DEEZER..... tab machine, play by ear

[TalesofDerek]

So when people make tabs from songs in games that are long and can't be just played by ear, is thier some sort of mic and computer program or a tuner type deal I should know about?

[Chupperson Weird]

No, you should go take some classes in ear training.

[Party Time 2000]

Get a recording of the song in .wav or .mp3.

then play the song on winamp or media player.  this way you can pause and playback the song and concentrate on certain passages.

[Deezer]

At first I thought you were calling me a tab machine. Anyway, what also helps is opening the song in a program like Cool Edit Pro / Adobe Audition and highlighting a section and putting it on loop until you're sure you have the right notes.

[TalesofDerek]

Well I have given just playing some songs by ear, trial and error style, and its really not that hard if you put some time into it. I'll submit a song or two soon and I would like some suggestions, comments and tips.

[mhb]

it's called guitar pro. they download the midi file from vgmusic.com and import it into guitar pro and viola, the whole midi file is tabbed. then they fix any of the errors and export it as an ascii.

[Ashitaka]

You can use Transcribe (www.seventhstring.com) to slow down the song without altering its pitch to make it easier to tab fast song or solo.

[Zamppa]

I've found that making a tab with guitar pro and playing it through the computer is a good way to spot errors you don't when you play yourself. A very helpful tool indeed.

[maelstrom79]

If you can find a MIDI of the song you want to tab, you can use a MIDI editing program to transpose it into tab.  I use Anvil Studio.  You can get it free on www.download.com and it works great for me.  I don't think you can export tab directly from it, but if you can read sheet music, it makes things a breeze.  If you can't, you should learn.  It's a good skill to have and it's actually quite easy.  I mean, middle school kids do it all the time in band class.  Also, look around to internet for game sheet music.  Deezer has some good links up on the main site that have links on them, too.  I have found complete collections of scores for dozens of games by searching the internet, usenet, and file-sharing networks like eMule and DC++.  You can also use programs like SPC2MIDI to create MIDIs from audio tracks ripped from games.  That particular program can be found at www.zophar.net among other ones.  It does a decent job of making MIDIs from Super NES audio tracks.  Then you can open the MIDI in Anvil Studio and voila, there's the sheet music for each instrument in the song.  Anyway, that's how I tab a lot of stuff.

[Party Time 2000]

The looping of a track is super useful.  I've used it before on really fast parts.  Is there a program called "Solo Explorer"  You can adjust the loops so that you can only hear one note at a time.