March 10th, 2011 
admin Question by Boy: What is the best software for recording guitar and/or transcribing guitar?
I play guitar and I would like to be able to note and to play again. I would also be able to record his guitar. Ideally I’d like to be able to play my guitar and have the notes written by the software program automatically, but I’m not sure if that’s possible. Is there a program that this and what kind of equipment do I need?
Best answer:
Answer by guitarhelper
For basic audio recording, any recording software will work. All depends on how many tracks, effect and features you want or need.
An audio interface will give you better signal and they usually come with free software. More info here:
http://www.guitarhelper.net/audio_Interfaces.html
http://www.guitarhelper.net/Software.html
As for recording actually notes ( Notation), you would need a Midi guitar interface with a pickup. The software would be Sibelius, Notion or Finale. More details here:
http://www.guitarhelper.net/midi13_pin_interfaces.html
http://www.guitarhelper.net/Notation_Tab_Software.html
Brian
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I suppose it all depends on how much money you want to spend. You can get individual software applications that can do each of things you want to do or you can find something that does it all.
Regarding entering musical notes and have them play back, I have used Guitar Pro. I think it’s on version 5 right now, it’s fairly cheap around $ 50 I think and plus there is a vast amount of guitar song transcriptions out on the net in this format. Plus it has a engine which tries to replicate a true guitar sound rather than just midi sounds.
If you want to record your guitar via a computer there a number of software applications out there that can do this they all require a midi interface to connect your guitar to your computer. So you will need a hardware componenet that you will have to purchase pluse the software. Some software examples include: Cakewalk, Cool Edit Pro, RiffWorks and Native Instruments Guitar Rig. Native Instruments also has a lost of different amp and effect modeling add on’s.
If you want something a little more simple and something portable you can grab a portable digital recorder which can record your music from anywere, only downside it won’t translate into notation.
Transcribing music is a very complicated task and not 100% accurate. There are a lot of software applications and hardware devices out there whose stated purpose is to help you to transcribe music . Almost all of them are in fact tools for slowing down the music without changing the pitch.
However, if you want to try I would suggest getting one of the software applications listed above that will convert your guitar sounds into a midi format and then there is a large number of software available that can do this midi transcription for you. Just do a search on midi transcribing.
Again it’s all about what you are wanting to do and how much you want to spend.