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Logic Score Editor - different Key Signatures

GdT

Active Member
In Logic Key Signature is a global setting. If I change in on one track in the score editor it changes it for all tracks.

In Sibelius I can have transposing instruments with different key signatures. Logic can’t do this.

Much modern music is multi-tonal.

Here is a simple example. I am reading the excellent book “Scoring the Screen” by Andy Hill. There is a short extract from Stravinsky’s “L'histoire du soldat”. It has lower parts in G and higher parts in A. It would be nice if I could have some tracks in G and some in A instead of having a plethora of incidental sharps or flats. It was composed in 1918. So, it seems Logic is only 100 years behind the curve!

I know I can have some tracks or regions transposed but that just makes it more complicated and doesn’t solve the dilemma of how to make the score editor look readable.

Does anyone have any suggestions or work-arounds please?
 
Transposing instruments are fine in Logic - you set them in the score editor or preferences or whatever it's called. Google 'logic transposing instruments score editor'
 
You can use transposing instruments but transpose them back in the instrument inspector. That way the output doesn't transpose but is written in another key.
 
Thanks for the advice.
I think I found out how to do it now.
Here is a little example for the piece cited above:

Logic Score Multi Keys signatures 2020-03-23.png

In this example the Global Key is set to G.
To get this display in the Score Editor I set the tracks in A to use Score Sets with the +2 transpose option.
However the actual MIDI notes have to be a whole tone lower.
To get the playback correct in the Tracks window Inspector I have to transpose the tracks in A by a whole tone.
This is the weird bit, maybe I got it wrong -
The Inspector transpose option has to be set to -2.
This seems counter intuitive.

The major disadvantage of doing this is the underlying MIDI notes are not at the pitch shown in the Score Editor. That makes editing somewhat complex, especially when using the Piano Roll Editor.

So my conclusions are:
a) if I just want it to look nice in the Score Editor then yes this works. But it is a bit of a complicated way of doing something that should essentially be very simple.
b) If I want to keep it simple and do editing in the Piano Roll then I might as well follow the modern converntion of writing everything in C and having tons of sharps and flats all over the place.

And another thing...
My old college tutor said the convention was: Use sharps on the way up and flats on the way down.
I am not sure what rule Logic follows here.

So my main issue with Logic is: Why is Key Signature a Global attribute? Why not on a per track basis?
 
Just discovered there is a transform option in the Piano Roll editor so it then matches up with the Score Editor.
 
So my main issue with Logic is: Why is Key Signature a Global attribute? Why not on a per track basis?

It sounds like you want to write music in two simultaneous keys, i.e. the key of G and A, not simply deal with the usual transpositions of transposing instruments. This is not a common practice in the music world outside of contemporary art music, and Logic's score window is not set up to deal with it, hence key sigs being a global attribute.

You will get far better results by working in a notation program to create a printed score. Any solution in Logic is bound to have various complications as you have already found. This is because there is no DAW on the market that has the notation power of a dedicated notation program.
 
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