Ableton Forum

I searched but could not find much on this. Unfortunately, I think the answer is no...

Is it possible to change the piano roll display to indicate the black piano keys as "flats" instead of sharps? For example, it is incredibly annoying to edit a song played in the key of F, Bb or Ab when the piano roll says A# instead of Bb.

Just another quick thought. It would be nice if we could just specify a musical key for the song and the off-key white notes would display with the natural accidental symbol also. Many great uses for integrating some music theory into the MIDI editing (i.e. intelligent arpeggiation and chord generation)

agred with the 1st point, totally against the second post tho, a piano roll is meant to look like a piano

Perhaps it could just display both "A#/Bb".

Introducing music theory to the process could be a mine field.

B getting displayed as Cb. (or C as B#), A becoming Bbb (in Db minor), a lot of people (including me) would get confused I think.

And that's before you start adding chromatic harmonies like tritone substitutions - you cold argue all day about the best way to spell those - eg in a C#7 chord in the key of C should the third be called F or E#.

It's a nightmare I tell ye!

I agree that it could definitely get hairy with some of the extreme key signatures and off key chords. Also like the simple suggestion of just displaying both the # and b accidentals. Easy to implement and mostly solves the annoyance during editing. Seems criminal that this is not the current default behavior.

I still think that some type of intelligent handling of key signatures could be implemented that would cover 99% of pop music voicings though, which would be very useful even if limited to strict major key chord voicings and maj/dom 7 for I and IV. Regarding the C#7 chord in key of C, I would say that the F/E# tone should properly be called an E# sticking with the convention of a 1-3-5-7 intervals comprising the 7'th chord. Where it would really get clumsy is 3-major and 5#/6b-major chords, like G#/Ab major in key of C. Makes most sense in my mind to think of it as an Ab because the third is C natural, not G# with a B# (now I want to watch The Simpsons).

Tricky, but it can be done...

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