# Guitar Pro needs an 8 string option!



## Scar Symmetry (Sep 12, 2009)

Wasn't quite sure where to put this thread, but here goes anyway:

I am personally appalled that Guitar Pro only allows you to select 7 strings when opening an new instrument.

With the rising popularity of 8 strings - and let's face it, everyone and their dogs are getting them at the moment - surely including an 8 string option would be a good idea?

Now I know what some of you will think "tune the 7 string option down to F/F# or whatever, no big deal" but the reality of it is, if you want to write on an 8 string you're going to have to transpose it and what's on Guitar Pro is actually different.

I really hope that with Guitar Pro 6 this is an inclusion as although I am not a Guitar Pro 5 owner, I'm pretty sure they haven't released a patch that allows you to do this.


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## HammerAndSickle (Sep 12, 2009)

To be honest, while I'm always a fan of more options, I really don't think this is a priority from the developer's standpoint. One: from the collection of sounds and the artwork on the packaging (strats and LPs, oh my!) I doubt the people at the company are big fans of modern metal. Secondly, GP5 is several years old at this point. Back then, I really don't think 8 strings were well known if at all. At least from my standpoint, until obZen I had no idea they existed, though it's not like I was into this music anyway. And thirdly, I really don't think they're as prevalent as you think. 

This board would have you think so, but sadly sevenstring.org doesn't represent a fair and random selection of the guitar-playing populace. We're very much "categorized" as metal players, specifically "modern" metal players. Even if a few of us break the mold, our shared affinity for extended range leads us to _believe_ they're prevalent and accepted. Overall I think most guitar players (from a sample of ALL guitarists) do not even know the 8 string exists, or have an ignorant view of it as superfluous or unacceptable.

Personally, I would just use the F# tuned 7, and for the high E notes, play the same pitch on the B string and put a note in there. This is how I would've written the Scale The Summit tab book, as it's written for two 7s and can most likely be played on that, but with notations as to where chris uses the high G.


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## Arminius (Sep 12, 2009)

Yeah, I really want them two have a 10 + string option for touchstyle stuff, but I can understand them not having that . I was honestly somewhat surprised when I saw it had an option for 7 strings.


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## Scar Symmetry (Sep 12, 2009)

HammerAndSickle said:


> To be honest, while I'm always a fan of more options, I really don't think this is a priority from the developer's standpoint. One: from the collection of sounds and the artwork on the packaging (strats and LPs, oh my!) I doubt the people at the company are big fans of modern metal. Secondly, GP5 is several years old at this point. Back then, I really don't think 8 strings were well known if at all. At least from my standpoint, until obZen I had no idea they existed, though it's not like I was into this music anyway. And thirdly, I really don't think they're as prevalent as you think.
> 
> This board would have you think so, but sadly sevenstring.org doesn't represent a fair and random selection of the guitar-playing populace. We're very much "categorized" as metal players, specifically "modern" metal players. Even if a few of us break the mold, our shared affinity for extended range leads us to _believe_ they're prevalent and accepted. Overall I think most guitar players (from a sample of ALL guitarists) do not even know the 8 string exists, or have an ignorant view of it as superfluous or unacceptable.
> 
> Personally, I would just use the F# tuned 7, and for the high E notes, play the same pitch on the B string and put a note in there. This is how I would've written the Scale The Summit tab book, as it's written for two 7s and can most likely be played on that, but with notations as to where chris uses the high G.



no sure, but 7 strings are a feature on both versions 4 and 5 and I know a lot of people use it to write metal. in fact, I don't know anyone that _doesn't_ use it to write metal. I'm sure they could make a patch available that would allow you to facilitate the use of 8 strings.

I didn't mention anything to do with Sevenstring.org guitarists though, I think you jumped the gun a bit with that one.

lastly I should point out that obviously, I think they _are_ as prevalent as I think they are.

in 2002 the only people using them were Meshuggah and now today so many bands are using them and so many people own them it's actually exciting to think that 8 strings just might be the next 7 string.


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## HammerAndSickle (Sep 12, 2009)

I understand that. But do you realize that 7s are still "underground"?

You say "so many bands" but that's a small portion of the ENTIRE guitar playing populace. Whitechapel. Meshuggah. Suicide Silence. Etc. Metaaaaaal! Which is awesome 

But... what about country players? Classical players? Blues players? Pop groups? Synth guitarists? Classic rock players? Virtuoso guitarists? Acoustics? New age? Folk?

