NOTION Music Forum

Hi,

i've just tried your demo and are almost 100% sure i'm gonna buy your Notion3. But I can't find any vocal/choir sounds with the demo. Will that be in the software when I buy it?

Can I use NI Kontakt with Notion? Was thinking of getting Tonehammer Requiem which works only with Kontakt.

Hi, there are no choir sound on full version N3. And yes, you can use NI Kontakt with Notion.

NOTION 3 supports VST effects plug-ins and VSTi virtual instruments, and there are a lot of them available . . .

I use Kontakt 5 (Native Instruments), all the IK Multimedia VST effects plug-ins and VSTi virtual instruments, as well as AmpliTube 3, Twin 2 (FabFilter Software Instruments), and I ordered MachFive 3 (MOTU) last week and it is scheduled to be delivered today, so I will be able to verify that MachFive 3 works, which it should according to MOTU . . .

Of particular interest, IK Multimedia is having a stellar discount sale until May 31, 2012 on its VSTi virtual instruments, where the Total Workstation 2 Instrument Bundle is on sale and includes at least one FREE Xpansion Tank 2 Multisampled Instrument Collection . . .

Total Workstation 2 Instrument Bundle (IK Multimedia)

The Crossgrade price is $149.99 (US), as contrasted to the non-Crossgrade price of $199.99 (US), but if you do not have a qualifying Crossgrade for All policy product, you can purchase one of the IK Multimedia iPad applications (SampleTank for iPad) for $9.99 (US) plus sales tax; register it; and then you qualify for Crossgrade pricing, which is fine with IK Multimedia, since I asked about it in the IK Multimedia FORUM and got an official answer from the IK Multimedia . . .

[NOTE: I have an iPad and iPod touch, and as best as I can determine you only need to purchase the iPad app, since it is registered as part of the iTunes Store purchase, but you should check on it if you do not have an iPad, although I think the strategy works. I use a 2.8-GHz 8-core Mac Pro running Mac OS X 10.7.4 (Lion) for digital music production, including NOTION 3 and DIgital Performer 7.24, VST effects plug-ins, VSTi virtual instruments, and Reason 5 (Propellerhead Software), where NOTION 3 is the foundation of the digital music production system here in the sound isolation studio, which maps to everything being based on and synchronized with the set of NOTION 3 original and cloned scores for a song, and while Reason 5 is not a VSTi virtual instrument, I control it with MIDI instructions exported from NOTION 3, where the Reason 5 generated audio is recorded as soundbites in Digital Performer 7.24 via ReWire, which keeps everything synchronized to the NOTION 3 scores and is the digtal equivalent of the way things were done in the 1950s and 1960s by Phil Spector ("Wall of Sound") and George Martin (Beatles) in carefully designed and orchestrated layers, which for recorded music is what makes it possible (a) to have a bit of FUN with auditory illusions and (b) to make a musical group sound "big" or "larger than life" and curiously is the best way to place a musical group inside the listener's head, which is a variation of the fundamental metaphysical rule devised by one of my teenage mutant friends in high school during the late-1960s, which is that "you have to flip-out to flip-in" . . . ]

Miroslav Philharmonik, which is one of the five (5) VSTi virtual instruments in the Total Workstation 2 Instrument Bundle, has a virtual festival of choirs and voices (ensemble, female, male), which includes specific vowels, consonants, and so forth, and there is an Xpansion Tank 2 Vocal Collection . . .

The important thing to understand about using VST effects plug-ins and VSTi virtual instruments with NOTION 3 is that NOTION 3 is a 32-bit application, hence has a 32-bit application workspace, and the practical perspective is that every VST effects plug-in and VSTi virtual instrument is "heavy" with respect to resources, which maps to 25 VSTi virtual instruments being the comfortable upper limit for a single NOTION 3 score, which can include a few VST effects plug-ins, where each VSTi virtual instrument has its own staff . . .

If you need more VSTi virtual instruments for a song, then the strategy is to clone the original NOTION 3 score (a.k.a., project) and use the cloned score to add more VSTi virtual instruments, where you keep perhaps five of the staves constant to serve as references for rhythm, bass, melody, and so forth, which leaves 20 staves for new VSTi virtual instruments . . .

