# Guitar Pro 6 Help



## straightshreddd (Dec 8, 2012)

Okay, so I've recently purchased Guitar Pro 6. I used to use Tabit and I found it to be very user friendly. I could write songs very easily on it whether it be guitar or drums. But, I wanted to upgrade because Guitar Pro seems to be THE program for writing and has many features I thought would be useful.

However... This shit is hard as hell. I'm a smart guy and can pick things up rather quickly, as I did with Tabit, but I'm just not grasping this. I've been trying tutorials and they help a little bit with learning how to do very simple tasks, but I play music that's technical and moves around the fretboard a lot with quick runs so I'm just lost... 

I looked online for GP files that people wrote and they seem to have everything neat and organized with long sections in their own bars while if I type a few consecutive notes it switches to a new bar. It almost feels like there's too many features while Tabit was simple and straight to the point. *shrugs*

Time signatures, quarter notes, half notes, tempo. Why was everything so easy on Tabit but not on Guitar Pro?

And don't even get me started on the drum writing...

Please, if anyone can shed some light and help me to not feel like I wasted $60, it'd be greatly appreciated.


Thank you



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## Experimorph (Dec 8, 2012)

I don't know how Tabit works, but I don't think anything's as convenient and fast as Guitar Pro once you learn to use it.

I get the impression you're not too good with note values, time signatures etc.. That was the case with me back when I got the program (I use Guitar Pro 5, though, which seems way lighter and plain, but it has everything that's needed for songwriting) as well. Take your time and learn the theory behind notation.

For the drums, I believe Guitar Pro uses its own midi keynotes, as in not General MIDI or whatever that is. However, it's really easy to memorize the keys, and once you've got it down, it's an extremely proficient way of programming drums for your songs. I write all my drums on GP and then export the MIDI to my DAW.

If Guitar Pro 6 is anywhere near as good as 5 userwise, you definitely did not waste your money.


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## Bretton (Dec 8, 2012)

I'm an avid user of both Guitar pro 5 and 6. I had to switch to 6 because I joined a band with 8 string guitars, but definitely preferred 5 for the ease of tabbing drums. (I am a drummer myself). I hate how the drums in 6 work, but I'm making do, and starting to memorize where things are (one up from bottom, 1 is kick, 2 up for my floor tom, 2 up for snare 1 is regular 2 is rimshot, 2 up for rack tom, 3 up for ride stuff 1 up for hat stuff and low crash, one up for high crash, top is china)

sometimes when putting a stream of notes together very quickly, I accidentally hit the arrow key twice or something which puts me in a new bar, but then I just go back and fix it. Not sure if you, as experimorph suggested, may not have the best grasp of note values? I'd suggest go through this: Music theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia especially the sub-section on rhythm. If that's not the problem, let me know and we can see if we can better address the situation. Once you're able to maximize your usage and understanding of it, you'll find it's easily worth what you spent.


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## Adam Of Angels (Dec 8, 2012)

Guitar pro forces you to learn a bit about music notation, at least as far as note value is concerned. It sounds like you're just having trouble with that


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## straightshreddd (Dec 9, 2012)

Word. Thanks, guys. Looks like I'm gonna have to do some good ol' fashioned studying when it comes to note values and time signatures. 

I remember a tutorial saying something about note values and I did switch the note value to 8th notes and the 16th notes but still had trouble figuring out what to do on a specific riff I was trying to layout. I'll keep tryin'. Thanks again, dudes


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## Adam Of Angels (Dec 9, 2012)

Really just trial and error will help you out the most, especially if you read up on the stuff as you run into issues.


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## straightshreddd (Dec 9, 2012)

Yeah, I hear you. I guess it's just frustrating because I used to have no problems whatsoever writing on tabit and relearning is rather tedious. I'm not gonna give up though.


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## Winspear (Dec 9, 2012)

I'm interested in how Tabit works if you were able to input rhythms without choosing between note durations. But yes it'll come with time - eventually you'll hear a rhythm in your head and know it's dotted 1/4 dotted 1/4 normal 1/4 for example (very common rhythm there, 123 123 12)


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## Experimorph (Dec 9, 2012)

straightshreddd said:


> Yeah, I hear you. I guess it's just frustrating because I used to have no problems whatsoever writing on tabit and relearning is rather tedious. I'm not gonna give up though.


I hear you. You won't be disappointed once you figure it out.

Funny thing is, having used Guitar Pro for tabbing stuff, I was already familiar with intricate rhythm dictation, note values, time signatures before having any idea of the most basic music theory. That surely came in handy back when I actually started learning theory.


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## straightshreddd (Dec 9, 2012)

EtherealEntity said:


> I'm interested in how Tabit works if you were able to input rhythms without choosing between note durations. But yes it'll come with time - eventually you'll hear a rhythm in your head and know it's dotted 1/4 dotted 1/4 normal 1/4 for example (very common rhythm there, 123 123 12)



I highlighted the entire track and changed it to 32nd notes. Then, the track acted as a large grid in which I'd fill in the notes(tabs) where I saw fit. Tabbing drums was incredibly easy. But, yeah. Can't wait to just start writing already. haha


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## Winspear (Dec 10, 2012)

Ah that's how I did it in GP5. Does that not work in 6? Never really did it with 6.

