Can someone fill me in on how I can make my Leadsheet specs the defaults?
As a trombone player, I want my leadsheets to be in bass clef with the melodies typically transposed down an octave. I can make these changes no problem within the Leadsheets Options gui, but as soon as I close BIAB, re-open the app, and then reload a file, everything is back in treble clef, untransposed, etc..
I have tried changing at the Preferences gui (see attached), but the changes are still are not sticky.
Any insights appreciated.
Regards, Shawn Rampy
BIAB/RealBand 2026 Audiophile | GPO 5 | Windows 11 | Martin TR4501
I don’t think there is a setting for that. To my knowledge this hasn’t been requested before but it makes perfect sense.
[...]
Question: We should probably have both, but do you see this as a global option or a song-by-song based option?
Thanks, Matt.
Of course, I know I should be able to read treble clef lead sheets, but... shoulda, woulda, coulda... I'm just not as proficient as I need to be to feel confident on-the-fly reading. And BIAB provides me the crutch of transposition. So...
Definitely global. I hate having to mouseclick through bass clef selection, click into the Notation Options, transpose to "Concert (Bass Clef)", click yes to "Clef Split at G6?" dialog, and transpose -12 steps on Every Single Tune.
Song-by-song? I've spent several minutes trying to think of a strong use case for song-by-song. Not saying there isn't one, but this isn't as plain to me as the need for global prefs are.
Regards, Shawn Rampy
BIAB/RealBand 2026 Audiophile | GPO 5 | Windows 11 | Martin TR4501
BTW, in case this occurs to anyone else, I've already tried making the above pref changes, immediately saving the prefs file, renaming my saved prefs file to 'intrface.bbw' and replacing the former pref file with my new one. No love.
SR
BIAB/RealBand 2026 Audiophile | GPO 5 | Windows 11 | Martin TR4501
I've tried altering the settings and changing them, too. My experience was that if I selected treble clef, it was fine. If I selected bass clef, though, the next time I opened BIAB it was set to treble clef. Normally, I set my clef to Auto and that stays as well. So it seems that only the bass clef is not able to be set and locked into place.
That said, something that is worth trying is to set your clefs to Auto and then set you split to C6 instead of C4. This should force any notes lower than C6 (one octave above middle C to be displayed in the bass clef). In BIAB terminology, C5 = middle C.
The setting is found in "Lead sheet option | Notation options".
Good idea to test that. There is another setting for the lowest note BIAB uses, and I think it may be in the same area, and it's possibly E2. My point is there may be other settings that could interact and that needs to be checked especially if someone is making more than one change.
There is also the Preferences, Channels where you tell BIAB what register an instrument is in and how to adjust the display. The bass plays an octave lower than written so that is -1. On my computer the Melody is a plus 1. I wonder what would happen if that were changed to 0 or -1.
If we can't find any way to do this that sticks, I will report this thread to the developers.
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