TuxGuitar

TuxGuitar
Original author(s) Julian Gabriel Casadesus and others[1]
Stable release 1.2 / October 3, 2011
Development status Dormant
Written in Java, Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT)
Operating system Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD
Available in English
Type Tablature Editor, Scorewriter
License LGPLv2.1 [2]
Website sourceforge.net

TuxGuitar is a free, open source tablature editor,[3] which includes features such as tablature editing, score editing, and import and export of Guitar Pro gp3, gp4, and gp5 files.[4][5] In addition, TuxGuitar's tablature and staff interfaces function as basic MIDI editors. TuxGuitar's mascot and namesake is Tux, the penguin mascot of many games and programs originally designed for Linux. It is written in the Java programming language[6] with the GUI toolkits SWT and GTK. TuxGuitar is free and open source software released under version 2.1 of the GNU Lesser General Public License.

TuxGuitar 1.2 was released in 2009.[7] Its source code has been steadily updated through 2015.[8]

Skins

TuxGuitar offers a set of three default[9] skins that its users can choose from. These are:

Image Name Author First appeared in Description
a grey and greyish blue layout for TuxGuitar Lavender Sascha v0.1 Simple, elegant theme with lavender color.
Blue serious Licnep v0.1 A more serious theme, where blue dominates.
A red-brown layout for TuxGuitar that is very rural in appearance due to the choice of colors ranging from red to shades of blue and green. Ersplus Ersplus v0.9 Default tuxguitar theme.

TuxGuitar also supports custom skins.[10] The default skin for version 1.0 is Lavender.

Supported effects[4][11]

Note effects
Dead notes Supported
Accentuated notes Only heavy or regular
Harmonics Only natural, artificial, tapped, pinched, or semi harmonic
Dynamics Not displayed in the body of the score
Grace notes Limited to a duration ranging from 1/64 to 1/16 of a whole note
Tremolo picking Limited to a duration of at most 1/8 and at least 1/32 of a whole note
Slurs Not supported
Hammer-ons and pull-offs[12] Limited support
Slides Limited support
Track effects
Multiple Tracks Supported, can be displayed by clicking View>Multitrack
Multiple Voices Supported but limited to two voices per track
Repeats Supported but limited to either open or closed barline repeats
Alter. Endings Supported but MIDI playback will only recognize the first two alternative endings, the second of which must be located above the measure that directly follows the closed repeat in order for it to be associated with the first alternative ending and the repeat in question
Custom Number of and Tuning for a Track's strings Supported but the number of strings that can be added is limited to no more than 7 and no less than 4 and they can be set to any pitch within the range of 16.352Hz and 15804.266Hz, inclusive

Does not currently allow for different-length courses, e.g. five-string banjo

Track Names Supported
Lyrics Supported
Text Supported
Chords Supported[13]
Symbols Supported but limited to time signatures, clefs, and key signatures[14]

Supported file formats[15]

File format Loading Exporting
TuxGuitar (.tg) Yes Yes
Guitar Pro (.gtp) Yes No
Guitar Pro 3 (.gp3) Yes Yes
Guitar Pro 4 (.gp4) Yes Yes
Guitar Pro 5 (.gp5) Yes Yes
Guitar Pro 6 (.gpx) No No
Power Tab (.ptb) Yes No
Tabledit (.tef) Yes No
GNU LilyPond (.ly) No Yes
MIDI (.mid) Yes Yes
ASCII tab (.txt) No Yes

Reception

As of May 2014, TuxGuitar had 4/5 stars in the CNET user ratings.[16] During the same time, TuxGuitar had 3.4/5 stars in the Softpedia user ratings.[17] Currently the program has 4.8/5 starts on SourceForge.[18] Reviewers at Software Informer gave version 1.0 of TuxGuitar 5/5 star, praising the "very easy to use interface" and "very advanced functions" of the program.[5]

References

  1. ↑ "TuxGuitar 1.2 Download". Audio & Video category. CHIP.eu. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  2. ↑ TuxGuitar license
  3. ↑ TuxGuitar - cool and functional open source tab editor by Valerie. frostclick.com
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 BrotherSoft TuxGuitar version 1.0 RC4 Description
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Mantilla, Daniel. "TuxGuitar: Editorial review". Software Informer. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  6. ↑ Smith, Tim. "TuxGuitar 1.2". Utilities. ComputerActive. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ previously packaged
  10. ↑ The skins modify toolbar icons and dialog buttons.
  11. ↑ TuxGuitar Documentation
  12. ↑ TuxGuitar does not differentiate between the two.
  13. ↑ Westermann, Lucas (September 25, 2010). "TuxGuitar Review" (PDF). Full Circle Magazine (41): 24. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  14. ↑ instructional performance text can be added instead of symbols via the Text editor but they will not be supported by the MIDI playback or be recognized by TuxGuitar as anything but text.
  15. ↑ The file formats supported by TuxGuitar consist of but are not limited to the contents of this section.
  16. ↑ "TuxGuitar: Average User Rating". CNET. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  17. ↑ "TuxGuitar 1.2: User Rating". Softpedia. Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  18. ↑ "TuxGuitar: Reviews". SourceForge. Retrieved 12 May 2014.

External links