Using TabTrax FAQ - click here
Q.1) What is TabTrax?
A.1) A program to import tablature music files (tab files) and convert them to midi. TabTrax can also be used as a composition and playback program.
Q.2) What kind of tab files does TabTrax support?
A.2) Currently any drum tab file should be decodable by TabTrax. If TabTrax fails to import a “reasonable” drum tab file correctly, 2112design will make its best attempt to fix it within 7 days.
Q.3) There are so many tab file formats, especially for drums, how does TabTrax know how to interpret them all?
A.3) Lots of testing and lots of hard work. There are 3 major time formats used for tab files, I call them “linear”, “meter” and “count”. Linear is the simplest form, each “tick” represents an equal amount of time, either a 1/16th or a 1/32nd note. Meter and count formats use a time line to indicate the duration of each note. Meter and count formats are often used on more complex tabs, such as Rush, Led Zeppelin and Dream Theater songs, involving complex time signatures and triplets.
Q.4) Does TabTrax run on MAC?
A.4) Yes and no. TabTrax is written for windows but will run on a MAC using a windows emulator. 2112design is seeking a MAC programmer to develop a native MAC port.
Q.5) Does TabTrax talk to my midi synth?
A.5) Yes, usually. If you have a problem, please let me know. I have tested with Roland JV880 and XV2020 (XV2020 sounds awesome!).
Q.6) Can I use TabTrax to compose my own music?
A.6) Yes. While there are many music composition programs available today, TabTrax is unique for 3 reasons, 1) you can download, play and manipulate drum tracks from any song that has a tab on the internet, so you don’t have to start from scratch creating a drum part; you can use a little creative plagiarism. 2) TabTrax has the easiest to use drum music editor interface. 3) Wav files can be synchronized with and overlaid on top of the midi track. With this feature, the guitar and bass tracks could be recorded with a simple click track, and then a more complex drum track can be added later with TabTrax.
Q.7) Will TabTrax help me be a better drummer?
A.7) Absof*#kinglutely!! I wrote TabTrax because I am a drummer and was frustrated because I could get tabs for my favorite songs on the net but couldn’t easily figure out how to play them all or what all the drum part should sound like. TabTrax brings the tab to life. It allows you to isolate groves or fills from a song, loop on selections, slow down and gradually speed up, listen to the drum part only or overlay the drum part on the original song. With TabTrax, you have a lifetime supply of private lessons from Neil Peart, John Bonham (yes, even dead guys), Mike Portnoy, Lars Ulrich, you name it! Not bad for $29.95!
Q.8) I’m a guitarist/bass player, what can TabTrax do for me?
A.8) Having TabTrax is like having a real drummer available 24/7 except it doesn’t drink as much or smell so bad. Why play along with a boring click track or mindless drum machine when you can jam with the real drum part to your favorite songs?
Q.9) Why doesn’t TabTrax import guitar and bass tabs?
A.9) It will, I just want to make drum tabs 100% solid first then add guitar and bass. TabTrax 2.0 will support drum, guitar and bass and should be available January 2005.
Q.10) Many tabs have repeat measures and repeats with alternate endings. Can TabTrax handle those?
A.10) In almost all cases, yes.
Q.11) TabTrax is such a great idea, why didn’t anyone think of it before?
A.11) Someone did but I killed them and stole to software! Just kidding. Importing drum tabs is not simple because tab format it is not a well defined syntax, like say a programming language. The software that interprets the tab file has to get inside the mind of the tabber and use some amount of artificial intelligence to figure out what the tabber intended. This software is not easy to write.
Q.12) What file formats are supported by TabTrax?
A.12) Tab files in plain text format for input, midi for output and TabTrax native format (.ttx) for both input and output. TabTrax will also support plain text tab file output in a future version.
Q.13) What is the capital of Norway?
A..13) Oslo.
Q.14) Can I print formatted sheet music?
A.14) Yes, in the full version. With TabTrax, you can go from finding the tab on the internet to printed standard drum notation sheet music in less than one minute.
Q.15) It’s hard to see the music on the screen when I’m sitting at my drums and my computer is half way across the room. What’s up with that?
A.15) In version 1.8 and above, there is a special playback mode that “supersizes” the music notation display. See the View Menu, Display/Print Configuration.
Q.16) Why is your company called 2112design?
A.16) Because Alex, Geddy and especially Neil are my gods.
Q.17) What has Q.13 got to do with TabTrax?
A.17) Absolutely nothing.
Q.18) Can I output to .wav format so I can burn to CD or import to a mixer program?
