Guitar Pro Review (2023)
Ultimate Guitar Pro Review (2023) – Worth it?
I have tried many notation softwares in the past. During my studies at the Conservatory I have been using Finale and Sibelius and, despite they were incredibly effective, I got very bored by the amount of time required to master these softwares and for the efforts required to learn their language.
Especially learning Finale, has been a true pain in the butt for me and I wish I would have had a solution to that. It was pointlessly complicated, and even for some very basic function you had to mess up with several different passages and command keys to get along and do what you needed.
One good day, I bought Guitar Pro, and my study and professional life changed completely.
Guitar Pro is probably the easiest, most intuitive, and most complete notation software out there. I use it to transcribe my songs, I use it with my students, and I use it for my online courses. I think it is an amazing product, and I feel like recommending it.
In this article I will make the ultimate Guitar Pro Review, I will explain to you which are the pro and cons of this software and whether you should give it a try or not in 2023. Let’s start!
Guitar Pro Prices: €69.95
Includes:
- Instant download license
(Win/Mac) - 200 RSE soundbanks
- 80 effects and amps modeling
Available for:
- Windows 8 / 10 / 11 (64 bits)
- Mac OS X 10.13 or later
- 5 computers allowed
- Technical support
- A free guitar method
Link to buy it:
Pro#1 Easy, intuitive, fast
Pro#2 Very adapt for guitar but also to write other instruments
Pro#3 Access to a Song library with thousands of songs to study
Pro#4 Very accessible price
Con#1 Maybe not your cup of tea if you are a composer who writes for orchestras
Con#2 Fewer functions compared to Finale or Sibelius
First, what’s Guitar Pro?
Guitar Pro is a notation software: we can write both notes and tabs, play them and listen to what we have written in real-time.
Guitar Pro is for sure more than just that. It contains many other features, and with the Upgrade to Version 8, we also have access to additional functions.
The basic function of this software is to let the user write both notes or tabs on the staff. We can choose among different types of guitars (Steel, Electric, Nylon…) and once we encoded the notes, we can listen to them in real-time.
On the left tool panel, we have access to all the possible nuances that can be expressed while playing guitar (bendings, vibratos, slides…) and we can change the key, tempo, and much more. What’s interesting in Guitar Pro is the possibility to put some section in a loop and repeat it infinitely, slowing it down, and even playing along with it. We can change the speed, fix a metronome in real-time, and even add a real track to sync with our tab, so we see exactly what’s been played.
Writing down entire solos becomes pretty easy, as everything is easily linked to the keyboard of our computer, and we will write entire parts in a matter of seconds.
We can also add guitar chords boxes and diagrams (in version 8) and we can in general write entire songs easily.
We can also add specific effects obtained only in certain guitar styles (like in Flamenco for example) and it becomes very easy to indicate them on the sheet. Furthermore, we can also write for guitars with 7, 8, and 12 strings and other different instruments.
When everything is done, we can export the entire project both as a midi file or a PDF. Not to mention, we can read several types of music notation files and directly export them in the specific Guitar Pro format.
Other Key Functions
With Guitar Pro, we can also write drums, bass, and keys parts. We can also import midi files and play them all together. This way we will know better how the song sounds, and we can interact more efficiently with the music. We can repeat each section, mute some tracks, and in general, will be absolutely possible to write entire orchestrations.
All is very easy and intuitive.
We can add chords and organize our scores in different sections. Last but not least, we can decide the graphics we will see after the export: for example, if our score will be in a Jazz style or Classical or Modern.
Thanks to the MIDI acquisition, we can play in real time over the metronome with a MIDI instrument and transfer the notes to the score in real-time. Our Score will be highly customizable, in spaces, number of bars, and overall appearance.
Effects
The latest amazing feature of Guitar Pro, is the possibility to add effects to our guitar chain.
We can easily emulate overdrives, distortions, wha, delays etc. This will make more realistic our sound and it will give a more accurate idea of what we are going to play.
Personally, I don’t use this feature a lot, but sometimes it can be cool to listen to a guitar solo with a more realistic sound instead of the standard MIDI flat sound.
To know more about the other amazing Guitar Pro’s features, take a look at the vendor’s page here
My Song Book
Last but not least, with My Song Book we can have access to thousands of different songs to be played on Guitar Pro.
My Song Book is an enormous songs library in which you can find everything you need to study and progress.
You will find a lot of different songs from many authors, all greatly transcribed. It is a resource I highly recommend to all my students to learn a repertory and progress.
Guitar Pro is currently available with the 7.5 version for €69.95 and it can be upgraded to version 8 for €34.95. Version 8 contains additional features and other bonuses for you to study and write your own music.
It’s all for today, folks! I will see you in the next article!
Ignazio
About me
My name is Ignazio Di Salvo, well, Iggy for all my friends as my name is difficult to pronounce for non Italian speakers.
I am an Italian Guitarist, Singer, Composer, and Music Educator living in Belgium.
I am passionate about music production and writing, I publish two articles every new week about music and music production-related topics.
Note about the links: many of the links in this article are affiliate links. It means that if you will buy something after you click on one of them, I will earn a small commission. Nothing will ever change for you, and you won’t be affected in any way.