# Just discovered Notion



## SamGarnerStudios (Jul 8, 2013)

Met a guy tonight who swore by Notion, I had never really checked it out. Unfortunately they don't have a demo, but it looks amazingly and much more intuitive to use. Any thoughts and opinion people can share with me?


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## MrCambiata (Jul 9, 2013)

I was considering Notion because it has some sequencer functions along with the score ones. You can drug the duration of a single tone to make it overlap with the next one, which is useful for some VI - without changing how the notation looks. You can change the velocity of single notes, etc. But for me it's more like a compromise, because I would be missing some functions that I need (like cross staff notation) and it can't replace your DAW after all.


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## nikolas (Jul 9, 2013)

It's between worlds and not good enough for any of them (for professional use), I'm afraid.

While I'm not against products that are not made for pros (heck I've been using for almost a decade "ultimate paint" because it sits well with me), in this case and me being a professional musician, turned me away from Notion...


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## Rob (Jul 9, 2013)

nikolas @ 9th July 2013 said:


> It's between worlds and not good enough for any of them (for professional use), I'm afraid.
> 
> While I'm not against products that are not made for pros (heck I've been using for almost a decade "ultimate paint" because it sits well with me), in this case and me being a professional musician, turned me away from Notion...



+1 although I must admit that I was more concentrated on composing and less on production while using it... wrote the music (woodwinds, strings and perc) for a whole show in two/three months. I was missing all the features of a real sequencer though...


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## dcoscina (Jul 9, 2013)

Have you used it Nicholas? Especially Notion 4? They've made some big strides towards improving the program and the features they are packing into the iPad version are amazing. It's not at Finale nor Sibelius' level as far as engraving is concerned but as a compositional tool it's actually become very impressive. The sheer number of sampled articulations even the iPad version possesses puts Sibelius' vaunted 36gb built in library to shame. 

Also, support for Sibelius has become non existent with no updates in a year. Pretty soon Notion will catch up. And it's presets for sample libraries like VSL are stunning.

I was an early adopter of Notion when it was released in 2005 but became disenchanted with it when N3 was released. Notion 4 on desktop and the iPad version brought me back. I've written a dozen concert wirks on it. Also, I'm scoring a film and the director actually likes the music I composed with my ipad version over my DAWbased cues using top sample libs like VSL and Spitfire. Weird eh? But there are articulations that notion can do with a simple marking in the score that other libs either don't have at all or are laborious to program (vibe tremolo, fluttered flutes gliss down, timp roll gliss up, etc).


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## dcoscina (Jul 9, 2013)

Here is a short thing I did on Notion for ipad. It's not going to convert anyone from their big libraries that's a given but there are playing techniques that are pretty easy to notate and hear back with not bad samples- especially compared to the Garritan stuff tat was bundled with Finale and Sibelius 

http://snd.sc/15a6bCk


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## Hannes_F (Jul 9, 2013)

Nice, David. I've had Notion Vers. 1 and 2 and then somehow lost track.


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## Rob (Jul 9, 2013)

dcoscina @ 9th July 2013 said:


> Here is a short thing I did on Notion for ipad. It's not going to convert anyone from their big libraries that's a given but there are playing techniques that are pretty easy to notate and hear back with not bad samples- especially compared to the Garritan stuff tat was bundled with Finale and Sibelius
> 
> http://snd.sc/15a6bCk



That's nice David, mmm.... you are tempting me... I've got N3, if the upgrade isn't too expensive...


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## SamGarnerStudios (Jul 9, 2013)

Thanks guys for the responses. 

I understand that Notion isn't a fully featured notation software, but I read somewhere that Finale and Sibelius are great for creating scores, but Notation is great for creating music in scores. And all the videos I've seen really seem to follow that. I'm good with Finale and I've put my time into learning it (I hate when people complain about Finale when they've had it for a week), but sometimes theres so many things in between my creativity and the scores, i.e menus and other crap. If I ever needed to create a more complex score, you can import the projects back and forth (atleast I know you can import Finale projects into Notion). And it's only 99$, and you get an iPad app, and I play a lot of gigs with breaks where I need something to do besides slamming down the free liquor I get lol. (Got a free glass of Johnny Walker Blue Label last night, omg)


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## dcoscina (Jul 9, 2013)

I bought the iPad app when it was going for the introduction price of 99 cents. Even at $14.99 I would buy it. You should check out a list of the new features in the next update expected to be released in a couple weeks:

