[update: The latest release is v0.9.9, visit the website: http://www.rocksmithtotab.de

This program can convert any official or custom DLC into Guitar pro tab files (either .gp5 or .gpx). All of Rocksmith's features are supported and mirrored in the tabs. There may still be a few bugs left, and the rhythm notation is occasionally weird or just plain wrong, but overall the output is very decent and usable. The program can now be used on a Mac.]

 

Hi all,

 

over the past week I've begun to write a small program that can convert Rocksmith 2014 arrangements to Guitar Pro .gpx files. While Rocksmith's way of showing songs has its advantages, I've always had difficulty to figure out certain things from it, particularly strumming rhythms and quick passages. So for a while now I had been searching for a way to extract tabs from Rocksmith's tracks, and from a quick look through the forum, I might not be the only one. Recently I stumbled upon the RSTabExplorer, which attempted to do just that. Unfortunately, it wasn't in a state where its output was really useful to me, but at least it was a starting point. I had a look at the code and decided that I might have a shot at creating my own attempt.

 

I have chosen to export the tabs to Guitar Pro, and specifically Guitar Pro 6. The reason is that I own Guitar Pro, and the gpx format was the quickest one for me to figure out (because at its core, it's just a very readable xml file, as opposed to the fully binary format of gp5). I also considered MusicXML, but it was a little more awkward to write, and more importantly, Guitar Pro's import is not advanced enough to capture all the relevant features.

 

Now, the program isn't fully finished, yet, but it is in a state where I think it is already useful, and also could benefit from getting some feedback from other users. The program is a basic command-line utility (no GUI, sorry), where you specify the .psarc file and an output directory, and it will process all arrangements found in the archive. It already exports most of Rocksmith's features and does a decent job at rhythm detection, so many arrangements (at least in part) look quite good in Guitar Pro.

 

There is one additional reason I'm releasing this now. Of the two major missing features (sustains and bends), I need help with the bends, specifically in understanding how Rocksmith interprets bends. I read the tutorial post about authoring bends in Eof, and that is all quite straightforward. However, in practice I found several tracks where a note has just a single bend value, yet sometimes Rocksmith interprets it as a simple bend, and sometimes as a bend/release. I can't figure out how Rocksmith differentiates between the two. For example, in Black Magic there is a bend/release on the 6th fret of the 5th string, but looking at the arrangement xml, I only see a single bend value for this note. Can anyone help me out here? Thanks :)

 

Other than that, well, just try it out and let me know what you think. Just a little heads-up: Slides are only semi-working at the moment. Unpitching slides are fine, but slides to a target note only work in some instances. I know why, I just haven't had the time to correct it, yet.

Also, the rhythm. Obviously, since Rocksmith has no direct notion of rhythm, it is quite a challenge to get an accurate rhythm representation out of Rocksmith's tracks. Basically not a single note maps 100% to its original rhythmic duration. I have experimented a bit with this, and my current approach is still quite basic, *but* it works surprisingly well in most instances. However, you have to expect the occasional oddity or error in the output, particularly in fast and "sloppy" solos. I have some ideas about cleverer approaches that I will try in the future, once all other features are implemented.

 

One final warning: By default, the program puts all arrangements of a song (e.g. lead, rhythm, bass) into a single .gpx file. This is generally fine, but one caveat in Guitar Pro is that all tracks share the master bars, which dictate tempo and time. This is almost never a problem, but I did find in "Red Fang - Number Thirteen" that at some points, the lead and rhythm arrangements use different time in some measures. So when you combine them into a single file, this distinction is lost, and the result is simply wrong. There's not much I can do about that. I have implemented a switch to the program (-t) that will split the arrangements into separate files, if you need it.

 

Now, finally, here is the link to the project: https://github.com/fholger/RocksmithToTab

And the first release is here: https://github.com/fholger/RocksmithToTab/releases

The program requires .NET 4.5. I hope I packaged everything correctly, please let me know if something isn't working. There are basic instructions on the GitHub page.

 

I hope you get some use out of it, and please do point out any errors you spotted (besides those already mentioned above) in conversions. Many thanks to all you guys here who created the Custom Toolkit, and also to the RSTabExplorer team, because without you this project wouldn't exist.

Brilliant work!...I am just beginning to explore the app but, I was quickly impressed.  Thanks for the effort and contributing to the forum.

I've got one question:

 

I tried to use the tag "Artist Sort" instead of "Artist" for the filenames, but I just can't get it to work. I tried...

{artist sort} - {title}

{artistsort} - {title}

{artist_sort} - {title}

{artist-sort} - {title}

{sort} - {title}

 

... and now I've given up^^

Maybe you could add a dropdown menu or a help box explaining the usable tags.

Great tool.

Nice job man.

@@Azrael, here is valid attributes: {title}, {artist}, {album}, {year}, {tabber}, {identifier}, {archive}

@@Azrael, here is valid attributes: {title}, {artist}, {album}, {year}, {tabber}, {identifier}, {archive}

Thanks!

So {aritst sort} is just not implemented in the program, but could be in the future?

Awesome tool! thanks a million for this, It's nice to have a way to share our fantastic collection of tabs with those we may jam with who would never use Rocksmith.  

 

Two feature requests, is there any way to get the lyrics converted over? and is there any way in the GUI to designate a saved GP6 style during the conversion process?