Another part of this strategy is that you record the NOTION 3 generated audio as soundbites in your Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application via ReWire, which is what I do here in the sound isolation studio, where my DAW application is Digital Performer 7.24 (MOTU) . . .

Done this way, what you do is construct an elaborately instrumented song in layers, which can map to having as many as 500 to 1,000 VSTi virtual instruments for a song, and while 1,000 VSTi virtual instruments might appear to be a lot of instruments, when the instruments are "sparkled", this maps to what otherwise would be 125 instruments, where "sparkling" an instrument is a technique I developed for placing the individual notes of an instrument in as many as eight (8) different panning locations, with the goal being to be able to put the notes into motion within what I call the "Spherical Sonic Landscape™", as is heard in the following basic rhythm section in the "sparkled" Shaker and Cowbell instruments, which move rapidly from far-right to far-left and then from far-left to far-right, which requires eight (8) staves, where each staff is set to a specific panning location in the NOTION 3 Mixer, which for reference has true stereo panning controls, which is what makes the instrument "sparkling" technique practical, since it is absolutely precise in every respect, which is fabulous . . .



[NOTE: This is done entirely with music notation in NOTION 3, where the NOTION 3 generated audio is recorded as soundbites in Digital Performer 7.24 via ReWire, which is the DAW I use for applying special effects, mixing, and mastering. The instruments are a combination of NOTION 3 bundled instruments, FabFilter Software Instruments VSTi virtual instruments, and IK Multimedia VSTi virtual instruments, and there are approximately 75 instruments due to several of the instruments being "sparkled", which is easy to hear when you listen with studio quality headphones like the SONY MDR-7506 (a personal favorite), but it is mixed using a full-range Kustom studio monitor system, since mixing with headphones or a non-full-range studio monitor system does not work. And as a bit of background, discovering and understanding all this vastly technical information is a lot of somewhat dull and boring work, so I do a bit of yin and yang balancing by composing silly DISCO and Pop songs about ladies underpants, which works for me . . . ]

"Tastes Like Anarchy" (The Surf Whammys) -- Basic Rhythm Section -- MP3 (8.8MB, 301-kbps [VBR], approximately 3 minutes and 51 seconds)

Fabulous!

P. S. It takes from two to four hours to "sparkle" an instrument for a 3 minute and 30 second song, but since NOTION 3 has true stereo panning controls and everything is done with music notation, it is absolutely precise, which is what makes it practical to do all the logarithmic geometry, since both loudness and panning are logarithmic, which maps to most of the rules being nonlinear and a bit strange unless you are able easily to visualize curl and to have a bit of FUN with vector calculus in real-time on the fly, really . . .

Curl (wikipedia)

Really!

Thanks for your help!

I will certainly buy both Notion3, IK Multimedia Total Workstation2, Kontakt5 and Tonehammer's Requiem and Liberis. The sample demos from Liberis almost made me cry.

I will also take this opportunity to say that learning about Notion3 and trying the demo has inspired me to start composing again. Have not had the motivation for a long time.

mrarnesen wrote:I will also take this opportunity to say that learning about Notion3 and trying the demo has inspired me to start composing again. Have not had the motivation for a long time.

This is one of the truly amazing aspects of NOTION 3, which is that you get immediate feedback, hence a sense of accomplishment, which is especially important for those folks like me who over the years focused more on the "play by ear" strategy, although over past two years I have focused more on music notation . . .

The key to being productive with NOTION 3 is to develop a formula or system for composing songs, which with a bit of diligent work happens sooner than one might imagine . . .

NOTION 3 is fantastic, and there is no other digital music production application that does what NOTION 3 does . . .

