Notion acquired by Presonus

[sepheritoh]

Don't know if you guys read the news today. For me it is very important, as I rely on Notion 4 extensively in writing and composing.

http://www.kvraudio.com/news/presonus-a ... tion-23438

Unfortunately, with Presonus's record of developing and lack of support for older products, this is bad news. Untill now, we had great support from the Notion team. I wonder how long it will take before Presonus re-assign the Notion team to other tasks to support their Studio 1, which is currently aimed at the hip-hop beat producers, and not at serious composing and studio work.

I own Presonus products. The FP10 used to be one of the best possible audio intefaces in the price range. Today, it is about to become obsolete, as they refuse to support it with update of drivers. I bought Studio 1 when it was released. It ended up wasting space on my hard drive.

Notion's policy of free and low priced upgrades will most likely end right here. In the press statement, a lot is said about the education market. Does that mean that Notion is about to loose it's place in studios, live performance and Broadway, just to move back into the classroom?

Please give me some comfort here that my investment is not wasted.

[Admin]

Just a note to reassure everyone here.....

We are excited about this opportunity. It's going to give Notion products the essential support that we've struggled with on our own. More worldwide sales opportunities, marketing, more powerful infrastructure, and many more of the benefits that we needed. We are still making Notion products, it will now just be under the PreSonus flag. The same Notion team is still here and moving things forward, now we have a lot more support to help us reach our goals.

Very exiting news!!
Cheers,
Kyle

[dcd111]

It will certainly be interesting to see what PreSonus is planning. More resources are great, but resources come with a cost. And they have to know they can't compete with the established notation giants, so I assume their plan isn't large price increases. PreSonus might be able to get away with high priced upgrades on their DAW software, but the demand for Notion would dry up at a higher price point. After all, there's a reason Notion upgrades and new versions have been priced where they were priced: those are the prices that Notion predicted they could charge to sell the number of new units and upgrades they needed to sell to be profitable. I don't think PreSonus is going to shoot themselves in the foot by continuing to provide a similar stand-alone product while ramping up the prices.

So I wonder if the long-term plan is some kind of integration with their existing software, justifying the additional resources spent on Notion by adding value and market differentiation to future versions of their existing products. There does seem to be some desire out there for tighter DAW/notation integration (I know that there have been some requests along those lines at the Reaper forums, for example), and acquiring Notion as a starting point is an obvious choice if that kind of integration is what they are looking for. But how broad that demand actually is can't be determined from reading forums, and it's pure conjecture at this point if this is even their plan.

And even if it is their plan, how that will affect Notion as a stand-alone product is anybody's guess. I hope it will mean more playback features and tighter integration with DAWs in general, but it could just as easily mean a more proprietary form of DAW integration, etc.

So, anyway, I certainly would like to wish the Notion team good luck in this new chapter in the company's development, and hope it works out well for them (and for us!)

[wcreed51]

Since Steinberg scooped up all the ex-Sibelius developers to create a new notation product, this move by Presonus might be a similar strategy.

[Brian2]

Brian2 here,
Semi-random thoughts.
I owned a Firepod! I loved it. Recorded an album with it. I bought it to replace my Aardvark Q10 another beautiful piece of kit. (I'll save you the google, they sort of became Antelope, I think). Its a great interface and was amazingly inexpensive for its great quality.

It was first available in 2005, when I got mine I was running a Mac Quicksilver G4 (867MHz) w/512MB RAM and a 60GB HD. I have since moved to PowerBook G4, a 2008 Unibody 17' Macbook Pro, and just recently moved to a 2011 Unibody MacBook Pro. In 2005-6 I had a Peavy StudioMix Midi Control Surface -which is still in a closet if anyone wants to make an offer , then a JL-Cooper CS100, then a Logic Control (soon to be MCU), In the same time I've had 3 set of speakers, (only recently can I say I have a set of Monitors). btw - I think I sold my Firepod in 2008 for most of what I originally paid for it. After being inspired by a producer who made several hits essentially from his backpack of equipment I downsized to a 1 channel interface.

In that same time I've gone from having a 60GB hd and a 100GB 'data' drive, to a 12TB Drobo data array for semipermanent storage, a 4 TB Drobo, for misc, and about 4 external 2-3TB drives for project storage, and a handful of 2.5" drives in my laptop bag for on the go projects.

As a point of nerdy reference, a fancy cell phone in 2005 would have been Motorola Razr3 flip phone or a Nokia 6230. I had the latter, couldn't afford the Razr. 2005 was also the second year of OSX 10.4. Windows XP had been around about 3 years and Vista was still 2 years away.

That all said, it looks like the Firepod was supported with drivers up until OS10.7 and there are reports that as of 10.8.3, Mountain Lion and FP10's seem to work (if unsupported).
--
I have a couple of smaller Presonus boxes now, and they're pretty cool. The digital mixers (don't have one _yet) are in a market of their own.
---
The last video I saw of a Studio1 user was they guy who produced the last Michael Jackson album. Not sure the hip-hop guys would put him in their genre.
---

[ChrisHeinen]

Congratulations, Notion team! Best of luck in your new ventures.

I think it's a great move for both companies, too. I used to use the Sonar DAW, ages ago, and always liked having score integration built into the system. Sonar had a rather limited scope of features in its score editing, but anything was better than trying to figure out the context of the MIDI notes looking at a "piano roll!"

