My perspective on updating Notion 3 is a bit different, really . . .
Really! As a bit of background, I needed a way to do create
Dubstep,
Techno, and
Trance sounds for one of my silly
DISCO and
Pop songs about ladies underpants, so several months ago I embarked on a mission to determine how one does
Dubstep,
Techno, and
Trance sounds, which at first led me to Reason 5 (Propellerhead Software) and the discovery that Reason 5 while being quite fascinating is not a VSTi instrument, which in turn led to a side journey into the MIDI universe, where I discovered that I can export the MIDI for a VSTi instrument in Notion 3 and then import the Notion 3 exported MIDI file to Reason 5, where it will play the Reason 5 synthesizers in such a way that I then can ReWire the Reason 5 generated audio into Digital Performer 7, where I record it as soundbites, all of which ties everything to Notion 3, although in a rather convoluted maze of sequential steps that even when one has a degree in Computer Science is a bit difficult to explain but is pretty easy to do . . .
This accomplished two very important things, one of which was refreshing my memory on the way highly detailed synthesizers work and the other of which was motivating me actually to take the time to discover how to connect a MIDI synthesizer (Alesis ION Analog Modeling Synthesizer) to the MOTU 828mkII, which actually was easy to do once I got the two required MIDI cables and did a tiny bit of reading on how to do MIDI on the Mac with the MOTU 828mkII, for sure . . .
For sure! But after refreshing my memory on the way all the controls work for a synthesizer, I realized that SampleTank 2.5 XL (IK Multimedia), which is a VSTi instrument, can do the same things as Reason 5, but one synthesizer at a time rather than by combining a virtual festival of synthesizers the way it is done in Reason 5, so I switched focus to making more sense of operating SampleTank 2.5 XL, which in turn led to realizing that I needed the sound libraries for two more IK Multimedia virtual instruments (SampleMoog and Sonik Synth 2), which after getting some stellar purchasing tips from one of the moderators in the IK Multimedia FORUM I was able to get as a combination of a Musician's Friend "Stupid Deal of the Day" and the current IK Multimedia promotion where all their virtual instruments are discounted by 57 percent (Miroslav Philharmonik, SampleTank 2.5 XL, SampleMoog, SampleTron, Sonik Synth 2) . . .
And in providing some information in a few posts to the IK Multimedia FORUM on the way I use the various IK Multimedia virtual instruments with Notion 3, I included an overview of what I did over the past year, which I think is enlightening with respect to my views on Notion 3 updates . . .
Specifically, one year ago I had no idea how to do music notation on a computer, and I had no idea what a VSTi instrument was or how one might use music notation with a VSTi instrument . . .
Now, nearly one year later I am quite proficient in music notation and VSTi instruments, which is a huge leap in technology and everything else here in the sound isolation studio . . .
And during this time, there was a minor update to Notion 3 and as I recall another update to add a few bells and whistles, which is fine, but so what . . .
So what! It took me about six months to get up to speed on music notation and to devise a system for using Notion 3 with Digital Performer 7 via ReWire, and it took another month or so to get the Reason 5 and MIDI stuff working, which from my perspective was plenty to do without additionally needing to have Notion3 updated in any way that might have made it different . . .
If everything is changing constantly, it becomes nearly impossible to make sense of anything, so from my perspective I am fine with updating Notion 3, but I think that it needs to be done in a way that does not change everything to such an extent that my system stops working . . .
If it is not broken, then do not fix it!Notion 3 has some eccentric behaviors, as does all computer software, but it works very accurately and reliably for me when I follow the rules I developed through hundreds of hours of experimenting and testing various strategies for doing songs in a highly structured way, and what I call the "complete system" is working so well that if any of the software changes dramatically in a way that breaks the "complete system", I simply will freeze the Mac Pro at its current level of software, which I can do with a dedicated hard drive, and then use it as a fixed system, while with a different hard drive I can explore the possibility of changing the "complete system" . . .
