TotalApps

September 22, 2009 in Mobile Apps by David John

A few weeks ago we reviewed the Guitar ToolKit having been blown away by the application hours after buying it from the Apps store. Weeks on it still remains a firm favourite on my phone. Today Agilepartners announce a new sibling for the family in the form of TabToolkit.

With TabToolkit, you can take your music tablature files with you. For the iPhone and iPod touch, TabToolkit allows you to view Power Tab, Guitar Pro, text and PDF files. Tablature files (or tabs) are a very popular format for composing and transcribing music, especially for guitar players. Tab files are a great way to learn new music or practice a song.

Tablature & Standard Notation

With “rich” tab file formats (Power Tab and Guitar Pro), you can view both standard musical notation and tablature notation.

Have your iPhone Play it for you
That’s right, TabToolkit has a built-in synthesis engine to let you hear the music for your score. The ability to hear an instrument play notes is a huge help in learning new music. If things are moving a little too fast, you can slow the tempo down to a crawl and learn tricky parts one note at a time.

If you have ever tried to learn a song from complicated tab you will know what a life saver this feature will be. There are aspects of music tab just can’t communicate including phrasing and to a degree timing. Now your mobile device will teach you everything !

Instrument Guides
In addition to tab and standard notation, for Power Tab and Guitar Pro files, you can show either a guitar fretboard or keyboard to see finger placements in real time. This serves as a tremendous aid in learning new songs.

Upload & Download
If you’ve got tab files on your computer that you’d like to move into TabToolkit, no problem. Using your home wireless network, you can upload files directly to your iPhone or iPod touch. Need to get a tab file from somewhere online? There’s a built-in web browser with tab download capabilities.

Multi-Track Support
Power Tab and Guitar Pro files allow you to specify different tracks for different instruments. TabToolkit has full support for this feature, allowing you to learn the lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar and keyboad if you’d like.

It never ceases to amaze me what the iPhone is capable of processing and if you had of asked me two weeks ago if I ever thought such a multi-featured application would run on an iPhone or even be possible I thought I would have had serious doubts. Yet, here it is.

If you own a guitar and an iPhone then the TabToolkit and Guitar Toolkit are two essential applications you really must own.

Click here for more information (Apps Store Link).