Alternative to PowerTab?

GBS · #1 07-12-2019, 06:51 AM

I'm an occasional user of PowerTab, mostly to work out a section of a particular piece I am having difficulty with. It's gotten kinda cranky about behaving when running under Win 10, and doesn't appear to have been updated for a pretty long time now. So looking for alternatives.
Have tried TuxGuitar, and while I can make it work, it doesn't quite seem to be there.
Main things I'd like to do:
Copy/Paste from measure to measure.
Be able to create a basic 4/4 alternating bass in a measure, then go back and insert the subsequent eighth notes (or other). If I have to do it using two tracks...it would be inconvenient, but I could cope...
Accommodates any alternate tunings and capo-ing.
Decent playback for both 6 string and 12 string.

TuxGuitar had an interesting feature - after tab is created for one tuning, if you go and change the tuning to something else, it tries to transpose the tab to match. That came in very handy in one instance, but is not something I would take advantage of in most of my tabbing adventures.

If there were a library of tabs available for the software, I might browse them for "how to" ideas on a particular piece, but not very concerned about what may or may not be out there.

Suggestions? Is it time to just spend the $ for GuitarPro?

rick-slo · #2 07-12-2019, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GBS

Main things I'd like to do:
Copy/Paste from measure to measure.
Be able to create a basic 4/4 alternating bass in a measure, then go back and insert the subsequent eighth notes (or other). If I have to do it using two tracks...it would be inconvenient, but I could cope...
Accommodates any alternate tunings and capo-ing.
Decent playback for both 6 string and 12 string.

You can do all of those things in PowerTab with any version of Windows. Of course a decent midi sound is a matter of taste (I usually use nylon acoustic guitar).

For printing in PDF format I use PDF995 (free).

All my tabs you will find in my tabs link below I did with PowerTab.

JerrysGuitarBar · #3 07-12-2019, 07:56 AM

I'm also a user of Powertab, running on Windows 10, and I've found it can do anything I need it to do.
But if you do want to explore alternatives, MuseScore is excellent too.

TBman · #4 07-12-2019, 10:24 AM

I use GuitarPro version 6. It isn't free, but it's not a lot of $ either. One of these days I'll get around to upgrading to version 7.

tbeltrans · #5 07-12-2019, 11:46 AM

I have both Guitar Pro 7.5 and tabledit. Neither is free, but neither is outrageously priced. Once you purchased tabledit, all future upgrades are free.

Both of these programs seem to be used to distribute TAB, and both can read each other's generated file formats to a point.

What I like about tabledit over Guitar Pro is that it is very light on CPU/computer resources and therefore loads instantly. With either program, once you get the initial hang of it, you can get around quickly.

Guitar Pro's interface is more "modern", very much graphical, while tabledit's interface is older, but still quite serviceable.

There are video tutorials and substantial help for both.

I have PowerTAB around mainly because many of Truefire's older course packaging used it. I have never done my own TAB work in it, so I don't have an opinion on it.

Tony

stanron · #6 07-12-2019, 01:38 PM

Musescore is free. As long as you get version 2 or later you will be able to do guitar tab. It will be different from the program you are used to using and that might be a problem. Because I can, I usually enter notation first and convert the score to tab later. I have just tried to enter tab first and found it to be not too difficult, but I am used to the program and it's procedures. There is a very good online manual and if you get stuck you could ask here and I would be happy to help.

rick-slo · #7 07-12-2019, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanron

Musescore is free. As long as you get version 2 or later you will be able to do guitar tab. It will be different from the program you are used to using and that might be a problem. Because I can, I usually enter notation first and convert the score to tab later. I have just tried to enter tab first and found it to be not too difficult, but I am used to the program and it's procedures. There is a very good online manual and if you get stuck you could ask here and I would be happy to help.

I find Musescore a lot more cumbersome to use for guitar tab then is PowerTab.

JonnyBGood · #8 07-13-2019, 05:15 AM

Powertab is very powerful for a freebie so really depends on how badly you want more/better features.

I used Tabledit for many years, mainly as the free classical and fingerstyle library of Tabledit pieces on the web was so extensive, particularly in the early days of the web. I have outgrown it now though to score my own compositions/arrangements and switched to Guitar Pro, its less clunky, much more professional and full of features. The output quality is pro level (numerous players use it to score their columns for magazines) and everything is logical e.g if you want to alter the tempo, you simply click on the tempo indicator at the top of the score, whereas in Tabledit, which still looks like it was developed for Windows 3.1, the tempo change function is buried in a midi sub menu somewhere.

Re. audio quality of score playback - Tabledit, Power tab and other freebies all depend on what your midi output is - if using the Windows default then it will suck big time, but there are free midi synths that will do a much better job (Like Virtual Midi synth for example). Bit of a faff to set up but again this is a no cost solution.

Guitar pro has its own built in audio engine which is great and you can add in easy to use EQ, fx (nice reverbs etc) to improve the sound further and once you are happy save the patch to load easily from there on.