Importing ASCII tablature into Soundslice
Soundslice supports importing ASCII tablature, a rather barebones way of writing tab in plain text. It looks like this:
--0--3--1--0--|---------------
--1-----1-----|-1-0-----------
--0-----2-----|-----2-0-------
--2-----3-----|---------2-----
--3-----3-----|---------3-----
--------------|---------------
Once imported into Soundslice, you’ll be able to play it back and edit it. We’ll also automatically generate the corresponding music notation. The above example gets imported like this:
How to import ASCII tab
1. From your Soundslice homepage, click “New slice” and select “Start with a notation file.”
2. You’ll see the “Upload notation file” screen. Click “ASCII tab” there.
3. You’ll see the “ASCII tab import” screen. Paste your tab into the big box and click “Import.”
From then on, you’ll be able to edit your tab just like any other notation on Soundslice.
Support for various notations
ASCII tab is a pretty limited format. It doesn’t specify note durations/rhythms, and sometimes it doesn’t even specify barlines. So we see it as just a first step in getting music into Soundslice. You’ll probably need to clean it up using our editor.
Here are details on support for specific aspects of music notation:
| Notation | Supported? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Barlines | Yes | We detect barlines in ASCII tab, if they’re drawn using the | character. If your ASCII tab doesn’t contain barlines, the music will be imported as a single bar. Use our editor to add bars, then cut and paste notes into the new bar. |
| Bends | No | We don’t detect bends. Use our editor’s bend support to add them as needed. |
| Chord names | No | We don’t detect chord names. Use our editor’s chord name support to add them as needed. |
| Hammer-ons and pull-offs | Yes | We detect hammer-ons and pull-offs, if they’re encoded as the standard h and p characters. In our editor, you can change them as needed. Read more. |
| Harmonics | No | We don’t detect harmonics yet. Use our editor’s harmonics support to add them as needed. |
| Key signatures | No | We always import ASCII tab in the key of C major. Use our editor’s key signature support to change as needed. |
| Lyrics | No | We don’t detect lyrics. Use our editor’s lyric support to add them as needed. |
| Rhythms | No | Each note is imported as a quarter note. In our editor, you can quickly change note duration using the “Increase duration” and “Decrease duration” commands. |
| Slides | Yes | We detect slides into notes, slides out of notes and slides between notes (the / and \ characters in ASCII tab). In our editor, you can change slides as needed. Read more. |
| Time signatures | No | We always import ASCII tab in 4/4 time. Use our editor’s time signature support to change as needed. |
| Tunings | No | For the moment, we always assume standard guitar tuning (if we see six strings) or standard bass-guitar tuning (if we see four strings). In our editor, you can change tuning as needed. Read more. |
| Vibrato | Yes | We detect vibrato (the ~ character in ASCII tab). In our editor, you can change vibrato as needed. Read more. |
| Voices | No | All music is imported as a single voice. In our editor, you can move things into separate voices as needed. Read more. |