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TabIt Version 1.2 Copyright (C) 1996 by GTAB Software Contents: 1. What is TabIt? 2. TabIt package 3. System requirements and installation 4. Getting Started 4.1. Starting TabIt 4.2. The user interface 5. Editing 5.1. Editing tutorial 5.2. Moving around the tablature 5.3. Inserting and removing parts of the transcription 5.4. Creating bar lines and repeats 5.5. Copying and pasting 5.6. Using standard tablature notations 5.7. Using multiple tracks 5.8. The Track menu 5.9. Loading and saving files 5.10. Exporting to text 5.11. Printing 5.12. Exporting to MIDI 6. Playing 6.1. Configuring your sound card 6.2. Playing 6.3. Adjusting tempo A. Registering B. Revision history C. Where to get latest versions D. Contacting GTAB Software --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Permission to use, copy, and distribute the TRIAL VERSION of TabIt is hereby granted, provided all files in the original archive are included and unmodified. You may not distribute or make copies of the registered version of TabIt. However, you may copy it onto your computer to be used and you may make backup copies of the software for your own use only. The authors make no representations about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without an expressed or implied war- ranty. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. What is TabIt? TabIt is a utility for creating tablature for guitar, bass, or banjo. Many people enter tablature using a regular text editor, but this can get to be time consuming and complex. This program is meant to fill in where text editors left off by providing many useful features such as multi-track editing and playback of your tablature. One main difference from a standard text editor is that TabIt allows you to edit your transcriptions horizontally. It scrolls left and right, allowing you to easily add new parts to the transcription by pushing your existing parts forward. For playing purposes, you can store timing information using a ruler bar. TabIt loads and saves tablature in ".TBT" files. These files can only be read and edited using TabIt, and are not usually sent to other users because they can't be viewed or printed by users who do not have TabIt. To solve this problem, TabIt can export tablature to standard ASCII files. In the process, TabIt breaks the long horizontal transcription into short lines of a few bars each. This way it can easily be printed or viewed in any text editor. 2. TabIt package The TabIt package includes the following files: TABIT.EXE The program itself. TABIT.DOC This documentation. REGISTER.TXT Registration information and order form. DEMO.TBT Example song. FILE_ID.DIZ Description file (used on BBSes). 3. System requirements and installation ■ 386 or higher processor (486 recommended) ■ VGA video card ■ DOS 3.0 or higher ■ 485KB free conventional memory (when using all possible tracks, but can run with about 360KB) You should copy all the files from the TabIt package to their own directory (like C:\TABIT) in which all other files you create with TabIt will be stored. TabIt will NOT run under Windows 3.1. You will need to exit Windows before running TabIt. However, TabIt will work properly under Windows 95 (in Full Screen mode only). 4. Getting Started 4.1. Starting TabIt To start TabIt, change to the TabIt directory (by typing, for example: CD \TABIT) and type TABIT at the DOS prompt. 4.2. The user interface TabIt has an easy to use Windows-like interface with the familiar pull-down menus and buttons. Most of TabIt's features are accessed through pull-down menus. TabIt's menu bar can be accessed by holding down the Alt key and pressing the first letter of the desired menu, or by clicking on the menu with the mouse. A menu will pull down and a bar will appear which allows you select an item using the arrow keys. Many menu items have a shortcut key listed beside the item. For example, the Open item on the File menu lists F3 next to it, so pressing F3 will produce the same effect as going to File | Open. When you select some menu items, such as File | Open, a pop-up box will appear that is known as a dialog. In the case of File | Open, a list of files will be displayed along with several buttons. You can move between fields by pressing the Tab key, or by clicking on the desired field. When a button is highlighted, by moving to it with the Tab key, you can press Enter to activate it. You can use the mouse to click on buttons also. 5. Editing 5.1. Editing tutorial When you are not on a menu, the cursor appears on the tablature win- dow. At the top of the window, you will notice the name of the file currently being edited. At the bottom-left of the window, you will see a label that reads something like "Track: 1 - Bar: 