Provided below are a selection of freeware and software resources which I have found useful in a musical and/or computing context. The emphasis is on tools which are relevant to guitar, tablature, notation, MIDI and audio, together with a small number of historic computing utilities.
About thes: Software changes over time. The TablEdit and TEFView links below now point to the current TablEdit website where appropriate. The older Windows utilities are retained as historicals and are clearly identified as such.
Free Music Software
| Software / resource | Download or information |
|---|---|
TEFView for Windows
TEFView is the free TablEdit file viewer. It allows you to view, play and print TablEdit files and is intended for Windows systems. The current TablEdit page provides both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions. |
TEFView Windowss |
TEFView for macOS
The official TablEdit page provides the current Intel Mac version as well as the older PowerPC build for historic systems. |
TEFView Macs |
TEFView for Android
Free TablEdit file viewing and playback on Android devices. TablEdit provides the current Android information and route from its own site. |
TEFView Android information |
TEFView for iPhone / iPad
The TablEdit site provides information about TEFView for iOS and its current relationship with TEFpad. |
TEFView iOS information |
TablEdit Tutorials
A collection of tutorials explaining how to use TablEdit effectively, including the production of high-quality tablature and notation. |
TablEdit Tutorials |
TablEdit official manual & help
The current official manual covers setup, tablature entry, notation, note duration, playback and the many other functions of TablEdit. |
Official TablEdit Help |
TablEdits and demo
The official page provides the current TablEdit Windows and macOS versions, manuals and additional resources. |
TablEdits |
Audio Phonics Guitar Tuner
A freeware guitar tuner which generates tuning tones for a variety of guitar and other instrument tunings, and can also use a microphone or line input. |
Download AP Guitar Tuner |
Hammerhead Drum Machine
A freeware drum machine for developing backing tracks and working on rhythm; it can also serve as a metronome. |
Download Hammerhead |
Free Computing Software
| Software / resource | Download or information |
|---|---|
7-Zip — free file archiver
7-Zip is a free, open-source file archiver for compressing and extracting files. It supports the ZIP format used for many of theable packages on this site, including archives containing MIDI, TablEdit .tef files and related resources. It can also create and unpack its own .7z archives. For this site, it is a modern replacement for the historic WinZip 8.1 entry retained below, and is the utility to use when you need to open the ZIP packages provided here. The current release is 7-Zip 26.03 (3 September 2026).
|
7-Zip officials |
Seagull Tonal Rebuild 06 — Compact 16 kHz SF2 SoundFont for VirtualMIDISynth
This compact 16 kHz version of our Seagull Tonal Rebuild 06 SoundFont is derived from the .sf3 SoundFont used by the browser-based player on this website. It is intended for Windows users who want to use the same general guitar sound with desktop MIDI applications. Install CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth first, add this .sf2 sound bank in its Configurator, then select VirtualMIDISynth as the MIDI Out device in TablEdit or TEFView. At approximately 3.83 MB, it is substantially smaller than the earlier 10.5 MB SF2 while retaining the useful character of the website soundfont.
This compact version has been tested successfully with VirtualMIDISynth, TablEdit and TEFView, with no clicks, silences, stumbles or obvious harshness heard in comparison with the larger SF2. The .sf3 browser SoundFont remains a separate file. |
Download compact Seagull Tonal Rebuild 06 SF2 (16 kHz) VirtualMIDISynth — official site |
Spybot – Search & Destroy
The original page listed version 1.5. That release dates from 2007 and is now obsolete. Safer-Networking continues to provide a current Spybot product, including a Free Edition for private non-commercial use. |
Current Spybot products |
SpyBot 1.5 — historic
This is the original archive entry. It is a very old release and should not be treated as current security software. It is retained here only because it formed part of the original archive. |
Historic SpyBot 1.5 Use only for archival/historical purposes. |
WinZip 8.1 — historic
The original page described this as freeware. Version 8.1 is a 2002-era release and is retained as an historical archive item rather than a current recommendation. |
Historic WinZip 8.1 Not intended for modern systems. |
Using the Seagull SoundFont with TablEdit or TEFView: Install CoolSoft VirtualMIDISynth, open its Configurator and add theed Seagull-Tonal-Rebuild-06-SF2-VirtualMIDISynth-16kHz.sf2 file to the Soundfonts chain. In TablEdit or TEFView, open the MIDI Setup and choose VirtualMIDISynth as the MIDI Out device. TablEdit and TEFView both document this MIDI-driver arrangement.
More about TablEdit
TablEdit remains the principal software ecosystem behind the tablature files on this site. The current software supports both tablature and standard notation, can play material through MIDI, and can import and export a range of music formats. TEFView is the free viewer for TablEdit files and is available across Windows, macOS, iOS and Android. The official documentation ands are therefore the best place to obtain current versions.
The descriptions above have been updated where necessary to distinguish current software from historic versions. Locals which are part of this site's original archive have otherwise been retained.
