Write Tab from Audio

Write Tab from Audio isn’t on the web: the web doesn’t play recordings or run the model it listens with. Open the song in Stab on a Mac, a PC, an iPad, an iPhone or Android.

Writing tab from a recording

1. Put the caret in the track to write into: a guitar, a bass or a keys track. Its tuning, capo and range decide the frets and notes written.
2. Choose what to hear: drag along the recording’s waveform with ⇧ held to pick a stretch, or turn the loop on to hear the loop’s bars. With neither, the whole recording is heard.
3. Right-click the recording’s lane and choose Write Tab from Audio into and the track’s name, followed by what it will hear: “(the selection)” or “(the loop)”.

The pill over the pane counts it out: “Writing tab from the recording: 40 % · Stop”. Click it to stop, or choose Stop Analysis (⌘.)Stop Analysis (Ctrl+.)Stop Analysis (not on Web); the lane’s menu says Stop Writing Tab meanwhile.

When it’s done, the notes are in a voice of their own on the track, placed where the recording plays them (through its sync pins, if it has any) and fretted as a take played in is: in one hand position where the phrase fits, low on the neck unless the notes call for higher (see Re-fret for how strings are chosen). A note’s velocity follows how loud it was heard. On strings, a note whose pitch moved gets a vibrato or a bend, and a note that wasn’t picked (it starts softly where the note before it on its string ends) is marked as reached by a hammer-on, a pull-off or a slide from that note.

If the menu says Write Tab from Audio (work in a guitar, bass or keys track), the caret is in a track it can’t write into, such as drums: put it in another track first. If it hears nothing, it says “No notes heard in this recording”.

On a take you recorded

A take recorded in Stab works the same way: select it (tap its waveform) and choose Write Tab from Audio from the take’s menu (right-click it), the action bar or the Inspector’s Recording section. It hears the part of the take inside the loop when the loop is on it, else the whole take. The tab goes into the track you’re working in when it’s a guitar, bass or keys track, else the song’s first guitar or bass part.

From a band’s recording

In a full mix, the other instruments get in the way. If the Stems model is installed, the menu also offers Write Tab from Audio, from the Mix (Separated First), or (Its Bass Separated First) for a bass track: the recording is separated first, and only its bass, or its guitars and keys, are heard.

Reviewing the draft

While the draft is under review, its notes are drawn in the track’s colour where Stab was fairly sure of them, and in the doubt colour where it wasn’t. A card at the foot of the Editor pane says how many there are, for example “Tab from audio: 48 notes, 6 doubtful”, with:

• Select Doubtful: selects the notes it was least sure of, to fix, move or delete.
• Quantize: moves the draft’s notes onto the grid.
• Discard: takes the draft away. Undone at once if you haven’t edited since; otherwise the draft’s notes that are left are deleted, in one undo step.
• Keep: keeps the notes as they stand, and the colours go.

Edit the notes as you would any others while you review. Writing tab again from another stretch keeps the last draft as it stands.

What to expect

It does best on clear, single instruments: a clean guitar, a piano, a ukulele, a bass. Heavy distortion, a low eight-string and dense mixes come out rougher. It hears pitches and timing; check the strings it chose, the techniques it marked (a soft pick can read as a hammer-on, a quick vibrato can be missed), and the rhythm against the grid.

Its model

Write Tab from Audio listens with the Tab from Audio model. If it isn’t on this device, the lane’s menu says Write Tab from Audio: Get Its Model…, which gets it from the Sound Library: see Model packs.