1", which shows your current position in the tablature. The transcription itself is seen in the middle of the screen. As you can see, some lines are marked with dashes. This is the staff, and the dash symbols represent blank spaces on a string. Notice that there is a "ruler" above the staff. You can use this to measure where to put each note and how long notes are. The long lines represent each beat (quarter note). The "medium sized" lines are halves of the long lines (eighth notes). The shortest lines represent halves of the medium sized lines (sixteenth notes). The vertical white lines are the bar lines. By default, TabIt starts with bar lines between every four beats (4/4 time signature). If you would like to change this, select File | New and you will be prompted how often, if at all, bar lines are created. Try moving the cursor using the arrow keys. Notice that if you move toward the right of the screen the tablature begins to scroll right. If you have a mouse, you can also click on various places on the staff to move the cursor. When you type a number on a staff line, it will appear where the cur- sor is. If you type another number at that same space, it will be added to the previous number. For example, entering 1 and then 0 will cause 10 to appear on the staff. You can also type several letters on the staff like x for muted strings, and h for hammer on. See section 5.6 for a complete listing of these. Notice that when you enter a letter it will appear either before, at, or after the cursor. This is because different effects hap- pen before or after a note. For example, when you enter an h (hammer on) on a 0 it will display h0, and if you enter ~ (vibrato) on a 0 it will display 0~. Also, you can use lines of text on the top or bottom of the tablature. These lines can be filled with text such as the song's lyrics, special remarks for the player, or chord names. These lines are not normally on and must be enabled first by using the Track | Blank Lines menu item. When blank lines are enabled, you can move the cursor above or below the staff to enter text. Pressing Space or dash (-) will delete numbers or letters on the staff and change them back to a dash. Try typing in the following transcription (notice the spacing be- tween the notes to show timing): |.:.|.:.|.:.|.:. |.:.|.:.|.:.|.:. |.:.|.:.|.:.|.:. e |----------------|----------------|----------------| B |----------------|----------------|----------------| G |----------------|----------------|----------------| D |----------------|----------------|----------------| A |----------------|----0---0-------|--2-------2-----| E |----------0-0-1-|2-----2---2-2-1-|0---0-0-----0-1-| 5.2. Moving around the tablature Using the arrow keys, try scrolling left and right. When you move the cursor toward the leftmost or rightmost edges of the screen, you will notice that the screen will start to scroll in that direction. If you have a mouse, you can move somewhere by clicking at the desired space. You can also click on the scroll bar at the bottom to move. Holding down the Ctrl key while pressing the left or right arrow keys causes the cursor to move one bar at a time, thus making you scroll faster. You can also use Ctrl+Home to quickly move to the first bar, and Ctrl+End to move to the last note. If you have more than one track you can press PgUp and PgDn to move the cursor to the previous or next track. See section 5.7 for more in- formation. 5.3. Inserting and removing parts of the transcription TabIt allows you to shift parts of your transcription forward and back- ward, which can be useful for adding new parts or adjusting the timing of notes. Locate the cursor on the column from which you want to push the transcription forward. Then press the Insert key. You will see that all notes (but not bar lines) are pushed forward one space. You can also do the opposite - if you would like to delete a part, press the Delete key, and the transcription to the right of the cursor will be pulled back to the cursor and erased. If you want the bar lines to be moved also, hold down Ctrl while press- ing Insert or Delete. This can be useful if you need to change the size of a bar. Note that these options remove or push the entire column on which the cursor is located. Be sure you do not mistakingly use these keys to erase text above or below the staff lines. 