[wodenokoto]

I haven't played for about 10 years as well, and I fondly remember the ascii tabs.

But maybe you never found the alternative, which was a program that was basically a midi player that display all chords and notes in timed bars and play the music, with all the instruments split up.

You always knew the quality was good, since you could have the computer play the track to check it out before practising.

I don't remember what program I used back then, but this looks like a spiritual descendant, though I am not recommending anything:

* https://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php

[tpoindex]

For an open source multi-track tab player/composer, check out TuxGuitar. It reads several popular tab formats. Sound depends on underlying MIDI system, may require a little futzing to get going. Written in Java, runs on Windows/Linux/OSX.

http://www.tuxguitar.com.ar/

[mfukar]

Guitar Pro is fantastic. Well worth the money, too. I've bought copies for my students, and I use it for transcribing.