alphaTab and Request For Native Support for TablEdit's File Format

[SteveMcBill]

Project: alphaTab
Suggested category: Ideas

Dear Daniel and the alphaTab development team,

I would like to suggest adding native support for TablEdit's .tef file format, particularly the latest Version 3 format.

TablEdit is used by guitarists and other musicians to create, edit and play musical scores incorporating tablature. Many of its users have extensive collections of existing .tef files containing musical notation, guitar tablature, fingering, rhythmic information and performance settings.

Currently, alphaTab supports several useful formats, including Guitar Pro and MusicXML, but TablEdit files cannot be loaded directly.

This creates a problem for musicians whose existing scores are held in TablEdit. They must convert their files into another format before using alphaTab, potentially losing information or encountering differences in notation and playback.

I have been investigating alphaTab as the basis of a browser-based guitar practice player for my guitar website. My experiments have demonstrated that alphaTab can render and play Guitar Pro files successfully. However, when working with TablEdit files converted to MusicXML, I have encountered differences in notation and playback, including unusual rests and the loss of swing feel.

I have not yet established precisely where all these differences originate, but they illustrate why direct support for the native format could be valuable.

Ideally, a TablEdit importer would preserve as much of the original score information as possible, including:

Standard musical notation and tablature.
Note durations, triplets and other rhythmic information.
Swing settings and tempo changes.
Repeats, endings and other playback instructions.
String and fret positions, tunings and capo settings.
Relevant articulations and performance markings.

I appreciate that implementing a new importer would require investigation of the file format and its capabilities. In particular, support for the current TablEdit Version 3 format would be important to users with modern TablEdit installations.

Would you consider adding TablEdit support to alphaTab, or discussing whether such an importer might be feasible?

I believe this could make alphaTab useful to a wider community of musicians and developers who want to bring their existing TablEdit scores into web-based applications.

Thank you for developing and maintaining alphaTab.

Best regards,
Steve
Email: steve.mcwilliam@btinternet.com
Website: https://www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/tab.htm

[Danielku15]

Funny that I never had TablEdit on my radar. Its double funny because they use alphaTab on their own website https://tabledit.com/tabs/index.shtml 😁

Could be an interesting addition but I'd need to reach out to the developers to get the official spec. Anything reverse-engineered might be incomplete. We could learn from MuseScore how they read it, but MuseScore is GPL and we have to be careful not to adopt their code but only learn.

I'll reach out to the devs to see what their opinion is on sharing the spec with me to add TablEdit support in alphaTab.

[SteveMcBill]

Thanks Daniel, I am sure Matthieu will be interested (Matthieu Leschemelle. - (TablEdit developer/owner).

We have discussed the matter and Matthieu used the French AI (Claude) to develop a first try parser to enable TablEdit files to be used on websites using the alphaTAb engine. It was done quickly and there were still issues with various aspects of translation of the effects in TablEdit being incorrectly translated or not translated at all.. I picked up the work he had done and have been attempting to push it further along but am finding it quite frustrating as I do not know the Version 3 TablEdit file structure at all well (being just a long-term TablEdit user - see here: https://www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/tef-practice/

If you could contact Matthieu I am sure he will be interested in collaborating - he was when I put him in touch with the MusEdit community and the MusEdit introduction of TablEdit importation began.

You can contact Matthieu on the TablEdit forum - https://groups.io/g/tabledit - or, if you wish, by using the information below (from Google):
You can contact Matthieu Leschemelle directly using the official TablEdit Contact Information details below:
• Email: matt0308@tabledit.com
• Alternative Support Email: support@tabledit.com
• Phone: +33 (1) 39219424
• Mailing Address:
Matthieu Leschemelle
8 avenue Gambetta
78100 Saint Germain en Laye
France

Many thanks for your interest. I think such an addition to alphaTab would open up a lot of TablEdit based tablature website usgae.

Cheers and thanks again.

Steve

[Danielku15]

I already reached out to Matthieu and got a reply, I've got the spec and his intermediate importer code at hands. I added #3006 to track the support of this format.

[SteveMcBill]

Thanks Daniel - appreciated.

[SteveMcBill]

Daniel,   If you need any assistance with testing as the development of an importation facility for TablEdit (.tef) files, I am happy to help as and when I can.   Cheers,    Steve Steve J. McWilliam Guitar Tab: http://www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/tab.htm Tab Videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0md259-P6GwpX7okCfMB1w/playlists YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/SteveMcBill ShutterStock Photos: http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=9329 rECOrd - (Cheshire's LRC): http://www.rECOrd-LRC.co.uk     ------ Original Message ------ From: ***@***.*** To: ***@***.*** Cc: ***@***.***; ***@***.*** Sent: Sunday, November 1st 2026, 15:24 Subject: Re: [CoderLine/alphaTab] alphaTab and Request For Native Support for TablEdit's File Format (Discussion #2963)     I already reached out to Matthieu and got a reply, I've got the spec and his intermediate importer code at hands. I added #3006 <#3006> to track the support of this format. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#2963?email_source=notifications&email_token=AG2LK67VCLDEPA3JUJB5GSL5W5IUFA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCOJTGM2DCOJWUZZGKYLTN5XKMYLVORUG64VFMV3GK3TUVRTG633UMVZF6Y3MNFRWW#discussioncomment-19334196> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AG2LK66YL7M5PBSROKT363T5W5IUFAVCNFSNUABGKJSXA33TNF2G64TZHMYTIOJRGE4TEO2ENFZWG5LTONUW63R3GEYTANZQHE2DHILWAI> . Triage notifications, keep track of coding agent tasks and review pull requests on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/ios/AG2LK65UB3MWR7Q527BXCM35W5IUFA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCOJTGM2DCOJWUZZGKYLTN5XKMYLVORUG64VFMV3GK3TUVJTG633UMVZF62LPOM> and Android <https://github.com/notifications/mobile/android/AG2LK67Y7UG6QKJU36VO4KT5W5IUFA5CNFSNUABIM5UWIORPF5TWS5BNNB2WEL2ENFZWG5LTONUW63SDN5WW2ZLOOQXTCOJTGM2DCOJWUZZGKYLTN5XKMYLVORUG64VFMV3GK3TUVZTG633UMVZF6YLOMRZG62LE> . Download it today!  You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>