5.4. Creating bar lines and repeats As mentioned in section 5.1, TabIt starts with bar lines between every four beats (4/4 time signature). If you would like to change this, select File | New and you will be prompted how often, if at all, bar lines are created. There are many occasions in which you need one bar to be a different size than another. One way to decrease or increase a bar's size is by using Ctrl+Delete or Ctrl+Insert, respectively. But if you need to create a bar line for some reason (if you accidentally deleted one, for example) you can press the | (bar) key. This key will create a bar line to the right of the cursor. This key can also be used to delete existing bar lines if you press | when the cursor is next to one. In most tablature, sections are separated into riffs. In TabIt, you can separate sections by inserting staff breaks. To create a staff break, press Ctrl+K and a double bar line will be inserted to the right of the cursor. When the tablature is exported to text or printed, staff breaks cause the tablature to skip to the next line. Many songs have sections that repeat. To save time, TabIt supports repeat signs like in piano notation. To make a repeat sign, first move over the start of the section that needs repeating. Then press Ctrl+S. That will insert a repeat start sign, which shows where to come back to when the player encounters a repeat. Then to create the actual repeat sign, move to the end of the section (usually right before a bar line) and press Ctrl+R. A dialog will appear asking you how many times the section should repeat. Values between 1 and 15 are allowed. Note that when inserting bar lines and repeat signs they will appear on all tracks. 5.5. Copying and pasting Like in text editors, TabIt has copy and paste features. You can use these features when you need to move sections or copy certain parts that are played repeatedly. The first step is to mark a section. Move over to the beginning of the section you want to copy and press F10. F10 toggles marking on and off. Then move the cursor right (or left) to the end of the section. Once the section is highlighted, press Ctrl+C to copy it into the clip- board. Once something is in the clipboard it can be pasted anywhere, even in another file you load. Move to where you want the section "pasted" and press Ctrl+V. You will see that it is highlighted where it was pasted. This does not mean that its in marking mode again; it is just showing you where it was pasted. Note that pasting overwrites any notes that were there already - it doesn't "make room" for them first. If you do not want it to overwrite something, you should make space for it first by pressing Insert or Ctrl+Insert. In TabIt, there is no Cut feature. However, you can simulate a Cut by copying an area and deleting it using Delete or Ctrl+Delete. 5.6. Using standard tablature notations Transcribing tablature effects involves using special characters. Here are some examples: To create a "hammer on": -10h12-- Enter the 10 and 12, then move the cursor over the 12 and press H. This will insert an H before the 12. To create a "pull off": -3p0---- Enter the 3 and 0, then move the cursor over the 0 and press P. This will insert a P before the 0. To create a slide up effect: -2/3---- Enter the 2 and 3, then move the cursor over the 3 and press /. This will insert a / before the 3. To create a slide down effect: -12\10-- Enter the 12 and 10, then move the cursor over the 10 and press \. This will insert a \ before the 10. To create a "bend up a half step" sign: -3^----- Enter the 3, then move the cursor over the 3 and press ^. This will insert a ^ after the 3. To create a "bend to" effect: -3b5---- Enter the 3 and 5, then move the cursor over the 5 and press B. This will insert a B before the 5. To create a release bend sign: -r3----- Enter the 3, then move the cursor over the 3 and press R. This will insert an R before the 3. To create a vibrato: -3~----- Enter the 3, then move the cursor over the 3 and press ~. This will insert a ~ after the 3. To create a tap sign: -t3----- Enter the 3, then move the cursor over the 3 and press t. This will insert a T before the 3. To create a "soft" note: -(3)---- Enter the 3, then move the cursor over the 3 and press (. This will insert () around the 3. To create a harmonic note: -<11>--- Enter the 11, then move the cursor over the 11 and press <. This will insert <> around the 11. To create a tremolo: -{5}---- Enter the 5, then move the cursor over the 5 and press {. This will insert {} around the 5. To create a whammy bar bend: -5w3---- Enter the 5 and 3, then move the cursor over the 3 and press W. This will insert a W before the 3. 