NOTION Music Forum

Hi all. I wish I could say I'm thrilled with the new Notion 3, but in my first (admittedly very short) encounter with it, I'm having all sorts of problems. I've sent the following to Support (so I guess I won't get an answer until next week), but I'm just wondering if anyone else is experiencing any of this...

Hi, I just installed Notion 3. (By the way, I'm on Snow Leopard) Right now, I am terribly discouraged by how my old scores from N2 sound.
Q1: I get a message about "erroneous slur packets" being removed. What does that mean?
Q2: The harp no longer sounds like a harp. It sounds like some kiddie electric piano. Have I done something wrong?
Q3: There doesn't seem to be any reverb. Do I now have to set that up in the Mixer? (by the way, my IK Multimedia authorizations did not work, as the "Next" button remains grayed out after I enter serial numbers. I've contacted their Support about this)
Q4: Some info in the score has not carried across into N3. For example, a "normale" which ended a pizzicato section is no longer there, so it remains pizzicato. It looks like some dynamics markings are also missing. Everything was nicely balanced before, but now the instruments are all over the place. What gives?
Thanks.

Mister HU wrote:Everything was nicely balanced before, but now the instruments are all over the place.

I also found this, and I wonder if anyone has installed the legacy (Notion 2) sounds and can tell me if they get a better result for existing scores.

I am pleased with the playback for newly-created scores, so far, but the relative balance is different. It's not just a matter of volume, but there are changes in the incisiveness of some sounds, including (I think) some stronger high partials which are a bit of a fright when they make my speakers crackle and some fairly heavy string attacks which I might have to worry about in the future.

Hello Mister HU,

I'm sorry to hear about the troubles you're running into. I hope to be able to help somewhat and try to address some of your concerns.

Generally, are you using the N3 sounds to playback your old N2 scores? It may be worth trying using the N2 sounds for N2 scores, just a tip...

Q1: I get a message about "erroneous slur packets" being removed. What does that mean?

This happens when the old .ntn score has some "garbage" packets in the file. This has nothing to do with you or your machine, but more to do with inconsistencies in the Notion 2 file. Those were causing a lot of problems in N2 before, luckily NOTION3 catches those and removes them.

The harp no longer sounds like a harp. It sounds like some kiddie electric piano. Have I done something wrong?

Is this with N2 or N3 sounds? Having no reverb may easily do that.

There doesn't seem to be any reverb. Do I now have to set that up in the Mixer? (by the way, my IK Multimedia authorizations did not work, as the "Next" button remains grayed out after I enter serial numbers. I've contacted their Support about this)

Reverb should already be on the insert slot of the Master channel. We have tested Snow Leopard and IK CSR Hall authorizations and we can confirm they work on our end. I've never seen it "greyed out" like you are describing, I believe you did the right thing contacting them. But to answer your question, if you have no reverb, then no, this is not the standard behavior, NOTION3 does have reverb on every score, there must be something else wrong. I hate to give you this answer, but maybe IK can help you better than I can with this one.

Some info in the score has not carried across into N3. For example, a "normale" which ended a pizzicato section is no longer there, so it remains pizzicato. It looks like some dynamics markings are also missing.

Since NOTION2 and NOTION3 have entirely different formats, sometimes, some elements get lost in the conversion. We are working as hard as we can to make sure the conversion is 100% perfect, but obviously you've run into some problems. If you can pm me and describe where exactly those problems occur, I can make sure we schedule them to be addressed later.

Everything was nicely balanced before, but now the instruments are all over the place. What gives?

I would try installing the NOTION2 sounds and opening the score with N2 sounds first. On the issue of balance, Notion2 actually had some problems with the balance between instruments, that could have only be resolved by adjusting the mixer (like bringing the flutes up, trumpets etc...) With NOTION3 every instrument is decibel-balanced to ensure that they really are at the same output level, which in turn results in fewer adjustments.

Again, I'm sorry you've run into issues, I hope I was helpful with the above suggestions

Lubo Astinov

Thanks Lubo.

I already had N2 on my Mac, so I assumed there was no need for me to install N2 sounds. Is that a false assumption? How do I determine whether it is using N2 sounds or N3 sounds? The comparison I was giving was between if I open the score with N2 or N3.

I'll take a closer look at what the Mixer is doing at a later time, and get more details on what markings have not copied across when I open the score with N3. Unfortunately, I have to take my Mac in for an unrelated (Bluetooth) hardware issue this afternoon, so I'm frantically trying to complete a (non-Notion) project before I lose my Mac. I don't know when I'll be up and running again. And in a few days, I go overseas for 2 1/2 weeks, so it might be a while before I can give this further attention.

The N2 sounds sound for N3 are on the second installation disc - they're in a different file format so must be installed even if you have N2 (for N2) sounds on your computer already. Hope this helps.

Thanks for that clarification. I look forward to trying it out when I get my Mac back. Unfortunately, that possibly won't be until the last week of October.

One little update, that maybe other people have suffered from.

Now that I have my Mac back, I've figured out why the registration for the IK Multimedia plugins would not let me click on the "Next" button.

I had entered incorrect serial numbers, because the illustration from IK showing how the number '1' and number 'zero' should look were the exact OPPOSITE of what they actually are on the Notion 3 license card instructions.

For example, IK says that a zero has a dot in the middle of it, but there is no dot in the zero on my instruction card, so I assumed it was the letter 'o'. It is in fact a zero.