abc software packages

There is now a vast array of software (mostly freeware or shareware) which can read or edit abc. It is almost impossible to maintain a list of what software has which functionality on which machine but the following suggestions may help (N.B. these recommendations are based on what software developers say about their programs rather than independent testing). Another useful and more structured site is the online search of abc applications. See below for further details of the suggested software plus many other packages.

Features and platforms (some suggestions)

Note that to handle Postscipt files (generated by abc2ps and its variants, and abc2mtex) you may need to install Ghostscript and GSView.

Known software (alphabetic order):-

• ABassC
  ... is a freeware viewer/player from Norman Schmidt which runs on Palm Handhelds and displays music in either treble or bass clef.
• abc2mtex
  ... is the original abc package for converting abc into sheet music. It is freeware and should in principle work on any platform (PC, Mac and UNIX). However, you will also need to install all (or at least a large part) of the TeX and MusicTeX packages. These too are freeware but may take considerable efforts to set up (although they are often available in educational establishments).
• abc2prt
  ... from Guido Gonzato is a simple tool to extract parts from multivoice ABC music files.
• abc2ps
  ... is Michael Methfessel's package for converting abc into sheet music which avoids the need to install TeX and MusicTeX. A Mac version is now available!
• ABC2Tab
  ... is an abc to Mountain Dulcimer ASCII Tablature convertor from Lyle Melick. It is currently available as a Windows95 & WindowsNT command line program and PERL source code.
• abc2win
  ... is a package by Jim Vint which supports the entry of abc notation and viewing the musical notes on PCs. Tunes can also be played as a means of checking the accuracy of the transcription.
• abc4j
  ... is a java based API for abc. It provides a set of basic classes to easily manipulate abc tunes. In particular, the parser provides an object representation of abc notation on which developers can build their own high level features such as tune printing, midi playing, etc.
• abc4mac
  ... is a Mac program from Wil Macaulay incorporating ports of abc2ps and abcMIDI.
• ABCedit
  ... is a Windows interface to the abcm2ps and abc2midi programs (with a number of extra features) from Joop Coolegem. The program also uses Ghostscript and the installation script installs the whole package, making it an easy route to access some powerful abc software.
• ABCexplorer
  ... is a Windows program which allows you to create, edit, play and organise abc files.

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• abcm2ps
  ... is Jean-François Moine's clone of abc2ps which handles more than one voice per staff.
• abcMIDI
  James Allwright's package to convert abc to MIDI and MIDI to abc. Since most standard music packages support MIDI output, this should make it easier to generate abc from commercial software. It is available on the web as C source code. It also contains abc2abc which can be used to transpose abc.
• abc-mode.el
  ... from Matt Junker is an emacs major mode for editing abc files designed for use with abcm2ps and abc2midi, but easily customisable for other packages.
• abcmus
  Henrik Norbeck's abc player/tunebook manipulator for MSWindows with lots of nice features (search, automatic chordsetting, different import and export options, etc).
• AbcNavigator
  ... is a multi-featured program for handling abc files which can play tunes through your sound card, save them as MIDI files and which includes an abc editor with syntax highlighting.
• ABCp
  ... is an embeddable library for abc notation. Its aim is to take care of all the parsing details for code developers.
• AbcPlay
  An ABC player for a PC Windows system with a MIDI/sound card. The program has a number of handy features to make to hearing of ABC files easy, also has cut/paste functions and the ability to save tunes as a MIDI File. Written by Bernard Chenery, Tasmania.
• abcpp
  ... from Guido Gonzato is a simple yet powerful preprocessor designed for, but not limited to, ABC music files. It provides conditional output, macros, symbol renaming, and file inclusion.
• abctab2ps
  ... is a program from Christoph Dalitz for typesetting music and lute/guitar tablature with abc. It is available for Unix, Windows & Atari platforms.
• abctransposer
  ... is a web-based javascript program from Jens Wollschläger that can transpose abc.

