A new update is here for AudioTheory Piano Keys. It includes two main new features that are designed to work together to give you greater control over how sharp and flat notes display.
Automatic/ Manual Sharps & Flats
There's a new dropdown in the application options that lets you select between two different sets of rules that determine how the application handles sharps and flats.
Auto set based on scale
This is the default option, and retains the existing method of automatically showing a sharp or a flat based on context. The advantage of this mode is that it will prioritise practical scales over theoretical ones, for example showing D♭ major but C♯ minor within the scale library.
As before, you can then click on the sharp/ flat note name in the note selector (bottom left) to change a specific note if required.
However, the addition of the theoretical scales means that now if the root note is swapped then the whole scale will update. E.g. if you load C♯ minor and then click on the C♯ note, it will change the scale to D♭ minor.
Manually configure
This is a new alternative method of handling sharps and flats that lets you specify the default value for each of the accidentals.
These can still be swapped by clicking on the note name in the selector, and notes will still update to the correct state when a scale preset is loaded, but reverting from a scale preset (selecting the 'all' or 'none' buttons) will apply the default values specified in the options.
This mode is useful if you want to use theoretical scales. For example, setting the default display for C♯/D♭ to D♭ means that the theoretical D♭ minor scale will display in the scale selector and scale library (whereas in automatic mode C♯ minor is given priority).
Theoretical Scales
The changes to how sharps and flats can display opens up many new situations where theoretical notes and scales come into play. The application has been updated to properly support these, meaning scale highlighting works with double sharps, double flats and enharmonic notes such as C♭ and B♯.
Theoretical scales have also been added to the scale library, although to keep things simple scales are still presented in groups of 12. The 12 you'll see are determined by the sharp/ flat options described above.
Other changes
The default display settings have been optimised for Steam Deck. The application runs in windowed mode as standard, on Steam Deck this would result in the wrong resolution being applied. It could previously be fixed by swapping to fullscreen, but now it displays correctly by default.
The note selector now references the sharp/ flat state of accidentals when indicating a scale match (appending the scale name with an asterisk if the scale has been modified). E.g. G, A, B, C, D, E, and G♭ is now recognised as a modification of G major.
Clicking on a sharp/flat name in the chord library no longer changes it globally. The behaviour is now standardised with the scale library; in both scenarios clicking on the name changes the display of that mini-keyboard instance only.
Fixed an issue with the scale type label not displaying correctly on certain scale sets
Dual scale highlighting now matches the sharp/ flat display of the root note. The scale highlighting colours for the relevant theoretical scales are now used as appropriate.
In other news...
Dracula's Cave now has its own dedicated Steam publisher page. The full range of AudioTheory software and also the games I've released can now be found in one convenient location.