NOTION

Apparently, just a few days ago I won a free copy of NOTION from a magezine called Muso. I have never heard of NOTION before, so I looked it up. Either I didn't have enough time, their web designer needs some help, or didn't look hard enough, but I couldn't find any technical information on it.

So...

What are it's strengths and weaknesses? And more importantly, is it compatable with Finale '06?

~Kal

Hum... if you won it, why not try it?

It's good.

It's not as good as Finale, or Sibelius yet BUT: the developers are listening closely to the users

And it's designed to be used as a sequencer as well (much more than Finale or sibelius) and comes bundled with a lot of sounds recorded with the Londo Philharmonic (I think).

It cotst 599$, so it's well worth the trying out at least... Especially if you've won it for free!

I have the free demo of Notion. My first experiences with it have been quite good, I must say. It feels a bit more like Finale than Sibelius, which was a bit awkward for me, being a Sibelius user. But it is very quick and it seems to work under the principle that the finished score is everything - which I definitely agree with.

As soon as you enter notes into the staff, they are fitted properly and made sure not to collide with anything else. Same with text and even articulations and dynamics! This function should save a lot of time in final 'primping' and correcting of a score ready to be printed out, whereas Finale and Sibelius need some to a lot of work in preparation.

And it's not designed to be a sequencer at all - in fact, it originally had no capability for MIDI whatsoever, until recently, you couldn't open MIDI files even. The playback is all sampled from the London Symphony. The starting orchestral package has pretty much everything even a large symphonic orchestra would include - everything but extended techniques for the usual members of the orchestra. Other packages are sold seperately to complete your orchestral needs. The great part about this is no MIDI - so things like trills and tremolos and snare rolls and attacks and dynamics all sound amazingly real! Trills are no longer just ridiculously fast alternations of notes - they sound real! Rolls are no longer clumsy repetitions, they are actually a different sound.

Azerty, I'm wondering why you think it's not better than Finale or Sibelius? Have you had a chance to try it out? When I began to learn Finale (I was already an experienced Sibelius user), I found a lot of difficulties with the program, it wasn't easy to pick-up and make decent scores and products with. But Notion? I am creating scores already with the thing and I've had it barely a week! And it functions a lot like Finale, and not Sibelius! It's incredibly intuitive, however. Everything is laid out simply and the keyboard shortcuts are ingenious compared to both of the leading programs. Dynamics and other articulations work on a fewer amount of keys, each dynamic/articulation triggered by a different number of strokes on an individual key. Hit f to scroll through the 'forte' dynamics, starting from 'mf' and going to 'fffff', and the same with p on the 'piano' dynamics. 1 scrolls through staccatos and tenutos and combinations, x is accents and attacks, < > the respective hairpins, etc. It's incredibly sensible.

Other than that, you'll just have to try it out yourself. The sound really is amazing! You get a life-like result out of your score with absolutely no tweaking whatsoever! The demo came with sample scores (like excerpts from Rite of Spring, Beethoven's 6'th, the Overture to Carmen), and by the touch of a button you get a fully realized score with impeccable sounds. It's much better than any GPO or Kontakt I've heard.

I'm jealous you won a free copy of it. I'm going to have to stick with Sibelius until I get some extra money to get my own copy of Notion.

Well, I found it a little worst (at the moemnt) in notation capabilities. I'm not inteestred in time issues exactly (because it largely depends on the experience of the user), as much as the final result. And I'm not sure that Notion can do everything that Finale and Sibelius is doing.

But again, Windsor, Harvey and the other people locked with Notion, are working really hard to listen to the users.

BTW, I also got the demo of course, but not in time for the competition, so I never got around playing with it a lot (due to business... like in busy :o)

Well, I haven't installed it yet 'cuz I don't want to slow down my computer.

I read the user manuel, so I know a bit about how it works. I'm glad to hear that it sounds better than GPO or Kontakt. One last question: How's the percussion? I'm a percussionist, and all my peices uses lots of percussion.

~Kal

The percussion is great. The demo only includes basic sounds, but there's more in the real version. If you write a roll for timpani or snare drum or something like that, you'll actually get the sound of a roll, not a clumsy repetition of the note! Everything sounds great!

I'm not talking about the quality, I'm sure it sounds great. What I mean is, is there a wide variety of percussion (congas, vibes, chimes, gong), or is it just basic stuff like bells, bass, snare, timpani, and suspended cymbal?

~Kal

You know...

Goggle is your friend:

NOTION - Products

(For the default sounds found in NOTION)

and

https://secure.notionmusic.com/store/soundlib/index.cfm?

(The expanded sounds, incluyding mallets No.8)

Yay for Google!:w00t:

Shame...I have to buy the extra percussion & the sxaphones....Looks like this won't be entirely free after all, lol.

~Kal

Well, it all sounds good. It's just taking me forever to write with it. WOuld it be easier for me to write a piece in Finale, then transfer it and do a little tweaking with Notion?

'Cuz Notion sounds a crapload better than Finale, and Finale is a heck of a lot easier writing program. Any advice?

~Kal

Practice?

Simple solution: Get Finale 2007. GPO sounds better than Notion's built-in sound library from the LSO and is more versatile by far.

I found Notion's interface to be a pain in the donkey to compose with, even though the sounds ARE better than Finale's standard SoftSynth. Switching pieces between them and juggling isn't a practical solution.

Like I said, get Finale 2007 and you're good to go. It's not that expensive if you get it at the educational price.

But what about Notion vs. Sibelius? For a newbie to notation software like myself, which would be the easier program to learn with satisfying results?