SOFTWARE: Progression FREE Guitar TAB Editor for iPad
March 25, 2011
I’ve been using TabToolkit on the iPad for quite a while now. It’s a great app for teaching and personal use but unfortunately it’s read only, there’s no way to actually edit/create your own TABs.
Cue the recently launched Progression for iPad.
Developed by Notion Music and based on their popular Progression music software for guitar, Progression for iPad provides users with the ability to write, edit, and playback guitar tablature using real audio samples all via the intuitive touch interface of the iPad.
I grabbed my copy last night, for the grand total of £0.00 (yes the app is FREE!) and had a play around. I was immediately impressed by the note input method, which involves the user touching the relevant note on the fingerboard rather than typing in fret numbers. I found this way of working to be pretty slick and had knocked up a few bars of TAB in no time at all.
Rhythm values are selected from a menu bar above the fretboard which also has guitar specific techniques like slides, hammer-ons/pull-offs, tapping and picking directions. Strings bends are also catered for as well as vibrato and whammy bar antics.
The menu bar at the bottom has handy undo/redo buttons, as well as forward/backward cursor buttons which is great for scanning through the TAB to edit specific points. There is also the Play button, which will play back the TAB using pretty decent sounding guitar samples. Though at the moment the app seems to only support an Acoustic guitar sound.
One criticism I did have was that the app didn’t support landscape mode. Today though, update 1.1 is now available that not only adds this functionality but also adds support for Bass guitar!
The fact that some updates are being released already, seems to me that Notion will be adding more functionality over time. If so, I’d love to see the ability to import/export other TAB formats, though currently TABs can be emailed as PDFs.
Progression for iPad is a good app for editing TABs and has a pretty good future. To my knowledge it’s the only one currently available and it’s FREE so it makes sense, if you play guitar and own an iPad, to pick it up now!
ALBUM: Pete Thorn shares song samples from his upcoming album “Guitar Nerd”
March 25, 2011
Pete Thorn, session guitarist, possibly best known as Chris Cornell’s guitar player has just released some sneak previews of songs from his upcoming instrumental solo album:
It’s been 5 years in the making… it’s been a labor of love, and I’m really proud of it- my first all instrumental guitar album! It runs the gamut from mellow to rip-your-face-off hard rock.
People know me mainly as a sideman/session player, but with this album I’ve tried to really just be ME- it’s 100% written, engineered, and produced by me. I mixed most of it, and the legendary Bob Clearmountain mixed three tracks (thanks Bob!!). Guitars are all me, and I shared bass duties with three of my good pals- Steve Stevens, Jon Button, and Jorgen Carlsson. Blair Sinta, Toss Panos, and Dorian Crozier played drums (additional drum programming by yours truly). I hope you dig “Guitar Nerd”!!!
The album is in its final stages of Mastering and hopefully will be released at the end of April.
ALBUM: Black Country Communion next album “2″ tracklisting announced!
March 23, 2011
Black Country Communion, the Anglo-American classic rock group featuring blues rock guitarist/vocalist Joe Bonamassa, bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Trapeze), drummer Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin), and keyboardist Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater), has announced the track-listing for their highly anticipated second album.
Produced by Kevin Shirley, the album, which is simply entitled “2”, will be released in the U.K. on June 13th via Mascot Records, and June 14th in the U.S. on the J&R Adventures label.
The album track listing is as follows:
1. The Outsider
2. Man In The Middle
3. I Can See Your Spirit
4. The Battle For Hadrian’s Wall
5. Save Me
6. Cold
7. Smokestack Woman
8. Faithless
9. An Ordinary Son
10. Little Secret
11. Crossfire
12. Crawl
Read the full online announcement here: http://www.noblepr.co.uk/Press_Releases/blackcountrycommunion/album2.htm
MUSIC: New Bumblefoot single ‘Invisible’ available TODAY!
March 22, 2011
Bumblefoot‘s new single “Invisible” is now available to buy and download now!
It’s not just the single that is available though. Ever in touch with today’s tech, Bumblefoot is offering various downloadable packages:
Guns N’ Roses guitarist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal has released his third song in a series of singles being released digitally this year, the original song “Invisible”.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY
The song is available in MP3 (320kps), AAC, and higher-quality formats FLAC, MP3 HD, Apple Lossless and WAV. An instrumental version of the song is available in these formats as well.
For guitarists, there’s a “Player Pack” that has a transcription of the entire lead guitar track as a PDF file – musical notation, TAB, fingers, picking, and helpful hints. Included with the transcription is a ‘Backing Track’ mix and a ‘Boosted Lead Guitar’ mix, in both WAV & MP3 formats.
The “Producer Pack” contains 48kHz/24-bit Stereo WAV files of the mix ‘stems’ – there’s a file of drums, bass, guitar, 2nd guitar, vocals and backing vocals that you can load into your multi-track software and play with levels, make your own mixes, and hear every nuance of each instrument’s performance on its own track.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE STORE & VIEW SAMPLES
Just nabbed my own copy of the single as well as the “Player Pack” \m/
MasterThatRiff! 69 – Avenged Sevenfold “Afterlife”
March 22, 2011
Latest MasterThatRiff! episode looking at the classic rifftastic Avenged Sevenfold track “Afterlife”:
TAB available here.
VIDEO: Guthrie Govan playing on Korean EBS channel
March 16, 2011
Some great video footage of Guthrie Govan playing on the EBS channel in Korea with bassist C J Hann:
CHECK IT OUT: Sacred Mother Tongue Studio Diary – #1
March 16, 2011
I love these studio diary videos, behind the scenes stuff always rocks.
Here’s the first installment of Sacred Mother Tongue‘s Studio Diary:
Sacred Mother Tongue are hard at work recording their second studio release with producer Scott Atkins, follow their journey and antics in the studio with their Studio Diary.
This first instalment shows Lee ripping his hands apart tracking drums and AJ laying down the guide riffage for the band’s blistering new album. After just one week the poor producer, Scott Atkins, is a broken man……
