norvegicusbass Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 Is there any tab/score writing software out there preferably cheap or free? I have Tux Guitar but I cant seem to make it play bass or show a bass guitar fretboard all it shows is steel guitar. I want to try and write out tabs so as to give me a better understanding of how music looks on the page with the ultimate aim to be able to transcribe bass parts to sheet music. Cheers All Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristo Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Bump for similar interest.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Sausage Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Surprised you haven't been hammered by the Tab Police yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevB Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 (edited) Depends what you class as cheap. I like GuitarPro personally, I learn about 3 songs using that in conjunction with the recorded version in the time I'd learn 1 song using ears and recorded version alone. I expect if you went to illegal download sites there would probably be 'free' versions of GP available to download for nothing but I bought it, think it was about £40. I had v4 and am now on vs5, they are at least up to vs6 by now. Edit, forgot to ad that for each track of the song there is the standard notation equivalent as well as the TAB version so it could easily be used as an aid in making the transition from tab to full on sight reading. Edited May 31, 2013 by KevB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gust0o Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 [quote name='KevB' timestamp='1370007517' post='2095475'] Depends what you class as cheap. I like GuitarPro personally, I learn about 3 songs using that in conjunction with the recorded version in the time I'd learn 1 song using ears and recorded version alone. I expect if you went to illegal download sites there would probably be 'free' versions of GP available to download for nothing but I bought it, think it was about £40. I had v4 and am now on vs5, they are at least up to vs6 by now. [/quote] Seconded, I also use GuitarPro. I think it's fine for scribbling ideas down, and a blessing if the band ask you to look at something overnight. I've always seen it as an aid, not a replacement, for any more fundamental skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Tuxguitar is easy for bass. 1) go to the Track menu and choose Properties. Set the Instrument to be something like "Fingered bass". Set the number of strings to however many you want (I generally use 4) - check the note values but they should go appropriate values (E,A,D,G) 2) go to the Composition menu and choose Clef. Change it to bass clef. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristo Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 I'd just like to be able to put bass lines I use in the band into tab so I don't forget them. The ability to save as PDFs would be cool so I could save them for future reference. Does Tuxguitar do that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WalMan Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Get Finale Notepad free. It's free & you can write stuff properly, then drag it onto a TAB stave below. Best of both worlds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 [quote name='kristo' timestamp='1370008527' post='2095500'] I'd just like to be able to put bass lines I use in the band into tab so I don't forget them. The ability to save as PDFs would be cool so I could save them for future reference. Does Tuxguitar do that? [/quote] Yes and no - it's built in PDF export is a bit poor. Better to install a free PDF creator (there are a plethora of them out there) and "print" to your chosen PDF creating "printer". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grangur Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 I use Musescore for writing and transcribing scores. It doesn't do tabs, but it's for all instruments. It's also FREE!!! I also use it for downloading music for other instruments and adapting it for the bass for reading practice. Get it from www.musescore.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mornats Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 I asked a similar question a while ago that recommended some good 'uns: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/196569-notation-software-advice-what-would-you-recommend/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/196569-notation-software-advice-what-would-you-recommend/[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloodaxe Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 [quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1370009244' post='2095510']Yes and no - it's built in PDF export is a bit poor. Better to install a free PDF creator (there are a plethora of them out there) and "print" to your chosen PDF creating "printer".[/quote] True dat. For some reason Tux produces a PDF of a really compressed jpeg so legibility suffers. If you print to PDF (I use Acrobat) it's much better, but doesn't display stopped or dotted notes properly. Similarly, beamed notes of multiple duration display incorrectly. The tab side of it's fine though as it doesn't include timing information. There is a workaround however, as Tux can output to Lilypond format (*.ly) & that produces some very legible (if rather old-fashioned) PDFs:— [url="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8453031/FF%26F_BJT.pdf"]https://dl.dropboxus.../FF%26F_BJT.pdf[/url] Lilypond also puts timing information in the tab (rests, stops etc) that I've not seen anywhere else, oh, and it's free. [url="http://www.lilypond.org/"]http://www.lilypond.org/[/url] GuitarPro is good, but has an annoying feature which allows you to overfill a bar (& gives no clues as to what you've done wrong). Tux won't let you do this; as soon as the bar is full it opens a new one. GuitPro's PDF output is also lacking in that it won't allow font embedding — that means that if you send it to someone without GP, the PDF reads gibberish. Pete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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