Tablature Settings dialog

In the Staff View Layout dialog box you can choose a preset style of tablature by choosing from the Preset pop-up menu, or you can define your own style by clicking the Define button in the Staff View Layout dialog box to open the Tablature Settings dialog box.

Use the following fields in the Tablature Settings dialog box to configure TAB for a selected track:

Preset

Save your settings by typing a name into the Preset field at the top of the dialog box and clicking the disk icon next to it. You can remove presets from the list by clicking the X button next to the disk icon.

The next time you want to use these settings for a track, choose your Preset in the Staff View Layout dialog box from the Presets drop-down list.

Tablature

The Tablature tab has these fields:

Method. Choose a tablature method from the Method drop-down list. There are three methods to determine how the TAB is displayed:

Floating. Analyzes all events in a track and attempts to optimize tablature with reference to open position

Fixed. This specifies where on the neck these notes should be played. When Fixed is selected, the Finger span and Lowest fret fields are used together to define the “box” where the notes are displayed. The Finger span parameter determines how many consecutive frets will be used to display the note. For example, if Finger span is set to 4, then Cakewalk will attempt to place all the notes within those 4 frets. The Lowest Fret then determines where on the fretboard will the notes be displayed within the Finger span. The red box in the fretboard display above the parameters changes to reflect the settings in these two parameters.

MIDI Channel. This uses the event’s MIDI channel to determine which string the note should be displayed on. This is useful for MIDI guitarists who record parts in MONO mode, where each string transmits on a different MIDI channel. When MIDI Channel is selected, the user chooses which series of MIDI Channels Cakewalk receives on by typing a number into the 1st Channel field (use values between 1 - 11). Selecting 1 will cause it to use MIDI channels 1 - 6, selecting 2, 2 - 7, and so on. Checking the Skip Channel 10 (G50) check box tells Cakewalk that your guitar is not transmitting on channel l0, so Cakewalk has to use other channels to display your data.

Number of Frets. The number in this field determines how many frets the instrument has that you want to generate a TAB for.

String Tuning. Choose the instrument from the drop-down list and number of strings from the Number of Strings field.

The open string pitches for the instrument you choose automatically appear in the string number fields at the bottom of the dialog box.

Customize any of the open string pitches by using the + or - buttons on the String Number fields.

Fretboard

The Fretboard tab has these fields:

Texture. Choose a texture from the drop-down list.

Orientation. If you want to reverse the standard string orientation, click Low String on Top (Mirror).

Both the Staff View Layout dialog box and the Tablature Settings dialog box create tablature settings for a whole track at a time. To modify tablature for selected parts of a track, select part of a track and use the Regenerate TAB command.

 

See Also:

The Fretboard

Quick TAB

Staff pane layout

The Staff view

Basic musical editing

Chords and marks

Tablature