Workspaces
A song in Stab is laid out in panes, and every pane is a view of the same song: the Editor’s tab lanes, the score, the chord chart, the Stage, the mixer. Change the song in one and the others show it; play it and they move together. A workspace is an arrangement of panes you keep: which panes, where they sit, and how each one looks. Choose one and the song in front takes that shape at once, so you can go from writing tab to mixing to practising without rebuilding your panes each time.
Workspaces
Available on every platform.
How it works
- A pane’s bar holds its tools. Select its icon or title to change what it shows. The dot sets its link colour, ⚙ its own settings, then Split Right, Split Below, Maximize and Close. Keys and menu commands act on the pane in front, its bar tinted.
- Split a pane to make room for another view, and drag the line between two panes to resize them. Drag a pane by its bar onto another one to move it: near an edge it docks beside it, in the middle the two swap.
- ⚙ sets the pane’s own look: a score’s TAB staff and page view, an Editor’s grid and following. It also has Pin to Title Bar.
- Link colours: panes of one colour share their place in the song, the caret and the tracks they show. A pane with no colour keeps its own.
- Maximize shows one pane alone; the same button brings the others back.
- The workspace menu in the title bar saves the layout (Save as Workspace…) and switches to another in one step. Beside it, pinned views keep a view at hand as an icon that opens it in a popup. See Pinned views.
Choosing a workspace
The menu names the workspace the song was laid out as, even a built-in one you haven’t added to your list, such as Play Along for a demo that opens on the Stage. Choosing one replaces the song’s panes with the workspace’s. Every new pane opens where you were in the song, and keeps the look saved with the workspace: an Editor’s grid and following, a Score’s TAB staff and page view, the panes’ link colours. Which tracks a pane shows isn’t kept, since tracks belong to a song: each pane starts with all of them.
The song keeps its panes as they are when you close it, whichever workspace they came from.
Making your own
- Arrange the song’s panes as you want them: see Panes.
- Choose Save as Workspace… from the workspace menu and type a name, then choose Save.press Enter. Leaving the field without Enter saves nothing.
The new workspace joins the list. Saving under a name you already use updates that workspace.
With a workspace current, the same menu has, with its name in them:
- Update “Practice” to This Layout saves the song’s panes as they are now into that workspace. Once you change the panes after choosing or saving a workspace (split, close or swap a pane, change a link colour, or move a divider a little), a dot follows its name on the workspace button, as in “Practice ·”, and this command moves to the top of the menu. The dot goes when you update the workspace or choose another. Scrolling, zooming and focus don’t count as changes.
- Rename “Practice”… gives it another name.
- Delete “Practice” removes it from the list. The last workspace can’t be deleted.
Your workspaces are kept on this device and apply to every song you open on it. On the Mac and Windows, a workspace also remembers where its other windows were, for a second monitor.
Built-in workspaces
Add Built-In Workspace in the workspace menu adds one of Stab’s ready-made workspaces to your list (it’s in the Settings menu too). You can change it afterwards like any other.
- Arrange: the song’s sections and clips over the tracks you edit.
- Tab & Score: tablature and standard notation on pages, one over the other, in step.
- Score with TAB: notation on pages with its TAB staff, and the mixer under it.
- Score: the score on pages, with Score Setup beside it.
- Mix: the mixer, and the sound of the track you’re on.
- Sound Design: the tracks, and the sound of the one the caret’s on.
- Practice: the tracks you play along to over the Instrument with its notes falling, a playlist of what to practise, and the transport.
- Audio & MIDI: the tracks you play into, the Audio & MIDI pane and the transport.
- Play Along: the song on the Stage, beside the tracks, the Instrument with its notes falling, and the transport.
- Edit: the tracks, with the Inspector beside them.
- Write Chords: the chord chart to write in, beside the tracks and the transport.
- Write: the tracks to write in, over the Instrument following the caret’s track, as a new song opens.
Transcribe adds a recording’s video over the tracks and the score, to write down what’s played. The iPad doesn’t offer it.
| Command | Keys | Where |
|---|---|---|
| (a workspace) | ⌃1–⌃9 | the Window menu › Workspaces; the toolbar › Workspace |
| Save as Workspace… | the Window menu › Workspaces; the toolbar › Workspace | |
| Update Workspace to This Layout | the Window menu › Workspaces; the toolbar › Workspace | |
| Rename Workspace… | the Window menu › Workspaces; the toolbar › Workspace | |
| Delete Workspace | the Window menu › Workspaces; the toolbar › Workspace | |
| Add Built-In Workspace | the Window menu › Workspaces; the toolbar › Workspace |
| Command | Keys | Where |
|---|---|---|
| (a workspace) | the title bar › workspace | |
| Save as Workspace… | the title bar › workspace | |
| Update Workspace to This Layout | the title bar › workspace | |
| Rename Workspace… | the title bar › workspace | |
| Delete Workspace | the title bar › workspace | |
| Add Built-In Workspace | the title bar › workspace; Settings |
| Command | Keys | Where |
|---|---|---|
| (a workspace) | the title bar › workspace; the tabs › workspace (a phone) | |
| Save as Workspace… | the title bar › workspace; the tabs › workspace (a phone) | |
| Update Workspace to This Layout | the title bar › workspace; the tabs › workspace (a phone) | |
| Rename Workspace… | the title bar › workspace; the tabs › workspace (a phone) | |
| Delete Workspace | the title bar › workspace; the tabs › workspace (a phone) | |
| Add Built-In Workspace | the title bar › workspace; Settings; the tabs › workspace › (a phone) |