pmtabs

joined 3 months ago
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https://github.com/stemrollerapp/stemroller

It can work with files you have on your machine, or you can use the in-built search bar to search YouTube for audio to use.

There are lots of websites that offer this service, but they usually restrict you to a certain number of files, or files of a certain length, with daily credit limits or mandatory sign-ups, and all that usual AI nonsense that annoys us daily. StemRoller is a program you install on your own machine (actually, you just extract it and run it from the folder), and so you can therefore use it however you like with no restrictions.

The results of any AI stem generation are usually pretty poor (for transcription purposes, at least), and it's no different with StemRoller. However, in certain circumstances, it really does help. For example, I'm currently tabbing a song where I know the drummer is playing a million ghost notes on the snare, but which I simply can't hear on the album recording. StemRoller's drum track output makes those ghost notes audible. The vocal output makes the backing vocals more obvious, too, which helps.

I wouldn't trust the guitar outputs for transcribing guitar solos or anything like that, but if you have a basic need like in my drum example, it could make life easier for you.

 

The stems were extremely helpful for this one. If anyone needs them, let me know 👍

 

Notepad++ is a plain text editor, primarily for programmers/coders, but if you work with ASCII tablature, it's a must-have.

It allows you to select/cut/copy/paste vertical chunks of text. This means you can add, move or delete bars of tab from the stave. It also lets you drag a vertical line from which you can then type on all selected lines simultaneously, allowing you to draw up bars of tab very quickly, like so:

I've yet to find another plain text editor with this functionality, but if you know of any others, please share!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Instrument stems are the individual audio files that comprise a complete recording. So you might have separate audio files for the guitars, the bass, the drums, and so on. Using stems to transcribe or practice music makes life so much easier.

A fantastic resource for freely-downloadable stems can be found here:

https://linktr.ee/burntstems

From there, you can find many other resources, channels and outposts for stems, so it's a great starting point. Many metal bands have song stems available, in particular Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, Disturbed, and many others!

If you need help fetching your desired stems, feel free to ask for guidance.