Currently there's no way to get the lyrics, although it's on my list of things that I'm considering to implement. At the moment, I'm unfortunately very busy with work-related stuff and don't really feel like spending my free time with programming, so it'll probably be a couple of weeks before I'll continue working on the exporter again.

 

I'm not entirely sure what you mean with the second request?

Hey @@cabalistic, danke sehr! This tool is simply great and I'm happy you put in the time to make it. Kudos.

 

I downloaded and ran it yesterday for the very first time, and converted all my songs. When I looked in the output folder I was (pleasantly) surprised to also find songs that I don't own through the game. It think they are the DLCs from the original Rocksmith.

 

I own RS and RS2014 and have used the Disc Import Tool. Are the "new" songs a product of the import process?

@Dr Turtle, basically, if you have files for convert it will convert them, even if you don't bought something from RS1 dlc you'll find that those songs are shipped to you with import "tools"(ondisc an dlc), so no worries, it's not a mistake.

Cabalist, on the second request never-mind, I realize that the conversion process isn't setting a stylesheet (I thought it was)  that the stylesheet is controlled in GP6 application preferences where I can change the default when opening new files... so there's nothing to do.  In my case I have a particular stylesheet I use that lets me cram more measures on a single page rather then the default that has a lot of white space.   Awesome tool, thanks again!

thanks a lot !!!!!

i'ts cool and helpful program !

i only have problem that some songs can't be converted to GP5,it's saying something about properly and 1 note (i don't remember exactly)...

 

this is the list of some of the songs i have that can't be converted:

Dream Theater - The Dance Of Eternity

Dream Theater - The Shattered Fortress

Frank Zappa - Disty Love

Joe Satriani - Down Down Down (was downloaded at SA i think...)

Megadeth - Sudden Death (Snake3169's version)

Megadeth - This Day We Fight

Steve Vai - Tender Surrender (was downloaded at SA i think...)

Steve Vai - Bad Horsie

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Riviera Paradise

Stevie Snacks - Thanks Giving Ballad (was downloaded at SA i think....)

 

can you help me and/or fix it plz ?

 

thank you !

Well, congratulations, you seem to have found another bug in the rhythm detection. I really thought I had them all eliminated :)

 

As I said in my previous posting, I'm unfortunately quite busy at the moment, so it may take me some time, but I'll definitely try to fix this. If you don't mind, please open a bug report at https://github.com/fholger/RocksmithToTab/issues so that I don't forget. Thank you.

i have found also problem with some Dream Theater songs...they are converting to GP5 but when i open the files it gives error and not showing anything in the tab...

 

the songs are:

Fatal Tragedy

The Looking Glass

In The Name Of God

Finally Free

Goodnight Kiss

The Test That Stumped Them All

About To Crash

Overture

 

can you fix this too plz when you will have time ?

 

thanks !

Depends. If I can find the cause, sure :)

Unfortunately Guitar Pro gives absolutely no useful information why a file can't be opened, so it's a lot of guesswork to find out what is wrong.

 

I tried the first two songs in your list and converted to gpx instead of gp5. That seems to work fine. So if you have Guitar Pro 6, you could just use that. Otherwise, as a workaround, you can search a bit; there's a TuxGuitar version hidden somewhere on the internet (or even here somewhere in the forum) that can open gpx files. You could then use TuxGuitar to convert those to gp5 files. Not very comfortable, but it should work.

ok,thanks !

but how do i convert a specific file and to GPX (not to GP5) ?

when i put the file i want to convert to the file RocksmithToTab it converts to GP5 and not to GPX...

In the GUI, you can select the output format. If you are using the console version to convert only a single file, you need to pass it the parameter '-f gpx' to set gpx output.

 

So something like:

 

RocksmithToTab.exe -f gpx some_archive.psarc

i still don't understand how to convert a single file to GPX...

I assume you are using Windows? Open Windows explorer, go to the directory where you have RocksmithToTab. Right-click on RocksmithToTab.exe, select "Create shortcut". Then right-click on the newly created shortcut, select "Properties". Go to the end of the target text field (should end with "RocksmithToTab.exe") and add "-f gpx" (without the quotes) to it. Select ok.

 

Now you can drop any file you want to convert onto this shortcut, and it should produce gpx output.

ok,thanks ! i think i understood but it not gives me to do it and save...i don't know why,i did everything as you said...

If you did it right, it will only open a console window for a brief time and then close. There will be no dialog or any other interaction, it will just generate the output. The output will be located either in the directory where RocksmithToTab resides, or where you have stored the .psarc file, so check both directories for a folder "rocksmith_tabs".

no,i mean it's not gives me to add:-f gpx

after i add it it not gives to select ok...

when i try pops up new error window that tells i can't to end like this or something and i must be sure that the name of the file is right or something...

Then you are doing something wrong. Where exactly were you trying to add the -f gpx parameter?

after: "D:\Ubisoft\Creating Custom Songs\RocksmithToTab\RocksmithToTab.exe"

like this: "D:\Ubisoft\Creating Custom Songs\RocksmithToTab\RocksmithToTab.exe"-f gpx

and i tried also like this: "D:\Ubisoft\Creating Custom Songs\RocksmithToTab\RocksmithToTab.exe-f gpx"

i add it in where the text in blue after you click properties.

 

like this: "D:\Ubisoft\Creating Custom Songs\RocksmithToTab\RocksmithToTab.exe"-f gpx

That's almost correct, except there's a space missing. Put a space between " and -.