A.18) Yes, using a Midi Synthesizer. I recommend SynthFont, it works great and it's free. When you export as .wav (in the file menu), TabTrax will guide you to download SynthFont.
Q.19) I sent you an email but I didn't get a reply?
A.19) I ALWAYS reply to email within 24 hours. If I didn't reply to your email it means I either didn't get it or you didn't get my reply (usually because of spam blockers). Please make sure you mention TabTrax in the subject line of an email or I may mistake it for the hundreds of junk emails I get every day. If you don't get an answer in a day try steve@stevehaigh.com (my personal email) or call my cell number, country code 66-69830341. Customer support is my number one priority and I will never let a customer support request go un-answered.
Q.20) What was the first tab TabTrax ever decoded?
A.20) Pull me under by Dream Theater.
Q.21) How can I learn more about using TabTrax?
A.21) There is a build in help system under the "Help" menu and there are several very useful tutorial movies at http://2112design.com/tutorials/index.htm
Q.1) How can I import a tab file from the internet?
A.1) Search for “songname drum tab”. I find the better tabs are on http://www.mxtabs.net or http://drumtabs.net but anywhere will do. Do Ctrl-A (select all) and Ctrl-C (copy) on the tab in the web browser. Do a Ctrl-V (paste) on the TabTrax main window. TabTrax will prompt you for a file name to save the the original tab file. I usual use a format like: “D-bandname-songname”. ‘D’ is for drums.
TabTrax will then import the tab and the import dialog will pop up. This dialog shows useful information about the import process such as how the character in the tab file are mapped to instruments (drums and cymbals), how time is interpreted and how the lines in the file are interpreted. In most cases it’s fine to simple hit ok, but if the tab file doesn’t import perfectly, it is possible to re-import it and modify some of the import options using this dialog.
Q.2) I already have a tab file on disk, how can I import that?
A.2) Open it on the file:import menu or put it in the “Tabs” folder under your “My Documents” folder and it will appear in the file browser on the right of the screen. Double click the file to open it.
Q.3) Some of the instrument assignments are not what I was expecting. Can I fix that?
A.3) TabTrax attempts to map characters in the tab to the most logical instrument for that character based on the line label. For example, on a high-hat or cymbal line, ‘O’ would map to open high-hat, on a tom line ‘1’ would map to high tom. If there is a description of the character mapping in the tab file, this will be used.
Q.4) How do I create triplets
A.4) There is build in help under the help menu which talks about triplets in detail, but basically select 3 notes by dragging on the count bar and hit the triplet button on the tool bar or the "3" key.
Q.5) How do I create ghost notes, flams, accents, etc.
A.5) Similar to triplets, select the notes and press the ghost, flam or accent button on the toolbar.
Q.6) There's no sound coming out of my computer when I press play.
A.6) On the Midi menu, select all the available midi players. Also, try saving to a midi file and play back via windows media player. For demo version users who can't save to midi, download a midi file from somewhere on the web and try it. If this fails, contact me.
Q.8) How do I make a choked crash cymbal sound.
A.8) Create a crash cymbal then place a rest (set insert cursor and press space bar). The rest will cut the sound short.
Q.9) Sometimes the instruments (drum/cymbal mappings) in the tab don't import the way I expect them to. Can I fix this?
A.9) Yes. In the import dialog (the thing that comes as you import a tab file) you can double click on the instrument and another dialog box will come up which lets you change the mapping of that instrument to any other midi instrument.
Q.10) How can I get half open high-hat sounds?
A.10) You can't because it's not in the midi percussion (channel 10) sound set. There are two types of Agogo in the midi percussion set and I don't even know what an Agogo is but there are no half open high hats! If anyone knows an answer to this problem, please email me.
Q.11) How can I get the tempo of the midi playback to be the same of the real song?
A.11) Adjust the default tempo on the tool bar. A quick way to find out the correct tempo is find the duration of the original song (from your CD player or http://www.freedb.org). Then go to the last measure in the TabTrax display and you will see the playback time of this measure. Adjust the default tempo until the playback time of the last measure matches the length of the song. (Note: this still may not be correct unless the tab is 100% correct)
Q.12) Sometimes when I import a song (Stairway to Heaven for example) some of the notes extend past the end of the bar. How can I edit these notes?
A.12) This happens when the count line is not interpreted correctly. In the case of Stairway to Heaven, TabTrax does not interpret "trip" correctly. To edit these notes, extend the measure by adjusting the time signature to say 12/4. Then edit all you want and return the time signature to the correct value when you are done editing.