Transcription talk: what are your methods; favorite programs?

Ebdim9th · 09-07-2019, 05:36 PM

I'm really trying to learn the ins and outs of effective transcription, training my ear and learning all the ways to best write the music I hear out.... I use all the Guitar Pros, from 3 to 7, the old Powertab 1.7, and the new 2.0 alpha 9, (there's an Alpha 10 but it's MIDI exports don't work) and TuxGuitar. That last one's phone app is light-years ahead of the phone app for GP7, so despite TuxGuitar's overall limitations, the app is free, only a banner ad across the top, legit stuff, tho, well once there was Ashley Madison, but that's the only time a shady ad showed up..... in fact, I use that Tux phone app more than anything else... and it opens GP7 files, too....so, limitations yes, advantages, lots, I find new problems in transcription and solutions and work-arounds almost every day... what are some of yours? Also looking for advice from veteran transcribers.... oh, and Microsoft's Word app is much worse with full-screen pop-op ads, as opposed to Tux...

**Giga Hertz** · 09-07-2019, 07:29 PM

I prefer to use GP7 over TuxGuitar, but as an open source program it does fine. I've fiddled with Ultimate Guitar's transcriber applet, and it is awful.

I have GP on Android, but I only use it in an emergency when I need to see or hear a melody contour in a pinch. It[s not really practical on a phone.

**dogfood** · 09-07-2019, 10:32 PM

I play by ear.

Sorry,, not much help.

Ebdim9th · 09-10-2019, 05:09 PM

@dogfood playing by ear is how good transcription gets done.. you listen, play, write down the tab numbers, and so it begins...

@Giga Hertz.the TuxGuitar phone app is missing a few features of the desktop version, but it also has some improvements, like quick save, where you don't keep getting booted back to the first measure, the little things like chorus and reverb actually sound pretty cool, i dunno... it's just about as complete as a desktop program and GP7 for Android andiPhone has a long way to go to catch up to it in that regard...

yeah UGs Tab Pro looks and sounds substandard...... way back at GP3, though it and TuxGuitar have a problem in common, both can't "see" palm-mutes in the Power Tab 1.7 files they open...

**Giga Hertz** · 09-10-2019, 06:36 PM

My main problem with UG's applet isn't that it's awful and barely functional, it's that they force you to it and it's just reading directly from a GP file anyway (and they hide the files on certain tabs to force you to use it).

Fortunately, I have ways of getting my hands directly on said files... :P

Ebdim9th · 09-11-2019, 07:47 AM

You can request the song name and artist specifically and both versions will show up in search, or request the desktop site on your phone, the hidden links all show up, then return to the easier-to-navigate app version once you've opened the link page....

**Giga Hertz** · 09-11-2019, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ebdim9th

You can request the song name and artist specifically and both versions will show up in search, or request the desktop site on your phone, the hidden links all show up, then return to the easier-to-navigate app version once you've opened the link page....

I'm talking about desktop; for some songs when you go to the GuitarPro tab (I'm not even talking about the "Official" tabs either), they specifically hide/remove the "Download GuitarPro File" link to push you to use their awful applet (which is just reading from a GPx file anyway).

Ebdim9th · 09-11-2019, 05:29 PM

That's really weird. I don't think I've recognized that that was happening on the desktop site. .. what's your solution? (going externally from 911 Tabs or a Google search?) .....eta... how do you know which ones are simply missing from the list? Do they only show up when you have the paid version of Tab Pro active?

**Giga Hertz** · 09-11-2019, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ebdim9th

That's really weird. I don't think I've recognized that that was happening on the desktop site. .. what's your solution? (going externally from 911 Tabs or a Google search?) .....eta... how do you know which ones are simply missing from the list? Do they only show up when you have the paid version of Tab Pro active?

I have it and even then they're hidden. The GPx files are still there it's just obscured. I have a script that downloads them when you give it the URL.

Ebdim9th · 09-12-2019, 11:48 AM

The script gives you a list of the ones that are missing or do you have to go by process of elimination?

Eta....I'm getting kinda off my own topic.... how do you notate half and doible time on programs like Guitar Pro?

Ebdim9th · 09-16-2019, 08:06 PM

Oops... killed my own thread...moving on..... I broke transcriber's block and have now actually made some progress on my own version on Power Tab of Sacred Warrior's Black Metal... I had been practicing by copying scores, as per a pro transcriber's advice, and felt I could work more on the ones I was doing, which also include Barren Cross's A Face in the Dark on GP7 as well as Tourniquet's Test For Leprosy, both at varying stages of progress.... eta .. I see someone was already working on that Tourniquet song here, oh well, I've gone too far to turn back now ...

**Giga Hertz** · 09-16-2019, 09:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ebdim9th

Oops... killed my own thread...moving on.....

Sorry, I just didn't get around to replying.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ebdim9th

The script gives you a list of the ones that are missing or do you have to go by process of elimination?

Oh the script takes the URL and adjusts it to find and download the tabs. It's just a matter of knowing how the site downloads an accessible GP file.

Quote:

Eta....I'm getting kinda off my own topic.... how do you notate half and doible time on programs like Guitar Pro?

I looked this up when you asked but didn't find a real answer. Can you cheat using ties/slurs, rests and shorter/longer duration notes?

Quote:

I broke transcriber's block and have now actually made some progress on my own version on Power Tab of Sacred Warrior's Black Metal... I had been practicing by copying scores, as per a pro transcriber's advice, and felt I could work more on the ones I was doing, which also include Barren Cross's A Face in the Dark on GP7 as well as Tourniquet's Test For Leprosy, both at varying stages of progress.... eta .. I see someone was already working on that Tourniquet song here, oh well, I've gone too far to turn back now ...

Niiiiice. I converted Lifehouse's "Everything" to their "Live in Studio" version on one of their later albums, for a cover I did. Because I can't drum, I export the VST drums and I had to figure out the rhythm in the newer version; I was pretty proud of myself.

Ebdim9th · 09-18-2019, 12:36 PM

I believe if you go to the transcriber's profile, and to thier contributions list, that you can link backward from there, again, if I know whose page to go to...

I try everything I can think of, including doubling note durations and moving them into the same measure........

eta2(backwards) are VST drums the virtual workstation kind? (Cakewalk etc.,)

Even though I've seen it transcribed before, I'm learning how to better utilize first and second voices by copying Best of Both Worlds from the Van Halen book, but these are practice runs and I won't publish something I didn't tab out by ear myself.... unless the tab is so rare and the book so long out of print that it might be the only way it ever gets back out there... and that's maybe.... eta (one I did was Nightranger's 'Big Life" which is not only long out of print it was never even published in the U S. at all... lol eta3 a practice run, not put out there)

**Giga Hertz** · 09-18-2019, 05:08 PM

Quote:

eta2(backwards) are VST drums the virtual workstation kind? (Cakewalk etc.,)

Just whatever GP7 spits out. It's still MIDI generated, but more real sounding.

Ebdim9th · 09-19-2019, 06:22 AM

Oh yeah the Realistic Sound Engine... which, despite complaints, doesn't sound bad at all if, say, you choose the "5 minutes" (which I assume means Pantera-like) drum sound....