Saturday, December 30, 2006

How to Create Backing Tracks from Powertab Files

Long time no post. Hope everyone had a great holiday. Just wanted to let everyone know a new site is a-brew http://www.backingtrack.org/. If you like the idea, get involved. According to the site.

backingtrack.org is a project of the Power Tab Community, aiming at creating high-quality guitar backing tracks with additional notation in Power Tab Format.

How To

Making Backing Tracks From a .ptb file using Fruity Loops
- From Golbez


1) Open Power Tab Editor with the song you would like to convert into a backing track.

2) In the upper left hand corner of the program, select File. Move down to Export. Choose MIDI File... Save it in a location you will be able to access shortly. After the file is saved, you can close Power Tab Editor.

3) Open Fruity Loops. In the upper left hand corner of the program, select File. Move down to Import. Choose MIDI File... Choose the MIDI file you just saved, and select to import all tracks.

4) The file opens as a window in the program, listing each instrument used as a track, however Fruity Loops assigns no instrument to each track. This is equivalent to having no "Guitar In" for PTE.

5) In the Fruity Loops Browser on the left side of the program, expand the folder Channel Presets. If no browser is there, at the top, select View -> Browser (or press F8 ). Expand 3x Osc. This is where the bulk of the functional instruments are found. Through trial and error, sample the various instruments by dragging and dropping them onto the tracks of the window. You must play the file to hear the result.

6) Once you have an instrument line-up that is satisfactory, go back to File and select Export. Choose MP3 File... and save it. Under the "MP3" tab, you can adjust the bitrate in Kbit (kilobites per second). 128 kb/s is standard CD quality and is loosely equivalent to 1 megabyte of information per minute of song. Select the Start button to finish your Backing Track.

- Remember, these are backing tracks intended to omit the lead guitar role so that others may play along. Preferably, omit the lead guitar role by not adding an instrument to that track in the program.

If you hear that your song is clipping (static noises due to multiple instruments/parts playing at once), click the FX button at the far top right of the program, and it'll open another window where you can adjust the master volume of the piece (far left slide bar), which will effect the final volume of the converted .mp3. Dropping the volume will reduce the clipping, and eventually eliminate it altogether.

Finalize your submission and thanks for your efforts!

Friday, December 15, 2006

Andy Mckee - Drifting

Here's another amazing guitarist, Andy Mckee.

Transcriptions available at his website.



Saturday, December 02, 2006

A Clockwork Guitar


User writes ...
I have a Fender US Highway One series Stratocaster, which is a half decent guitar, but looks just like a million other Strats. I had been planning to replace the pick guard with a black mother of pearl guard but my experiments in electrolytic etching made me think I'd like to try something a bit more unique. Thus the Steampunk Strat was born.

Link


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