Repeating Sections in GP tab and Go PlayAlong

[ubergeekz]

Hi,

 

Utter musical noob here,

 

I found a GP3 tab for a  mainly bass song I want to try and do. I loaded it in TuxGuitar and it plays through fine. I saved a copy as GP5...

 

I bought Go Playalong and loaded in the GP5 and the mp3 for the song (Dune Tune by Level 42). After much synching it's about 80% done but there seems to be a few extra sections/bars?

 

I noticed there's a few repeating sections in the tab i.e. play this bit 10 times etc but I did notice in TuxGuitar it says 10x and in Go PlayAlong 11x?

 

I've always wanted to do one of these and I have the week off for some R&R so here's an ideal chance :)

 

Cheers

[PC Plum]

GP files are rarely perfect I'm afraid.  Extra/too few bars are a very common problem.

 

Part of the custom creation process is actually varifying/fixing tabs.

 

I've never really used GoPlayAlong to sync so I don't know how easy it is to edit tabs in there.  You can edit things in GP but I've never really went that deep into GP either.

 

I find editing tabs in EoF to be the simplest route.  Once you have your beat map made it's usually just copy/paste.  Most music (modern pop/rock) is centered on repitition anyway, so you can copy the notes from one part of the song and paste it into where they are missing.

 

 

It's a bit daunting at first, but you will gain some confidence the more you try it.  Go for it man, whats the worst that could happen :D

[ubergeekz]

Ok thanks for that!

 

I can see how you can fix tabs in EOF but I'm still not sure about the beat map - is it the BPM/Time signature and or something else?

 

I have searched about/watched some videos but I'm more confused than daunted :)

[PC Plum]

The beat map is the white grid.  You can grab the white lines at the top of the grid and stretch it about so that it fits over the actual music, as most music is not bang on tempo for the entire duraiton of the song.

 

Don't get me wrong, a lot of music is recorded to a strict click and this would be perfect identical white rectangles all the way through the song, but most music has a human element (ahem, less than perfect timing, speeding up into choruses, slower breakdown sections in the song etc etc).  This would be where you would stretch the rectangles about to fit on the music, so that the gems are playing when the notes actually occur in the song.

 

What I do is (basically)

 

- Start EoF project

 

- Import tabs

 

- Drag the beat mark (white line) with the first gems (coloured notes) to where it starts in the song - it is worth noting that the very first (leftmost) beat marker will behave differently to the rest.  Moving this will result in the entire grid moving.  This is not a problem and in fact very helpful.  It really depends on the GP file you are using and whether the author used blank bars or not.

 

- Set the tempo (Change BPM, and tick the "Adjust notes" box) according to the GP file.  Again, don't take what the GP file says as Gospel, more like a guide.  If the GP file says 78bpm and you think 80bpm is better, go with your instinct.

 

- Now the beat map should more or less be fitting nicely on the music, and you are just making slight adjustments (by grabbing the white line at the top of the grid) so that the gems are where the notes are being played in the song.

 

- This is where experience/confidence kicks in.  Some GP files are a fkn mess tbh, so if it looks like a mess it probably is.  Maybe just try a different song and come back to that later.  Getting one song under your belt is a big milestone, make it easy on yourself :D

 

- Go through the song from left to right, making the slight adjustments needed to the beat map.

 

- Once it done, save it and you can mess around with the gems to your heart's content.  If you began the project like I said then you can even erase all the notes and re-import the GP file.  This is very useful sometimes.

 

 

The beat map is really the priority.  Once its done you can worry about fixing dodgy tabs.

 

 

 

It's very useful to enable handclaps (press C for claps on/off) and enable the graph (F5).  When going through the song, if its a decent tab, you can hear clearly that its on time and a good tab.

 

Its also useful to use songs with very clear snare drum hits, this will be visible on the graph and also helps tremendeously with timing.

 

The most useful command in custom making...  Ctrl + Z...  undo :D

 

And also, never be afraid to ditch the lot and start from scratch.  Beginning well is so important, and a restart can actually take a lot less time (get it right the second time) than fixing a dodgy sync manually.

 

 

 

 

 

Good luck :D

[ubergeekz]

Thanks very much it makes more sense now!

 

I'd got a bit further but I'll start again and do it properly.

 

I'll be in a better mood when the wife comes in from work now :)

[ubergeekz]

At last I got one to work!! Like you said it's down to the tab for a noob like me. I tried about four songs before I got one to line up properly.

It's a bit rough around the edges (wasn't sure about where to get a tone from and I couldn't really hear the bass guitar) but it worked first time in the game :)

 

Thanks for your help and thanks to Customforge for all the tutorials and tips here.

 

It was only bass and I've yet to do a guitar track so that's probably next...

[PC Plum]

Glad to hear it man :D

 

Tones are pretty easy, just find one you like in another custom and you can import it straight into your custom when you are building it in the toolkit.  Hit the import button at the tones section and navigate to where your customs are, and just click directly on the custom.

 

Or if you wanna make your own tones

 

http://customsforge.com/topic/2027-tone-creation-process-for-rocksmith-2014/

 

You'll still need to mess with volume levels, but I presume you saved the toolkit template?  You can build it now as many times as you want, adjusting the tones volume until you get it right.  Just mind and erase the old versions from your game before putting the new ones in.

 

 

Have fun man, and don't get too addicted now :D

[PC Plum]

You may also want a read of this

 

http://customsforge.com/topic/17235-cant-adust-tone-volume/