15. Saving and exporting

Export

Export turns the song into a file for someone or something else: a mix to send, stems for a DAW, a tab for Guitar Pro, a score for MuseScore, a PDF to print. Every format is in one sheet, grouped by what it’s for, and the sheet remembers what you chose for this song.

The Export sheet

Available on every platform.

Opening the sheet

The formats

• To listen: Audio. The song rendered through the sound you hear in Stab: the mix, a file for each track (stems), or both. See Exporting audio.
• For other apps: Guitar Pro (.gp or .gp5; see Exporting Guitar Pro), MusicXML (see Exporting MusicXML), MIDI (see Exporting MIDI), and the Stab song itself, a .stab file to open in Stab elsewhere (see Copies).
• To print: Score PDF. The score or its parts, as PDFs. See The Score as a PDF.

A format a song can’t be written as is greyed, and says why when you pick it: MusicXML for a song with only drums, for example. Audio is greyed on the web: it’s in the apps for Mac, Windows, iPad, iPhone and Android.

What, then how

Audio, Guitar Pro, MusicXML and MIDI take a part of the song:

• What: the whole song, the loop, or the bars of what’s selected. A part adds its bars to the file’s name, “Song (bars 9–24)”, so it never replaces the whole song’s file.
• Tracks: as you hear them, or a pick of tracks. Picking tracks here leaves the mixer alone: a muted track can go in the file, and the song stays as it was.

Then each format’s own options show, and only those: Audio’s files, format, sample rate and ending; Guitar Pro’s version and rhythm; MIDI’s channels; the scores to print and whether they make one PDF or one each.

Said before, not after

Under the options, the sheet says what you’ll get: how many files, about how big, how long, and Not in this file: what the format can’t carry (Stab’s sounds in a MIDI file, drums in MusicXML, audio tracks in Guitar Pro). A song with plugins says whether they render into the audio, or that they aren’t on this device. A song with a track made with a newer version of Stab says the export goes without it (see A track made with a newer version of Stab). What an export had to change as it wrote (a fret past the neck moved, lyrics left out) is said after, in the note that says it’s done.

Where the files go

Export Again

The sheet remembers, for each song, the format and options you exported with. Export Again (⇧⌘E)Export Again (Ctrl+Shift+E)Export Again (Ctrl+Shift+E (⇧⌘E on a Mac)) repeats that export without the sheet, replacing the files it wrote last time: re-bouncing after an edit is one step. The menu item names what it repeats, “Export Again: Mix and Stems (WAV)”. If its folder has gone, the sheet opens instead.

Exports are free on every song you can open. A song shared with you whose owner keeps it in Stab can’t be exported, printed or copied; see Shared songs.