Newbie Praise and Request For Help With Split Points

[Funkybot]

Hello, I've literally spent the last two weeks demoing just about every notation suite out there, trying to find the right one for me, and only discovered Notion earlier today when someone on KVR recommended it. How I missed it before, I don't know.

On first impressions, I'm very happy with Notion. It's interface both looks great, and makes sense to work with. It seems like Notion is the only notation suite to take the last ten years of audio development into serious account (i.e. ASIO drivers, VSTi support, etc.) when it comes to both workflow and features. I'm almost certainly going to end up buying Notion before the demo expires.

Ok, enough gushing, onto the questions (excuse my newbieness and I did try and find these in the manual before posting):

1. How do I change the split point between the two staffs (LH/RH) on a grand piano staff? I have a MIDI performance I'm trying to convert to notation and it put most of the RH on the bass clef. I'd like to move the right hand back where it belongs.

2. Regarding question #2...can I change the split point on a per measure basis? If so, how? I'd prefer not having to reenter notes manually.

Again, sorry for the basic questions. I haven't had the time to fully digest everything yet and just need some help getting started. This manual will be getting printed when I get to work on Monday.

[Funkybot]

One last question...

Do any dealers offer Notion as a digital download? I'd like to pick it up for the $199 being offered by the dealers, but would hate to waste the carbon and time needed for shipping a box.

[Surfwhammy]

One last question...

Do any dealers offer Notion as a digital download? I'd like to pick it up for the $199 being offered by the dealers, but would hate to waste the carbon and time needed for shipping a box.

There probably is a way to manage the dual piano staff, but at present I have no idea how to do it other than perhaps experimenting with cutting and pasting, although another way is to create two single staves and then to copy the phrases to respective single staves as you desire, followed by copying everything back to the double staff . . .

My strategy for this type of thing is a bit different, since I find the bass clef and other non-treble relative clefs quite confusing and difficult to remember . . .

Notion 3 has the ability to configure a treble clef so that the notes are played higher or lower by one or two octaves, as well as by smaller intervals, so I use treble clefs for everything, which for me makes it very easy to understand the notes and intervals, since I can sight-sing treble clef phrases . . .

For example, I configure a treble clef to play its notes two octaves lower and then use it for contrabass and electric bass guitar, where C2 ("Low C") on electric bass (3rd fret on the low-pitch "A" string) appears on the modified treble clef as if it were C4 ("Middle C"), and C3 on contrabass and electric bass appears as C5 ("High C") on the two-octave lower treble clef . . .

[NOTE: This is made all the more confusing for so-called "normal" people, since for some unknown and highly illogical reason, someone decided that notes on electric guitar need to be represented in music notation using a relative treble clef, so that "Middle C" on a guitar clef maps to the 3rd fret on the low-pitch "A" string of an electric guitar in standard tuning, but the reality is that this relative guitar clef "Middle C" actually is C3, since real "Middle C" on an electric guitar in standard tuning is the note at the 1st fret of the high-pitch "b" string, and the relative guitar clef eventually creates an illogical perceived mapping for electric bass, since electric bass does not have a relative clef but guitar players perceive it as if it had a relative clef, which makes the entire thing vastly confusing . . . ]


[SOURCE: Electric Guitar ~ Standard Tuning (wikipedia) ]


[SOURCE: Electric Bass ~ Standard Tuning (wikipedia) [/url]

From a mathematical perspective, there are 12 notes in Western music, and each note can be played in eight octaves, so if the note is "C" and you play it in the fourth octave, it is "C4" or "Middle C", and so forth and so on . . .

As best as I can guess, all the different relative and other types of clefs exist primarily because over the years large groups of musicians have been under some odd type of compulsion to be strange, which might also be a matter of what one might call "turf wars", where everyone wants to be "special", so the viola players decided to have their own clef to be "special" compared to the violinists, and then the horn and woodwind players took the concept to an even more absurd level by making themselves "special" not only with different clefs but also by requiring everyone else to play otherwise easy songs in E♭, B♭, or F, which among other things is the reason that electric guitar players devised the Barre chord system and the baritone electric guitar, which basically is the electric guitar solution for those times when one simply cannot avoid being in a musical group with horn players, since the Barre chord pattern for a song can be played in any key simply by changing the reference fret for the chord pattern, because there are no open-position chords, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

Regarding the idea of downloading Notion 3, there are over 10GB of sound samples, so the Notion Music folks require that you get everything on DVD, which is easier and does not have a heavy carbon footprint, since the package is two DVDs in a nicely designed and compact package . . .

There is some downloadable stuff, including the updates and so forth, but to the best of my knowledge you need to get the package with the DVDs to start, which is not a big deal, really . . .

Really!

P. S. If you do not have all the IK Multimedia virtual instruments (SampleTank XL, SampleMoog, SampleTron, Sonik Synth 2, and Miroslav Philharmonik), it is useful to know that IK Multimedia is having one of its "group buy" extravaganzas, where you get at least one free software-only downloadable product of the same or lower price when you purchase a qualifying product, and this week they have a 30 percent discount, which also earns double JAM Points (August 8, 2011 through August 14, 2011), which overall maps to being able to get a lot of stuff essentially at a 75 percent discount, which is stellar in every respect . . .

15 Year Anniversary Group Buy (IK Multimedia)

In some respects, understanding the "group buy" rules is a like a National I. Q. Test, but once you understand the IK Multimedia product line and crossgrade pricing, there is a particular sequence for getting a bunch of great stuff at a discount of approximately 75 percent if the "group buy" reaches full participation, at which time everyone gets 2 free products rather than 1 free product, all of which is retroactive . . .

If you decide to do the "group buy" thing and need some help determining the best strategy, let me know by posting a question, since I check posts to this FORUM every day . . .

Basically, you can get approximately $2,500 to $3,500 (US) of great stuff (MSRP) for approximately $500 (US) if plan your purchases carefully . . .

For reference, if you like DISCO and Pop songs, then this is the current song I am developing for my pretend musical group (The Surf Whammys), where all the instruments are IK Multimedia virtual instruments and they are played with music notation in Notion 3 and then recorded in Digital Performer 7.24 as soundbites via ReWire on the Mac, for sure . . .



"Feel Me" (The Surf Whammys) -- July 28, 2011 -- MP3 (8MB, 300-kbps [VBR], approximately 3 minutes and 38 seconds)

For sure!