Does anyone know of software (preferably free ?) that can create tablature from MIDI? I know that these things exist but I also know that not all of them are any good. I'm too lazy to go do my homework now but I figured that, surely someone around here will know.

Now accepting your recommendations.

I'm specifically interested in writing out a line in staff format (MIDI of course) and then have the software convert it to TAB which I can play on the guitar. Obviously it's more than simply converting each note to a corresponding note on the fretboard; It will have to take into considerations what the other notes played before and after it are and how they relate to each other in terms of the hand's position on the neck.

TuxGuitar can do it - did a quick test and it seems to work ok.

http://tuxguitar.herac.com.ar/

ParadoximA wrote: TuxGuitar can do it - did a quick test and it seems to work ok.

http://tuxguitar.herac.com.ar/

Thanx, I've had a brief look at TuxGuitar before and liked what I saw but never really gotten into it, for whatever reason. I just fired it up again and had a look at this exporting of TAB and it does exactly what I don't want. I'm sure there is some setting that I'm just missing or something but here is my problem:

Let's say I create a MIDI file of a simple Em pentatonic. Let's make it fairly high, starting at E5 and running through two octaves up the Em pentatonic scale to E7 and back down again. If I import this MIDI into TuxGuitar I get something like this:


Notice how the entire two octaves worth of scale is played on one string (the high E string).

Surely, no guitarist would ever play this. Here it is again but with the fingering as I would have written it in blue:


Of course there are any number of ways that this scale can be tabbed out and I realise that the software will have to make certain decisions but I would have liked for it to at least try to keep the notes close to each other on the fretboard.

Is there some setting in TuxGuitar that you can tweak this behaviour with or will I just have to edit all of the generated tabs manually?

You have the option of moving a note to a different string by clicking it, then hitting Shift + Up/Down Arrow. I don't know how to select multiple notes though, so you'd have to do this note by note.

A "cheat" you can use though, is after importing your midi, click "Tools" -> "Transpose", then transpose the entire track downwards - this lowers the notes and places them on lower strings. Then click "Tools" -> "Transpose" again, and transpose it back up, but make sure you have "Try keep notes at same string when possible" ticked. Not ideal, but can work well in some cases.

I think Guitar Pro 5 had a feature where you could choose what position you wanted the notes to be imported into? If not, I think it was at least possible to select multiple notes and move them all together. There's a free demo, but midi import is limited in the free version.

I don't know of any other programs that would do a better job than these two.

ParadoximA wrote: You have the option of moving a note to a different string by clicking it, then hitting Shift + Up/Down Arrow. I don't know how to select multiple notes though, so you'd have to do this note by note.

A "cheat" you can use though, is after importing your midi, click "Tools" -> "Transpose", then transpose the entire track downwards - this lowers the notes and places them on lower strings. Then click "Tools" -> "Transpose" again, and transpose it back up, but make sure you have "Try keep notes at same string when possible" ticked. Not ideal, but can work well in some cases.

I think Guitar Pro 5 had a feature where you could choose what position you wanted the notes to be imported into? If not, I think it was at least possible to select multiple notes and move them all together. There's a free demo, but midi import is limited in the free version.

I don't know of any other programs that would do a better job than these two.

Great stuff, have yourself some thanx!

Might be a little late, but have you tried MIDIToTab? It does exactly that.

http://midi-to-tab.com

130? I don't know where you got that from, for me it's only 39.90...