Guitar Pro 8: Do you need it and is it worth it?
Guitar Pro 8 now has a host of added benefits for guitarists and at a great price point
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Guitar Pro 8 has just been released and brings with it a host of new features. The update from the old version 7 now contains audio tracks, a virtual pedalboard, nested tuplets and further customisations, amongst all the new features. But, is it worth the price?
Enhanced and Updated
Guitar Pro 8 appears to have added a lot of new features. The kind of features that make perfect sense for any guitar player looking to write, notate and also learn new music on the guitar. With basic features including both standard notation and tablature, it should work for just about any musician.
Want to learn how to play Little Wing? · Source: Arobas Music
What’s New?
Actually, this update brings a whole host of new features and so it looks like a pretty major overhaul of the software package. One of the major updates is the ability to add an audio file to your scores and have it play back in time with your score. There is even a time-stretching function which could be very useful.
Then there are a suite of new practice tools which includes the ability to focus/unfocus tracks via a volume boost. Perfect to help you pick out the part you are attempting to learn. There is now a visual metronome to help you maintain your timing. This is accompanied by the ability to fix the tempo of a track, change the relative speed during playback via +/- keys which speed up or slow down the track, and the ability lock the sound of the line-in. The latter allows you to keep your tone, whilst you skip too another track,
Virtual Effect Chain
The new virtual effect chain is essentially a virtual pedalboard with individual stompboxes. These allow you to build your guitar tones, so that your guitar will sit in the track.
Stompboxes galore! · Source: Arobas Music
More Features
They have also added the ability to adjust the duration, the offset and the relative velocity of each individual note within your score. Perfect for fine tuning your music. Users can also set the pan and volume of the onboard drum set and any percussion tracks. I also like that you now have the ability to pre-listen to the sound banks while playing your tabs, just by moving your mouse curser over the selected track.
New Stylesheet options · Source: Arobas Music
Plus, you can now customise your tabs, align bars, adjust individual beats and there are new Stylesheets that allow you to have your music personalised. This last feature means you can adjust widths and spacings, making it easier for you to read bars, chord boxes and diagrams within your scored music.
They have finally added nested tuplets and things like scale diagrams, plus piano fingering. Which all adds up to a more professional quality package for musicians.
Considering, for example, something like Sibelius can be up to 10 times the price of this software, it is great that they have now included all these pretty fundamental features. Many of which bring it close to a package like Sibelius, just with a focus especially for guitar players.
Is it worth the money?
I’d say that for the price the new Guitar Pro 8 offers a lot of very useful features, and many of these would be very beneficial to guitarists of all abilities. Even at full price it is very affordable, and you can always download the free demo to trial these new features before you commit.
Specification and Price
Guitar Pro 8 runs Windows 8 / 10 / 11 (64 bit) and Mac OS X 10.13 or later. The price is 69.95 euros. Until 07/31/2022, existing users can upgrade for only 24.50 euros. After that, an upgrade costs 34.95 euros.
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