Crowd Sourced Guitar Transcriptions

[Big Monk]

Ladies and Gents,

Looking to get some feedback from the members here about an idea. I have always had an issue sourcing reliable tabs to assist in learning many of the songs I like. Frankly, any songs "off the beaten path", even if by popular or seminal groups, can have dodgy to non-existent tablature on the interwebs. Live music in particular is very underrepresented.

Case in point, I love the live version of "Sleepy Time Time" from Live Cream, and while I've been able to nail certain bits and bobs in my own style (only by ear and some random tabs), I can't quite hit all the voicings, rhythm figures, etc.

So I found this site:

https://www.mysheetmusictranscriptions. ... gILdvD_BwE

and asked for a quote. Here's the rub: The cost is prohibitive for a single person, especially if you are not teaching (and subsequently having students subsidize part of the cost). The quote I recieved for "Sleepy Time Time" was $29-$33 USD per minute, which at 6:40 is ~$185-$211. The lower end is for Tablature only and the higher end for Tablature and Sheet music. Chords symbols are an extra $25 flat fee. As an example:

Tablature divided between 20 people the cost is $9.28 per person ($10.53 with Chord Symbols)
Tablature plus Sheet Music divided between 20 people the cost is $10.56 per person ($11.81 with Chord Symbols)

Now, I can't speak to the quality directly but the samples they sent look professionally done and well executed. I can think of TONS of songs that I never have a chance of finding real transcriptions for that could be done this way. One that I have always wanted is "What in the World" by Rory Gallagher from Live in Europe. Is this something people would be interested in? Obviously there would have to be a communal agreement on whether a specific song was desirable but with enough people, and the ability to get and distribute the PDF here, the cost could be made so marginal that most people would probably want to participate. As an example:

Tablature divided between 50 people the cost is $3.72 per person ($4.53 with Chord Symbols)
Tablature plus Sheet Music divided between 50 people the cost is $4.22 per person ($4.72 with Chord Symbols)

This is of course based on "Sleepy Time Time" but you can see how the cost drives down per song with more people.

[jreeves47]

it's a cool idea. have you tried using any transcription software to do this on your own? I really like Transcribe! to slow down and pitch-correct stuff I need to learn

[Big Monk]

it's a cool idea. have you tried using any transcription software to do this on your own? I really like Transcribe! to slow down and pitch-correct stuff I need to learn

I've never heard of it! Frankly, the entire concept of trying to either transcribe stuff myself or to have a service do it is a new thing for me. I'll look into that.

My big draw here is music I love that is not necessarily well known enough to have a bazillion tabs floating around the internet but also live music. Live music is very under-represented in the tab game.

[Nick]

I used Transcribe! recently as well, just for its user-friendly slow-downing. Then the free trial ended, and I couldn't figure out where in my PC's registry it'd been saving files (meaning I couldn't reset the trial), so I've been a little stuck since. Anyone had any luck with freeware slow-downers that don't completely crunch up the sound quality?

[jreeves47]

I bought Transcribe years and years ago, I'd say it's worth the price. He keeps it updated

[resynthesis]

And developers these days have become more adept at stopping demo reuse :)

Most DAWs these days are useful for transcribing. Reaper isn't free (but is a bargain IMO) but the full featured demo lasts forever.

[Big Monk]

Downloaded a trial version of Transcribe!. Definitely a useful tool. I’ll have to play with it a bit more and get a feel for it.

I guess I was mostly just gauging the interest of crown sourcing a 3rd party to do the work. My thought was I pay the $4.99 for transcriptions from someone like sheetmusicplus.com, etc. all the time and this would really be no different, except for the fact that there is zero chance many of these lesser known songs will ever have transcriptions.