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• AbcUtilities
  ... from Luis Pablo Gasparotto is a collection of packages for abc to abc processing, which can compress rests, reduce accidentals and extract parts.
• ABCViewer
  ... is an abc viewer from Dave Holland which runs on Palm Pilots.
• BarFly
  Phil Taylor's Mac program for handling abc musical notation. It can play, check, transpose and display tunes in abc notation.
• BowTIE
  ... is a Windows application from David Randolph designed to help trumpet and horn players learn to transpose which uses abc as its native file format. Euphonium and tuba players may also find BowTIE useful for learning fingerings on instruments in various keys.
• Busker
  ... is Windows software from Jos Mass which can play abc files and automatically add accompaniment based on the chords in the abc file. The abc files can also be printed in staff notation.
• Code Sounding
  … is a bit unusual - using abc, it converts computer source code to sound files. For programmers who want to hear the "inner breath" of their software. From Roberto Mannai.
• convert-a-matic
  ... is a web-based abc to staff converter from Paul Schwartz which converts abc tunes to pdf and midi.
• fiddleabc
  ... is a program from Mike Casey for PCs which plays abc tunes while displaying the notes on a screen fiddle/banjo fingerboard.
• Five Line Skink
  ... is a java application from Wil Macaulay which supports the abc 1.6 standard. It can open, edit, save, and display abc files.
• flabc
  ... is an abc editor from Christoph Dalitz based on the cross platform C++ GUI toolkit FLTK. It is available for Windows, MacOS X and Linux platforms.

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• jaabc2ps
  ... is John Atchley's version of abcm2ps (including precompiled versions for Windows).
• jcabc2ps
  ... is John Chambers' clone of abc2ps. It implements a number of extensions to handle the variants of abc that the abc tune finder finds on the web. These include several syntaxes for clefs, multiple voices, endings past the second, and non-classical key signatures.
• JedABC
  ... from Guido Gonzato is an extension to the Jed editor that turns it into a powerful and easy to use IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for ABC files, with full integration with converters, players and previewers.
• Melody Assistant
  ... is a full-scale shareware score editor that speaks abc. It can print, play and even create guitar tablature and runs on both PCs and Macs.
• microabc
  … is free software from Hudson Lacerda which generates macros to represent microtonal music in ABC notation.
• ModPlug XMMS
  … is abc plugin for XMMS under linux. Peter Grootswagers recommends libmodplug which can be obtained from the CVS tree.
• Muse
  ... is a full-scale shareware music editor from Laurie Griffiths that speaks abc. It can print, play, handle up to 8 harmony parts and even create guitar tablature and runs on PCs.
• MusiCAD
  … is a fully featured score editor from Musys Software which can import and export abc. Although MusiCAD is not freeware, it's use with abc does not require payment.
• MusicEase
  ... is a full-featured Windows based editor which imports abc and SongWright files. Edits, transposes, prints and plays. Features include automatic conversion to tablature, automatic addition of chord fret diagrams, and general MIDI instrument support. Also available from the same site is the Digital Tradition Folksong Player.
• PalmABC
  ... is an abc player/editor from Steve Spencer-Jowett which runs on Palm Pilots.

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• playabc
  ... is a program by Don Ward which will play abc files through the speaker of most UNIX systems.
• PlayQABC
  ... is a part of Jim Vint's abc2win package for PC users, but is also available for free as a standalone to play abc tunes on any PC/DOS system.
• RISC OS Software
  ... from John Pettigrew contains front ends for abc2ps and abcmidi for use on RISC OS systems.
• Runabc.tcl
  ... is a Tcl/Tk GUI (graphical user interface) for abc2ps & abc2midi from Seymour Shlien which helps you manage a database of abc tunes. Requires Tcl/Tk 8.0 or higher.
• TablEdit
  ... is a Windows program for creating, editing, printing and listening to tablature and sheet music (standard notation) for guitar and other fretted, stringed instruments (including 5 string banjo) as well as harmonica, diatonic accordion, drums and violin. TablEdit can both read & write ascii, MIDI & abc files (and read Bucket O' Tab & Tabestry).
• TunePal
  ... is an abc player from Bryan Duggan which runs on Psion handheld computers or any Windows pocket PC.
• Virtual Composer
  ... is a score editor for the Mac from Ioannis Galidakis which exports abc (but does not read it).
• Wabc2ps
  ... is Barry Galbraith's Windows GUI front-end for Michael Methfessel's abc2ps.
• YAPS
  (yet another abc to PostScript converter) ... is James Allwright's merge of the abcMIDI parser and the library of PostScript routines from abc2ps.

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