ABC Converter not working?

**Bribak** · May-21-2017, 8:18pm

Hello all. New member here. I'm actually a tenor banjo player. I have been using the ABC Converter here to translate ABC files from TheSession.org into Mandolin/tenor banjo tab. As of about 5 days ago, this no longer works.

http://www.mandolintab.net/abcconverter.php

It has stopped working on all my devices - iphone, ipads, and pc...so I don't think it is a change on my end. Now when I enter the ABC notation and hit SUBMIT, I get this message:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>400 Bad Request</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Bad Request</h1>
<p>Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.<br />
</p>
<p>Additionally, a 400 Bad Request
error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.</p>
<hr>
<address>Apache Server at box759.bluehost.com Port 80</address>
</body></html>

Does anyone else use this converter? Are you experiencing the same thing? This was a super convenient tool to convert ABC to PDF and load it into the ForScore music app on my ipad. Anyone else know a converter as convenient to use? I can do it in Tabledit but it involves a lot more steps. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

**MikeEdgerton** · May-21-2017, 8:30pm

If the past is any example simply clear the cache on your browser and it should work. This isn't a new error message in the web world.

**Jim Garber** · May-21-2017, 8:43pm

I have never used that converter (I use EasyABC on my Mac) but I also got that same error msg on two different browsers. I wonder, Bribak, why you are asking this here. Did you try to contact the folks at mandolintab.net?

**Bribak** · May-21-2017, 9:39pm

Originally Posted by Jim Garber

I have never used that converter (I use EasyABC on my Mac) but I also got that same error msg on two different browsers. I wonder, Bribak, why you are asking this here. Did you try to contact the folks at mandolintab.net?

Yes I did but I have not received any response. Thought perhaps some of you use this converter and had possibly figured a solution.

Also, I have tried clearing the cache, cookies, and website data. All unsuccessful.
Thank you for the suggestions so far.

**Mike Stewart** · May-23-2017, 11:02am

Originally Posted by Bribak

Also, I have tried clearing the cache, cookies, and website data. All unsuccessful.
Thank you for the suggestions so far.

Until the owner of the website responds and fixes the problem, don't aggravate yourself with any further attempts to get this to work, it's a waste of time. Normally, any error code that starts with a "4" (in this case, 400 - bad request) means you or your browser did something wrong. But in this case, the "browser" is mandolintabs.net, not the browser on your computer. Your computer says to mandolintabs.net, "hey, could you convert this for me?". mandolintabs.net says, "sure, hold on a minute..." but he outsourced the work to another server somewhere (box759.bluehost.com) and that computer said, "umm...no, you did it wrong".

So there's nothing you can do, don't annoy yourself by thinking there is, and go download an alternative from this page: http://abcnotation.com/software

**Bribak** · May-23-2017, 9:14pm

Originally Posted by Mike Stewart

Until the owner of the website responds and fixes the problem, don't aggravate yourself with any further attempts to get this to work, it's a waste of time. Normally, any error code that starts with a "4" (in this case, 400 - bad request) means you or your browser did something wrong. But in this case, the "browser" is mandolintabs.net, not the browser on your computer. Your computer says to mandolintabs.net, "hey, could you convert this for me?". mandolintabs.net says, "sure, hold on a minute..." but he outsourced the work to another server somewhere (box759.bluehost.com) and that computer said, "umm...no, you did it wrong".

So there's nothing you can do, don't annoy yourself by thinking there is, and go download an alternative from this page: http://abcnotation.com/software

Thanks for the explanation. I will check out your link and hopefully find an alternative.

**OneChordTrick** · May-24-2017, 1:45am

I emailed the site yesterday but as yet no response...

**Simon DS** · May-24-2017, 2:20am

Yup it shut down on me 6 days ago too. It was really useful. I sent an email of appreciation.

**Bernie Daniel** · May-24-2017, 9:28am

Originally Posted by Bribak

Thanks for the explanation. I will check out your link and hopefully find an alternative.

I would recommend just purchasing a license for TablEdit then you can convert both abc and midi files to mandolin (or guitar or many other instruments) tab and you an also change the key add in guitar and bass back up etc. And you can play the tab through you speakers it at whatever temp you wish and pick along.

In addition the tab looks much more like standard notation in that both the pitch and the value of the each note is given. That means you can learn to sight read TablEdit tab the same as standard notation. There are about a thousand other things you can do a well with the program.

One thought.

**Mike Stewart** · May-24-2017, 11:53am

Originally Posted by Bernie Daniel

I would recommend just purchasing a license for TablEdit

The OP considered that option and rejected it: "I can do it in Tabledit but it involves a lot more steps". Though I personally don't find using Tabledit that big a deal to use, and it's what I use for such conversions, it's obviously not the solution for everyone.

**Bribak** · May-25-2017, 8:21am

Originally Posted by Mike Stewart

The OP considered that option and rejected it: "I can do it in Tabledit but it involves a lot more steps". Though I personally don't find using Tabledit that big a deal to use, and it's what I use for such conversions, it's obviously not the solution for everyone.

Tabledit is a wonderful program and I use it fairly often when I am figuring out a tune that I can't find the music for or composing something original. The only downside is that once I have the tune done in Tabledit it is more of a pain to get it into the app that I use to store my tunes on the iPad. First I have to save it as an ABC file on my computer and then import the ABC file into Tabledit. Then, 1) convert the tab to PDF 2) save it to my computer 3) email it to myself as a way to get it to my iPad 4) Open it up in my email on my iPad as a PDF file so that I can use it in the ForScore app on my iPad

Certainly very doable, and I suppose I have just gotten lazy with the convenience of the mandolintab converter. With that I could do the whole process on my iPad and have an ABC tune converted to (editable) TAB and stored in my ForScore program in about 30 seconds.

Thank you all for your suggestions and comments.

**mandocrucian** · May-25-2017, 5:52pm

Bummer... I used that site to print out decent looking PDF sheet music as well as using the midi function to decide on accompaniment chords...(for lots - hundreds - of original stuff). Have a couple dozen recent tunes I wanted to do.

Any particular program (web or downloadable) that will give comparable printout quality and that also will generate a midi file (with chords)? Tab functions are irrelevant. (My handwritten notation is decent, but I'd rather put a good PDF in the material notebooks

Had an old version of Finale (which was a real pain to use) and MusEdit..but the printout isn't really up to grade. Besides, it's so old I don't even know if it will run on Windows 10.

Typing up my own ABC is second nature and very fast (I could play tunes just reading the ABC). But entering notation on a staff is no trouble. (But Finale was always a temperamental pain in the a.)

Any suggestions for anything as convenient as the mandolintab.net/abc.converter?

Thanks..

Niles H

**OneChordTrick** · May-27-2017, 3:55pm

Originally Posted by OneChordTrick

I emailed the site yesterday but as yet no response...

Just had a reply, it should be working now but I haven't checked.

**Bribak** · May-27-2017, 6:09pm

Originally Posted by OneChordTrick

Just had a reply, it should be working now but I haven't checked.

Yes it is! Just got a response to my email inquiry informing me it was working again. Just checked and everything seems fine. Much appreciated!

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