If Presonus comes up with a decent price point and/or cross-grade package for us Notion users, I'd have to seriously consider it...

Anyway, best of luck to all involved...

CH

[devonmyles]

I ditched Sonar X2 for Studio One, but I missed the staff view of Sonar (although limited}
The result was I jumped on board N4 for scoring (and very happy to)
I for one hope Presonus manage to integrate N4 (or a version) into Studio One.

Good luck with it all, Notion team....It could be great times ahead.


Garry

[Surfwhammy]

PreSonus is having a discount sale on Studio One 2.6 this month through September 30, 2013; and to do ReWire 2 and to use VST effects plug-ins, VSTi virtual instruments, and Audio Unit (AU) plug-ins and instruments on the Mac, you need Studio One 2.6 Producer, which Sweetwater in the US currently has discounted at $149 (US), which includes the PreSonus instant discount and a price drop. It is an electronic download, and the information is sent via email approximately 15 minutes after you purchase it, if you purchase it during regular hours, which is the way I did it earlier today after doing a bit of research and being satisfied that Studio One 2.6 does ReWire 2 correctly, which it does, as you can see in the following YouTube video that I made a few hours ago . . .

Studio One 2.6 Producer Full Download (Sweetwater)

[NOTE: You also can buy it at the same discount price directly from PreSonus, although possibly with added sales tax, which is the case depending on where you are located if you get it from Sweetwater . . . ]

Studio One 2.6 Producer Full Downoad (PreSonus)

StudioOne 2.6, NOTION 4, Reason 7, ReWire -- YouTube video

On the Mac Pro running Mac OS X 10.8.4 (Mountain Lion), Studio One 2.6 does ReWire 2 very nicely in 64-bit mode; hence I am happy with everything . . .

This maps to four Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) applications that I have verified for doing ReWire 2 in 64-bit mode on the Mac, and here in the sound isolation studio, this is the key criteria . . .

Digital Performer 8 (MOTU), Live 9 Standard (Ableton), Logic Pro 9/X (Apple), and Studio One 2.6 Producer and Professional (PreSonus) all do ReWire 2 in 64-bit mode very nicely on the Mac, and they support VSTi virtual instruments, VST effects plug-ins, AU virtual instruments, and AU effects plug-ins. They also support MIDI, which is another important functionality . . .

THOUGHTS

When I read that PreSonus had acquired Notion Music, my primary concern was determining whether Studio One does 64-bit ReWire 2 and supports VSTI, VST, and AU for virtual instruments and effects plug-ins, which it does at the Producer and Professional levels, and since I already have most or all of the extra stuff that comes with the Professional version, this makes the Producer version the best fit here in the sound isolation studio, and $149 (US) is an attractive price, so I got it from Sweetwater and verified that it works . . .

My perspective is based on knowing that in the DAW arena the Abelton, Apple, and MOTU folks are smart and give great attention to detail, which is what needs to be done to get ReWire 2, VSTi, VST, and AU technologies working correctly, hence since Studio One 2.6 does all that stuff, this gives me a "warm and fuzzy" about the PreSonus folks, which in turn gives me a "warm and fuzzy" about the newly announced Notion Music acquisition, because I also know that the Notion Music folks are smart and diligent, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

P. S. Among other things, PreSonus also makes studio monitor systems, and their Sceptre S8 studio monitor system has a frequency response at -10 dB of 38-Hz to 23,000-Hz, which maps to the PreSonus folks being honest, since the low end of the range is lower than the low-pitch 'E" string on an electric bass at standard "Concert A" tuning (440-Hz reference pitch) and their Eris E8 high-definition active studio monitors have a frequency range of 35-Hz to 22,000-Hz, which also is not junk, although they are bookshelf size studio monitors and as such are too small to be primary studio monitors, but at least they do deep bass correctly. which makes them suitable for comparison purposes or whatever . . .

The reality for studio monitor systems is that to have a calibrated full-range system with a flat equal loudness curve at 85 dB SPL, you need big and heavy loudspeakers, because the woofers have to push a lot of air, and even though the sound isolation studio is approximately 6 feet wide by 7 feet high and 12 feet long, the fabulous studio monitor system has two 12" deep bass subwoofers and a pair of 15" two-way loudspeaker units, which I run at approximately 3 on a volume scale from 0 to 10, which as measured by a digital SPL meter is right at 85 dB SPL, and it has a flat equal loudness from 20-Hz to 20,000-Hz which is the full range of normal human hearing, but I push it a bit downward into the subsonic range, perhaps as low as 10-Hz, which I can do because the deep bass subwoofers are running at low volume, hence can be pushed in this way . . .

Nevertheless, I like finding a commercial-off-the-shelf pair of studio monitors that go down to 35-Hz and 38-Hz, since it is huge clue that the acoustic design engineers are smart and are not sneaky weasels . . .

This might make sense only to me, but in doing a bit of research on PreSonus, I like what I am finding, really . . .

Really!

[pcartwright]

I've always been a fan of Presonus. I've had a FirePod for 7+ years (it's always been rock solid), I've worked with some of their nicer mixers, and I recommend Presonus products whenever asked. I've never dabbled too much with their software, but I'm glad to hear the Notion team will still be involved in Notion development.

Good luck to the Notion team!

Incidentally, will the Notion websites eventually integrate into Presonus sites as well?

[Admin]

I am not sure yet how the website will be handled. I am certain that any changes made will be as seamless as possible.

-Admin