Guitar Pro 6

Malice

So I see the new version of Guitar Pro is out. Is anyone on here using it?
The actual application itself is pretty small but it comes with a massive soundbank (1.7Gb) which took forever to download (probably overloaded servers or something).
I'm really liking the new drum sounds but the method of actually inputting drums seems to have changed which strikes me as a bit odd. Whereas before each drum had a specific note (e.g. bass drum was 36) now you have to open the drum palette and click to add the drums. It doesn't seem to be possible to add the drums to the tab score any more they must be added to the standard notation one. Seems a bit strange but presumably there's a good reason for doing that. Maybe they are trying to get drummers to use the software and the drummers couldn't read tab?

The new bass sounds are great as well, they have a much better tone to them than the ones in the previous version. Overall the sound that you can get out of it is much better than GP5 but obviously still quite a bit away from reality (which is fair enough really, it's a tab editor, not a DAW ).

Probably the biggest thing that I don't like is the fact that the distorted palm-muted guitar sounds like crap . At least in the previous version it was possible to use a couple of presets which did a reasonable job, here the chug sound is much weaker.

The new panel-based as opposed to toolbar-based interface takes a bit of getting used to but it uses a lot less screen space than the previous version and isn't going to be as daunting to newcomers. It's also gone multiple-document so you can now have many different tabs open at the same time. The loading time seems to have improved considerably as well.

Anyway, enough waffling, are there any other Guitar Pro users out there?

quicklickpaddy

Is it free to download?

Malice

quicklickpaddy wrote: »

Is it free to download?

You can download a demo here. The full version will cost you €60 but in my opinion it's well worth it. You can import/export to MIDI, export to WAV, use it as a tuner, speed trainer, chord finder, scale lister and more. It's also an excellent tab editor .

Once I heard the new version was out I had no hesitation in upgrading.

Hockney

Malice_ wrote: »

So I see the new version of Guitar Pro is out. Is anyone on here using it?
The actual application itself is pretty small but it comes with a massive soundbank (1.7Gb) which took forever to download (probably overloaded servers or something).
I'm really liking the new drum sounds but the method of actually inputting drums seems to have changed which strikes me as a bit odd. Whereas before each drum had a specific note (e.g. bass drum was 36) now you have to open the drum palette and click to add the drums. It doesn't seem to be possible to add the drums to the tab score any more they must be added to the standard notation one. Seems a bit strange but presumably there's a good reason for doing that. Maybe they are trying to get drummers to use the software and the drummers couldn't read tab?

The new bass sounds are great as well, they have a much better tone to them than the ones in the previous version. Overall the sound that you can get out of it is much better than GP5 but obviously still quite a bit away from reality (which is fair enough really, it's a tab editor, not a DAW ).

Probably the biggest thing that I don't like is the fact that the distorted palm-muted guitar sounds like crap . At least in the previous version it was possible to use a couple of presets which did a reasonable job, here the chug sound is much weaker.

The new panel-based as opposed to toolbar-based interface takes a bit of getting used to but it uses a lot less screen space than the previous version and isn't going to be as daunting to newcomers. It's also gone multiple-document so you can now have many different tabs open at the same time. The loading time seems to have improved considerably as well.

Anyway, enough waffling, are there any other Guitar Pro users out there?

I downloaded the demo of GP5 and was very impressed, I never went for the full version but am now considering it.

I've never used the sound banks at all myself, so haven't really tapped into a huge part of the software it seems, I'm just happy to have accurate tabs which I can get for free. It's great to have the sheet music there also for figuring out pauses, what key songs are in etc.

In GP6 is it possible to slow down each MIDI without changing pitch? I couldn't find this in feature the GP5 demo, it'd be essential for me and would likely tip me over the edge to splash out on the full version.

Malice_ what exactly do you use the sound banks for? Can you write seperate guitar/bass/drum tracks into the tab editor, and hook your guitar up to PC and jam over all tracks at the same time?

Also, is there a time limit on the software once you buy it, or do you have to keep updating it every year or so for more cash?

Do you find it handy for writing songs when you're on your own?

Malice

Thanks for the questions Hockney, I'll try and answer them all

Hockney wrote: »

I downloaded the demo of GP5 and was very impressed, I never went for the full version but am now considering it.

I've never used the sound banks at all myself, so haven't really tapped into a huge part of the software it seems, I'm just happy to have accurate tabs which I can get for free. It's great to have the sheet music there also for figuring out pauses, what key songs are in etc.

The RSE uses a lot more memory and CPU power than plain MIDI but to my ears it sounds a lot better. It's not what you'd expect from a full-on DAW with specialised VSTs but that's not what Guitar Pro is trying to be. I'd highly recommend comparing the sound quality of the two (MIDI v RSE) and seeing what you think.

Hockney wrote:

In GP6 is it possible to slow down each MIDI without changing pitch? I couldn't find this in feature the GP5 demo, it'd be essential for me and would likely tip me over the edge to splash out on the full version.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean here. You can set the tempo of any song which will slow it down without affecting the pitch. In GP5 click the Sound menu and then click the sixth item on the menu (it's not labelled, it just has a picture of a musical note and the current tempo on it).
You can also just highlight a few bars and use the Play Looped/Speed Trainer option to either loop the selection forever (or until you press stop) or loop it progressively faster. I use this a lot if when trying to learn parts of songs. Start off slow until you get the riff down and then gradually build up speed.

Hockney wrote:

Malice_ what exactly do you use the sound banks for? Can you write seperate guitar/bass/drum tracks into the tab editor, and hook your guitar up to PC and jam over all tracks at the same time?

Yep, that's exactly what I use them for. Depending on which of my computers I'm using I either connect directly through an Audigy sound card or through the USB interface on my Pod XT Live. Mostly though I use Guitar Pro as a quick composing tool. It can export to PDF, text and WAV so I can easily write out a riff or two and e-mail them to people for review or collaboration or whatever.

Hockney wrote:

Also, is there a time limit on the software once you buy it, or do you have to keep updating it every year or so for more cash?

Do you find it handy for writing songs when you're on your own?

No, there's no limit. Once you've bought it, it's yours. I've been using Guitar Pro 5 for the last 3 years and I firmly believe I've gotten my money's worth out of it. I bought version 6 as soon as I heard it was out primarily to support the developers and also out of curiosity to see what new features were added.

Zombienosh

I used to use this a lot, I used GP3 and 4, then stopped. I mostly used it to keep tracks of songs I'd written. now i just record them :pac:

Malice

AlcoholicA wrote: »

I used to use this a lot, I used GP3 and 4, then stopped. I mostly used it to keep tracks of songs I'd written. now i just record them :pac:

Wait until you record something and come back to it months or even years later and you can't remember what you played. It's happened to me in the past . I make sure that anything vaguely complicated gets tabbed out. That way I'm unlikely to forget how I played it.

mawk

in before the ban!

Malice

mawk wrote: »

in before the ban!

Rather than making a smart comment it would be a lot more helpful if you reported the dodgy post.