You are so right.
It’s not gonna be so simple to code, I think! I want, want want it though. Maybe something could happen in conjunction with the chord track though.
Having both A#/Bb labels makes sense to me, I would not mind the clutter, but I wonder how small the font would have to be and if I would have to buy new glasses. 
I would imagine that there is a Text String or an Array with the music letters A,A#,B,C,C#,etc. Then an [if, then] loop that says if MIDI Number is X then display ArrayX.
Right now, you can actually change the display to include the letter and midi number which gives you C2/48 and it uses the same font size. Compared to the depth of programming Cubase’s flexible color preferences… this is a simple bit of coding.
As a coder in a previous lifetime (long long ago), it’s hard to imagine that this shouldn’t be fairly straightforward to implement. Even with my rusty skills I could write this from scratch in pseudo-code in a half hour or so. You just sketched out the basic logic in a couple of sentences.
That is unless the original code was so horribly written that it can’t readily be replaced. I’m starting to suspect this might be the case since: A) This has been a constant request since almost forever, and B) it is the only approach that makes any musical sense. It is such an obvious thing to do, that the only reason not to would be that ripping out the old code would break a lot of other stuff. But if that’s the case, then only professional thing to do is to bite the bullet and fix the code sooner rather than later - because writing around bad code only makes things worse.
The fact that Cubase doesn’t display notes in Flats nor provide Root Notes in Flat keys, especially missed in the Key Editor, is disappointing to me, a new Cubase user. A professional music creation application based on MIDI technology should display, at least, all the standard keys in sharps and flats, including all Major Keys and their Relative Minor keys. I should be able to easily modulate from, say, B Flat Major to D Major and the program would know the notes B Flat and E Flat are now naturals and F and C are now sharp and they should be displayed as such in All editors. To me this is just basic music, elementary stuff and we shouldn’t even have to discuss it. It should just be patched with the next update.
With all its strengths I’m surprised to find this lack in the program. As a new Cubase user, I’m surprised to hear this is a long-standing, unresolved issue with Cubase.
I hope this isn’t a code nightmare and can be corrected without too much trouble or expense. I do think correcting it would be a significant improvement to the program and not just a nicety or a cosmetic tweak…
I don’t yet really understand how Cubase deals with Root Keys and transpositions yet. I’ll leave those questions for another thread. But, regardless, I’m very sure that having Flat notes displayed where needed would be very helpful to me and all other musicians using Cubase. It would also give the program more professional polish.
Take care. 
While the Key Editor has this problem, the Score Editor manages sharps, flats & keys properly - which makes the situation even more curious. And the Chord Track is a mixed bag, no flat keys but sometimes it shows flat chords (and sometimes it don’t, who knows why).
This is definitely a Key Editor concern…
I’ve not worked with the Score Editor as yet, but I did notice it has provisions for dealing with Sharps and Flats for display and printing and, yes, I’ve seen the Chord Editor display F#7 and Gb7 and it seems to be related to the surrounding chords. I have to get more involved with how Cubase deals with diatonic harmony and its interesting-looking set of scales and even microtuning and so on. I know there’s lots of good things it will do and I look forward to getting there.
All that said, I think we all agree that we need sharps and flats in the key editor and wherever else in the program that would would apply, vari-audio, etc.
Take care.
Yes, yes, yes. Often asked for, never supplied.
I’m very surprised at this. For such a mature product with so many years in development, you’d think this would have been dealt with ages ago. That said, I still have a lot more to learn more about how Cubase handles diatonic harmony, transposition and related topics. Perhaps you’ll give me some pointers about when I post on it? I need to hit the book and run some lines and tests on it. It’s a part of the program I still have lots to learn about.
Maybe, after some time working with it, I’ll say, “I’m glad Cubase kept it simple and didn’t use Flats,” but I doubt it.
Thanks for your posts, Raino, I’ve learned a lot from them. It’s greatly appreciated.
Dear Cubase Development Team,
If we can’t have Sharps and Flats both, we’d at least like to have the option of displaying Flats or Sharps, one or the other. Possible? You see, we work with Flats and Flat keys more than Sharps and Sharp keys. It’s more than a little difficult to see F, G#, A# and have to think, “F Minor 11” So, to repeat, if we can’t have a full circle of fifths with sharps, flats and relative minors, could we at have the option of showing Flats or Sharps? We hope so. Please take this under advisement if possible. Thank you.
Figured this was due for a bump.
+1
Having Flat Keys and, especially, Flat Notes in the Key Editor is more than just a convince, it is essential.
The Chord Track and Chord Assistant have partial implementation of Flat Notes; the harmonic tools within Cubase are impressive and enjoyable to use, but not having the Flat Notes in the Key Editor and Flat Notes and Flat Keys throughout the program is a real, musical deficiency. 
