A couple of days ago I launched a new software product that can display and play banjo tabs in a web browser. It requires no software installation, no plugins or downloads and is completely free. The software is 100% banjo focused -- because I am a banjo player. It has a built in band-in-a-box capability so tab authors will not have to add backing tracks. All you need to do is make sure the song has chords and guitar and bass are added automatically. Currently the software runs best in Google Chrome or Firefox.
I chose a tab format similar to that used at the banjo newsletter. I figured if there was an existing banjo tab standard, the newsletter is probably the best choice because most of us are familiar with it. I have added in some things like support for D-Tuners.
The tab playback uses a brand new technology from Google called WebAudio. This software is still under development at Google and the spec is still not finalized. However it is built into Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari (on a Mac), Opera. Microsoft has agreed to implement WebAudio but it hasn't appeared in Internet Explorer yet.
This is not intended as competition for the banjo hangout. It is just another viewer/player like TABLEDIT or TABRITE. Maybe some day in the BHO tab archive you will see download options: TABLEDIT, TABRITE and WEBAUDIO.
I am looking for feedback, ideas, suggestions, bugs, ... I would also like to set a target of supporting 100 test tunes. If you are a BHO tabber and you would like to see your stuff in this new format, please post your song list in this forum (or just give me permission to use your tabs) and I will do the rest. If you do not like the end result, just post a comment in this forum and I will remove your tabs. Every tab will have the tabber's name in the top right corner -- arranged by ....
If you would like to see the site, lookup 'Leaving Cottondale' in the BHO tab archive. As of right now I have the only version of this song.
Thanks in advance for your help!
p.s. when I first launched this site a day ago I included around 80 test tunes that I selected from the BHO. These were tunes I thought were the best of the best. However, within minutes I was attacked verbally, insulted, called a russian hacker and insulted again. I pulled all the BHO tunes from my site within a few hours. Not a great start. Perhaps this approach will be more successful :-)