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Guitar Tablature not displaying the notes/chords properly


j_j

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I have several midi songs; jazz guitar, where I select the guitar track and print out the guitar tablature so I can learn the songs as the artist played them. The problem I am confronted with is the tablature doesn't 'consistently' display the notes/chords as they are played; timing, missing notes, etc.

 

With the Inspector open and the MIDI Region expanded, I opt for the following settings: Style: Guitar Mix 2 (so I can see the notation displayed above the tablature), Quantize: Default - this typically ends up having 16,24 displayed. I also check Interpretation, Syncopation, and No Overlap. Depending on the song, I end up adjusting the "Quantize" settings....for example changing from 16,24 to 4,3. Many times even this doesn't get the tablature to be 100% accurate and I have adjust the 'Quantize' setting to get the majority of the song as close as possible and then to open the Piano Roll and use that in conjunction with notation/tablature to adjust and/or insert notes.

 

Once I get this where I am happy with it I then go back through the song and adjust the tablature to get a better voicing; adjusting the fingering so that I don't have to stretch 8 frets, for example, keeping the fingering more or less around the 5th position (preference). This is tedious and I have probably overlooked some Logic setting that will (I hope) save me all of this work.

 

What have I missed or overlooked???? I still have a LOT to learn with Logic and every day I find a better way of doing something or a shortcut that saves me time. Logic is A W E S O M E but....... The local Apple Logic expert is good but notation/tablature is not on his resume.

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Missing notes are normally only "missing" because you have the wrong quantize set for the part. The notes aren't really missing, they're just bunched together with other notes. For example, if you played four D's in a row, all 16th notes, but quantize was set to "8", you're only going to see two eighth notes on the staff, not four sixteenths. Here, each eighth note is really two visually overlapped 16th notes. And this occurs because with a quantize set to "8" the score editor is being told to display 8th notes as the fastest rhythmic value that can be displayed.

 

Otherwise, the score editor never misses displaying notes unless you've got other parameters deliberately set to exclude them from being displayed (low and high limit on a staff style).

 

Next...

 

For sure, the idea is to use a quantize value that works for most of the part. And for any section where you need a different value in order for the notes to display correctly, cut the region using the scissor tool to isolate those bars and apply a different quantize to just those regions.

 

Interpretation... I'd strongly suggest that you disable the Interpretation checkbox. Then, select all of your notes and apply "force interpretation". This now gives you the flexibility to selectively turn off interpretation (using the defeat interpretation function) on specific notes as needed.

 

In terms of the time needed to get your score in shape, short of the time-saving features of score editor quantization and interpretation, there's little that Logic can do to guess what your musical intentions are.

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Thanks Ski. You nailed the problem in your 1st paragraph. I played around with the quantize setting and while I may get what I want for 2, 3, or more bars it typically won't work for other parts so I have to revert to the original setting. I'll try this again without the Interpretation checked. I hadn't used the scissor tool yet.....still learning Logic.....and I'll try the "force interpretation" also. Thanks for the guidance!

 

I retired 6 months ago and my expertise was with Cisco routers (4 Cisco certs) & network security. I thought configuring routers was a challenge....ha! Logic has been kicking my back side for a while but I think with the help of this forum and contributor's like yourself I can tame the beast. Once again, thanks.

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Hi J_J

 

Configuring routers is child's play compared to Logic.

 

Sometimes... :lol:

 

Glad to have been able to help you get some perspective on this. FWIW, myself and a bunch of other regulars on this forum love to dive head-first into score editor posts. So please do post back with any follow-up questions.

 

One point of clarification... if attempting to use the scissor tool for isolating sections of a long region for the purpose of applying different score editor Quantize values to them, this can be done both in the score editor itself as well as the arrange page (with the latter being the more visually appealing/gratifying way to do it). You can use other methods for splitting up regions as well, including the Split at Playhead function. I believe the Marquee tool can be used to create separate regions from a longer one as well, though I never use it myself.

 

Cheers,

 

Ski

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Hey Ski,

I did try the scissors tool and can't seem to get the dern thing to work (like I think it ought to!)....drat! I attempted to use the scissors tool to divide the midi region into equal portions of the same length; e.g. individual measures, but when I do the selection, the entire midi track is selected instead of the measure I selected )with option key for multiples. Used the procedures in the pdf under "Dividing Regions".

 

back at square one pulling my hair out....

 

Can't understand why in the world I need to go through all of these contortions just to get the score to read what the midi/sound is playing???? To me, Logic 'ought' to default to what is being played and the other quantize settings can then be available for modifying the tune. Frustrated! I am still missing something....

 

I have a One-to-One scheduled Monday AM at the local Apple store. Unfortunately the only Logic guy there is a bit shy on this notation/tablature stuff. I would love to have you and/or one of the other regulars help me out on this by diving into it with me.

 

JJ

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You'll definitely get better results here by consulting with us on this than dealing with an Apple store Logic-score-editor-shy employee.

 

In any event, you shouldn't have to go through the trouble of dividing up your regions into one measure long pieces to get things to look correct. Never had to do that myself, even on pieces that vary greatly between long and short rhythmic values. At the end of the day, a picture is worth a thousand words, so perhaps posting a screenshot of what a particular measure looks like now (be sure to include the score editor parameters so we can see the quantize value, etc.) and a description of what you want it to look like and we can take it from there.

