I Just Had The Coolest Idea (programmers take a peek)

With all the gajillions of tabs out there, I came to the conclusion that there needs to be a particular piece of software written NOW. I'm not a programmer, but I have the idea, so people spread the word and maybe someone will implement this (if this already exists, then poo!):

A program where you can IMPORT tablature from a .txt file or a .doc, etc., and PLAYS THE SONG using guitar samples. I'm willing to build the sample libraries, note for note, using a wide variety of tones with my POD 2.0.

Whatcha think? For the guitarist in a pinch without a guitar, he/she can even write tab with this program and play it back using the built in sampler.

Seems it would be rather simple to import a tab, load up a sample set, and the software would read the numbers, etc and play the song. I'm willing to convert as many tabs as time allows to the right format.

Wheeeeeeeee!

I could make it, but--->there's Guitar Pro, and it does it with MIDI.

Yeah, but does it import tabs? And we all know how crappy MIDI sounds. Useless. I'm talking about building entire libraries with real guitar samples and using those.

Yeah, MIDI is bull****.
Idea is very good..but there are many problems now :

1) note length.
You can add in your library different tone durations, but in tabs there is not rhythm, just tones.

2) tone
You must record much different tones.

3) pull-offs, hammer-ons, bends, harmonics, tremolo... you'll need two lives just to record all that :)

4) all that will be hard to transport on the net because of file size, sound files are big...

BUT if you do record it, I will make program :)

Well, if you're talking about midi there is a program that uses samples and guess what, it's FREE! http://www.modplug.com

Ok, you don't use tabs on this. It's more like midi. You can use your keyboard buttons Q-P I think to play like a piano. It even uses midi instruments but you can use samples from anything. If you play a short 2 seconds of guitar and record it, add it to the samples library of your song, it can use that two seconds to make an entire song with. Most files that use short samples are from 100-500k. Some people have put entire guitar solos into the program instead. The file was 2 megs when they did that.

the program i'm talking about would import tablature and play the song with guitar samples, not MIDI. i figure the best way of going about it is to use SoundFonts. SoundFonts can be bent, shaken, and sustained for any amount of time, so that takes care of the sample problem.

Actually now that i think of it, it may be a better idea to write a vst or dxi plugin for a tracker like fruityloops or any vst or dxi host.

hmm...

Modplug is a tracker program. It's one of the best ones too.

One of the problems that I have with trackers like Modplug and Fasttracker is the song progresses by going downward. I would much prefer it to go left to right. Tabs or musical notes would be much better.

Ever since i started playing guitar and coming up with songs i immediately searched the web for such software, and came across a great piece of software called TABLEDIT. Which can be downloaded in a demo form or purchased for $55 at http://www.tabledit.com . Seriously it's easy to use, and if you have a good sound card you can even start writing symphonic pieces and what not.

It works completely based on tablature, plays back in MIDI, and creates the sheet music simultaneously as you punch in the fret numbers on the tab. And you can print off either or both versions, sheet music or tablature to give to your friends. You can also use it to get tabs made from MIDI songs, say if you wanted to get a tab for any of DOOM's music you can import the MIDI and it will tab that son of a bitch out. And it also works well at importing and exporting text files, though from my experience much better at exporting than importing. Ahh yes and i almsot forgot to mention this thing has a full set of rhythm options so you can tab it accurately. You can also mess with the tempo, time signature, key signature and add drums. Though i get the feeling most of you people reel in agony over hearing a MIDI song.

Again I can't stress this enough, go to
http://www.tabledit.com
and download Tabledit, because it owns.

[Edited by Seiko_Hejiro on 02-06-2002 at 11:43 PM]

PowerTAB!!!

It does everything that TablEdit does, only it's free. Check it out.

As for the sound...

If u wanna have cool sounds for yer midi files then get a good sampler! GigaSampler will do a good job but the best thingy is the built-in Sampler of Logic Audio Platinum 4.81 (EXS24). It´s an AKAI-Sampler which means u will need AKAI sample Libraries... - for example:
Hans Zimmer - the Walt Disney Composer.. he hardly ever uses REAL orchestra for his recordings.

For example: http://www.ilio.com/miroslav1/

There u will find the Miroslav Vitous (Bassplayer from Weather Report) AKAI_sample CD´s - they are Orchestra-samples - u can also download demos there - very impressive!

And there are lots of other sample cd´s too with guitars, pianos, drums, bass, synths, etc...

So if u are looking for the best sound avaiable for yer recordings, then go and get those samples
-=[Azrael]=-


[Edited by Azrael on 02-07-2002 at 05:22 AM]