[fromTheSprawl]

It's been a long time since I last created a thread here, meaning I've got a new project in my mind. What's it gonna be? It's a simple tab creator. Done in Java!(or I could use HTML or something.)

Sample input: E10E10E10E10E10E10E5

Sample output:

e-----------------------------
D-----------------------------
G-----------------------------
B-----------------------------
A-----------------------------
E-10-10-10-10-10-5------------

Sample input: -B2G2D2--G2D3e2-

e---2-------------------------
D-2-3-------------------------
G-2-2-------------------------
B-2---------------------------
A-----------------------------
E-----------------------------

Nice huh. I would add further improvements down the road. Any suggestions,criticisms or anything are welcome.

[calebjonasson]

This may be painful but you could add in a sample rate and play the notes for the person. You could also create a nice gui for creation and maybe a print friendly version.

I like it.

[fromTheSprawl]

True, I could make something like that, but my knowledge of Java GUI is now 0%. In HTML5, I think I could do something with the canvas, but then the problems would be the sounds. By the way I'll try this first so that for example the user could input a tuning so that when the tab is generated the tab would have the correct tuning written. Hey, if I put the audio in I'd be approaching something like the Guitar Pro software, but if I'm not mistaken to properly implement playing the notes I should be able to understand at least basic music theory right?

Hey, thanks for an idea, I'll add preset chords so theoretically instead of -B2G2D2- I could just put in -A- for an A chord. This is sounding more exciting!

On the print friendly version finally I think I'll use a Java library to maybe print a pdf for the tab. At first the output I would be doing would be for just text files, since the way I copy tabs from websites is I copy and paste to Notepad to erase the formatting, then paste it in a Word document. I usually use a landscaped document with the margins almost touching the borders of the paper, and in two columns. Maybe I'd put in formatting for simple copying.

[wsuslack]

Hi, Former Music Student, Current Computer Science Student here.
A few crazy ideas:

• No reason to limit it to Tabs. It be pretty easy to convert your input into classical notation sans rhythm as well.
  Wouldn't be much harder than converting the input into TABS. This would also give someone who doesn't read music the ability to transcribe melodies for piano players to use. Perhaps assisting aspiring song writers.
  
• If the data structure the tabs are saved in is suitably robust you should be able to utilize it to store a classical Staff as well.
  
• Implimenting a gui to display something you are already writing to a file would be comparatively simple with swing.

Sounds like a project I'd like to join. Were it well organized.

[fromTheSprawl]

Lol, if it's well organized?

To put you in perspective of what this projects assets are:

- I don't know a thing about Java GUI.
- I don't know much about music theory. Maybe 1%.
- I don't own a PC. Draw everything from that.

That's why I was aiming for something simpler first, the rest could come along the way.
This project was started anyway because I keep writing tabs I figure on my own and I don't find proper organization on how to store them.

By the way, my plan is to do both a standalone version of this and a web one. The former done in Java, the latter in Javascript. After I finish the first rendition, the one where you follow how I specify the inputs and it generates tabs akin to Ultimate Guitar's, then I'll definitely look into enhancements/additions.