Questions
What people ask before they upload a chart. If yours is not here, send it to us and it probably will be.
- Do I need an account?
- To get the whole chart, yes, and it's free to make one. You can preview the first lines of any chart on the homepage without one. A new account comes with 30 credits, and 70 more when you confirm your email. No card needed.
- What does it cost to transpose a chart?
- One credit for each staff. A one-page lead sheet with ten staves costs ten credits. Credits start at $5 for 100 and never expire. Three photos or scans a month are free; PDFs exported from notation software always use credits. You always see the price before you spend anything.
- What kind of file can I upload?
- A PDF, or a photo or scan of your chart. PDFs exported from notation software like Sibelius, Finale, Dorico or MuseScore give the best results.
- What if my part is a scan or a photo?
- That works too. NewKey reads the page with its own recognition model, then transposes it. For the best result, photograph the page flat and in good light. If any page or chord doesn't move, you aren't charged.
- Will the transposed chart still look like my chart?
- Yes. NewKey moves the notes on your own page instead of redrawing it, so the layout, fonts and page turns stay just as they were.
- Why do you ask for an interval instead of a key?
- Because an interval means the same thing on every part, and a key doesn't: a score has parts in several keys at once. If you'd rather not think in intervals, pick the instrument the part is written for and the one you play, and NewKey works out the interval for you.
- What happens if it gets something wrong?
- Every PDF is checked by reading the new chart back and comparing it with the original: the notes, the chords and the key signatures. A scan has to have every page and chord moved. If either falls short, you aren't charged, and you still get the file to look at.
- Can I put the same chart into more than one key?
- Yes. Each new key is a new transposition and costs credits as usual. Going back to a key you've already done is free for 30 days, so a lost download costs nothing.
- What if my PDF's music has been turned into outlines?
- It usually still works. Some programs export the music as plain shapes instead of text, and NewKey can read most of those by their shapes. If that fails, it reads the page the way it reads a scan. If it still can't, it tells you before you're charged.
- How long do you store my charts?
- For seven days, so you can open your charts again from your dashboard. Then they're deleted automatically, or straight away if you delete your account. After that we keep only a record of the job, not the music, and nothing you upload is used to train anything.
- How do I tell the transposed copy from the original?
- Every page that changed is stamped with what was done, for example "Transposed up a major third from the original chart", and the file's name says it too, like "Score (up a major third).pdf".
- Do you use AI?
- Not the kind you're thinking of. PDFs are transposed by the rules of music, with no AI at all. Photos and scans are first read by a small model we built to recognise notes, clefs and accidentals. No LLMs or generative AI are used anywhere, and your charts never go to an outside AI service.
Still wondering
The fastest answer is usually a chart. Upload one you have played, transpose it, and you will know within a minute whether this is the tool you wanted.