- New notation items in the palette:
- Swing/Straight
- rehearsal marks
- rit. and accel.
- fingered tremolos
- fp, ffp fz, ffz, sf, sff, sfz, sffz, sfp, sffp
- treble 8va clef, treble 15ma clef, treble 8 vb clef, bass 8vb clef
- Fine, To Coda, D.S. al Fine, D.S. al Coda, D.C. al Fine, D.C. al Coda
- beam tool
- cuts
- ghost notes
- fingerings
- double whole notes and double whole rests

- More selection operations (select a region, then tap on More...):
- Duplicate
- Clear Special
- Swap Voices
- Reset Tab Numbers
- Clear Recorded Velocities
- Quantize to Notation
- Stem Direction
- Show as rhythm slash
- Show as cues
- Set as tacet
- Double at interval
- Make tuplet/custom tuplet
- Hide/unhide rests and attachments
- Show attachments above/below/auto
- Staff groupings (barline, bracket, brace, tempo)
- Force new system
- Force new page

- Tap on a selected score item to bring up a contextual menu for that item (e.g., select a note, then tap on the selected note to view the context menu).

- View, edit, and print individual dynamic parts (in the view menu).

- View your score in continuous view (in the view menu).

- Other new view options: Show Hidden Items, Show Voice Colors, Hide Cuts, and Hide Resting Staves.

- Double-tap on a variety of score items to edit them:
- swing
- rit. and accel.
- tempo markings
- repeats (for editing the number of repeats)
- fermatas, caesuras, tenutos, and breath marks (for editing the time playback should pause)
- rehearsal marks

- Improved slur entry method that allows for entering slurs on notes in any voice:
1. Choose the slur tool from the articulations section of the palette.
2. Tap once on the note where you want the slur to start 
3. Tap once on the note where you want the slur to end.

- Improved chord symbol entry.

- Bug fixes.


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## kmlandre (Jul 9, 2013)

I'm personally a huge Notion fan. It comes with a decent set of London Symphony Orchestra sounds which include a lot of useful articulations. I'd put it somewhere above Garritan and Miroslav in terms of sound quality, but not as "oomphy" as the EWSO series. Other the other hand, it's much less "in your face" than EWSO, so there's a lot of subtle, more "classical"/softer things I can do with the Notion native sounds that I find harder to do with EWSO.

I would point out one notable lack - no choirs of any kind. But for the $99 retail/$49 upgrade price, you just can't beat it if you're notation-centric like me and choirs are cheap and easy to find. 

And you can export your product out to MusicXML or plain midi files for manipulation in another application, or using ReWire you can pipe the audio into something like Cubase. I've done the ReWire trick a few times and it works pretty well (once you get it set up correctly).

It integrates exceptionally well with other VI's, so you're not really limited by the sounds that come with it. If you already have a bunch of other libraries, it's really worth considering. 

Here's a few samples that are Notion instruments only (mostly - there's some Embertone Chapman Trumpet, Miroslav horns, and choir samples in a few):

Dark Movements - Pluto, Eris, and Other Celestial Objects:
http://soundcloud.com/kmlandre/dark-movements-pluto-eris-and-other-celestial-objects

noctis chorea (Night Dance)
http://soundcloud.com/kmlandre/noctis-chorea

reScore:Microcosmos - Opening Credits, Descent, and Bug Palace:
http://soundcloud.com/kmlandre/rescore-microcosmos-opening

reScore:Microcosoms - Two Consenting Snails:
http://soundcloud.com/kmlandre/rescore-microcosoms-two

On An Empty Train:
http://soundcloud.com/kmlandre/on-an-empty-train-wav

Moving notes from one VI staff to another is simply a matter of copying it from staff to staff (although it may require transposition and of course you'll have to have all the corresponding articulations set up).

There are templates for a number of other libraries (EW, Miroslav, Garritan, VSL, etc.) and it's reasonably easy to set up custom templates, too.

In terms of notation, I would say that's pretty much a composer's tool rather than a publishing tool. There's no way it can compete with the print quality of Sibelius or Finale. But I find it WAAAY easier for pure composing than either of those tools. I rarely use a keyboard or any other midi input, so the ease of keyboard and mouse input is an absolute requirement for me.

Anyway, that's my two bits...

Kurt M. Landre'
http://www.soundcloud.com/kmlandre


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## SamGarnerStudios (Jul 9, 2013)

First of all, nice music. And that's purely playback from Notion? If so that's incredible. Sometime I like to record part by part into Logic to see exactly what I wrote sounds like, Notion seems to eliminate that step. 

And that's what I'm kind of looking for, a composers notation software


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## kmlandre (Jul 9, 2013)

Thanks!  

