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Topic: Key Changes (Read 3003 times) previous topic - next topic

Key Changes

Is there a bug in the print out of key signatures?

My score starts in E flat and moves to A flat and then comes to a First Time Bar which includes a modulation back to E flat and a return to near the beginning of the piece.

The second time through it again, obviously, modulates to A flat but the second time bar does not repeat the change back to E flat, and the piece continues in A flat to the end.

All this plays fine and as expected, but the print out prints the final section with an E flat key signature instead of an A flat one.

Help!

Re: Key Changes

Reply #1 –
Short answer: A sample would be very useful. Without it, I would guess that you may need to add another copy of the correct key signature when you make key sig changes in repeated sections.

Long answer: NWC used to determine the key signature during printing by doing a simulated play back up to the start of each system. This meant that the printout reflected the way the score was played (key signatrues on each printed system would reflect how the piece actually sounded when played by NWC). However, this caused troubles for some users who did not listen to their pieces, but created unusual repeat traps, where some notation would be skipped all together by play back. If a key signature was located in one of these "notation holes" (not heard on play back), it would never get identified in printing of later systems. We changed NWC to use a more linear view (left to right) for printing of key signatures. This significantly reduced our support incidents in this area. This may be the cause of the behaviour you see. The solution is simple: add an extra key signature after repeated sections that change the key. This clarifies things for NWC, and makes it clear for a live player as well.

Re: Key Changes

Reply #2 –
Thank you for the prompt reply. Yes that clears up the mystery.