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Submission Guidelines (Updated October 20, 2014)

@archard  - Oct. 8, 2007, 11:56 p.m.

Do Not Post Submissions In This Thread. Please Make A New Forum Topic

Before submitting your tab, make sure it adheres to the following:

  1. Your tab MUST be your own original work. This means that the actual writing out of the tab has to be done yourself. If your tab is based on someone else's work, you must have their permission!
  2. Your tab should look neat and present itself clearly. All tabs should look like a standard piece of tablature normally does. Here is an example of a single line from a standard piece of tablature:
    e---------------------------------------
    B---------------------------------------
    G---------------------------------------
    D--9-10-----12----------10-9-10---------
    A--------12----------------------12-12--
    E---------------------------------------

    The number of lines should match the number of strings on the instrument the tab represents, the lines should be preceded with the note of the open string (E for the 6th string, G for the 3rd string, for example), and the ends of each line should match up. If your tab is wider than 110 columns, you may be asked to edit it down to fit on the site.

  3. The top of your tab should contain some information about the tab, such as what song is it, what game is it from, who tabbed it and when was it tabbed. Typically the top will look something like this:
    Name of song
    Name of game
    Composer of song
    Name of tabber
    Date tab was made
  4. The tab must, of course, be accurate if it's a transcription.

Once your tab conforms to the above guidelines, take the following steps to submit it:

  1. Make a topic in the Submissions section titled "Name of Game - Name of Song", or something along those lines.
  2. Do not paste the tab in the body of the post, instead upload the tab somewhere and post a link to it. You can upload the tab wherever you want, but by default your account on gametabs.net comes with personal file storage. To upload a file to your personal file storage, follow these steps:
    1. When posting a new topic you should see a toolbar that looks like this:
         <img src="http://content.screencast.com/users/archard/folders/Jing/media/f11c3906-6cbc-4b1f-9118-f27285deda3a/2008-12-28_2339.png" alt="" /></li>
      
    2. Click on the icon of the globe with a link in front of it (Insert/edit link).
    3. Click on the 'Browse' button to open your personal file browser.
      <img src="http://content.screencast.com/users/archard/folders/Jing/media/a65c6ba9-2fcf-4e7a-8f4a-89a056ed3fd7/2008-12-28_2342.png" alt="" /></li>
      
    4. From there, click the 'Upload' button at the top of the browser
      <img src="http://content.screencast.com/users/archard/folders/Jing/media/cd61c299-844f-49c2-b46e-d61dddb22d01/2008-12-28_2344.png" alt="" /></li>
      
    5. Upload your file. A link on the bottom right of the browser should appear with the filename of the file you just uploaded. Click that to send it back to the editor. The file should appear in the Link URL box. Now type the name of the song in the Link Text box. Fill out the Link Title box with whatever you want; this is the text that appears after hovering over the link with your mouse. Click ok to insert the link into the post.
  3. If possible, also include a sound file to accompany your tab, such as a MIDI or MP3. Also if possible, please provide as much information about the song/game as possible, such as who composed the song or what console the game is from if it's an obscure game. Also, if your submission is fulfilling a request, please indicate that in your post.
  4. If you've completed all the above steps, submit the topic and one of our staff members will review the tab and put it up if we feel that it meets the requirements.

***Tabs with multiple files (e.g. Guitar Pro tabs)***

It's not uncommon that a tab will contain more than one file. This happens a lot when the tab is accompanied by non text files like Guitar Pro (.gp5), Power Tab (.ptb), or PDF files (.pdf). If this happens, please submit a ZIP file with all the included files in it PLUS another text file that shows exactly how you want the tab to be displayed on the site.

For example, if you submit a Guitar Pro tab with two tracks, you should submit a ZIP file that contains the .gp5 file, one .txt file for each track and one extra .txt with the entire tab as you want it to be displayed. Note that the extra file must adhere to the guidelines outlined in the first part of this post.

Tab Formatting

When posting text for a tab on the forum, create tab page, or comment use pre tags between the text.

<pre>text</pre>

Type those two tags and place your tab in the middle where it says text. This will format the tab evenly for readability.

