Apologies at the start if you already know about this, but I recently discovered a free, open-source music notation software package that can write lap steel TAB and thought I'd share my findings. It's called MuseScore, link here: https://musescore.org/en I downloaded it in order to transcribe some 6-string parts into TAB, and found it has a massive benefit - once you have all your notes on the page, it will play them (with horrid MIDI sounds, granted!) in real time. By adjusting the tempo it is possible to slow down the tricky bits, or get rhythms just right when practising. This, for me, was a massive benefit as I generally find TAB without the accompanying musical notation quite hard to follow.
Someone has done an 8-string guitar TAB template (see this thread:) https://musescore.org/en/node/106226 and it's quite easy to alter the string tunings so they match whatever you have on your guitar. I had a little play and it seems to work quite nicely. It certainly helps my little brain if I can hear the song being played slowly whilst the TAB shows me where my bar should be
For pedal steel it is a bit less convenient, as a string bend seems to affect all notes rather than just selected ones - but for lap steel it seems quite useful.
Just thought I'd share that little gem, in case anyone might find it helpful.
Cheers, and stay safe, Sid