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Hey Ski,

I think I may actually be making progress on this........(crossed fingers). The arrangement I am working on is a single jazz guitar starting off playing in rubato: the piece starts of fairly slow with a mix of chord melody + single notes and tends to speed up, slow down, etc,and then @ bar 44 (out of 96) when the bass track starts it goes into a swing tempo for the remainder of the tune ~ really cool. BTW the name of the song is "Secret Love". During the swing portion the melody is primarily single notes with an occasional comp every measure or so with half chords.

 

What I did not realize is that when I selected the 'track' in the arrange window I had an option to select a quantize setting but then when I was working inside the score the midi region 'changed' (?) and I had different quantize settings. This is what confused me and I couldn't figure out why the tablature changed when I attempted to 'reset' the quantize setting. Duh ! I also didn't key in on what the transport bar was telling me....this song is set for 4/4 /16. So what I've done is select the track and set quantize for 1/32 note (the tab better reflects the audio @ 1/32 instead of 1/16) and then selected the score and set that quantize for 4,12 which seems about as close as what the audio is playing. What I am doing now is (inside the score) playing the tune a few measures at a time (slowed down from 120 bpm to about 80 bpm) and then move individual notes in the tablature (typically they are shown as arpeggiated in the score/tablature) to align with the audio which, more often than not, is a chord.

 

I am still perplexed as to 'why' Logic just doesn't default to display the score/tab exactly as the audio plays...... The software engineers have done one awesome job with Logic but I think making this improvement could be something the Apple guys could look into for version 10. ........ or better yet version 9.1.8 !!!!!!

 

I still haven't cracked the code to select 2,3, or 10 measures and 'cut' them so that I can manupluate the quantize settings without changing everything else prior to or beyond the cut. I have tried the scissors tool but I must be doing something wrong again. Any words of advice and/or pointers would be most appreciated.

 

tks

JJ

 

 

BTW I have about 35 midi songs that I need to do this magic on and I would much rather be learning & playing the songs that fooling around with Logic. Tried to send a couple screen captures but the preview of the post only showed text so I cancelled the captures.

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Once I get this where I am happy with it I then go back through the song and adjust the tablature to get a better voicing; adjusting the fingering so that I don't have to stretch 8 frets, for example, keeping the fingering more or less around the 5th position (preference). This is tedious and I have probably overlooked some Logic setting that will (I hope) save me all of this work.

 

If you enter the notes with a MIDI guitar controller you can set each string to to send on a different MIDI channel. In the Tablature settings, you can invert the channel order (in the assign popup menu) and edit the pitch (I find them to be off by one octave). Then your notes will be automatically assigned to the string you played them. A nearly perfect system, except the tracking issues with MIDI guitar..... But that's not Logic's fault.

 

I still haven't cracked the code to select 2,3, or 10 measures and 'cut' them so that I can manupluate the quantize settings without changing everything else prior to or beyond the cut.

 

Not sure why you're having problems here. Once a region is cut (and selected) you can assign its own MIDI quantization. Make sure you're in the region parameter box in the inspector (arrange window). In the score editor make sure you have the correct region selected before changing display quantization

 

I'm one of the no-lifes ski talks about who like to talk about the score editor. :mrgreen: Welcome to the club..... and post away.

Edited by Doug Z
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Thanks to both of you.

 

Update: just came back from the Apple store & my 1-on-1 with the local logic guy ~ he's actually pretty damn good. My issue with the scissors tool turned out to be the infamous "operator problem" = fat fingers. Damn, that was SO easy. Like I said in an earlier post I really have only had time to play with Logic for the past 2 months so my learning curve has been at 90 degrees straight up.

 

I believe we can state that my issue with tablature has been SOLVED. Thanks....

 

New Subj: a few of my tunes have an elec piano track that does basically a chord comp behind the guitar track ~ sounds cool. However, the majority of my tunes only have bass, drums, and the jazz guitar. Question: is there any way I can insert a new track for an elec piano and get that track to do a chord comp following the analyzed chords from the Global Tracks? FYI: my home studio setup does not include a midi kybd; only my Mac Pro (the silver beast), Logic Express v9.1.7, an ALTO ZMX-122Fx 8-track mixer, and for all sound I use a Roland SD-50 Mobile Studio Canvas (impressive list of sounds). I haven't played with Apple loops that much and Logic Express only has a limited number of loops available - I am considering upgrading to Logic Pro though. I am also considering purchasing the Garritan Jazz & Big Band app for samples.

 

Is what I am asking in regards to the elec piano track possible?

 

Both your thoughts on usefulness of upgrading to Logic Pro and also the Garritan JABB app???

 

tks

JJ

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  • 8 months later...
I'm wondering if my issue is similar. I play bass, I tune down to DGCF, some tunes CGCF. I set a tablature choice for those notes, but in tab view the lowest C# notes (within range of the instrument and settings) appear in the tab line as rests. Easy enough, i read them as C#, but not sure why this happens. Any good resources on Logic Pro 9 tablature settings out there?
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You'll probably need to set the range in the Tablature tab of the score project settings window. I don't know of any free tutorials for setting up Tab, but they probably exist. I do have a video series on the Score Editor at groove3.com that covers tablature. If you can't find what you need for free, consider this as a resource.
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Thanks for the response. Had some luck adjusting something on the Tablature tab, under "Assign" I chose "Inv. Ch-1" instead of "Pitch" and it's behaving now. After posting this, I also saw an explanation of setting various MIDI channels to sort out which strings that notes go on... but that's beyond what I needed. I will have to look up more on "Assign" and figure why that made the difference. Cheers!
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