Power Tab Products

Power Tab Editor

What is the Power Tab Editor?

Power Tab Editor is a tablature authoring tool for the Windows operating system. It is intended to be used to create guitar sheet music, more commonly known to musicians as guitar tablature and bass tablature. (aka guitar tab/bass tab). The program provides the most commonly used symbols in tablature, including chord names, chord diagrams, rhythm slashes, bends, slides, hammer-ons/pull-offs, harmonics and palm muting. A useful piece of software for people who want to learn how to play guitar, and for experienced guitarists who want to transcribe their own music and/or guitar lessons. The software can be used by both acoustic and electric guitar players alike.


What is tablature?

Tablature, or tab for short, is a special form of sheet music used to indicate the fingering patterns used by an instrument. It is most commonly used to notate guitar and bass guitar parts. You can view a sample tablature score under the heading Where can I see some sample output for the program? later on this page.


What system requirements are needed to run Power Tab Editor?

Version Processor Memory Hard Disk Operating System Display Peripherals
v1.7 (Build 80) Pentium 100Mhz or higher; Pentium III 533Mhz recommended 16MB or more; 64MB recommended 5MB of available hard disk space Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME

- or -

Microsoft Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP/Server 2003

Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor. 1280 x 1024 recommended Keyboard and Mouse

How much does the Power Tab Editor cost?

It's free.


Are there any plans for a Linux or Macintosh build?

Currently there are no plans to make a build for either platform.


What is the next version of Power Tab Editor and when will it be released?

Version 2.0 will be the next release of the program. It's estimated release date was sometime in the winter of 2002, but so far has yet to see the light of day. The program has still not been released to beta. When the program does go beta, an announcement will be made both on the site and to the Newsletter. (mailing list) Another announcement will be made the day the program is released.

In the event that the project dies, a message will be posted so that users aren't left in limbo. Currently the project status is active.


What are some of the features Power Tab Editor offers?

  • Playback of Power Tab scores
  • Most of the common music and tab symbols including rhythm slashes
  • Chord & Tuning Dictionaries
  • Full Print Preview and Printing of Power Tab scores

What types of files does the Power Tab Editor create? Can I view the files using other programs?

The Power Tab Editor creates files that can only be viewed and used by the Editor. All Power Tab files are saved using the file extension .ptb.


Where can I see a screenshot of the program?

Click the picture below:

Screenshot
Power Tab Editor v1.7 (Build 80) running on Windows XP (800x600 pixels)

Where can I see some sample output for the program?

There are two samples of Power Tab output below in PDF format.  You will need a PDF reader to view the files. The freeware Adobe Acrobat Reader can be downloaded from the link below.

 Get Acrobat Reader

Guitar Score  PDF output of a guitar score.

Bass Score  PDF output of a bass score.


Where can I download the program?

The program is available for download in the Download Center

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