I'm wondering if there's a way to force BiaB to spell things correctly in the notation window. Obviously, the sounds are not affected, it's just that, with a couple of chords in a piece I'm writing, BiaB insists on spelling the chords for the rhythm instruments and the melody associated with them incorrectly.

The piece is in the key of A. I have a D#m7b5 chord and the melody has an F#, which is the minor third in a D# minor chord. But BiaB insists on spelling the note in the chords and the melody as a Gb, even though the key signature has an F#. When I right click on the note in the melody and specify "sharp.' It will show the F# after I've done this, but as soon as I start the playback again, the notation changes to a Gb. Also, with an Fm7b5 chord, the b5 is a Cb, not a B. Once again, when I right click on the B and indicate a "flat," the notation changes to a Cb, but as soon as I click on the playback, it reverts to a B. Same goes for the rhythm instruments with this chord -- they're playing B's and not Cb's.

I have discovered that if I correct the misspellings in the melody and then go to print the chart that these corrections are preserved. So, there's that at least because I print out my charts. But when I save the file, the corrections aren't preserved. I'm sure these two examples aren't the only ones where BiaB misspells things, I just wish it wouldn't. Call it a pet peeve if you want. But I prefer accuracy.

Yes, you can change this by clicking | Options | Preferences | Notation | and toggling the | Use chord scale for enharmonics | option in this window. As it explains when hovering over the option, "If enabled, not accidentals will be based on chord scales rather than the key of the song. For example, in the key of Eb, an Eb note will appear as D# over a B7 chord. This is because B7 implies the E major scale which uses D# instead of Eb."

Hope this helps!

Thanks, Jerry -- I was looking at that window just yesterday and wondering what that box did. It wasn't clicking when I read it. But then I was looking for something else.

So I tried it out just now, and I'm getting mixed results. Some notes in the melody automatically get fixed, while others aren't. So it doesn't seem to pay attention to enharmonic spelling in all cases.

Like the Cb instead of B, for instance with the Fm7b5 chord. At another location, with this same chord, it's spelling an Ab (minor 3rd of an Fm chord) as a G# and won't accept my manual input. If it insists on G# because of the key signature, it seems to me that it must first look at the chord to determine the correct spelling of the melody. But guess what? It misspells the chord too. In the piano track, that Fm7b5 is spelled using G#'s and B's (Ab is the minor 3rd and Cb is the b5), so it's become some nonsense chord if you're trying to figure out the harmony by just analyzing the piano track.

With that D#m7b5, it automatically corrected that Gb to a F#, plus there was also a Db that got corrected to a C#, but in that same melodic run there's another Gb an octave below that didn't auto correct and it wouldn't accept my manual correction to an F#.

So, things are a little better now, but not yet fixed.

You can also use the Force Accidental feature in Editable Notation mode to force an enharmonic spelling of the note. To do this, enter Editable Notation mode and right-click on the note, then select ForcedAccidental and select whether you want to force it to the natural, flat, or sharp enharmonic.

Hope this helps!

Yeah, that's the only way I know how to try, at least, to change a note's spelling. Whenever I mention trying to change a note's spelling above, that was the feature I was using.

It still happens:
The problem isn't resolved.

At first, force accidentals and unchecking the box (in Notation options) "use chord scale for enharmonics" seems to work.
As long as you don't press Play: then your leadsheet goes back to the wrong notation.
Just as Cooltouch notices it gets it wrong on printing...
Have tried saving the song after every "force", but it doesn't help.

It's certainly not wrong to complain. This should be corrected.
I believe what sets Band in a Box apart from other accompaniment software is the ability to have a lead sheet. It's reasonable to expect it works properly.

Want to see an absurd example?

No? Well... here it is anyway.

Bb note on a Bb chord. In the example the key is F (one flat) and the chord, I repeat myself is Bb. Changed the note repeatedly, forced accidental to flat, unchecked "use chord scale...". After pressing play or trying to print the lead sheet, it invariably goes back to A#.

This should be corrected. Thanks.

[/quote]

It doesn’t, sadly. Thx for following up on this.

I agree, Dzjang.

Just today, in the key of E major, I forced an F natural on the Melody track to E#. It looked fine. The minute I double-clicked in Notation View to start playback, though, the E# reverted back to F natural.

I've reported it to the developers.

I am dismayed by this but cannot remember the chain of events that got us here. What changed and when, and did it ever work correctly?

I don’t think Force Accidental has always been available, though it goes way back (decades, I think). Likewise enharmonic notation has been improved with E# and B#, Fb and Cb, but this was added not that many years ago.

It seems to me that the most important error here is in the inability for a manual change to ‘stick’. Then it would be nice to explain why in the Dzjang example the A# appears at all. As far as I can remember, BIAB has always done this on occasion (thus the need for the Force Accidental function to be added). But again, I’m not positive about the history of any of this. I think if anyone knows, it could be useful in tracking down what’s happening here.

Again: what changed and when, and did it ever work correctly?

Perhaps one of you could post an offending song, and someone from PG Music could test on earlier versions of BIAB. A few users can do this kind of testing also; I’m pretty sure John Ford can run versions from years ago.

Matt and Dzjang,

I don't usually pay attention to pop-ups. I guess I'm so used to seeing them appear that I treat them too casually. Tonight when I double-checked my E# issue, I notice that PG Music have included a pop-up with forcing accidentals that clearly states that it does not work with Cb and E#.

While this solves my issue, it doesn't doesn't explain the A# that Dzjang has encountered.

Regards,
Noel

Not at a computer now: can it display B# or Fb?

@Noel and Matt. Thanks for suggestions and looking into it.

The Cb and E# thing makes sense to me, too. Even if, for the sake of using chord scales, Cb or E# would make sense. I know really good readers, like those working professional classical orchestras have no trouble reading double flats or sharps on top of -say- a key signature of Ab, but, for the ordinary musician, reading is already hard. And an F is an F and E# is is F. So, I dig that feature. Professional classical players will turn to Finale and Sibelius anyway.

To look up the history of it is a clever idea. Since 2022 has a lot of issues with midi style making or editing, I still use 2018 a lot. So, to my surprise, the Bb was written as a Bb and not A#. The wrong note in the example above (C# instead of Db, since we’re in a F, a key with one flat) was still there.

When I corrected it in editable notation in BB2018, it survived hitting play AND even closing Biab2018 and reopening it.. BB2018 has other issues, so I am not using it for practice let alone performance, but it handles forcing accidentals just fine.

So, there must be a mistake in saving forced accidentals that crept in after version 2018.

Excellent. There you go. Now the developers need to compare the 2018 code for this function to the 2022 code.

Force accidental persists on my old windows machine running BIAB 2016 (438). It does not persist on my new windows machine running BIAB Version 2022 (927). It's embarrassing to give horn players a chart with a Db on beat 4 of measure 1, and a C# on beat 1 of measure 2. They yell at me!

I chatted with service about this today to no avail.

By the way, I was enjoying Brazilian Wish in my car today! You're THAT Matt Finley, right?

Well, yes. Thanks, pjred. You can't live all that far from me if you're 80 miles north of the city. I'm about 95.

Just checking, in that example you just gave, did you set the correct key signature of the song first? It often makes a difference in what accidental BIAB chooses for enharmonic notes.