SOFTWARE: Edit TAB on your iPad – Guitar Pro now with Notepad

Great to see that the Guitar Pro app for the iPad now has the very handy Notepad functionality that was added to the iPhone version last year.

I use Guitar Pro quite a bit for teaching and personal use, so I’m happy now that the Notepad feature has been added to the iPad app. I can now add licks/song ideas on the go anytime without having to be sitting at my main machine in the studio . These can then be exporting and worked on some more in the main app if needed.

What is really awesome about this new iPad version is that using the iPad’s great touch interface you can add articulations to notes added in Notepad, e.g sliding between two notes on the virtual fingerboard to create a slide. Very cool.

One thing to watch out for, when I updated my existing version of Guitar Pro for iPad the fingerboard would occasionally disappear, a quick uninstall and install sorted this though.

Guitar Pro for iPad is available now in iTunes

SOFTWARE: AC-7 Core DAW Control Surface for iPad

For recording videos for mastertheguitar I tend to sit in the other end of my studio from where my iMac sits, so being able to hit record/change levels etc in Logic I need to get up, walk to the iMac hit some keys then return to my seat. All a bit cumbersome and time consuming!

A while ago I came across an app which allowed me to control Logic via my iPhone and for a while now I have been using the shiny new iPad version called AC-7 Core.

AC-7 Core, developed by Saitara Software, turns your iPad into a wireless DAW control surface connecting to your PC/Mac over WiFi. It features a multi-touch interface with faders for each track in your project with typical functionality you would expect to see such as time display, record, mute, solo, pan, track name, level meter as well as a jog wheel and a bank of DAW specific buttons.

The app itself supports a wide range of applications and has dedicated modes for:

Logic Pro
Pro Tools
Digital Performer
Cubase/Nuendo
Sonar
Reaper
Ableton Live
Reason/Record
Sony Vegas/Acid Pro
FL Studio
Studio One
Audition
Tracktion
Final Cut Pro

Compared to the older iPhone version setup is pretty straightforward. On the Mac it’s all done via OS X’s ‘Audio Midi Setup’ and although you need to download and install a rtpMIDI driver for Windows, that setup looks fairly easy too.

Once setup operation is very smooth with very little lag and selecting and manipulating tracks is easy and actually quite fun!

I’ve found it incredibly useful for my purposes and it does speed up my workflow. I can be sitting with my guitar across the room and quite easily preview a take or arm a track for recording all without needing to be sat at the Mac.

I’ve not tried the Final Cut Pro mode yet but I’d say having a touch based control surface would speed up the video editing process, even if you were sitting at your machine. You could preview your video full screen and use the iPad to scrub/set markers and edit away.

Along with AC-7 Core, a mini version called AC-7 Mini is available for the iPhone as well as an 8 fader extension module called AC-7 Core XT.

If you do a lot of recording with DAWs and own an iPad I recommend you give AC-7 Core a whirl.

AC-7 Core is available on iTunes for $7.99/£4.99.

SOFTWARE: Progression FREE Guitar TAB Editor for iPad

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!

SOFTWARE: Guitar Pro now available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch

Great to see that Arobas software have just released an official Guitar Pro application for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

As a mobile player tie-in to Arobas Music’s famous tablature software package, Guitar Pro for iPhone/iPad is the ideal companion for you to read and play your scores any time, anywhere!

Guitar Pro for iPhone/iPad carries the software’s newest features in terms of notation, and offers accurate visual and audio rendition of your Guitar Pro scores.

Main features:

- Supporting GP3/4/5 and GPX formats
- Load files from iTunes, wifi, e-mail, web
- Library included, with search, filters, and favorites
- Multi-track playback, with soundboard: volume / solo-mute / soundbank
- Metronome
- Visual countdown
- 3-level zoom
- Virtual guitar or bass fretboard (also for lefties), and keyboard

Exclusive features:

- On-the-fly adjustable tempo
- On-the-fly global transposing by half-tones
- Tablature (with rhythmics), standard, and SLASH notations
- Send files via e-mail directly from the application
- Loop-playback of any chosen section
- Easy moving around sections

Optimized for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPad

Having had a chance to play around with it I’m very impressed with the quality of the interface as well as the sounds on offer.

One of the main attractions of Guitar Pro for me is the fact you can create and playback full band scores with reasonable instrument sounds. Handy for creating quick and dirty jam tracks for practice for example.

Also being a mac user now and never really bothering with Powertab files, it’s also a nice touch that I can easily import powertabs into the app just like the desktop version.

The app is currently available for £2.99 on the App Store. I’ve already bought my copy and it’s a very welcome addition to my multitude of guitar orientated iOs apps!

SOFTWARE: Guitar World Lick Of The Day for iPhone/iPad/iPod launched!

Launched last night Agile Partners (creators of the fab TabToolKit and AmpKit) have teamed up with Guitar World Magazine to provide guitar players who own a iPhone/iPad/iPod a great new app for learning licks in various styles.

Guitar World Lick of the Day is a must-have app for guitar players who want to continuously improve their guitar playing skills and broaden their repertoire in a fun and engaging way. Developed by Agile Partners and Guitar World, the world’s best-selling guitar magazine, Lick of the Day is a universal app that provides a ground-breaking approach to guitar instruction on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The app delivers a new and challenging lick to subscribers every day, with a one-of-a-kind feature set that enables guitar players of all skill levels to learn licks in a variety of styles.

Guitar World Lick of the Day is a free app that comes with five licks (including a lick by Zakk Wylde) so you can check out the app’s instructional content and amazing features on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. One-, three- and six-month subscriptions can be easily purchased from within the app to receive a new and challenging lick every day, seven days a week.

Lick Of The Day from John Berry on Vimeo.

Lick of the Day Features

• High quality videos of Guitar World’s award-winning instructors and guitar celebrities, such as Zakk Wylde, Joe Satriani, Gus G., and Phil Collen, demonstrating licks in a wide range of styles: Rock, Metal, Blues, Bluegrass, Classical, Jazz and more
• Timeless celebrity videos from the Guitar World Vault
• Standard and tab music notation for each lick that scroll in sync with videos on iPad
• Practice mode with settings that control music notation tempo, looping, audio synthesis, a metronome and more — a great way for guitar players of all skill levels to practice each lick
• Dynamic fretboard that shows finger positions synchronized with the music notation (lefties can invert the fretboard)
• Performance notes written by Guitar World’s instructors
• “Star” your favorite licks to find them later easily, and sort licks by genre and difficulty
• Download licks to any iOS-based device that you own — iPad, iPhone and iPod touch
• Full support of portrait and landscape orientations on iPad

Download and subscribe to Lick of the Day now! A one-month subscription is available for only £2.99, a three-month subscription for £7.49, and a six-month subscription for £11.99.

Just downloading my copy right now!

SOFTWARE: TabToolkit v 1.2 released

A new release of the fab TabToolKit from Agile Partners is now available for the iPhone and iPad.

The new update now allows the importing of Guitar Pro 6 files, new hi-res images, the ability to open up tab files from the mail app and a various other support and performance improvements.

I’m a big fan of TabToolkit. I have a guitar related get-together coming up where I’ll be playing a few songs and being able to store the tablature on a nice portable device is very handy indeed.

SOFTWARE: TabToolkit coming to iPad!

I’ve been very excited about the possibilities of the iPad since it was announced and applications such as TabToolKit for the iPad are the reason I’m excited:

Next Page »