound like a pro steel player. But, you do get a sense a song's timing and pitch that helps in learning a song.

It's also sorta fun sometimes.

[Frederick Krubel]

Guitar Pro 7.5 still doesn't support PSG notation. You can do up to 10 string tabs. You can use guitar bends for the raises. I tried bar dives for lowers, but it lowers ALL strings. I emailed the company, Arobas Music, and only received a generic response that they will consider it. Please email the company and let them know we spend money too.

TablEdit added FULL SUPPORT FOR PSG. You can create your custom copedent along with the raise and lower notation. It's the best software I've seen that include the rhythm.

One thing I can't find in either program is how to notate quarter tones without bending.

[John McClung]

I'm looking for an app that can play an audio track, convert the audio to standard notation. If it could also map that to PSG 10 and 12-string tab, that would be ideal. And has to be exported as PDF. Does that exist? Maybe it could be done with multiple apps?

[Ed Baker]

That would be quite a stretch to find an app that could do all that. Especially if you're starting with an audio track.

One of the biggest issues with guitar tablature is that any one note can be played at different positions on different strings.

Start throwing in pedals that change the tuning of the open string and things get pretty complicated in a hurry.

Which string, fret, pedal would you chose for any given note.

[Guy Cundell]

I'm looking for an app that can play an audio track, convert the audio to standard notation.

Well, that’s the Holy Grail, John. It will probably happen at some stage. Technology is approaching it at either end of the process. Monophonic audio can be converted to midi pretty well but when it comes to polyphonic instruments, it is way harder, as can be seen with guitar synths. Then it is harder again if you want a performance from a record. The people at Melodyne seem to have cracked it with their top level app and can separate out the individual notes, but it is quite a maze unpicking all the overtones, and the bigger the band, the bigger the mess. However, they haven’t gone the next step to convert it to midi, yet. Looking at the other end, all the top notation programs and most of the DAWs will convert midi to score. Monophonically, it is pretty straightforward but, again, polyphony presents problems because good polyphonic scoring is an art.

The thing is that to create a reasonably playable score, you need to know in advance what it should look like and that also depends on the audience. There are two styles of transcription, descriptive and prescriptive. Descriptive transcription attempts to take down exactly what is played. But, the finer the detail, the more difficult it is to interpret. Prescriptive transcription, which is what the job mostly entails, requires the transcriber to work out what the player meant to play, which, in turn, makes the score easily readable. It is an interesting process and takes time to develop. Quantization is a midi function of computer programs that attempts to sort that out. However, it is not a straightforward process if there is any complexity to what is being played.

Will they get an app to do it? Probably, but maybe not for a while. It is clearly going to be a tricky thing to achieve that may need lots of experimentation and refinement. I guess it will depend if that amount of effort would be financially rewarded.

[John McClung]

Thanks for those insights Guy!

Followup: for tab|edit, Guitar Pro, others: how do you input the chords and notes in the first place? If you have to figure that all out per usual, then seems like the only time -savings might be in writing the tab in a bit more automated, keyboard friendly way. Is that right?

[Jeremy DeHart]

Hey John, Musescore is not that hard actually.
https://musescore.org/en And it does have the added benefit of being FREE! Once you get used to the note input method and you make a guitar string template with the correct tuning for your steel tuning, it is actually quite rapid. Here's a sample of my output.

[Ed Baker]

I also use Musescore.

One of the things missing in Musescore tab is that you can't display the open tuning on the left side of the tab.

You can put a dummy measure of an open string chord and then look at the sheet music for their values. But, that means you have to skip that measure on playback.

I put an open string quarter note followed by three side-stick drum clicks and let is count as a pickup measure.

It's great fun to play with and like Jeremy said, "It's free"

p.s. I put a hammer-on/off practice pattern of "Lullaby of Birdland" on the forum earlier this year for another example of Musescore tab

[John McClung]

Jeremy, does musescore create 10-string tab? 12-string tab? Is there an option to put the tab numbers on spaces between line, not on top of the lines? Those are 3 requirements for my needs.

A way to notate pedals and knee levers? I don't tab out any non-pedal at all.

[John McClung]

Jeremy, does musescore create 10-string tab? 12-string tab? Is there an option to put the tab numbers on spaces between line, not on top of the lines? Those are 3 requirements for my needs.

[b0b]

Musescore doesn't do pedal steel tab. There are ways to hack it, though. See https://musescore.org/en/node/106041.