Practice tool & digital music stand for guitarists and bands.
Try it now – no install, runs entirely in your browser. Solo practice only; Band Sync requires a local server.
SongLab is a browser-based practice tool for musicians and bands. Load a song, visualize its waveform, mark sections (Chorus, Verse, Bridge, Solo…), and practice at your own pace with looping and tempo controls.
Attach a Guitar Pro file (.gp3–.gp8, .gpx) to any song and SongLab renders professional notation and tablature via alphaTab, synchronized to your audio. No Guitar Pro file? Use the built-in ASCII tab editor instead — or both side by side.
Band Sync Mode turns SongLab into a shared digital music stand over your local network: one host controls playback while every band member follows along on their own device with their own instrument track.
Everything stays on your device — songs, files, and settings are stored locally (IndexedDB), no cloud, no account. Installable as a PWA, fully offline-capable after first load.
- Waveform playback with section markers, drag-to-reposition, and color coding
- Guitar Pro notation synchronized to your audio, with track selector and mixer — or MIDI playback straight from the GP file when no audio is loaded
- Looping: one-click section loops, custom A/B loops with draggable handles, loop counter with target
- Tempo control (50%–150%) with pitch correction, plus count-in and BPM-synced metronome
- ASCII tab editor with multiple sheets per song (Guitar, Bass, Keys, Vocals, Drums) and playback auto-scroll
- Song library & setlists with drag & drop ordering, pause entries, and JSON export/import
- Band Sync: real-time sync across devices — host controls, viewers follow with their own track, smartphones act as remote controllers
- MIDI footswitch support with MIDI Learn for hands-free control while playing
Full feature list
- Load MP3, WAV, OGG, or FLAC files with full waveform visualization
- Playback speed control (50%–150%) with optional pitch correction
- Volume control with RMS-based audio normalization
- Persistent audio storage — songs survive browser restarts (IndexedDB)
- Render .gp3–.gp8 and .gpx files with professional notation and tablature (via alphaTab)
- Track selector for Guitar, Bass, Keys, Drums, and more
- Track mixer with per-track volume, mute, solo, and master volume
- Page layout (vertical scroll) and horizontal scroll modes with zoom control
- User-resizable notation panel height, remembered per layout mode
- Audio + GP: notation cursor synchronized to audio via BPM-based offset system
- Dummy + GP: alphaSynth plays MIDI from the GP file when no audio is loaded
- Sync Offset Editor for fine-tuning audio↔notation alignment (offset + BPM correction)
- Import rehearsal marks from GP files as section markers (Replace/Merge/Cancel)
- Tuning display — shows the active track's tuning (Drop D, DADGAD, etc.)
- Color-coded section markers (Intro, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, and more)
- Drag markers on the waveform to reposition
- ASCII tab editor with multiple sheets per section (Guitar, Bass, Keys, Vocals, Drums)
- Auto-scroll tabs during playback, synced to section timing
- Toggle between Notation Mode and ASCII Mode per song
- Import/export tabs as plain text
- Loop any section with one click
- Custom A/B loop with draggable handles on the waveform
- Loop counter with configurable target count (e.g. "loop 10×") and auto-stop
- Song loop (repeat entire song)
- Configurable click count-in (1 bar at song BPM) before playback and loop restarts, with visual countdown overlay
- Continuous metronome synced to song BPM, with solo mode, volume control, and real-time GP tempo tracking
- Persistent song library with audio and GP files stored in IndexedDB
- Setlist builder with drag & drop reordering, numbering, and pause entries between songs
- Cross-setlist song search, copy/move songs between setlists
- Dummy songs (no audio) for tab-only practice or pre-show prep
- Song, setlist, and full-gig export/import (JSON), plus setlist import from cloud URLs (Dropbox, Google Drive)
- Real-time sync across devices on your local network (WebSocket via socket.io)
- Host controls playback, song selection, and setlist navigation
- Viewers see notation cursor, section markers, and their chosen instrument track
- Remote Controller: control the host's transport and browse all setlists from a smartphone
- Auto-advance to next song with configurable countdown
- GP files and all song data transferred to viewers automatically
- No audio streaming — designed for live rehearsal in a shared room
- Connect USB MIDI footswitches and controllers via Web MIDI API (Chromium-based browsers)
- Configurable command mapping: play/pause, section/song navigation, loop toggle, tempo control
- MIDI Learn — assign any MIDI button to any command with one click
- Mappings persist across sessions
- Accordion sidebar with collapsible Sections and Setlist panels; collapses fully for maximum practice space
- Keyboard shortcuts: Space (play/pause), M (add marker), ←/→ (seek), L (loop toggle)
- PWA support — install as standalone app, works offline after first load
Guitar Pro notation rendered with alphaTab, synchronized to the audio waveform. Track selector, zoom control, and collapsible sync offset editor.
One host, any number of viewers on the local network. Each member picks their own instrument track; the notation cursor follows the host's playback position.
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|---|---|
| Host | Viewer |
More screenshots
Control the host from your smartphone: pick a song or section and take over transport control.
Color-coded section markers on the waveform, section list with timestamps, ASCII tab editor with multiple sheets per song.
Import rehearsal marks from Guitar Pro files as section markers. Supports Replace, Merge, or Cancel when sections already exist.
Sections and Setlist as independently collapsible accordion panels. The entire sidebar collapses to a narrow strip for more space during practice.
Use the hosted version: elbeh.github.io/songlab — nothing to install. Optionally install it as an app (PWA) via your browser's install prompt; it works offline after the first load.
Running SongLab yourself requires Node.js >= 18 (npm included).
git clone https://github.com/ElBeh/songlab.git
cd songlab
npm install
npm run build
npm startThe server starts on http://0.0.0.0:3000 — open http://localhost:3000 in your browser. For Band Sync, band members on the same network open http://<host-ip>:3000 on their devices.
For working on the code, npm run dev starts the Vite dev server on http://localhost:5173, and npm run dev:sync runs Vite and the sync server simultaneously.
Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Brave, Edge) and Firefox. MIDI input requires a Chromium-based browser (Web MIDI API).
Band Sync is designed for the shared room scenario: the band plays live, the app provides a synchronized digital music stand on every device. The sync server only transmits playback position, markers, and tab/notation content — no audio streaming.
- Host controls playback, song selection, and setlist navigation
- Viewers are read-only and follow along with their chosen track or tab sheet
- Controllers (e.g. a smartphone) can request transport control from the host
See Run locally for the server setup.
| Category | Technology |
|---|---|
| Language | TypeScript 5.9 |
| Framework | React 19 |
| Bundler | Vite 7 |
| Audio | wavesurfer.js 7 |
| Notation | alphaTab 1.8 (MPL-2.0) |
| State Management | Zustand |
| Persistence | IndexedDB (via idb) |
| Styling | Tailwind CSS 4 |
| Band Sync | Express 5 + socket.io 4 |
| PWA | vite-plugin-pwa |
- Multi-track notation — render several instrument tracks at once
- Fretboard editor / chord lookup — interactive fretboard for chord voicings and identification
- Band Sync enhancements — mDNS auto-discovery, host promotion, presenter mode
- ESP32 footpedal — dedicated WiFi/BLE hardware controller
- Tauri desktop app — native installer with bundled sync server (no terminal required)
This project is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.