I've been creating a bunch of bass tab and playing along with Logic Pro 8 on the Mac. Man, I love that application. The process for displaying/modifying tab is not super obvious and some steps are not well documented. Logic is a powerful program with a ton of bells and whistles; it's not too hard to get lost in the details. I've been meaning to post the process I use. I'll make a first pass at it here.
1) Open project with your music.
2) Click on "Score" tab near bottom of window to bring up Score inner window.
3) Select the track you want to produce tab for. The score for your track should appear in the inner window (no tablature yet, however). If you are seeing score for all instruments instead of just the score for the instrument of interest, keep clicking around in the tracks until it displays only the score for the one instrument.
4) Click in the score window. Now, the left hand column of your main window should be a bunch of score stuff (notes, clefs, etc.). Near the top in the "Show Me" section, there is an pop-up menu called "Style". Set this to what you think is appropriate for your instrument (e.g. bass). This will change how your score is displayed. You won't see tablature yet. We're getting there.
5) Go back down to the score inner window. If "Page View" is on, turn it off. You can do this by deselecting "View->Page View" or by clicking off "Page View" button (sky blue color when "on") at top of score inner window. You should now be displaying a single row of staffs (one or two staffs depending on staff style selected) for a single instrument in the score inner window.
6) At the top of the Score inner window, click on "Layout->Staff Styles..." A floating window will appear with staff information.
7) Click in the left-most column (light gray) below the existing staff items (there are probably one or two there already). This should move a little black triangle down to the bottom of the staff list.
8) Select "New->Insert Staff". This should add another staff to your Score inner window. Your score may look a little screwed up right now (e.g. music in bass clef went to third staff). Don't panic, this gets fixed in the next step.
9) The floating windows now shows a new staff item. We want to modify its "Clef" entry. Click on the current item and select the appropriate item (e.g. "TAB Bass 4") from the pop-up menu. You should now be seeing that sought after tablature staff in your score inner window now. It probably doesn't look the way you want it to but we'll fix that next. Also, if your score got screwed up back in step 8, it probably magically corrected itself here.
10) Configure how the tablature is displayed. I will describe how to make tablature look the way I expect it; you can tinker beyond what I describe. Back in the floating staff style window, go to the "Rest" pop-up menu for your "TAB Bass 4" staff. Select hide. The tablature staff should now look a little less cluttered. Go to the "Stem" pop-up menu and select "Hide". Now, the tablature looks the way I like it. If you want merely tablature, you can delete the treble and/or bass staffs here. I prefer to see both with the tablature below the treble and/or bass staffs. You can close the floating staff style window now.
Payoff Information
What I have described so far is actually documented pretty well in the Logic Pro manual. You might have to look around a lot to put it all together but it's there. What I will describe next is virtually undocumented. If you stayed with me, you will be rewarded.
You and I both know that different fingering on a stringed instrument can produce the same notes. Many identical notes can be produced on different strings. Which string/fret combination to use is often a personal preference and is seldom the default setting that an application like Logic Pro will give you. So the next step is to go in and adjust the fingering (string/fret combinations) to what seems most reasonable or what meets our preference. I will describe that next.
First, we need to make the fingering adjustable.
1) At the top of the main window, select "Settings->Score". A floating "Project Settings" window will appear. In the window, click on the tab that says "Guitar Tab". Here, you are given a list of stringed instruments. An excellent selection, I might add! Go to the row with your instrument (e.g. Bass 4, Bass 5/C, Bass 5/B) and click on the pop-up menu in the "Assign" column. Select "channel". This will configure your tablature to use the MIDI channel to determine the string to use. Don't panic; this doesn't affect how the music is played. It still plays the same. You can close the "Project Settings" floating window now.
Now, if you take another look at your tablature, there is a good chance it changed. It may even look totally screwed up. We will fix it but, first, we have perform a one-time configuration. We have already configured your tablature to use the MIDI channel to determine the string used. So, we need a way to change the MIDI channel for each note or set of notes.
2) Go to the menu at the top of your screen and select "Logic Pro->Key Commands..." A floating "Key Commands" window will appear. Open the "Arrange and Various Editors" section. About 3/4 of the way down, you will find two items called "Event Channel +1" and "Event Channel -1". These are the commands needed to change the MIDI channel on the notes so they get moved to different strings in the tablature. We will assign these commands to certain keys so they are readily available when we are setting up the fingering in our tablature. I set "Event Channel +1" to Command-Option-UpArrow. I set "Event Channel -1" to Command-Option-DownArrow. To set these, select one and click on the "Learn by Key Position" button. Then, press the key combination. It should be learned. After you set both key combinations, close the "Key Commands" window.
We are ready for the last step in fixing up that tablature.
3) Go into your score inner window and select the first note you want to fix. Use your Command-Option-UpArrow and Command-Option-DownArrow key sequences to move the note tablature up and down strings. Logic Pro will automatically set the correct fret number as you select the string.
You can select one note or multiple notes to be moved up or down.
There is also another handy tool for fixing the note tablature. Often, we want to move all of a certain note to one particular string. For example, you may want all the G notes to be played on the D string. Here is how to do this.
4) Select the first G note. If you look in the "Edit" pop-up menu, you will find "Select All Following of Same Pitch". Guess what? This doesn't work in the score window (after I cursed this out for a while, I reported it to Apple as a bug). However, you can click on "Piano Roll" and go to the Piano Roll inner window where this command does work properly. You will find that every G note following your selected G note gets selected. Now, go back to the Score window, and your notes are still selected. Now, you can use those key sequences to move all of the notes up or down to the desired string.