Taken together, THESE are the majority of guitar players. And when I hear "guitar pro" I think classic rock. Because 85% of all the GP tabs available are butchered versions f the Stairway intro


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## Scar Symmetry (Sep 12, 2009)

they can't be THAT underground if Guitar Pro includes them as a feature, and this is my point. 

if Arobas Music realise the vast amount of people that use Guitar Pro for metal then surely it's best to keep the customer happy?

I can see that you're talking about the bigger picture and I appreciate that but I do think you're underestimating the extended range community.


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## JonnHatch (Sep 12, 2009)

i emailed the company responsible for guitar pro a few months back about this very situation, they said that with the next update they will include a patch that allows the use of 8 strings. The question now is... WHENS THE UPDATE??? I cant wait. I personally use my 8 for alot of shred stuff as well as rhythm, so i need 8 individual string on my tab


I'll see if i still have the email and i'll post it


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## Scar Symmetry (Sep 12, 2009)

JonnHatch said:


> i emailed the company responsible for guitar pro a few months back about this very situation, they said that with the next update they will include a patch that allows the use of 8 strings. The question now is... WHENS THE UPDATE??? I cant wait. I personally use my 8 for alot of shred stuff as well as rhythm, so i need 8 individual string on my tab
> 
> 
> I'll see if i still have the email and i'll post it



really? this is fantastic news! 

you got repped 

aside from not being able to employ the use of 8 strings when writing, the lack of the 8th string also means that bands like Meshuggah, After The Burial and Divine Heresy can't be tabbed properly (though I suppose that's not a problem for Divine Heresy as they only use the 1st fret )


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## JonnHatch (Sep 12, 2009)

*8 string guitar support?*













_06/12/09 19:06,
you wrote: 
_I have an 8 string guitar, is there anyway i can use gp5 for this? I want to tab out my songs and other things using 8 string. if i cant do it, will u be releasing an update that would allow this? 

Thanks!
_06/15/09 08:58,
we wrote: 
_*No, 8 strings Guitar are not supported on GP 5, but will be for next version ...

We stay at your disposal for any additional information you may require.

Musically Yours,
Franck, Technical Support
Guitar Pro*

Thanks bro! Ok so thats the email, and they said next "version" instead of next "update" Im guesssing Guitar Pro 6? Or maybe GP 5.3???


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## Scar Symmetry (Sep 12, 2009)

that's still pretty good news man


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## JonnHatch (Sep 12, 2009)

yep! LOL at Divine Heresy and their 1st frets "1 000 1 1 0000 1"

I think it as "Binary Metal"

BUT thats a WHOOOOLE other thread


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## Scar Symmetry (Sep 12, 2009)

found this on another forum from an employee of Guitar Pro:



repdev said:


> Posted 10/20/08 18:45
> 
> Hello,
> 
> ...





repdev said:


> Posted 06/01/09 10:50
> 
> We still work on the GUI. The complete rewritting cause a long period of finitions and testing. 2009 is the year of GP6. That's all we can promise.





repdev said:


> Posted 09/08/09 09:49
> 
> We're still in the finalization step, but it takes a very long time (bugs, GUI...). I'm sorry to say that you'll have to wait again for a few months.



sweet!

I'm really glad I made this thread now


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## JonnHatch (Sep 12, 2009)

^
That post gave me the same jittery feeling i get when im about to go on a date with a hot chick


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## Scar Symmetry (Sep 12, 2009)




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## thesimo (Sep 12, 2009)

hopefully the next version works in snow leopard because right now i cant use it at all on my mac


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## mattofvengeance (Sep 15, 2009)

Man, I was just thinking this earlier when I was looking at After the Burial's "Berzerker". The guy who tabbed it split each guitarist into two 4 string sections  For another song on that album, "Aspiration" I think, the transcriber split each guitar player into Bottom 7 and Top 7, which is better, but it would be so much easier if there were an 8 string option. Maybe more people would tab out AtB and Meshuggah tunes, which would make it easier for me cause I'm terrible at transcribing songs.


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## Scar Symmetry (Oct 23, 2009)

The dudes at Guitar Pro need to hurry the fuck up!


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## matttttYCE (Oct 23, 2009)

Scar Symmetry said:


> The dudes at Guitar Pro need to hurry the fuck up!



 Amen to that!