But it's much the same deal  I'm sure you started to get an idea for where hits went without trial and error - now you just need to think of it like 'every quarter dotted' rather than 'every 12 32nds' for example.


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## Bretton (Dec 11, 2012)

it is possible to make a grid in 6, select 32nd notes, put one finger on the right arrow key, and another on the "r" key (which adds a rest) and do a drum roll.

From there, once your notes are in, you can go back and fix note values, if you have a note spanning two 32nds, (so one note followed by one rest) it's a 16th note.
3 32nd notes + dotted 16th (one note followed by two rests)
4 32nds = 8th note
6 32nds = dotted 8th
8 32nds = 1/4 note
12 32nds = dotted 1/4 note
16 32nds = 1/2 note
24 32nds = dotted 1/2 note
32 32nds = whole note (a whole bar in 4/4)

dotted means one and a half of the original note value. double dotted (which I didn't go into) means one and 3/4 of the original note value.

You should also get familiar with triplets. I've heard so many guitarists refer to an iron maiden gallop as a triplet, eg.
|0---0-0-0---0-0-0---0-0-0---0-0-|0---
this is wrong, a triplet has three notes spaced EVENLY, think slaughter of the soul by at the gates, an even one-two-three-one-two-three-one-two-three-one-two-three-

in guitar pro, if you select notes and change them to triplets, three notes will then take up the same amount of space that two notes took up before you hit the button (provided they are all the same note value, eg. all 8th notes).

hope this helps


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## SirMyghin (Dec 14, 2012)

As others have said, if you learn to count, you won't have an issue. I don't recommend a trial an error though, just learn to count. Having understanding behind you, opposed to some empericism, goes a long way.

Search for some of Schecterwhores Konakol posts, those are great counting mechanics and can take you very far. It is simple enough to grasp quickly, but detailed enough to be used extensively. Then you just need to assign the note values to that gibberish. (ta = quarter note in 4/4 = 1 beat, every division of notes down is 1/2 every division up double)


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## straightshreddd (Dec 14, 2012)

Sorry, on the late response. Didn't realize the thread was still getting responses. My buddy, whom I haven't seen in a long time and uses GP6 regularly, sat me down and gave me a clear and concise tutorial of using different note values and it helped immensely. I'm now actually able to write riffs. 

However, I'm still having an issue with time signature. I have everything set to 4/4 by default. I wrote a riff that is in time, but I think it needs to be changed to another time signature and I don't know which. I experimented with a bunch and changed the last note in the first bar to different note values to make up for timing, and there's always either a slight delay or it's slightly too early going into the next bar. I presumed it would fit in 4/4 but now I'm not sure. 

The riff sounds in time when I play it and I'm writing all the correct notes and applying the correct techniques on GP(palm mutes, slides, etc) but I can't get it to transition to the next bar smoothly. The first and second bars are red when I click away, implicating it's not in time, correct? I kinda remember him saying something about using the period key but I can't remember and don't want to be bothering him a bunch as he works alot. I might end up asking him though. Any insight, guys?

I don't want to force my playing to be in 4/4 all the time because of my inability to correctly compose on GP. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, dudes.









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## straightshreddd (Dec 14, 2012)

Bretton said:


> it is possible to make a grid in 6, select 32nd notes, put one finger on the right arrow key, and another on the "r" key (which adds a rest) and do a drum roll.
> 
> From there, once your notes are in, you can go back and fix note values, if you have a note spanning two 32nds, (so one note followed by one rest) it's a 16th note.
> 3 32nd notes + dotted 16th (one note followed by two rests)
> ...



I think I know what you mean. I'm gonna try experimenting with the 32nd notes. This is how my buddy told me to write drums but I didn't know how it'd work out with guitars.


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## SirMyghin (Dec 14, 2012)

Time signatures work 2 ways, 4/4 is common time, and has 4 simple beats. Meaning each beat is 1 &, of Ta-Ka if you want syllables

There is a beat divided in 3, this is a compound beat : Ta-ki-ta, or 1 an a , etc, lots of ways to count it, phonetics are easiest really. 

If you use triplets in 4/4 you create the idea of a complex beat, but the difference is in symmantics. 3/4 , for example, does not equal 6/8 (math is lying). Strictly speaking 3/4 is two simple beats (1 & 2 & 3 &) and 6/8 is 2 compound beats (1 an a 2 an a). 

The 3rd type of time signature is complex, which is made up of simple and compound beats. An easy example is 7/8. one compound and 2 simple, in any order you like (ta ki ta ,ta ka, ta ka; ta ka, ta ki ta, ta ka; ta ka, ta ka, ta ki ta) take your pick. 

This is rushed as I need to finish practice and go to work but best of luck. Remember in time signature of 8, the eighth note gets the beat. breaking things into 2 and 3 makes counting very simple.


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