I have been able to read, write, and sight-sing
Classical music since I was in elementary school, which to be specific was when I learned all that stuff in a liturgical boys choir, and the
Classical music was all the liturgical pieces written by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and so forth and so on, so for all practical purposes if you hand me a sheet of music with treble clef stuff written by Mozart for any soprano voice or instrument, I can sing it nearly instantly, although since I am not a soprano these days, it might sound more like Brian Wilson singing after taking a hit of helium, but so what . . .
So what! And I suppose that it should have been obvious to me that I would have few difficulties doing music notation on a computer, especially since I have a degree in Computer Science, but it never occurred to me that it might be possible to use the computer for music notation, which in some respects earns me the "Duh!" award, except that my thinking on this is that prior to Notion 3 doing anything with music notation on a computer probably was a huge hassle, so my perspective is that I used good judgment and got into computer based composing at a time when it is pretty easy to do, even though it required approximately 500 to 1,000 of experimenting and refreshing my memory to make sense of everything . . .
One of the more fascinating aspects of learning the treble clef at an early age is that it is very easy for me to compose melodies, which certainly is an excellent skill to have when one composes songs, and this is the first reasonably complete "basic rhythm section" that I did in Notion 3, where the melody is included, since I realized in a moment of clarity that while it is FUN to compose and sing a melody spontaneously and to record it a grand total of one time, I tend to hit a lot more bad notes than I imagine, hence I think the singing will be better if I compose the melody in advance; play it on piano; and then actually take the time to practice singing the melody for a while before recording it . . .
[
NOTE: The strategy of composing and playing or singing everything in real-time on the fly mostly was the result of my misunderstanding something an audio engineer told me about working with Paul McCartney, which was that McCartney did the vocals for the "R.A.M" album all on the first or second take, which I thought was simply amazing and somehow made the inference that this was what McCartney did all the time, when as I discovered several months ago it was something he did for one or two songs but only after practicing the singing at home or whatever, but it was an interesting strategy here in the sound isolation studio, and after doing it for five or so years, it is not so difficult to do , which makes it a useful but strange exercise, especially for lead guitar soloing, where the lead guitar solo for "Starlight" (The Surf Whammys) was composed and played in real-time on the fly exactly one time, which is what is heard in the following MP3 instrumental version of the song, which at this point I can do in my sleep, with the only caveat being that I need to be somewhat familiar with the rhythm guitar or piano chord pattern. And for reference, there are only two electric guitar parts, where one is rhythm guitar playing the chord patterns and the other is lead guitar playing all the lead guitar stuff, which sounds like a 'Wall of Guitars" because the guitar has been custom modded to have two separate output signals that I round through two separate sets of stereo effects pedals that include lots of cascading echo units and ultimately produce four tracks of lead guitar. The only thing that was composed in advance and practiced was the rhythm guitar chord pattern, which is quite elaborate. Everything else was composed and played in real-time on the fly exactly one time, including the electric bass guitar, since once I have the rhythm guitar chord pattern everything else is easy to do . . . ]
http://www.surfwhammys.com/music/10_Starlight_1.0.mp3It works the same way with writing, which is something I realized nearly two decades ago, at which time I started doing several posts every day to a few FORUMS, with the result that doing a post like this one typically is something I do at the touch-typing speed of 70 words per minute, although I usually do a bit of spelling and grammar checking, which takes a while, but so what . . .
So what! And this is the first Notion 3 song I did, which is done all with music notation and VSTi instruments in Notion 3 . . .
[
NOTE: I changed the melody instrument earlier this year, since by that time I had a better understanding of what was available in SampleTank 2.5 XL and the Xpansion Tank 2 Multi-Sampled instrument libraries, but the music notation was done about six months ago, with the most difficult part being the percussion stuff, since I never learned how music notation for percussion was done, hence had to discover how to do drumkit and Latin percussion stuff with music notation, which took a while and a lot of experimenting . . . ]
http://surfwhammys.com/Surrealeria-1-7-2011-ST25-XP2-N3.mp3So, from this perspective, the idea of updating Notion 3 is somewhat disturbing, because if everything changes, then I will have to start all over, which does not have a lot of added value in many respects . . .