And yeah, that's all Notion playback. Like with any VI, you have to use it where it shines best to get the most out of it. I pretty much add cresc/descr and various accent marks like crazy, to avoid machine gunning - it really helps the performance. Notion also handles slurs exceptionally well (IMHO), automatically adding what sounds like a sort of pseudo-legato where appropriate. If I remember the manual, I think it says it overlaps the notes a bit under the hood...

That and it's extremely easy to add grace notes, which Notion handles by dropping the velocity and duration with a very human feel, adding a nice scooping sound where appropriate.

Also useful is Notion's built-in function to randomize some parameters (velocity, note on/off timing, etc.) - that gives things an even more human feel. Or, if you're obsessively controlling like me, you can simply "pull/push" a note graphically. It takes milliseconds, and it really helps pizzicato/staccato/etc. sections sound more lifelike, especially when you're just playing accompanying chords or the like.

Kurt M. Landre'


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## SamGarnerStudios (Jul 9, 2013)

Right, well I'd never give a Notion playback to a client so I wouldn't have to get too OCD on it, but it's atleast nice to my own ears to be able to hear a decent playback. And I have some nice libraries so it'd be nice to hook those up. That and a more streamlined composing experience seems like a for sure to me. 

How is the chord tool? I do a lot of jazz stuff and cover band arrangements.


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## kmlandre (Jul 9, 2013)

I've never actually used the chord tool, to be honest.

However, a lot of folks in the Notion forum have, if I recall correctly. You might find some mention of it here:

http://forum.notionmusic.com/

Kurt


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## Rob (Jul 9, 2013)

nice music, Kurt, thanks for posting...


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## dcoscina (Jul 9, 2013)

The VSL presets are marvelous. When they first released Notion 1 in 2005, the samples were monaural and with hall mic. They re-sampled close mic'd versions and in stereo for the Notion 3 release and added some reverb to the instruments and panning accordingly. Because of this, they sit pretty well with VSL which is also dry and needs reverb sweetening. 

honestly, there's some articulation samples that I don't have from other libraries or are a PITA to try to program or emulate with the same ease of Notion. 

I should point out that my example above was from the iPad version which has less velocity layers than the full desktop version. The ability to sketch out initially on the ipad and flesh it out on the desktop version is priceless. And in some cases, I work the other way. that jazz drum beat was from the desktop preset and then I moved it onto my ipad for further development since I was away from my Mac Pro for a while. What other notation program has this kind of flexibility? I cannot think of any...


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## kmlandre (Jul 9, 2013)

Rob - Thank you!  

dcoscina -


> "honestly, there's some articulation samples that I don't have from other libraries or are a PITA to try to program or emulate with the same ease of Notion."



+1 on that!

Kurt


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## nikolas (Jul 10, 2013)

Guys you need to remember that I'm mainly working for a contemporary classical music publishing house now. So my view is 'twisted' towards that world... :-/ Thus my comments...


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## Peter Alexander (Jul 10, 2013)

My review from 2009.
http://soniccontrol.tv/2009/10/14/notion-3-its-time-is-now/ (http://soniccontrol.tv/2009/10/14/notio ... me-is-now/)


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## dcoscina (Jul 11, 2013)

Great article Peter. I would say that Notion 4 is creeping ever closer to Sibelius as far as notation goes. The depth of the ipad Notion just got a lot deeper with the newest update (all free- amazing). This company is seriously going places. I'm very happy to see it too as I was on board from the start but drifted a little. 

BTW- their metered tremolos are sample based. I love using ornaments in my writing. Listening to Stravinsky's Firebird, the coloration was so affected by this kind of writing. Even Akira Ifukube employed a lot of trills and ornaments to thicken up his minimal orchestral resources. Notion does a splendid job. The ipad version also has scroll view now (AWESOME!). And ritardandos and accelerandos that actually affect the tempi.

As a performance based notation program, I think it's jumped in front of the pack. And I love that VSL integration when I need to flesh out sections with sonically better samples. 

Gee you'd think I worked for them eh? [i don't- just very enthusiastic]


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## Peter Alexander (Jul 20, 2013)

Thank you. Dave, can you import a MIDI file into Notion 4?


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## toomanynotes (Jul 22, 2013)

Yes you can including audio files.

Also Sibelius and finale via musicXml files.

Notion is also native 64bit.


I love writing notation for more professional use...haven't been back to DAW for months..
mind i just bought a Paganini virtual instrument yesterday which has had me fiddling with cubase again.

Cheers

P


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