Power Tab Editor

Guitar tablature viewer and editor

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Table of Contents

• About
  • Key Features
  • Supported File Types
• Users
• Developers
  • Dependencies
  • Building
    • Windows
      • PowerShell
    • Linux
    • OS X

About Power Tab Editor

Power Tab Editor 2.0 - A powerful cross platform guitar tablature viewer and editor inspired by the ceased development and missing source code from the original Power Tab Editor. This project is open-source and written from scratch so that your favorite tabbing platform can continuously grow with your needs.

Key Features

• Cross platform - Windows, Mac, & Linux
• Tabbed layout for opening multiple files at the same time
• Mixer interface for adjusting volumes during playback
• Complete customization of keyboard shortcuts
• Importing of Guitar Pro tabs

Supported File Types

• .pt2
• .ptb
• .gp3, .gp4, .gp5
• .gpx
• .gp

Users

• New user? Read the intro page to learn more about the project!
• Download:
  • Latest stable releases here
  • Latest development releases here (requires a GitHub login to download)
• You can report bugs or suggest features on our issue tracker, or discuss ideas on the discussions forum
• You can translate the project into your language.
• Join the Discord community

Developers

• Development help is very welcome! If you're interested in contributing, the issue tracker has a list of good first issues that are easier to dive into!
• Feel free to ask development-related questions on the discussions page or on Discord
• See below for instructions on how to compile and run the project:

Dependencies:

• CMake >= 3.12
• Boost >= 1.74
  • algorithm
  • date_time
  • endian
  • functional
  • iostreams
  • operators
  • rational
  • signals2
  • stacktrace
• Qt >= 6.2 version or greater
• nlohmann-json >= 3.7.3
• RtMidi >= 4.0
• pugixml
• minizip
• doctest
• (Linux only) - ALSA library (e.g. libasound2-dev)
• (Linux only) - MIDI sequencer (e.g. timidity-daemon)
• A compiler with C++20 support.

Building:

Windows:

• Install Git - see https://help.github.com/articles/set-up-git
• Install vcpkg and run vcpkg install --triplet x64-windows boost-algorithm boost-date-time boost-endian boost-functional boost-iostreams boost-rational boost-signals2 boost-stacktrace doctest minizip nlohmann-json pugixml to install dependencies.
• Install Qt by running vcpkg install --triplet x64-windows qtbase qttools (this may take a while), or install a binary release from the Qt website or https://github.com/miurahr/aqtinstall.
• Open the project folder in Visual Studio and build.
  • If running CMake manually, set CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE to [vcpkg root]\scripts\buildsystems\vcpkg.cmake

PowerShell Installation Scripts

• For a more installation streamlined process
  • with at least PowerShell 5.1 is installed on your machine
  • Run these powershell scripts in your powershell terminal with your shell working directory as your cloned project

.\scripts\Get-Dependencies.ps1 -vcpkg_exe_path "your/path/to/your/vcpkg.exe" -python_exe_path "your/path/to/your/python.exe";
.\scripts\Run-CMakeBuild.ps1 -vcpkg_dir "your/path/to/your/vcpkg" -qt_path "your/path/to/qt";

You'll have to update the variables for your specific paths to $vcpkg_exe_path, $python_exe_path, and $qt_path

Linux:

• These instructions assume a recent Ubuntu/Debian-based system, but the package names should be similar for other package managers.
• Install dependencies:
  • sudo apt update
  • sudo apt install cmake qt6-base-dev qt6-tools-dev qt6-tools-dev-tools qt6-l10n-tools libboost-dev libboost-date-time-dev libboost-iostreams-dev nlohmann-json3-dev libasound2-dev librtmidi-dev libpugixml-dev libminizip-dev doctest-dev
    • You may also need to install libglx-dev libgl1-mesa-dev along with Qt6
  • sudo apt install timidity-daemon - timidity is not required for building, but is a good sequencer for MIDI playback.
  • Optionally, use Ninja instead of make (sudo apt install ninja-build)
• Build:
  • mkdir build && cd build
  • cmake ..
    • Add -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/some/path to customize the install directory.
    • Add -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug for a debug build instead of a Release build.
    • Add -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ to compile with Clang.
    • Add -G Ninja to generate Ninja build files.
  • make -j8 or ninja
• Run:
  • ./bin/powertabeditor
  • ./bin/pte_tests to run the unit tests.
• Install:
  • make install or ninja install

OS X:

• Install Xcode along with its Command Line Tools.
• Install dependencies:
  • brew install boost cmake doctest minizip ninja nlohmann-json pugixml qt6 pugixml rtmidi
  • Note that the Qt package from homebrew [does not currently work for building the installer|Homebrew/brew#15354]. Installing via https://github.com/miurahr/aqtinstall is an alternative.
• Build:
  • mkdir build && cd build
  • cmake -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/usr/local/opt/qt6/lib/cmake ..
    • To generate an Xcode project, switch to -G Xcode and then open and build build/powertabeditor.xcodeproj
  • ninja
• Run:
  • open ./bin/Power\ Tab\ Editor.app
  • ./bin/pte_tests to run the unit tests.
  • For Xcode, select Product/Scheme/powertabeditor and then Product/Run.