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## Arteriorrhexis (Oct 23, 2009)

They really do!
I'm really curious to see how it will turn out over since they say they're re-writing everything



thesimo said:


> hopefully the next version works in snow leopard because right now i cant use it at all on my mac



Yeah dude I have that problem too 
BUT! you can still get it to work... Just keep re-opening... over and over and over, you'll get it.
But tuxguitar doesn't work at alll.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Oct 24, 2009)

Well what it needs is not just an 8 string option, but an N-string option, simply pick the number of strings you want and their tuning, then it's off to the races.

One unsigned integer (0-255) would suffice.


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## Metalus (Oct 24, 2009)

Scar Symmetry said:


> The dudes at Guitar Pro need to hurry the fuck up!



Oh man for real. Ive been waiting for 2 years now for the next version to come out. There are SO MANY options i would love for them to add besides the 8 string thing.

There should definitely be more midi sounds such as cymbal chokes (or an easier way to write cymbal chokes), they should fix the laggy-ness, They should make transposing from a 6 string tuning to a 7 string tuning easier and not necesarrily just "add" the 7th string to the tuning, There should be an option of splitting/demixing any and every midi note in the file as it pertains to possibly importing say the drums of the song into Pro Tools/Logic for sample replacement, etc.

The Developers should allow all guitar pro users to chime in on a forum (right here on sevenstring.org ) or something expressing our ideas for the next version. It would benefit us all


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## Scar Symmetry (Oct 24, 2009)

What do you currently use for cymbal chokes?

The way I do it works well enough for me


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## Neil (Oct 25, 2009)

Yeah when I emailed guitar pro a while ago they said GP6 should be later this year, lets hope so! I love GP I use it tons for compsing.

Just being able to keep adding strings would be a better idea than limiting it to 8 strings. and RSEs for things like pianos and strings would be awesome!

On GP5 I tuned the 7 down to F# to write some stuff but it didnt sound very good, the RSE couldnt really handle the tuning, I hope they have rectified that. Also I didnt really like 5.2 it changed the stock sound of everything I'de written and there was too many sound options to try and find what it should have sounded like so I went back to 5.0 I hope there is a simpler way off changing the guitar sound without having to scroll through a long list of preset sounds, the 'effects chain' sounds like a good idea though.


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## TomAwesome (Oct 25, 2009)

Eventually, one of these programs will wise up and let you put in any number of strings.


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## Scar Symmetry (Oct 25, 2009)

Neil said:


> On GP5 I tuned the 7 down to F# to write some stuff but it didnt sound very good, the RSE couldnt really handle the tuning, I hope they have rectified that. Also I didnt really like 5.2 it changed the stock sound of everything I'de written and there was too many sound options to try and find what it should have sounded like so I went back to 5.0 I hope there is a simpler way off changing the guitar sound without having to scroll through a long list of preset sounds, the 'effects chain' sounds like a good idea though.



Really? I tune to F#, F and even D on Guitar Pro 4 and it handles it ok.


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## Metalus (Nov 10, 2009)

Scar Symmetry said:


> What do you currently use for cymbal chokes?
> 
> The way I do it works well enough for me



Ill put like 2 32nd notes rests right after the initial cymbal and then go to the mixer and bring the volume to zero and then bring it back up depending where the following hit is gonna be. Not that it bothers me, but it would be easier if there was just a cymbal choke preset sound i guess lol.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Nov 10, 2009)

TomAwesome said:


> Eventually, one of these programs will wise up and let you put in any number of strings.


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## jayarpeggios (Dec 5, 2009)

well i am a programmer as well as a guitarist... and i am starting to think it is up to me to make this program... just not sure if i am up to it on my own.. if there are other programmers here at 7string and people willing to do the sounds and samples for me i might do so...


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## Scar Symmetry (Dec 8, 2009)

Ok so here's the latest update from Guitar Pro:



Guitar Pro said:


> Posted 11/22/09 20:08 by repdev (1702 posts)
> 
> Even if GP6 is near to be ready, we have to take in consideration the distribution network. Due to some changes in our partners list, we have to wait the NAMM in January to be more precise in our communication, and decide the exact date of GP6 release, which will be in the first months of 2010.
> 
> ...



For anyone that wants to keep tabs on the thread, link is here.


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## Metalus (Dec 25, 2009)

Fuck yeah im super excited about GP6


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## Magero (Jan 8, 2010)

Kene. Even if they only added 8-string options and like...a cymbal choke preset note for the drumkit, I'd be psyched. 5.2 fixed most of the bugs from 5 and I never use RSE. *shrugs*


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