Yeah! I played around with Songsterr tabs all day now.
My impression got confirmed: most are not synched to the audio. Even the corrections with GoPlayalong resulted only in a few usable files that I import into Tonelib Jam. Some tabs seem to be from another planet.
I never use YouTube videos, as I change the tabs often to accommodate to my favourite fretting positions, so I adapt tabs with Guitar Pro or MuseScore.
Practicing with ToneLib Jam is an absolute joy though. It has a similar approach as Rockmith, but I like it much better.
It shows all notes only, I can change speed at will, add a metronome, I can use my own plugins, the audio quality is superb … love it!
Today I played for two hours in the park using Tonelib Jam, enjoying the last time we will have 17°c in Hamburg/Germany this year, even had almost two hours of sunshine, and my girlfriend was reading a book beside me.
What is your park setup like? Phone/tablet? Once I get some disposable income I want to grab a cheap battery powered bass amp and go play in the park or something. Who knows maybe it could turn into a part time paying gig
Windows notebook. With what I know now I would use a MacBook Air M1 or better
An battery pack - which I would not need if I had a M-powered MacBook.
Zoom AMS-24. It’s really a great mobile audio interface. I use it instead of my Boss Katana Go now. Much better audio quality. USB or battery powered. I can play and record without any latency. I can use my plugins /VSTs. I can use it for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. Two headphone outputs, so people that ask me what I’m doing can listen in
Two sets of in-ears. Teufel Move Pro (they are very good, except for the fact that they fall out of my ears sometimes) and some cheap Samsungs for “guests”
Tonelib Jam, my goto practice tool. I have Guitar Pro and Presonus Studio 1 too on my notebook.
All the plugins / VSTs that I have on my main system too. I use MeldaProductions and Brainworx mostly for park stuff. It’s simple, sounds great and is (mostly) free.
About 150.000 Guitar Pro tabs and a few thousand PSARC/SONG tracks for Tonelib Jam.
About 110.000 audio tracks (don’t like streaming and can’t do that anyway in the park :-))
If you could find a workaround for tonelib, I’d suggest an ipad for this. You wouldn’t need the battery pack and it’s a smaller package all in all. Personally, I’d just use my ipad with a mini dock with 3.5mm headphone jack, plug the DAI into that. Set up the hotspot on my phone and use songsterr. I know you aren’t a huge fan but its just for park play / travel after all. As it is now, I’ll plug mine into the same dock I use with my macbook and record off of that into Logic.
For this use case, an M-powered MacBook would be better, as
there is no iOS alternative to Tonelib Jam
the battery of a MacBook lasts longer than a similar sized Windows Intel notebook (expect an additional 40% and more)
Some more remarks:
You should always use the headphone out of the audio interface, not from the notebook or hub
Logic was very attractive to me until recently, when I found out that stem separation is not better than RipX … and it uses f#cking AU format for plugins, not VST, like the rest of the world.
I’m curious what audio you are comparing it too to say it’s not synced? I’ve been playing with songsterr tabs near daily for months and have only found a few that have issues when played against the you tube video that accompanies 95% of them.
I find a decent number that aren’t. Usually it has a hard time keeping up with faster bass lines where there timing changes mid song. It’s easy enough to adjust to when you know the song and know its coming. Tonelib has it’s own issues like this. There are songs where the tab screen in editor mode just go apes%^* mid song and jumps around. The timing issue with songster is easier to deal with because at least the tab stays in place on screen.
Mmm, I probably do adjust more than I realise, I can’t count a song for crap but I guess I also don’t follow the marker religiously and I’ve always had a good sense of timing. I play with the audio primarily and use the tab just to know what’s coming up and where I am.
When I’m struggling with a particular bit on timing I tend to stop the song completely and just practice it by memory until I get the fingering and rhythm right then I take it back to the audio to get it up to speed.
