That’s a good idea. I guess it’s just a speaker anyway. Use a USB C to 3.5 for the AUX in. Or even a Bluetooth dongle.
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I think I’m also going to get a Zoom B2 Four. It has an AUX in as well.
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songster is great. i mean, it’s free. and i don’t ever really see the point of whether or not a tab is correct or not, i just personally don’t see what dif it makes. and a majority of musicians change how they play a song all the time when they play live.
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I don’t use Songsterr, I tend to generate backing tracks using Moises (on my iPhone), where I strip the bass out and then play against the remaining parts.
Depending on where I am (physically) I’ll either use a Zoom B1four (when travelling) or a Hotone Ampero (at home) as a multi-effects pedal. Both have a headphones out and an aux in, so I just plug the iPhone (with Moises) into the pedal and I’m away. The Ampero also has the benefit of working as an interface for recording the bass into GarageBand (again on the iPhone).
I’ve also run the iPhone (with Moises) into the aux input on an amp, if I want to play without headphones.
I am sure you could do a similar thing with Songsterr.
Regarding tabs, as I say, I can’t comment about the paid version of Songsterr. I have paid for UG, but to be honest, don’t use it that much. I tend to Google the song I’m looking for ([song name] bass tab) and then to gravitate towards YouTube examples, where someone is playing against a rolling tab. I’ll also just isolate the baseline in Moises and work it out from there, referring to online tabs for more difficult bits. I’ll probably let the UG subscription lapse when it rolls round to renewal as I can’t really see the value.
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It is decent.
Most of the tabs I’ve seen there are user uploaded, so they’re as good as the users.
The extra features (as handily described by @Barney ) make it very readable, manipulable and user-friendly.
So of the resources that have user-generated/uploaded tabs as their material, it is the best one (with the massive bonus of standard notation)…
But you’re always in those murky, potentially dangerous waters of tabs with mistakes.
I wrote thousands of words about this at one point, but the takeaway is - the tab is only wrong if you can hear it’s wrong.
And if you can hear it’s wrong, you can probably correct it, so in that sense… it’s fine?
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Yeah. I’ve corrected several on UG actually, one of the nice things about it.
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right, that’s the point i was trying to make above (badly). if you play it and it sounds like the song, close enough is good enough. and at the end of the day, it’s probably close enough that you have learned to play the basic structure of the song.
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Doesn’t this come back to that other thread about playing the song the ‘correct’ way where some chap named Beato was telling a musician he was playing his own song wrong?
i.e even the muscians don’t play their songs the exact same way every time. Some tabs are obviously so out of sync it’s not even funny but if it’s just the odd bit here and there and it still fits the song then is it really that big of a deal if it’s not 100%?
There are a couple of official tabs on UG Pro that I think are straight up wrong, but it’s really hard to tell when you only have the midi version and not something like the youtube to listen to as well. (Trying to start both simultaneously is a feat that has eluded me.
@howard You can do the same on Songsterr.
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i mean i get the perfectionists, and there is nothing “wrong” with wanting to perfectly transcribe a recording. i just don’t think it’s a necessary thing to either enjoy a tab or learn from a tab.
and that is a whole different animal. but i haven’t seen this much, a tab that is just ridiculously incorrect.
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I used to use Songster, but many of the songs i wanted to play weren’t on there. I also saw more tabs that were wrong than correct. Some of them weren’t even close.
Songster’s fine just to play around, as long as you realize you’re probably not learning the correct version.
These days I either learn a song by ear, use a chord chart to learn it (if I can find one), or learn it from someone like Josh who knows what they’re talking about and takes the time to learn it correctly.
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Just tested a “trick” to download Guitar Pro files without having a Songsterr account:
- Search and display any song at https://www.songsterr.com/
- copy the URL
- Insert URL at https://www.songsterr-downloader.com/
- Get tab
Easy-peasy!
But: most Songsterr files I downloaded do NOT synch properly to the original Audio track, even for “simple” ones like those from Idles.
Correcting via Guitar Pro does not work most of the time, but I could correct some with Go Playalong, but it’s tedious
In my opinion, https://ignition4.customsforge.com/ is MUCH better, if you want tabs that are synched to the audio file!
I tried it! I got it to down load but could not open it.
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You need to open with Guitar Pro, TuxGuitar, MuseScore or Tonelib Jam.
What was the extension of the file?
The extension is GP.
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Should work!
What is the URL of the song you tried? Let me try too!
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Loads without any issues! I have the newest version of Guitar Pro (8.1.3)…
Bass tab PDF:
master-of-puppets.pdf (1.1 MB)
That is great. Thank You.
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Still … you should be able to load the file too.
Note: the GP Extension is for the latest version of Guitar Pro. Sometimes the download is GPX or GP5. That works perfectly with older versions!
If you don’t have the latest version of Guitar Pro, there is a great & free way to convert GP for free to older versions:
- install TuxGuitar (open source)
- load the GP file
- save to MusicXML
- load MusicXML file in your ancient Guitar Pro version
Done!
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I thought songster was cool at first but honestly I usually grab tabs off of the big bass tab site and then I lookup bass tab on YouTube. I compare the two. I first play along at .50 speed maybe , it if it’s not hard, then full speed. Then I like to test myself by playing without looking at the screen, then I cheat if I have to 
I’ll usually make a print of my tabs for my folder I don’t play from the tab in practice but to sooth my nerves I’ll take a quick peak of needed or I get really lost.
Ultimately the right tool is the one you use. I used to use auto progressing things like Rocksmith but I hate the fingerings and chaos it introduced to learning. For me success is getting the feel of the song without any help so even though I’m an IT guy I want to play without assistance.
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