Arobas Music

Writing for electric guitar presents a lot of difficulties when it comes to traditional scoring software, so since its first version Guitar Pro has been a must for every guitar player that wants to leave a detailed written version of their creations or transcriptions. For some, it has even become a part of the composition process in guitar-oriented tracks (a clear interface and a focus on speed writing are crucial tools). That being said, I was sad to see I was having problems with Guitar Pro 6 from the moment I installed it. It took me a while until it recognized my EMU Tracker Pre or my M-Audio FastTrack. The interface is accessible enough but confusing to those who come from previous versions of Guitar Pro and wish to continue working in the same fashion(I'm not complaining about changes here, Sibelius 7 was a big step forward because it was actually easier to use once you got used to it). SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE As soon as a file is loaded the screen is filled with an invasive lateral toolbar that leaves no actual writing space. This, of course, slows down work either if you come from previous versions (because you will have to readjust to the new writing space) or if you just find it comfortable to have a nice perspective of everything you are writing or reading. I've had quite a few random crashes (but then again, this has always been an issue with Guitar Pro). It also shows slowdowns even when the PC should fully support it. In my mind, those are huge setbacks: the main purpose of Guitar Pro is to provide a stable transcription tool. The other great problem is compatibility with sound interfaces: it took me some time to get the playback correctly working and not lagging after reproduction. OVERALL OPINION I have used Guitar Pro for as long as I can remember. Years before the idea of becoming a musician had crossed my mind I used to spend an awful lot of time writing 'songs' on Guitar Pro. I remember I used to complain about the unrealistic MIDI sound. Now that I work as a professional musician I wish Guitar Pro would go back to that. As the versions pass Arobas tries to cram into Guitar Pro more and more tools for 'realistic' sound (studio effects, amps, pedals, etc.), forgetting that this software was originally intended for transcription. The result is a transcription software that has sacrificed stability and performance (and those definitely weren't issues they had already mastered!), as well as usability and efficiency, just to add a half-hearted attemp at modelation and emulation. It has passed from being a very useful and reliable tool to a mediocre program. I'd definitely reccomend to any user of older versions (specially 2, 3 and 4) to stick with that.

There were no compatibility issues under Windows XP and 7. It has the typical configuration setup like any other notation software, as well as a really easy setup. The only counterpart (for me at least) was the MIDI controller setup, since it never accepted my MIDI controller. Nice user interface and easy to use, since it's really intuitive. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE As regards stability, sometimes I had an issue about an error message coming up on the screen after a long usage, and not only a single window, but a hundred of them one after the other. This issue was partially solved after the 5.2 update, but kept showing an error message after using it for a long period of time (at least, it was just one windows instead of a hundred). Another problem that I have, is that I cannot add more than 9 different instruments to the composition, because after the 10th it starts cloning all the instruments (by example, if after the 10th instrument, which is a church organ, I try to add a string ensemble, both of them will be a string ensemble and so on). OVERALL OPINION Even after all the problems I mentioned above, I can assure you that I won't replace this program with any other and worths every cent spent on it. It's really easy to use and let's you compose freely, altough it has some limitations since it's designed for guitar compositions, but there's always a turn around for such problem (for example, if you want to compose a piano score, you'll need to add two pianos, one for the right hand with the guitar tuning for the higher notes, and another one for the left hand with the bass tuning for the lower ones). Composing was never easier than now with this software, and I can asure you, that once you learn how to use it, you won't know how to work without it, specially if you work with MIDI.