5.7. Using multiple tracks A unique feature of TabIt is its ability to edit and play multiple tracks. This is where you can enter two to four staffs, which are to be played simultaneously. For example, you could enter a guitar and bass part and hear them played together. Tracks are basically the same as staffs. Try adding a track by select- ing Track | Add. You will notice another staff appear below the top one. You enter notes on other tracks just as you would on the initial first track. Try using the PgDn and PgUp keys. Those keys will switch between the tracks. If you have a mouse, you can also click on the desired track or use the scroll bar at the right of the screen. If you decide you don't want a track anymore, you can delete it. Just use PgDn or PgUp until the cursor is on the track you want to delete. Then select Track | Delete. And, of course, you have the option of playing all tracks simul- taneously in the registered version. See section 6 for details on play- ing. 5.8. The Track menu This menu provides many useful settings that change the current track: Strings This option lets you set the number of strings shown on the track. You can choose from 6 (guitar), 5 (five- string bass or banjo), or 4 (bass). Tuning This option lets you adjust the track's tuning. When you select this a dialog will appear. Along the right you will see several options, which allow you to quickly change the tuning to one of the preset tunings. On the left there are 6 (or less, depending on the num- ber of strings you chose) options that let you move an individual string's tuning up or down in half steps. The +1 you see means that the string is one octave above the octave of a guitar's low E string. Therefore, +2 means two octaves above, -1 means one octave below, etc. You can change these options by selecting one and pressing the Up and Down arrow keys. If you have a mouse, you can click on the arrows on either side. Instrument This option lets you change the instrument used when playing the track. You get to choose from 128 General MIDI instruments. When you select this, a dialog will appear with three options: Instrument, Muted Instru- ment, and Let notes ring. "Instrument" is the setting for normal notes played on the track. "Muted Instru- ment" is the setting for muted (x) notes played on the track, if they are not disabled (see section 6.1). When "Let notes ring" is checked, TabIt will not automati- cally stop notes. But when playing on instruments with slow or no decay (like a bass) you will probably want to uncheck this, or else it may sound jumbled when it's playing fast. Volume This option lets you adjust how loud the track is to be played. This can be set to any standard MIDI "velocity" from 0 to 127. The default setting is 96. Blank lines This option lets you enable or disable lines of text on the top or bottom of the tablature. These lines can be filled with text such as the song's lyrics, special remarks for the player, or chord names. When enabled, you can move the cursor above or below the staff to enter text. Add track / See section 5.7 for information. Delete track Track effect These are special effects that you can embed in your tablature file. They all are used to change something from the initial setting while playing. As an example, let's say you have a song that first starts playing with a clean electric guitar but needs to switch to dis- tortion at a certain point in the song. To make this change you would use an instrument change effect. All of the track effects insert letters below the staff so you can tell where it is. These track effects are supported: Stroke down (which is the default behavior) causes the player to stroke chords on that track from the lowest to the highest string. Stroke up is just the opposite. Tempo change, which of course affects all tracks, lets you change the tempo to another value at a certain point during playback. Remember that this is different from Play | Tempo in that this embeds a *change* in tempo. Play | Tempo sets the tempo used starting at the beginning of the song. Instrument change lets you change the instrument or "let notes ring" setting used on the track at a certain point in the song. Remember that this is different from Track | Instrument in that this embeds a *change* in instrument. Track | Instrument sets the instrument used starting at the beginning of the song. Volume change lets you change the volume of the track at a certain point in the song. Again, remember that this is different from Track | Volume in that this em- beds a *change* in volume. Track | Volume sets the volume used starting at the beginning of the song. The Clear Effect option takes out an effect and removes it's letter from the staff. 