Guitar Pro is a proprietary multitrack editor of

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

tablature Tablature (or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering or the location of the played notes rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuel ...

and musical scores, possessing a built-in

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

-editor, a plotter of chords, a player, a

metronome A metronome () is a device that produces an audible click or other sound at a uniform interval that can be set by the user, typically in beats per minute (BPM). Metronomes may also include synchronized visual motion, such as a swinging pendulum ...

and other tools for musicians. It has versions for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

and is written by the French company Arobas Music.

History

There have been six popular public major releases of the software: versions 3–8. Guitar Pro was initially designed as a tablature editor, but has since evolved into a full-fledged score writer including support for many musical instruments other than guitar. Until it reached version 4, the software was only available for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. Later, Guitar Pro 5 (released November 2005) undertook a year-long porting effort and Guitar Pro 5 for the

was released in July 2006. On April 5, 2010, Guitar Pro 6, a completely redesigned version, was released. This version also supports

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

, with 32-bit

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...

being the officially supported distribution. On February 6, 2011, the first ever portable release of Guitar Pro (version 6) was made available on the App Store for support with the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a po ...

, and

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

running

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

3.0 or later. An Android version was released on December 17, 2014. In 2011, a version was made to work with the Fretlight guitar called Guitar Pro 6 Fretlight Ready. The tablature notes being played in Guitar Pro 6 Fretlight Ready show up on the Fretlight guitar's LEDs which are encased within the guitar's fretboard to teach you the song. In April 2017, Guitar Pro 7 was officially released with new features and dropped Linux support. Guitar Pro 8 was released in May 2022 with a range of new features, most notably support for

Apple Silicon Apple silicon is a series of system on a chip (SoC) and system in a package (SiP) processors designed by Apple Inc., mainly using the ARM architecture family, ARM architecture. They are used in nearly all of the company's devices including Mac ...

processors.

Background

The software makes use of multiple instrument tracks which follow standard

staff notation In Western musical notation, the staff"staff" in the Collins English Di ...

, but also shows the

notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...

on tablature notation. It gives the musician visual access to keys (

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

s, drumkits, etc.) for the song to be composed, and allows live previews of the notes to be played at a specified

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

. It allows for certain tracks to be muted and provides dynamic control over the volume, phasing and other aspects of each track. Included in version 4 onwards is a virtual keyboard that allows pianists to add their part to a composition. Guitar Pro outputs sound by means of a library and/or, as of version 5, the "" (RSE) which uses high quality recorded samples for a more realistic playback. By using its live preview feature musicians may play along with the song, following the tablature played in real time. Files composed using Guitar Pro are recorded in the GP, GPX, GP5, GP4 and GP3 format, corresponding to versions 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3 of the software. These file formats lack forward compatibility, and opening them in an older version of Guitar Pro prompts the user to upgrade their software to the respective version. The distribution of these files was widely carried out on the Internet, being produced by fans often by ear, and included songs both of underground and mainstream artists. The main hub for Guitar Pro tabs was (and still is) the Arobas-owned mySongBook. However, the

Music Publishers Association The Music Publishers Association of the United States (MPA) is a non-profit music publishing organization based in New York City. Founded in 1895, the MPA is the oldest music trade organization in the United States which addresses issues pert ...

(MPA), claiming to represent sheet music companies, raised copyright issues and pressured websites offering the files to cease distribution. This included then-president Lauren Keiser threatening jail time for those involved. Subsequently, distribution became much more dispersed, and mySongBook itself was forced to follow much stricter practices.

References

{{Scorewriters Guitar-related software Cross-platform software Scorewriters 1997 software Software that uses Qt

History

Background

See also

References