In other words, I much prefer to have new features added to Notion in a way that is consistent with all the things Notion 3 does so wonderfully but in a way that extends and enhances rather than changes everything to make it completely and totally different . . .
And as noted in my posts to this FORUM every so often, I think it is very important for software architects, designers, and engineers to avoid what colloquially is called "scope drift", especially when the application provides a unique and stellar solution for a particularly complex set of activities, which certainly is the case with Notion 3, which I think is pretty much like a Fabergé egg . . .
There are some things that can be done to make the next version of Notion an even better Fabergé egg, but getting a hammer; smashing it; and doing a complete and total redesign is not the brightest idea from my perspective . . .
In particular, I think the primary focus needs to be discovering new ways to move composing to a higher level than inputting one note at a time, which is not so difficult to do from a Computer Science, Mathematics, and Music Theory perspective, especially when one understands SQL database designing and programming . . .
For example, there are
no mysteries to the standard types of
Bulería rhythms in traditional
Flamenco, so why do I need to input the notes for a basic
Bulería drumkit rhythm pattern one note at a time?
I devised a way to do this, but most of the work is done outside the Notion 3 workspace . . .
Similarly, since music is extraordinarily mathematical, there are ways to work with chords, melodies, harmonies, counterpoint, and rhythms using mathematical algorithms, where again there are few mysteries when folks do their homework diligently . . .
Explained by analogy, metaphor, or simile, inputting music one note at a time on a computer is like drawing a picture one pixel at at time in Photoshop, which is a huge step forward in the computing universe from not being able to do it at all, but nevertheless is a bit on the primitive side . . .
And as with Photoshop, it is not so difficult to provide what one might call "music composing" tools, like "rhythm brushes", "chord brushes", and so forth and so on, where instead of working on an individual note or chord basis one is able to work with a series or pattern of notes and chords . . .
If one does a survey of modes and scales, it is not so difficult to discover the seven modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian) and a small festival of minor and other scales that do not fit with one of the seven modes, which in turn is extended by scales that have more notes or fewer notes than diatonic scales or whatever . . .
Whatever! These modes and scales are well defined, and they are mathematical, which ultimately maps to being algebraic and geometric . . .
From this perspective, a melody is what in mathematics is called a "vector", and a song is a "vector space", although there are other ways to describe melodies and songs . . .
And in the same way that one can use Linear Algebra to work with scalars and vectors, I suggest that one can work with rhythms, melodies, bass lines, harmonies, counterpoint, ornamentation, and so forth and so on with a variety of readily available and well-understood mathematical concepts, techniques, and strategies, especially when everything is done with what for all practical purposes are supercomputers that in particular have processors that are designed for performing elaborate scalar and vector arithmetic . . .
Explained yet another way, George and Ira Gershwin provided a few
clues in their hit song "I Got Rhythm" . . .
[
NOTE: This is a YouTube video of George Gershwin playing "I Got Rhythm" on a grand piano, and in those days everything was done with pencil and paper, which in some respects can be faster than doing it one note at a time with via mouse clicks, but it is not so fast as doing it via a MIDI keyboard . . . ]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIpNepgmCQAAnd while doing music inputting via a MIDI keyboard probably is faster in some respects than doing it one note at a time with mouse clicks, it does not make it possible or practical to use mathematical algorithms, which is an entirely separate activity that requires what one might call a "composition toolkit" that has various tools similar to the types of drawing tools provided in Photoshop, except that the composing tools are designed to do various things that make sense for music . . .
Enhancing the DAW aspects of Notion 3 is an interesting thing to ponder, but I think that it is more of a "scope drift" activity, which does not add a lot of value for me, since I use Digital Performer 7, which already does everything it needs to do . . .
Summarizing, I think that there is a
lot more than can be done to extend and enhance Notion in ways that increase its ability to do music composition at a higher level of productivity with music notation as the primary language, and I think this is the most practical and sensible direction for the future, which is fabulous . . .
Fabulous! 
Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 8:47 am