How to get DP to accept a custom key change name?

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mhschmieder
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How to get DP to accept a custom key change name?

Post by mhschmieder »

This has been bothering me for years, and I'm certain it worked at one point.

I do a lot of modal writing, and like to annotate this in the project via key changes.

If I go to the Conductor Track (or the Conductor submenu of the Project Menu) to get the accidentals I need via the drag bar, then change the name, and select "Custom" (in either order), the track changes to "Custom" as the key change name after exiting the dialog.

This is quite annoying, so I simply default to Major or Minor based on the value of the third interval.

For example, if I drag to get four flats, so that we are in the key of Ab Major, but I really want Ab Mixolydian, I can't get DP to honor this request as a custom name. Nor if I drag to five flats (the actual accidentals in that mode with Ab as the tonic), and rename (with or without "Custom" selected).

Ideally, of course, I'd be able to rename "Db Major" as "Ab Mixolydian" so that I have the right sense of tonic as well as the correct accidentals for the transposed mode.

At the very least, I'd like to be able to preserve the tonic in the key name, but name it correctly, even if the additional accidentals have to be left out of the key signature and show up in the score per-note instead.

I am positive I had this working a number of years ago. I set it aside after too much time wasted, but am working on quite a bit of modal material at the moment on a jazz album that I am hoping to wrap up production on this coming week, so would really like to be able to get this issue solved so I have more meaningful lead sheets should I call in any musicians to replace any of the MIDI tracks.
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mhschmieder
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Re: How to get DP to accept a custom key change name?

Post by mhschmieder »

Still no luck with this, but of course I left out an important detail earlier, which is that most modal keys will require "odd" accidentals in the key signature, if we want the best possible cues. But that's of slightly lesser concern than just having a marking that identifies the tonic and the mode, using the closest key signature amounts the major and minor keys.

Come to think of it, I haven't recently checked to see whether and how this is handled in Finale.
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mikehalloran
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Re: How to get DP to accept a custom key change name?

Post by mikehalloran »

mhschmieder wrote:Come to think of it, I haven't recently checked to see whether and how this is handled in Finale.
Nonstandard Key Signature dialog box

http://www.finalemusic.com/usermanuals/ ... NONDLG.htm
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