Project Root Key / Chord Pads Key / Score Editor Key Signature

Cubase
1

I’m having trouble understanding how key signatures work in Cubase Pro 14, and I’m hoping someone can help shed some light on the matter.

I recorded a song that’s in F major (one flat). I selected “F” as the project root key, and I don’t know if that meant F major or F minor, or what difference it made at all, for that matter. For the chord pads, I selected “D” as the key and “Modern Pop Keys” as the preset, because the key selection dropdown menu in the lower zone seems to refer to minor key centers. This is fine for note name chord symbols, but the Roman Numerals and Nashville Numbers formats show symbols in D minor instead of F major. So unless I can figure out how to get the numeral styles to read 1-4-5 instead of b3-b6-b7, they’re useless. And then when I open the score editor, all the B-flats are written as accidentals in the part. I have to use the key signature tool to designate F major as “Major, one flat”.

What’s up with key signatures in Cubase Pro 14? I guess I expected that the project root key would have a major or minor definition (does it?) and that would inform all the other tools, with the option to override as needed. But I don’t think that’s how key signatures work at all in the software… how do key signatures work in Cubase Pro 14?

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It fooled me, too, in the beginning. The root key feature has absolutely nothing to do with setting a scale (thus no major or minor), neither does it tell the rest of the program what to do. Its only purpose is to be able to quickly transpose a song, say if you have a singer in your studio and they need the song a bit lower or higher.

In order for the score editor in C14 to use a scale you have to do what you did - use the tool in the score editor.
It is on the wish list/ to do list of the developers to have the score editor pickup on any scale that is defined on the Cubase chord track. Hopefully this will come sooner rather than later.

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