T Software News - Tablatures

Why doesn't playback emit any sound?

nospam@example.com (Simone) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:46:06 -0700

The typical requests can be summarised as "I hear the metronome clicking and then silence".

The usual culprit is the lack of a Guitar In symbol at the start of the document. Tablatures uses Guitar In's to determine which instrument (as defined using the Score -> Edit Guitars menu) should be used for playback.

When you create a new document, Tablatures already puts a Gtr I symbol at the beginning.
If you delete it or need to change instrument in the middle of a song, adding a guitar in symbol is very easy to do:

Tick the Guitar In checkbox in the Musical Symbols Panel:

Then choose the guitar(s) which should be start playing from the current caret position:

Finally, you might want to make sure that all the guitars you have used are actually defined among the instruments used by the score. So let's use the Score -> Edit Guitars menu and edit them as needed:

Here you can choose the MIDI instrument to use, apply some effects and change its tuning.

Setting up a tablature for ukuleles/banjos/other instruments

nospam@example.com (Simone) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:37:00 -0800

Tablatures enables you to edit scores for different kind of stringed instruments.

By default, new documents are set up for guitar and bass, since it's the most commonly used configuration, but in a few click you can customize the score to satisfy your needs.

First, you can change the number of tablature lines to match the number of strings of your instrument. To do it, click on the vertical TAB text at the beginning of the system:

A sheet that will let you choose the number of strings will appear:

This settings will be remembered when you add a new section.

Next, let's define the properties of the instrument to be used for MIDI playback. Use the Score -> Edit Guitars menu:

Click to enlarge

There you can choose the MIDI instrument, define the tuning of its strings, apply some effects and so on.

That's it, now you're ready to compose your song.

How do I enter two notes with different duration, starting at the same time?

nospam@example.com (Simone) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:15:47 -0700

Quoting an user:

"I cannot seem to figure out how to, for example, put down a whole note on one string of a quarter note on another *that start at the same time*. This makes it impossible to create a base line for a piece of music that isn't played exactly on beat with the treble part of the music."

Tablatures allows you to write your high and low melodies independently, thus you can achieve what you need in the following way.

Let's start by adding a note to the high melody:

Then, in the Notes Panel, we switch to Low melody, change the duration and enter the second note:

That's it.