# Note Performer 3



## Rob

really enthusiast about this, since it's become available for Finale... great tool for writing orchestral, and possibly for any ensemble. It's great to be able to just sit and write, knowing that the software will take care of articulations, instrumental techniques, dynamics etc. Thank you Arne, I'm gonna find a lot of use for this little gem.
Here's a somewhat random bit in (classical) contemporary style, written in one hour as a test for the plugin. Apart from the Rhapsody timpani and marimba (which I liked better) it's all NP...

[AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/np1-mp3.13972/][/AUDIOPLUS]


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## MatFluor

Wow - very nice. You just did the notation and nothing else, right?

That sounds way better than NP2 - of course not comparable with proper mockup magic, but man - that sells a cue before recording or investing the time into hardcore production.

Great Track too!


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## Rob

MatFluor said:


> Wow - very nice. You just did the notation and nothing else, right?
> 
> That sounds way better than NP2 - of course not comparable with proper mockup magic, but man - that sells a cue before recording or investing the time into hardcore production.
> 
> Great Track too!


thanks Mat, yes just notated... point is the phrasing tends to be there, remarkably consistent... to me it's good enough to keep my mind on the composition. Not a negligible thing...


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## rayinstirling

Am I to believe that for once it’s not just your talent but also the tools producing great sound? 
Thanks for sharing this Rob.


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## douggibson

Cool piece !

I love Note-performer. It's all I use now. My only wish would be a slightly expanded sound range/flexibility.

For example: Vibes have both a mallet and bow sound. But you can't switch between them in a piece. (?)
I really want to be able to keep the notation in tack. Also, and to be fair it's not the main focus of NP, I wish 
some of the instruments outside of the orchestra had more to them. Like guitar. You can't have a muted string 
sound. It can't be that hard to have a muted sound.

Here it is performing something far from intended to show what I mean.



It's awesome however and my all time favorite purchase. 

Here is a short ditty in Sib. that is for it's intended use



PS. I like Rob's music better !!


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## Rob

rayinstirling said:


> Am I to believe that for once it’s not just your talent but also the tools producing great sound?
> Thanks for sharing this Rob.


Ray, what is left is the quality of writing 
(hope you're very well)


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## Rob

cool pieces Doug!


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## rayinstirling

Rob said:


> Ray, what is left is the quality of writing
> (hope you're very well)


Agreed, but you output just gets better and better and......
I’m all the better for spending a few days around Lago di Garda a couple of weeks back 
I would so much like to be over there when the Jazz Festival is on. Maybe one day.

Ray


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## SimonCharlesHanna

That's awesome work Rob. My dream is to be able to just sit with Sibelius and write (working on it!), but my inexperience always has me going back to a DAW for clarity. 
NP3 Bridges that gap somewhat which is helpful at the start!


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## ptram

It would be great if NotePerformer 4 – or a NotePerformer Extended Pack – included several 'extended techniques', so much needed nowadays!

Paolo


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## rayinstirling

ptram said:


> It would be great if NotePerformer 4 – or a NotePerformer Extended Pack – included several 'extended techniques', so much needed nowadays!
> 
> Paolo


I don’t doubt many people would like what you ask for but............on this thread?
Where such a great example of the latest edition is presented?
How ungrateful.


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## ptram

rayinstirling said:


> How ungrateful.


Actually, the thread already started dreaming about the further evolutions that NotePerformer could still see, continuing to do more and more as it has done during these years. Far from being unrespectful, it is a testament of absolute trust in what NotePerfomer does and can continue to do for us.

Paolo


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## Quasar

This looks and sounds so good. In my dream life, NP3 would be natively compatible with Musescore...


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## joebaggan

So Note Performer 3 requires you to use its sound set right? There is no option to use external libraries as your sound sources?


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## bryla

Thats right. Noteperformer IS the soundset.


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## Rob

joebaggan said:


> So Note Performer 3 requires you to use its sound set right? There is no option to use external libraries as your sound sources?


I think that even if it was possible you'd loose all the tricks that Arne has devised to have instruments react to dynamics and articulations...


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## Tacet

Are dynamics reliable with NP3?

I guess most here would agree that getting a balanced template in your DAW gets more difficult and time consuming as you add libraries.
The thought of bypassing that step altogether and just focussing on writing is very, very tempting indeed...

And how about subtle tempo changes, to make stuff sound more natural, and less mechanical?
Do you have to do it the hard way, i.e. adding actual tempo changes all the time, or is NP smart enough with phrasing that you don't need to do that?

Any thoughts from current users?


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## MatFluor

Tacet said:


> The thought of bypassing that step altogether and just focussing on writing is very, very tempting indeed...



Noteperformer sounds great - given it's straight from Notation. Of course it can't compete for a DAW mockup - but that's not the goal I think. The goal is more to give a realistic picture of how it sounds when played live - to get the final OK from a producer or the like etc.

