Hi Joel,

From what I can determine, what you describe seems to be the way that BIAB interprets keys that are enharmonic equivalents.

I've just had a play around with BIAB. I took a song that I'd written in E major and when in Notation Mode, I set Opt | Transpose options to "Alto sax +9". The resulting display appeared in Db major and I could find no way to change that to the enharmonic key of C# major.

From a music theory perspective, the keys of Gb and F# majors cover exactly the same notes. The only difference is that one does it with six flats while the other does it with six sharps. Since these keys have the same number of essentials, from a reading point of view, they're arguably equally challenging.

On the other hand, Db major has five flats while its enharmonic key of C# major has seven sharps. Because of this difference in essentials, there is a musical argument that a number of people would find five flats easier to read than seven sharps.

I'd imagine that you're aware of all the above. The reason I mention it, though, is because maybe PG Music has thought along similar lines when writing the transposing routine for their suite of programs.

I suggest that you add to the BIAB Wishlist forum and suggest that the instrumental transpose has the option to choose whether it displays a key signature in sharps or flats for those few keys that have enharmonic equivalents. For reference, there are 3 pairs of enharmonic keys: F#/Gb, C#/Db and B/Cb.

Regards,
Noel

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