Notion 3 with Miroslav CE

[sepheritoh]

I just bought Miroslav CE for $15.00 on the No-brainer deal!!! What a bargain. (http://www.audiomidi.com/cust_search/Mi ... 15655.aspx)

Now, how do I install Miro with Notion 3? I installed it and know how to use it as a normal VSTi instument, but I do not know how to tell Notion 3 how to recognise and list it in the score setup menu with all the presets and do the mappings automatically.

Thanks for help.

[fabiolcati]

Hi sepheritoh.
I guess enabling it in Vst manager it's enough.
Instruments shall might appear listed in the Miroslav palette in Edit Score view.

Ps. 15.00$!! Interesting buying advice. Thank you!

[sepheritoh]

I'm not sure how to describe it. I want Miro to be listed in the "A" section along with GPO and the presets to be linked in the same way as GPO. Now, it is listed under the VST instruments tab.

I'm not sure if this is a problem because it is only the CE verson.

Image2.jpg (33.66 KiB) Viewed 4536 times

PS. For $15 it is a real "no brainer"!!!

[fabiolcati]

Mmh... Here's what Ik say about Miroslav FAQs:

«Notion SLE for Miroslav Philharmonik is designed to work with the full version of Miroslav Philharmonik and must be installed to work correctly.»

Being Notion SLE a subset of Notion 3 I think it works the same way.

Bad new.

Ps Your description was ok. It's me losing my ability to express myself in readable English

[Surfwhammy]

I'm not sure how to describe it. I want Miro to be listed in the "A" section along with GPO and the presets to be linked in the same way as GPO. Now, it is listed under the VST instruments tab.

I'm not sure if this is a problem because it is only the CE verson.

At first, before everything really begins making sense, it is natural to think that you want the IK Multimedia VSTi stuff to be in what you are calling the "A" list, which was my intuitive perspective for a while, as well . . .

However, once you discover the way the IK Multimedia standalone user-interface works, everything changes, and you realize that even though it requires an additional few mouse clicks to get to the standalone user-interface, there is a lot more that you can do, which simply cannot be done easily with most or all of the "A" list stuff, since for the most part the "A" list stuff is hard-wired or arbitrarily preconfigured and there is no way to make changes easily using an elegant visual interface . . .

For example, with Miroslav Philharmonik you have access to a full range of effects that can be used and configured via the standalone user interface, and once you have a setup a staff for a Miroslav Philharmonik VSTi instrument, you can get to the standalone user interface by switching to the Notion 3 Mixer and then clicking one time on the name of the instrument at the top of its track in the Notion 3 Mixer. Clicking there causes the Miroslav Philharmonik standalone user interface to be activated, and then it appears . . .

You can change it to another instrument, or you can make adjustments to the currently assigned instrument, and this is very powerful . . .

Mostly, I suppose that it depends on what you need to do, but the reality is that it is easier to do advanced work with the standalone user interface, and there is so much stuff you can do that it verges on being a bit mind-boggling, really . . .

It takes a while to discover all this stuff, and it can be a bit overwhelming at times, but once you discover how SampleTank, Miroslav Philharmonik, and the other IK Multimedia products work, there is a lot more that can be done with them than most folks realize initially, including me . . .

For example, a few months ago I decided that I needed to be able to create strange Dubstep and Trance synthesizer stuff, so I did a bit of quick research and discovered that a lot of folks use Reason 5 (Propellerhead Software) for this type of thing, and I purchased it . . .

After a bit of experimenting, I discovered a way to do what I needed to do, but in the process I noticed that I was doing things with the various Reason 5 synthesizers that were similar to some of the control I had seen in the SampleTank 2.5 standalone user interface, so I did a bit of reading in the SampleTank 2.5 user documentation and discovered that I can do what I needed to do in SampleTank 2.5, which is a lot easier due to SampleTank 2.5 being a VSTi instrument, which is not the case with Reason 5, and with Reason 5 requires an additional round-trip to feed it exported MIDI from Notion 3, which is a truly strange but nevertheless productive and useful strategy that works, although in a somewhat mind-boggling procedure that involves MIDI, ReWire, and in my setup Digital Performer, as well as Notion 3 . . .

