AudioTheory Guitars News

A new update arrives today. This follows on from from last week's release of AudioTheory Piano Keys 3.0 and adds in some of the improvements developed here that are also relevant for AudioTheory Guitars.

[h3]Contextual Sharp/ Flat Note Selector[/h3]
This one is actually an AudioTheory Guitars exclusive as it relates to the note selectors only found in this app. These have been replaced with a new standardised design that takes up less space. This is because each sharp/ flat note now dynamically updates to match the current display state for each note.


As well as showing labels that are contextually relevant, the uniform button sizes now mean that when viewing diminished seventh chords, the harmonic roots (highlighted in light grey) line up!


[h3]Scale Inspector[/h3]
Learn more about each scale with the scale degrees, movable do labels, Roman numerals (where applicable) and standard note information all in one place. This is accessed by first opening the scale library, and then pressing the new info 'i' icon next to one of the scales.

[h3]Extended Scale Library[/h3]
The number of scales within the library has been increased substantially. There are new tabs for Jazz, Exotic, and Japanese. In total, 28 new types of scales have been added in.


[h3]New options for scale playback[/h3]
Play scales ascending, descending, or both. Scales now only play across a single octave, rather than just continuing for the full length of the keyboard.

[h3]And the rest:[/h3]

• The position of the play button has been adjusted for scales.
  
• Auto-loading chords with scales has been streamlined a bit. Pentatonic scales now just load the standard set of major chords. Melodic scales no longer auto-load chords, and a message now displays at the top of the screen when a set of chords are loaded on scale change.
  
• Spacing has been revised for chord names in alt note name languages
  
• (no capo) text now no longer shows in the chord library if a capo is applied (only shows in the main view)
  
• German note names have been added as an option within the application settings. When applied, B will display as H and B♭ will display as B.
  

[p]Very small update to fix Unity security issue CVE-2025-59489. More info on this is provided by Steam here.[/p]

[p][/p][p]A new update is here for AudioTheory Guitars. It includes two main new features that are designed to work together to give you greater control over how sharp and flat notes display.[/p][p][/p][h2]Automatic/ Manual Sharps & Flats[/h2][p][/p][p]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.[/p][p][/p][h3]Auto set based on scale[/h3][p]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.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]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.[/p][p][/p][p]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.[/p][p][/p][h3]Manually configure[/h3][p]This is a new alternative method of handling sharps and flats that lets you specify the default value for each of the accidentals.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]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.[/p][p][/p][p]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).[/p][p][/p][h2]Theoretical Scales[/h2][p][/p][p]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♯.[/p][p][/p][p]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.[/p][p][/p][h2]Other changes[/h2][p][/p]

• [p]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.[/p]
• [p]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.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue with the scale type label not displaying correctly on certain scale sets[/p]

[p][/p][h2]In other news...[/h2][p][/p][p]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.[/p]

Just some small fixes mostly relating to the modal scales:

• Fixed an issue with chords not auto-loading correctly using ionian scales
  
• Fixed a minor display issue with the note selector
  
• Lydian chords 6 and 7 now auto load as minor chords
  
• Fixed an issue where custom colours would inadvertently default to light blue for all notes apart from C
  

All requests Friday. A new update is here and it's composed entirely of features requested by you, the users of AudioTheory Guitars. Let's have a look at what's new:

[h2]Revised Keyboard Design[/h2]

Someone kindly pointed out that the piano keyboard had a few differences when compared to a real piano, specifically in the placement and size of the black keys. The keyboard layout has been revised to address this, and now the position and placement of the black keys has been adjusted to match a real piano with greater accuracy.

I've also added in a depth effect so the black keys now look like they sit above the white keys (also to better match the look of a real piano). This can however be turned off in the settings if you prefer a flat, more abstract look.



[h2]Custom colours for the black keys[/h2]

It's now possible to set unique custom colours for the black keys. The default option is still for the black keys to automatically match the natural note colours (so C♯ uses the colour for C, where as D♭ uses the colour for D), however this can be changed using a new dropdown in the settings. If the black keys display mode is changed over to use custom colours then you'll see an additional set of black key notes for which individual colours can be set.



A benefit of displaying notes this way is that an incremental colour hue can be used that matches the pitch increment between the notes.

[h2]Export chords as MIDI[/h2]

You can now export your chord progressions directly from AudioTheory Guitars and import them as 'Chord packs' into your DAW. Select the new MIDI toolbar option, 'Export Chords to MIDI' and specify a location for the file to be saved. This will export all visible chords in the main application view, one bar for each, in sequence, ready for use in other applications.