Library

Guitar Pro tablature is attached to a track in your library. BakBeat plays that recording, shows the score in its own window, and follows along beat by beat. Where the recording and the score don’t line up, you can calibrate them.

Add and open a score

Tablature belongs to a track, so you attach it from that track. BakBeat accepts Guitar Pro files ending in .gp and keeps its own copy next to the track’s audio. Your original file is left alone.

• Add a score. Open Get Info, choose the Tablature tab, and use Add Tablature…
• Show it in the sidebar. The Tablature sidebar is hidden until you turn on Show Tablature in Sidebar in Settings. It then lists the tracks that have a score.
• Open it. Right-click a track in that sidebar and choose Open in Tab Viewer. Open in Guitar Pro hands the file to Guitar Pro instead, when Guitar Pro is installed.
• Replace or remove. Replace… attaches a different file and starts that score fresh: its Tab Sync offset and sync points are cleared. Remove deletes BakBeat’s copy and the link to the track.

Follow the recording

The recording is the music in your library. The score is attached to it, and BakBeat follows the recording as it plays.

• Play and restart. Play and Pause in the score window play the recording. Restart from Beginning goes back to the start.
• Choose a part. Pick the instrument under the controls. Tab Sync and sync points belong to the song, so they apply to every part.
• Yellow and blue. Yellow follows the beat that is sounding, and the score scrolls to keep it in view. A blue outline marks the beat you armed as the Sync Here target. Until you arm one, BakBeat shows “Click a beat to arm Sync Here”.

Tab Sync and sync points

Tab Sync shifts the whole score against the recording. Sync points fix individual places where the two drift apart.

• Tab Sync is one timing offset. Use − and + to move the tab earlier or later, and Nudge to choose how far each step moves. Reset Tab Sync returns it to 0.00 s.
• A sync point ties one beat in the score to the moment you hear it. Add them where the performance doesn’t line up evenly with the written score. A green dot marks a beat that has one.
• Both are saved with the track’s score, so they are there the next time you open it.
• Audio output matters. Synchronization is calibrated to what you hear, so a different output latency may need a Tab Sync adjustment.

Calibrate a beat

Arm the beat you want to line up, listen for the recording to reach it, then press Sync Here.

• Arm the beat. Click it. The measure appears in the controls, and the blue outline shows it is the target.
• Get a run-up. Option-click an earlier beat to play from there without changing the armed beat.
• Play From Here (Command-Shift-Return) plays from the armed beat. Press Play once first, so the song is loaded.
• Sync Here (Command-Return) saves the sync point when the recording reaches the armed beat. Syncing the same beat again replaces that point.
• Repeated sections. When a measure is played more than once, the controls show the pass, for example Measure 45 and Pass 2 of 2. Choose the pass before you sync. Sync Here, Play From Here, and Delete Anchor use the pass you chose.

Manage and recover

More sync actions, the ellipsis at the right of the sync controls, holds the cleanup commands.

• Delete Anchor removes the sync point for the selected beat and pass only.
• Clear Anchors… removes every sync point for the score, after you confirm. The Tab Sync offset stays.
• Reset Tab Sync returns the offset to 0.00 s. Sync points stay.
• When sync points cannot be used, BakBeat shows a warning and any sync-point dots turn orange. Following then uses the Tab Sync offset alone. Delete Anchor removes a wrong point. Clear Anchors… is the way out when the saved points cannot be read.

All features