Jeff,
Quote:

If you are playing a non-concert instrument, and want to see the display in a non-concert key, then you use notation-options. Not sure why you'd be setting that to numbers like +1 and -1 semitones anyway, I've never heard of a non-concert instrument that is only a semitone from concert.


Just to clarify what Peter has said above ...

Using the Opt when in Notation mode ONLY affects the on-screen display, it does not change the pitch of the song in anyway whatsoever. This type of transposition was designed for, say, a Bb clarinet player who wants to play along with BIAB's accompaniment. In this scenario, the clarinetist needs to read the music a tone higher (+2) but the pitch of the accompaniment needs to stay at concert pitch. By using Notation/Opt transposing, the clarinetist would be able to transpose the on-screen display, stand in front of his/her computer, and play along with BIAB while BIAB (a) shows music at the correct pitch for the player to read and (b) plays the accompaniment at the correct pitch for the overall sound of player in Bb and accompaniment at concert pitch.

When using the Notation/Opt transposition, the song ALWAYS maintains the key it was written in and ALL on-screen transpositions are relative to the original key. Thus, for your song in C, when you go +1 it will change to Db because that is 1 semitone up from C. Then when you -1, it will go to B because that is 1 semitone down from C. Importantly, however, the song never leaves the key of C.

As I said in an earlier post, the different types of transposition available in BIAB are confusing when one starts out. I found them challenging. Now that I understand the program a little better, I understand the subtleties and appreciate how each type of transposition is necessary. For my purposes, the transposition that automatically results by changing the key signature suits my purposes 99.9% of the time.

By the way, if you are looking to use transposition to simply change a single chord in a song, my experience is that it is far quicker simply to use the keyboard to type in a new chord.

Hope this helps clarify things.

Regards,
Noel

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Audiophile BIAB 2025