I think better in Flat Notes and Flat Keys and really feel uncomfortable having to write a G Minor as G, A#, D (and so on and on). Help us, Cubase team, please! We really need this. Thank you.
I agree completely.
As a professional musician who thinks about notes (and former university professor of music) I find this to be an unbelievable omission. This is going to become something that I feel the need to fight for.
Keeping the thread alive… and adding a drop of hope.
Traded a few emails with Greg Ondo (Steinberg product specialist extraordinaire) about the lack of flats in the key editor. He said that he “sent that feature request in a report”. That’s at least some hope that the development team is aware of the concern, and it may be addressed in the future.
No promises… but some forward progress. Let’s keep the dream alive. There may be a day when the key editor doesn’t display D# G A# for an Eb major chord.
I can personally guarantee that the dev team is, and has been aware of this request, in addition to Greg’s report(s). This is an old and oft-repeated request.
I would also like to say that saying something like
WHERE ARE THE MODERATORS?!? No official response on the official Cubase forum? Shame!
is unnecessarily, well, shaming. I just don’t see the point in speaking like that to people. Also, please note I was the first person to +1 this request. I would really like to see that. In the mean time, I hide the note labels entirely by adjusting the vertical zoom, or by activating Show Note Expression.
I do, intensely, hope they are looking at this for C9.
True… frustration abounds while working… thought there had been no mod comment. C’est la vie.
IMHO, it should be a patch for any and all versions of Pro 8, at least. It’s not just an inconvenience, it’s a real musical deficiency in Cubase. I don’t understand why it has to be this way? The harmonic capabilities of the program are impressive – chord track, the scale types, the transposition functions are all excellent. I guess there’s some deep code issue preventing an easy fix for this? I’m just about one year into Cubase now and this one issue still gnaws at me. It prevents me from really feeling “at home” with Cubase.
Requesting the full circle of fifths for the following – display in the Key Editor, and for setting the project’s Root Key, and for anywhere else in the program it may be needed. Sharp Keys – G, D, A, E, B, F# (F sharp) and C# (C Sharp), their relative Minor Keys, E Minor, B, Minor, F# Minor, C# Minor, D# Minor, A# Minor; Flat Keys – F, Bb (B Flat), Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, their relative Minor Keys, D Minor, G Minor, C Minor, F Minor, Bb Minor, Eb Minor, Ab Minor. No sharps or flats, C Major, A Minor.
( Circle of fifths - Wikipedia – for those who may not know the “Circle of Fifths” )
Anyway, Steve, I didn’t like the flame-out either and only want a small, but highly musically-significant correction. It would bring the program a level of musical sophistication and polish that would, I think, earn it even greater respect from all users – music students, working professionals, instructors and hard-working, dedicated amateurs.
Take care, thanks for posting and for bumping up this topic.
It’s not just a case of “respect” from music students, it’s a prerequisite to proper understanding.
Try getting a class of kids who don’t read music, or who aren’t confident in doing so to enter a piece of music from standard notation. That’s not normally that easy.
Now throw in key signatures. That always causes all sorts of problems.
But when you have to explain to the kids that the Bb that they see has to be put in as an A# instead… that makes it tough. When there are 3 or 4 flats, it’s a real bit of mental gymnastics that they have to engage in, and for most at that point it’s a bridge too far. I’ve seen many a class just shut off as a result of this single issue, and it -really- needs fixing. I couldn’t give a monkey’s about LoopMash 2 or whatever, what I want is when you put a key signature in that the editors all respect the flat/sharp nature of the prevailing key. I don’t even care about harmonic minors, etc., just obeying the prevailing flat key if there is one. I swear it would make the first term of each year of AS that I teach about 20% easier.
If the students are entering notes into Cubase from sheet music, why don’t they use the score editor?
I’d like to see a thread comparing the pros and cons, strengths and weakness, features and benefits, of using Score Editor vs. Key Editor. That would be a topic for another thread, however.
If we’re working in the world of Midi editing, as so many of us do, not having our Flat Keys and Flat Chords in the Editors really is a place Cubase needs to be improved. Cubase does wonderful harmony and transpositions, it just needs to include Flat notes, Flat Keys and Flat Chords and currently does not. The Chord Track sort of gets things right, but I still have to enter A#7 for Bb7 and so on. I find it particularly troubling when editing melodic lines in the key editor.
What’s odd is that Cubase does put emphasis on tonality and offers a wealth of impressive pitch manipulation tools, and transposition tools, but yet has this one oddity with the lack of the flats.
Whatever harmonic engine is driving all this should be updated so it includes the Flat Notes in all relevant places within the program starting with the Key Editor.
I imagine this lack has to do with some barrier to programming it, not a philosophical thing.
It looks like a simple thing, but when fonts are involved there’s another layer of complexity.
I think that comparison is an extremely personal thing. I use the Key Editor with note labels off, and I can tell what note I am looking at from the background, or by hearing it.