I am very glad that I got Reason 5, but on the other hand I am a bit piqued that I did not discover the vast capabilities of SampleTank 2.5 sooner, but so what . . .

So what!

In some respects, the difference is that SampleTank 2.5 is like having a synthesizer that can do everything somewhat easily, but Reason 5 is like having a huge room filled with hundreds of synthesizers that can so much stuff that nobody on the planet can make sense of it unless they really need to have a very specific sound that has so many parameters that it takes a virtual festival of synthesizers . . .

From this perspective, the way I am using Reason 5 at present is as an experimental laboratory for designing specific synthesizer sounds, but once I have a sound designed, I switch to SampleTank 2.5 and "ballpark" the sound, which is the practical way to do it unless the particular sound is unique and simply cannot be done outside of Reason 5 . . .

This is the standalone user interface for Miroslav Philharmonik, and it is very similar to the standalone user interface for SampleTank 2.5:

[NOTE: Miroslav Philharmonik as 20 special effects that can be used up to four at a time . . . ]


Miroslav Philharmonik Standalone User Interface (IK Multimedia)

This is the standalone user interface for SampleTank 2.5:

[NOTE: SampleTank 2.5 has 33 special effects that can be used up to 5 at a time . . . ]


SampleTank 2.5 Standalone User Interface (IK Multimedia)

These are three of the Reason 5 synthesizers:


Malström (Reason 5)


Subtractor (Reason 5)


Thor (Reason 5)

Explained another way, the Reason 5 synthesizers have more controls and so forth than SampleTank 2.5, as well as more generators and whatever, and the Reason 5 user interface is more intuitive and easy to use, so it is very helpful in doing experiments to determine various ways to get a specific sound, which overall maps to Reason 5 making it easier to understand how SampleTank 5 works, which I suppose is a bit strange, but it works for me . . .

But it also is important to understand that the synthesizers in Reason 5 can be cloned and then connected to one another, such that the output of one synthesizer is fed to the input of another synthesizer, and so on and so forth,, which is not so practical to do with SampleTank 2.5, although there is a roundabout way to do it via making a sample of an instance of a SampleTank 2.5 instrument and then using the newly created sample as the basis for yet another SampleTank 2.5 instrument, really . . .

Really!

At some point, you can become lost in a maze of synthesizers and controls, but this is the way it works if you want to understand how to create highly-customized complex sounds using primitive components, which I suggest is a very useful skill, even though it makes one a bit crazy at times . . .

Summarizing, I use Reason 5 as if it were a research and development laboratory, but once I identify something useful I usually switch to SampleTank 2.5 to "productize" it, since if I can devise a way to get pretty much the same sound in SampleTank 2.5, then it is much easier to use directly in Notion 3, since SampleTank 2.5 is a VSTi instrument, while Reason 5 is not a VSTi instrument . . .

While being in what you call the "A" list has the advantage of simplicity, it has the disadvantage of being arbitrarily configured or "canned" with no easy visual way to do adjustments and fine-tuning, let alone experimenting and elaborate customization . . .

And for reference, I do nearly everything in Notion 3 with what you call "B" list VSTi instruments, and it works very nicely for what I need to do, which is fabulous . . .

http://www.surfwhammys.com/Put-It-O-Me-1-18-2011-ST25-N3-DP7.mp3

Fabulous!

[sepheritoh]

Thanks for the very comprehensive replies. Veru interesting! Surfwhammy, you seem to be doing a more advanced stuff inside Notion, which I would have normally done in my DAW (Sonar). You are right that you can get much more into the advanced stuff from the VSTi interface. Notion even allows for extensive automation of those parameters. I have never tried playing around enough with these features of Notion.

The main advantage of the "A-list" in Notion is the ease of using the basic presets and the keyswitches.