Of course, on many instruments B flat is played with the same key as A sharp, E flat with the the same as D sharp, etc. I reckon that this is the reason that there are no flats provided in the key editor: “It’s the same note, after all”
But it’s not!
Looking at the different tonalities, one can not do without flats. As you probably know, every tonality has its own scale, a repeating sequence of 7 consecutive notes, where the 8th note is the reprise of the first, but one octave higher, etc. Each tonality has its own key signature, some with sharps, others with flats, following the circle of fifths, which is derived from physics. One can NOT simply replace the flat notes in a scale by the “equivalent” sharp notes. A scale is the sequence of consecutive diatonic degrees, which implies that those are all different notes, regardless of whether they are natural or altered. A simple example. The scale of E flat major is: E flat, F, G, A flat, B flat, C, D, E flat again, etc. But the Keyboard Editor doesn’t work in this way. Instead it wants you to act as if the E flat major scale is: D sharp, F, G, G sharp, A sharp, C, D, D sharp, etc. I hope many of you agree with me that it’s a constant burden, having to write music in this way, always having to “translate” the right flat not into its incorrect “equivalent”. The diatonic tones of a tonality form a kind of “family”, and most composers thinks within those “families”. I find it very confusing, all the time having to “translate” flats into sharps. In fact, I simply can’t work like that, so I have to ignare the notation of the Key Editor - which is a pity. Of course when inputting all the notes with a keyboard (I do this a lot but certainly not all the time - often I simply like to write what I hear in my head) and when ignoring the note notation in the key editor, it’s OK. But then, there is no use of showing the notes, if they don’t correspond to the ones we use in the different tonalities. Don’t you agree? I prefer not getting any hints at all above getting the wrong ones.
I believe Cubase should offer the possibility of a Tonality Track, where one can indicate (and change in the course of the project) the used tonality, with its proper key signature. During the time of a certain tonality, the in the Key Editor proposed notes need to follow the correct scale.
I hope that I can get some support from you in this matter, so that we can convince the Cubase guys that this feature is really necessary.
Thanks for reading.
Dirk De Paepe
This has been fixed for a while. Add a chord track to specify the tonic chord and set the pref to use it
I looked into it recently, but so far I didn’t succeed in actually getting the flat notes in the Key Editor window. And I have spoken with several people within Steinberg about this matter - non of them was affirmative that it is indeed possible to get flat notes in the Key Editor window, where we write the note events. Still I will look into it once more (tomorrow). Thanks for your reply, Steve!
Follow the steps I mentioned and you will see. This was an enormous feature request for me, and I admit to campaigning for it extremely enthusiastically!
Just let me look into it tomorrow, Steve. It was a very long day and I first need some sleep. 
I hope you will read about my experiences with your suggestion tomorrow.
Hello Steve. I’ve been looking into it and I have to admit that I don’t find it very straightforward. In fact I can’t figure out what to do exactly. I also have my doubts if configuring chords will offer me an equivalent of a key signature, as what we do when writing in a traditional score. I will look further into it later (for now, I have an urgent job to finish). Maybe I’ll contact Steinberg support - they have helped me in a marvelous way on several occasions. Or maybe you can give me some more detailed hints? Anyway, thanks a lot for your replies so far.
Hello Steve. I’d like to thank you again for your reply. I have checked all the boxes in the same way as how you did in the one you’ve send me before, and hurray! the flat notes appear!! So that’s great. But the things is: I don’t really understand what I did, how it works, which setting(s) exactly made this happen. And I also wonder if those are settings in this project or in my Cubase (the latter would be great, but I fear it will be limited to the project). Also, thought it’s great that the note notation follows the chords, I really would like to be able to determine tonalities, since the chords are the result of the tonality (in my way of thinking - this is probably a result of my classical music education). I keep hoping that Cubase will create the possibility of a tonality track…
That’s great, @DirkMM
There are two settings that make this work
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Activating Enharmonics from Chord Track in Preferences>Event Display – Chords and Notes shown in the image above, (This setting, and all the settings on that preferences page is global, and will affect all projects you open.) and
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In the Key Editor inspector, Scale Assistant tab, activate Use Chord Track
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Placing chord and scale events on the chord track.
The image below is the Windowed Key Editor, with Global Tracks enabled.
Here is a Cubase Project File demonstrating it:
chordScale.cpr (110.9 KB)
here is work around summary- add chord track- link it to the midi track you are editing- add a Bb chord from the chord track [this is the only available chord with a flat]-then in -preferences-event display -chords and pitches-there is box on right “pitch notation” check "enharmonics from chord track’ now it will see all notes as flats [I was in D flat]
No need to do that. The track monitoring the chord track is unrelated to this.
I outlined how to do it above, see I want also flat notes in the Key Editor! - #8 by steve.
Short version: Activate Enharmonics from Chord Track.
Add the tonic chord of the key you are in. If you need the enharmonic of it (C#/Db) use the enharmonic shift menu
Hello, Steve!
I am sure I knew how to switch the view of notes with flat (changing sharp note display to flat)
But on Cubase 12 Pro, has it been changed…?
Unchanged. Double check your settings?
If I recall correctly? There was a option to see flatten instead of sharp notes…? Like, D# as Eb?
inside ‘Preference’… am I wrong?