Time for Cakewalk Sonar to be Key/scale Aware?

[Wookiee]

Is it time for Sonar to be able to differentiate between Major and Minor musical Keys.

Currently when setting the musical key we can only select Major keys, none of the Minor keys can be set. Time to join the other 21st century DAW's is it not?

Many DAW's are now key/scale aware, is it not time for all Cakewalk software to be key/scale aware?

Edited 4 hours ago by Wookiee
For clarity !

[azslow3]

I am a bit curious... Key of/for what?

I know some DAWs can do "things" let say in "Melodic C minor" scale. But can Sonar do anything in that direction?

I mean, from what I remember, there are 2 application for "keys" in Cakewalk: one is "key signature" for staff and other is transposing "key" for grooved clips / arpeggiator.  Both are not scale aware. 

[Wookiee]

@azslow3 yes you can tell it what Major key signature in the Meter/Key tab, but not what minor key. Look at Ableton for a full description of what I mean.

[Xoo]

You can also lock scale in the TV, and there are a large number of scales available (Major, Minor, Whole Tone, Hungarian...).

If you're going to be "scale aware" though in the Meter/Key tab, you also need to include any scales from there, not just traditional major and minor.

[David Baay]

8 hours ago, Wookiee said:

Currently when setting the musical key we can only select Major keys, none of the Minor keys can be set.

Is there some context in which setting the relative major  (e.g. F major for D minor) does not give the desired result?

[Wookiee]

5 hours ago, David Baay said:

Is there some context in which setting the relative major  (e.g. F major for D minor) does not give the desired result?

Yes, if it was truly key/scale aware it would know the difference between melodic, natural, & harmonic minor keys.

Edited 4 hours ago by Wookiee
Clarity

[David Baay]

1 hour ago, Wookiee said:

Yes, if it was truly key aware it would know the difference between melodic, natural, & harmonic minor keys.

Technically the melodic and harmonic minor are scales not keys. Only the  natural minor is both a scale and a key. I thought you just wanted to be able to set natural minor keys. Scale modes don't affect the key signature so I guess I'm not clear on what "key aware" means in terms of workflow beyond how sharps and flats are notated.

Where in the UI would you see any effect of specifying alternative scales? The one place I can think of is Snap-to-Scale which already supports common scales and allows creating custom ones.

As an improvisational composer, I don't often consciously think about keys, scales or modes and don't even bother to set the key of a project unless I'm going to be using the Staff View (rarely). So it's quite possible I'm missing how this would be useful.

[Wookiee]

1 minute ago, David Baay said:

Technically the melodic and harmonic minor are scales not keys.

 

 So it's quite possible I'm missing how this would be useful.

Yep correct you are both correct and missing something, I don't have great keyboard skills, partly due a medical condition partly due to pack of practice. Consequently I frequently compose by drawing notes on the staff view, this is where key/scale awareness would help.

[David Baay]

15 minutes ago, Wookiee said:

I frequently compose by drawing notes on the staff view, this is where key/scale awareness would help.

The Staff View also supports per-track Snap-to-Scale by right-clicking in the Track pane which can be opened via the View menu.

[Trung Kien Le dinh]

i'm agree and add correct note in PRV , exp : Eb key don't show Ab it's show G#

[mettelus]

13 minutes ago, Trung Kien Le dinh said:

i'm agree and add correct note in PRV , exp : Eb key don't show Ab it's show G#

I suspect this thread came about because of your post on that. Irrespective of music theory knowledge, this also includes a composer's preference for how keys in scales appear while composing (as simple as that) and the ability to set it easily. Arguing that Ab and G# are the same key (which is true) distracts from a composer expecting to see the key names for Eb Major to be set to Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb, C, and D and being able to adjust that if they do not.