Well that about sums it up. This is my first pass at describing this process. I will update it with any constructive feedback.
Below is a peek at the program. Good luck.
George
1) Open project with your music.
2) Click on "Score" tab near bottom of window to bring up Score inner window.
3) Select the track you want to produce tab for. The score for your track should appear in the inner window (no tablature yet, however). If you are seeing score for all instruments instead of just the score for the instrument of interest, keep clicking around in the tracks until it displays only the score for the one instrument.
4) Click in the score window. Now, the left hand column of your main window should be a bunch of score stuff (notes, clefs, etc.). Near the top in the "Show Me" section, there is an pop-up menu called "Style". Set this to what you think is appropriate for your instrument (e.g. bass). This will change how your score is displayed. You won't see tablature yet. We're getting there.
5) Go back down to the score inner window. If "Page View" is on, turn it off. You can do this by deselecting "View->Page View" or by clicking off "Page View" button (sky blue color when "on") at top of score inner window. You should now be displaying a single row of staffs (one or two staffs depending on staff style selected) for a single instrument in the score inner window.
6) At the top of the Score inner window, click on "Layout->Staff Styles..." A floating window will appear with staff information.
7) Click in the left-most column (light gray) below the existing staff items (there are probably one or two there already). This should move a little black triangle down to the bottom of the staff list.
8) Select "New->Insert Staff". This should add another staff to your Score inner window. Your score may look a little screwed up right now (e.g. music in bass clef went to third staff). Don't panic, this gets fixed in the next step.
9) The floating windows now shows a new staff item. We want to modify its "Clef" entry. Click on the current item and select the appropriate item (e.g. "TAB Bass 4") from the pop-up menu. You should now be seeing that sought after tablature staff in your score inner window now. It probably doesn't look the way you want it to but we'll fix that next. Also, if your score got screwed up back in step 8, it probably magically corrected itself here.
10) Configure how the tablature is displayed. I will describe how to make tablature look the way I expect it; you can tinker beyond what I describe. Back in the floating staff style window, go to the "Rest" pop-up menu for your "TAB Bass 4" staff. Select hide. The tablature staff should now look a little less cluttered. Go to the "Stem" pop-up menu and select "Hide". Now, the tablature looks the way I like it. If you want merely tablature, you can delete the treble and/or bass staffs here. I prefer to see both with the tablature below the treble and/or bass staffs. You can close the floating staff style window now.
Payoff Information
What I have described so far is actually documented pretty well in the Logic Pro manual. You might have to look around a lot to put it all together but it's there. What I will describe next is virtually undocumented. If you stayed with me, you will be rewarded.
You and I both know that different fingering on a stringed instrument can produce the same notes. Many identical notes can be produced on different strings. Which string/fret combination to use is often a personal preference and is seldom the default setting that an application like Logic Pro will give you. So the next step is to go in and adjust the fingering (string/fret combinations) to what seems most reasonable or what meets our preference. I will describe that next.
First, we need to make the fingering adjustable.
1) At the top of the main window, select "Settings->Score". A floating "Project Settings" window will appear. In the window, click on the tab that says "Guitar Tab". Here, you are given a list of stringed instruments. An excellent selection, I might add! Go to the row with your instrument (e.g. Bass 4, Bass 5/C, Bass 5/B) and click on the pop-up menu in the "Assign" column. Select "channel". This will configure your tablature to use the MIDI channel to determine the string to use. Don't panic; this doesn't affect how the music is played. It still plays the same. You can close the "Project Settings" floating window now.
Now, if you take another look at your tablature, there is a good chance it changed. It may even look totally screwed up. We will fix it but, first, we have perform a one-time configuration. We have already configured your tablature to use the MIDI channel to determine the string used. So, we need a way to change the MIDI channel for each note or set of notes.
2) Go to the menu at the top of your screen and select "Logic Pro->Key Commands..." A floating "Key Commands" window will appear. Open the "Arrange and Various Editors" section. About 3/4 of the way down, you will find two items called "Event Channel +1" and "Event Channel -1". These are the commands needed to change the MIDI channel on the notes so they get moved to different strings in the tablature. We will assign these commands to certain keys so they are readily available when we are setting up the fingering in our tablature. I set "Event Channel +1" to Command-Option-UpArrow. I set "Event Channel -1" to Command-Option-DownArrow. To set these, select one and click on the "Learn by Key Position" button. Then, press the key combination. It should be learned. After you set both key combinations, close the "Key Commands" window.
We are ready for the last step in fixing up that tablature.
3) Go into your score inner window and select the first note you want to fix. Use your Command-Option-UpArrow and Command-Option-DownArrow key sequences to move the note tablature up and down strings. Logic Pro will automatically set the correct fret number as you select the string.
You can select one note or multiple notes to be moved up or down.
There is also another handy tool for fixing the note tablature. Often, we want to move all of a certain note to one particular string. For example, you may want all the G notes to be played on the D string. Here is how to do this.
4) Select the first G note. If you look in the "Edit" pop-up menu, you will find "Select All Following of Same Pitch". Guess what? This doesn't work in the score window (after I cursed this out for a while, I reported it to Apple as a bug). However, you can click on "Piano Roll" and go to the Piano Roll inner window where this command does work properly. You will find that every G note following your selected G note gets selected. Now, go back to the Score window, and your notes are still selected. Now, you can use those key sequences to move all of the notes up or down to the desired string.
Well that about sums it up. This is my first pass at describing this process. I will update it with any constructive feedback.
Below is a peek at the program. Good luck.
George