But I am also convinced, that NP3 can serve its duty for e.g. retro tracks, where "ultra realism" is not needed.


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## Tacet

Has anyone tried NP playback for a string quartet?


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## cmillar

Tacet said:


> Has anyone tried NP playback for a string quartet?



Kind of funny, but.... years ago I wrote a string quartet which was a section of a larger live performance piece.

The real players didn't rehearse properly, seemed to treat it as something they could easily pull together, and acted like the proverbial "classical only" types that didn't think any music written after Beethoven was worth playing.

So, come the live show, they really sounded pretty sad...and the music was a mess. 

I was a little mad and sad to say the least. But...it was 'new music' premiere and the audience probably didn't know what it was supposed to sound like.

Anyways...I loaded up my original Sibelius score (it was scored in Sibelius 4, and I re-opened it in Sibelius 7.5) a few months ago with NotePerformer, and voila!

I actually got to hear a better rendition of my piece. I was glad to hear that my original ideas really didn't suck that badly! 

If I had had NotePerformer 15 years ago, I could have given a demo to the string quartet.

Ah....some nice things about all our technology!


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## Rob

Tacet said:


> Has anyone tried NP playback for a string quartet?


look, this is an xml Haydn file I've just downloaded, opened in finale, applied some reverb and a touch of eq, rendered to audio... can't be easier than that, done in 15 minutes.

[AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/haydn_op74_2-mp3.14785/][/AUDIOPLUS]


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## Tacet

Rob said:


> look, this is an xml Haydn file I've just downloaded, opened in finale, applied some reverb and a touch of eq, rendered to audio... can't be easier than that, done in 15 minutes.
> 
> [AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/haydn_op74_2-mp3.14785/][/AUDIOPLUS]


Thanks for taking the time to do that Rob, sounds pretty good.

Obviously not on a par with the stuff posted on your main Quartet thread with solo string libs - but pretty impressive considering how quick it was.

NP really is quite amazing and I'll definitely grab it!


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## dcoscina

Rob said:


> really enthusiast about this, since it's become available for Finale... great tool for writing orchestral, and possibly for any ensemble. It's great to be able to just sit and write, knowing that the software will take care of articulations, instrumental techniques, dynamics etc. Thank you Arne, I'm gonna find a lot of use for this little gem.
> Here's a somewhat random bit in (classical) contemporary style, written in one hour as a test for the plugin. Apart from the Rhapsody timpani and marimba (which I liked better) it's all NP...
> 
> [AUDIOPLUS=https://vi-control.net/community/attachments/np1-mp3.13972/][/AUDIOPLUS]


Rob, this is frankly amazing. And I'm talking about the music not the production (which is also quite excellent). I totally dig the piece. I find I'm much better at composing directly into Sibelius than my DAWs these days. I can organize my musical thoughts better and work in a manner that I was trained in way back in the late '80s as a composition student. Well done sir!


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## Erik

An amazing result Rob, thanks to also your musicality again....


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## Rob

dcoscina said:


> Rob, this is frankly amazing. And I'm talking about the music not the production (which is also quite excellent). I totally dig the piece. I find I'm much better at composing directly into Sibelius than my DAWs these days. I can organize my musical thoughts better and work in a manner that I was trained in way back in the late '80s as a composition student. Well done sir!


Thank you David, I feel exactly the same, for a classical kind of writing. If I had to write for a rock band I'd feel more at ease in Cubase...
not that I write so often for rock bands...


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## dcoscina

Rob said:


> Thank you David, I feel exactly the same, for a classical kind of writing. If I had to write for a rock band I'd feel more at ease in Cubase...
> not that I write so often for rock bands...


Yes very true. for jazz or electronic writing or anything other than orchestral, DAW composing certainly is more effective. For orchestra, just the nature of its ergonomics, nothing beats traditional notation methodology.


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## dcoscina

I will say that I prefer the strings from NP2 to NP3. At least for section strings. They sound a little more lush.


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## joebaggan

Very impressive stuff. It'd be a real game changer if NP could figure out how to de-couple the look-ahead playback algorithms from the included sound set, i.e. if you could use the NP playback smarts with any (or certain supported) external orchestral libraries. How about a NP with a Spitfire or LASS plugin/driver that understands what CC's to send to these libraries? One can dream...


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## Saxer

joebaggan said:


> How about a NP with a Spitfire or LASS plugin/driver that understands what CC's to send to these libraries? One can dream...


Wallander Instruments doesn't work like samples, more like Samplemodeling (at least kind of). It also doesn't give any musical results when playing SM instruments and use the same CCs for other sample libraries. It's a different beast. So transferring Noteperformer to sample libraries is probably still a dream...


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