5.9. Loading and saving files To save a file, select the File menu and choose Save. If the current tablature has not been saved before, a file dialog will appear. The file dialogs have several fields. First is the file name that lets you manually enter a file name. Below the filename is a list of all files in the directory. Directory names are listed here also. You can change directories by highlighting one in the list and pressing Enter. Once a filename is entered, choose OK to save the file. If you want to save under a different name, select Save As instead of Save. This will always bring up the filename selection dialog. Opening files is done the same way, except that you select Open in- stead of Save. If you have modified the transcription and have not saved it before you chose Open, a box will appear asking you if you would like to save the current tablature before opening another. You will also be asked this if you quit without saving. Try opening the example file: Select File | Open, then type in "DEMO" and press Enter. This will open the file "DEMO.TBT" and enable you to edit and play it. 5.10. Exporting to text The Export feature allows the user to save the tablature as a standard text file. When you export a file to text, TabIt will automatically split lines between bar lines so that the song fits inside the margin. To export a file to text, select File | Export. When this is selected, a dialog appears entitled "Export Settings." In this dialog you have the options of changing the line width, where to break the lines when they reach the edge of the screen, define where page breaks are, and which tracks you would like TabIt to export. To change the maximum length of each line, select the "Line Width" field and enter a value between 30 and 160. The default line width is 78, which can be viewed on most text editors. When exporting to text, TabIt automatically breaks the tablature into sections of a few bars on each line. If you would prefer TabIt to break the lines when it reaches the end of the margin, no matter where it was in the bar, then you can disable this option by unchecking "Break lines at bar." When the "Page breaks" option is enabled, TabIt will add page break codes to the exported file that make it fit evenly on pages when printed. If you would like TabIt to only export the track you are currently editing, select the option labeled "Export current track only." By default it exports all tracks. After you've set the options accordingly, choose OK. You will be prompted for a filename. By default, TabIt assigns a ".TAB" extension to exported text files. After you have entered the filename, TabIt will create the text file. This process usually takes just a few seconds. When it's finished, you can quit and edit the file with a text editor. 5.11. Printing The print feature allows the user to print out tablature. This is very similar to the Export feature. The obvious difference is that Print sends the text to the printer rather than a file. To print your tabla- ture, select File | Print. The options are the same as Export (see sec- tion 5.10 for more information), except that page breaks are enabled by default. After you have chosen OK, TabIt will output the tablature to the first printer port (DOS device PRN). 5.12. Exporting to MIDI The Export to MIDI feature allows you to create a standard MIDI file from the tablature. This is useful for creating songs suitable for sending to others for playing. It could also be useful if you want to add something to your song that TabIt does not support, like a drum track. Another use would be to play your song through Windows Media Player in case your sound card is not fully supported by TabIt, or you need to use Windows MIDI Mapper. To create a MIDI file from your tablature, select File | Export. You will then be prompted for a filename. Note that Export to MIDI does not export muted strings. All other events, including tempo changes, volume changes, and instrument changes, will insert the appropriate MIDI events into the file. TabIt assigns the same MIDI channel numbers as TabIt's track numbers. In other words, track 1 will be placed on channel 1, track 2 on chan- nel 2, etc. 6. Playing 6.1. Configuring your sound card If you plan to use the TabIt's playback features, you will first need to set up your sound card to work with TabIt. Select the File menu and choose Configuration. A dialog will appear listing several sound cards. Select the one that best matches your card. Virtually all sound cards are Adlib compatible, so if you are not sure you can try Adlib compatible. The following is a description of sound card option: None If this is selected, playback features will be dis- abled. Adlib compatible Select this if your sound card is Adlib com- patible. Any sound card that is Sound Blaster com- patible will also work if you select this. SB Pro/16 Select this if your sound card is a Sound Blaster Pro (2.0) or 16. Most sound cards that use an OPL3 or OPL4 chip will also work with this option (like Pro Audio Spectrum). Using this option instead of Adlib compatible will give you more accurate timing and 18 voices instead of Adlib's 9, result- ing in better sound quality when playing more than one track at the same time. SB MIDI Out Use this if you have a 100% Sound Blaster com- patible card and have a MIDI device connected to it. These MIDI channels are used: Track MIDI Channel --------- ------------ 1 1 1 (muted) 2 2 3 2 (muted) 4 3 5 3 (muted) 6 4 7 4 (muted) 8 (muted) are the muted strings, which use a dif- ferent program number. When playing of muted strings is disabled (see "Play muted strings" description below), these channel numbers are used instead : Track MIDI Channel --------- ------------ 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 MPU-401 MIDI Out Select this if you have an MPU-401 interface on your sound card. Use this if you have a MIDI device connected to it, or if your sound card uses the MPU-401 interface for it's internal sound (most wave table cards do). See the SB MIDI Out description above for a listing of channel assign- ments. If you are using SB MIDI Out or MPU-401 MIDI Out, make sure the port number (displayed in hex) to the right of the option is correct. There is another option labeled "Send General MIDI program changes." If this is checked, TabIt will send program changes to the MIDI device (uses same programs as Track | Instrument and instrument changes use). However, since some MIDI devices do not have General MIDI patch assign- ments, this may sound awkward. If you leave this unchecked, you'll need to manually change the programs on your MIDI device. This only applies when using one of the SB MIDI Out options. The option labeled "Play muted strings" lets you turn off the playing of muted strings. Some MIDI devices may not play them correctly. When you're finished setting the options, choose Save. This will save your configuration to disk in a file called TABIT.CFG, so that it will be reloaded the next time you start TabIt. 6.2. Playing These three keys control playback: F5 This key begins playback at the cursor position. You will see the cursor moving along and highlighting notes as it plays them. When it reaches the right of the screen, it will start to scroll. When you are ready to stop, press F8 (or select Play | Stop). F6 This is just like F5, except that it plays all tracks simul- taneously instead of only playing the currently selected track. F8 This stops playback. The cursor will remain where the last note was played. 6.3. Adjusting tempo You can adjust the speed at which the tablature is played by selecting Play | Tempo. A dialog will appear with a box letting you enter a tempo. You can enter any value between 30 and 250. A. Registering Please see the file REGISTER.TXT that came with TabIt for information on registering your copy. B. Revision history 1.2 - Now has a "Let notes ring" option in the instrument and instru- ment change dialogs. See section 5.8 for more information. Many minor bugs fixed also. 1.19 - Fixed SB Pro/16 detection problems that occurred on some com- puters. 1.18 - Improved timing accuracy when using SB Pro/16 option. 1.17 - Several annoying player bugs have been fixed. 1.16 - Most systems were playing inaccurately when running under Win- dows 3.1. Now it warns you if you are using Windows 3.1. 1.15 - Fixed bug in player that was causing multiple tracks to be played inaccurately on some songs. - Title bar now shows the actual name of the song, as set in Edit | Title / Comments. 1.14 - Fixed a problem with Open that was not allowing you to load from certain directories. 1.13 - Fixed problem with bar lines disappearing if you use the blank lines feature. 1.12 - Export to MIDI option was saving time signatures incorrectly, causing the files to be unreadable by many programs. This has been fixed. - Fixed a few load/save problems. 1.11 - Now supports staff breaks (Ctrl+K). - Increased line width on export/print features to 160. - A few minor bugs in exporting have been fixed. 1.1 - Added Export to MIDI option. - Several miscellaneous problems with MIDI devices have been fixed. - Track | Tuning option has been redesigned. - Now supports banjo tuning. - Basses were playing one octave too high. This has been fixed. - MIDI devices were playing notes one octave too high. This has been fixed. - A minor problem in the Title / Comments option has been fixed. It was not clearing the comments when you chose File | New. 1.0 - First release. C. Where to get latest versions Latest versions are always available on our web page at: http://users.aol.com/gtabsoft/ And on our FTP site at: ftp://users.aol.com/gtabsoft/ We are currently working on a Windows version of TabIt. Currently registered users will be able to upgrade to this upcoming version for U.S. $5.00. Some of the planned features include: - Automatically generated notation above tablature - Improved printing capabilities - Support for any Windows sound card - Support for drum tracks - Correct playback of bends, slides, and vibratos - Triplets - Metronome - Edit multiple files at once D. Contacting GTAB Software Please send any questions, suggestions, comments, or bug reports to: gtabsoft@aol.com