Non-Game Music

The purpose of the Gametabs.net is to share songs made for video games; anything that was not made for a game unfortunately is not in the spirit of video game music (Japanese Anime being an exception). If you have something that was not made for a game check these forum threads for rules of what is acceptable for the main site and what should be posted in these threads.

Licensed & Public Domain

Western Film & TV

Vocaloid

@Mellotronremix - July 3, 2008, 1:09 a.m.

What are the submission policies on original compositions (by others, not me), which have only a tenuous link to video games? The song I had in mind was submitted on Newgrounds but wasn't used in any flash games if I remember correctly.

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@archard - July 3, 2008, 1:11 a.m.

"Mellotronremix" posted:

What are the submission policies on original compositions (by others, not me), which have only a tenuous link to video games? The song I had in mind was submitted on Newgrounds but wasn't used in any flash games if I remember correctly.

I'm not sure what you mean... can you give me an example?

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@Mellotronremix - July 3, 2008, 1:19 a.m.

Well say someone who composes classical music uses Newgrounds simply as an outlet for his work. For example, this song: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/151815

I've collected several nice sounding songs from the site and will start to transcribe them...sometime soon. This is mostly for my own enjoyment, but I'd be happy to upload them here if its fine.

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@archard - July 3, 2008, 1:34 a.m.

No, flash games don't count as 'video games' IMO. Feel free to post them on the forum somewhere, but I won't put them on the main site.

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@atukomanga - Aug. 3, 2008, 7:22 p.m.

I was wondering if using the midi file to write out the tabs is ok. I got plenty of midis that I can run through Sonar and have tabbed. All I'd have to do is test them for playability, and possibly transpose them slightly, but would that be okay?

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@archard - Aug. 4, 2008, 6:39 a.m.

I don't mind if you use a MIDI to make the tab, but don't just run the MIDI through the program and leave it as is. Use the MIDI to figure out the notes, but the actual creation of the tab should be your work. In other words, make it playable and put your own stamp on it.

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@atukomanga - Aug. 5, 2008, 12:29 p.m.

Yeah...I was planning on doing that. The decoder I use doesn't exactly know that fingers don't stretch the length of the neck. It once gave me a not structure something like this.

e---------------
B----------20-----
G----------3-----
D-------5--------
A-----16---------
E-1-8------------

because I was trying to tab a violin.

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@archard - Aug. 28, 2008, 3:20 a.m.

Added another rule saying the tab must be your own work.

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@spencer_001 - Sept. 10, 2008, 12:39 a.m.

This is a Zelda tab. Zelda's Lullaby.

FILE: 970-Zeldas Lullaby.txt

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@archard - Sept. 10, 2008, 1:56 a.m.

lol. lost?

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@Binarynova - Sept. 24, 2008, 12:08 a.m.

This may seem silly but I want to make sure before I submit this one... do you need permission from the author of a tab if you based your tab off of their tab to start?

For example, I've just about finished a solo guitar arrangement of Ronfaure from Final Fantasy XI and I used Aaron Morison's four guitar transcription as an early base and then it sort of grew on its own from there. It has original sections (well, tabbed by ear), sections based on his tab, and sections that are somewhere inbetween. I've emailed him for permission (and I'm awaiting a response), but is this an example of a case where one would need permission, or are you simply trying to keep people from downloading someone else's tab from another site and submitting it here verbatim?

Thank you. I'm sure I'm just thinking too much and making this a bigger deal than it is. :p

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@archard - Sept. 24, 2008, 4:29 a.m.

If you just based the tab off someone else's then you don't need to ask permission because it's still your work. However, you have to credit the person who's tab you used in your tab.

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@sirorion4000 - Oct. 7, 2008, 10:48 p.m.

does this site accept gp5 files?

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@fartinyoface - Oct. 10, 2008, 1:15 a.m.

Hi. I posted a tab for "Zelda,song of time", but it didn't show up. what did I do wrong?

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@Jinx - Oct. 16, 2008, 10:33 p.m.

My apologies, I'm trying to submit a tab but I don't see an attachment button on the post new thread page. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

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