Guitar Pro files

A Guitar Pro file opens as a new song in Stab: every track with its tuning, every note with its string, fret and technique, and the song’s tempo, sections and repeats. The file itself is never changed.

No Stab yet? Open a Guitar Pro file in your browser, free: nothing to install.

Guitar Pro 3–8

Available on every platform.

Opening a Guitar Pro file

Choose Open… (⌘O)Open… (Ctrl+O)Import… from the File menu, or Import a File under Bring a Song In on the home. On the home, under Bring a Song In, choose Import a File.
Pick the file: .gp (Guitar Pro 7 and 8), .gpx (Guitar Pro 6), or .gp5, .gp4 or .gp3.

A PowerTab (.ptb) or TablEdit (.tef) file doesn’t open in Stab: convert it to Guitar Pro 5 first (PowerTab and TablEdit files).

You can also drop the file on the home or on a song’s window.

A whole folder of them comes in at once, each listed before you choose: see A folder of songs.

Several files picked together each open as a song of their own.

You can also drop the file anywhere on the home.

The song goes into your library as a new song, named after the file’s artist and title (“Artist – Title”), or after the file when it gives neither, and opens. Like any song, it saves itself from then on.

The web keeps no library: the song opens as a demo to try, with every edit allowed. To keep it, choose Keep It in Stab Cloud when you leave it; see The Welcome demo.

What comes in

Tracks, each with its name, tuning, capo, instrument, volume, pan, mute and solo. Guitar and bass parts become tab lanes; a part with no strings, such as a piano or a voice, becomes a keys lane; percussion becomes a drum track with a lane for each piece it plays.
Notes and techniques: ties, dead and ghost notes, accents, palm mutes, let ring, vibrato, harmonics (natural, artificial, tapped, pinch and semi), taps, slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs, bends, grace notes, staccato, pick direction, strums and rasgueado, tremolo picking and trills. The whammy bar comes in as a pitch modifier on each note it bends.
Time and tempo: time signatures, a pickup bar, key signatures and every tempo change.
Words and chords: section markers, chord symbols with their diagrams, lyrics and their verses, and text written over beats.
The mix: Guitar Pro’s mix changes (volume, balance and instrument, ramps included) become automation lanes.
The sound: a guitar plays through the amp closest to the one the file calls for, when it names one.

Repeats and endings

Stab plays the song as it’s heard: repeats and alternate endings are written out in order along the timeline, each ending on its own pass. A repeated section is one clip, placed once for each time it plays, and the copies are linked: change the riff once and every repeat changes with it. The Score writes them back as repeat signs and endings.

Directions are followed as the song plays: D.C. and D.S. (and D.S.S.) go back to the start or the segno once, then on to the Fine, or from To Coda to the coda (al Coda, al Double Coda). After the jump back, repeats aren’t taken again: each plays its last ending. The passage played again is the same clips, linked, and the Score writes the D.C. or D.S. again where it can.

What isn’t kept

The file’s page layout isn’t kept: the Score lays the song out itself. A few notes can be left out: drum sounds the kit has no lane for, or frets no string can reach. When that happens, Stab says so as the song opens (“Imported 4 tracks, 96 bars”) and how many notes were left out.

When a file doesn’t open

Stab says why in a message:

It isn’t a Guitar Pro file: the file is something else, whatever its name says.
This Guitar Pro version isn’t supported: a version of the format Stab doesn’t read.
It has no notes.
The file is damaged: it’s cut short or its contents don’t hold together.

To write a song back out for Guitar Pro, see Exporting Guitar Pro.

Command	Keys	Where
Open…	`⌘O`	the File menu; the home › Import…

Command	Keys	Where
Open…	`Ctrl+O`	the File menu; the home › Import…

Command	Keys	Where
Import…		the home