Some things take a while, but when you consider it from a practical perspective, the fact of the matter is that with a nice set of VSTi virtual instruments and sampled sound libraries, a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application, some VST effects plug-ins, and NOTION 3, you literally have a deep and rich symphonic orchestra with perhaps as many as 250,000 to 500,000 instruments (when you include drumkits, guitars and effects pedals, synthesizers, world instruments, and so forth), which until recently was something that only composers like Beethoven and Mozart and popular musical groups like the Beatles and Pink Floyd could do, because the cost of hiring symphonic orchestras, individual musicians, concert halls, and beginning in the 20th century doing the work in professional recording studios, was so great that only a few people could afford it . . .

At present, I input notes one-by-one using the NOTION 3 palette and a mouse, which takes a while, but (a) it works and (b) when you consider the equivalent hours of a symphonic orchestra per person it actually takes about the same amount of time, except that instead of costing tens of thousands of dollars all it costs is a bit of time once you have paid for the software and so forth . . .

In other words, if a symphonic orchestra with 125 musicians works on a song for four hours, this maps to 500 hours when one person does everything, so it might take one person a month to do a typical DISCO, Pop, or Heavy Metal song, while a symphonic orchestra could do it in four hours, but unless one has a multimillion dollar budget I think 500 hours of work is the most practical way to do it . . .

I have no idea what the going hourly rate for a symphonic orchestra with 125 musicians is at the dawn of the early-21st century, but just guessing there probably is a four-hour minimum session time and it might cost $12,500 (US) an hour, more or less, so as I ponder the equation for a while, I prefer to keep the $50,000 (US) in my pocket, which actually is imaginary, because I do not have that much money, but so what . . .

So what!

The fact of the matter, which I prove by posting songs done with NOTION 3 for everything--except the singing and some of the lead guitar solos--is that it is both possible and practical to do music with NOTION 3 using music notation and a combination of the NOTION 3 bundled instruments and a virtual festival of VSTi virtual instruments, some VST effects plug-ins, and a DAW application like DIgital Performer . . .

Once you discover how everything works (NOTION 3, music notation, VSTi virtual instruments, VST effects plug-ins, DAW application, instrumentation, orchestrating, arranging, composing, writing lyrics, mixing, mastering, and so forth) with a bit of talent and hard work you can do an album of songs as elaborate as the songs on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (Beatles) and "The Dark Side of the Moon" (Pink Floyd) on a MacBook inside a Mini Cooper if you have a USB microphone for the singing, although I prefer a Peterbuilt Model 367 Truck, since it has more headroom in the cab and there is enough room in the back for a drumkit, a Marshall stack, and my Christina Aguilera, Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, and Carrie Underwood shrines, which is fabulous . . .



Fabulous!

You are so right, the possibilities are infinite if you just learn how things works. But I also think musicality is crucial for the outcome. The skill to create good melodies and harmonies. But it is much more inspiring working with this software, thus it makes you a better composer aswell, not just a producer.

I have never cared so much about the sound of my files as I'm mostly writing for choirs. And all they need is a score. But this will surely help with writing larger works for choir and orchestra as you can hear the piece so realistic. And maybe I will try to write some film music, and if so this is perfect.

Thank you again for recommending the IK Multimedia workstation. I've just bought it and looking forward to try it with the Notion demo

mrarnesen wrote:You are so right, the possibilities are infinite if you just learn how things works. But I also think musicality is crucial for the outcome. The skill to create good melodies and harmonies. But it is much more inspiring working with this software, thus it makes you a better composer aswell, not just a producer.

I have never cared so much about the sound of my files as I'm mostly writing for choirs. And all they need is a score. But this will surely help with writing larger works for choir and orchestra as you can hear the piece so realistic. And maybe I will try to write some film music, and if so this is perfect.

mrarnesen wrote:Thank you again for recommending the IK Multimedia workstation. I've just bought it and looking forward to try it with the Notion demo

Glad to help!

IK Multimedia did a stellar video on orchestrating with NOTION 3 using Miroslav Philharmonik, and after watching it a few times, everything made sense to me . . .

Orchestrating with NOTION 3 and Miroslav Philharmonik (IK Multimedia) -- YouTube video

The fascinating aspect from my perspective is that you only need a basic rhythm section to do everything when you understand the concept for this style of orchestrating, since as shown in the YouTube video (see above), most of the orchestrating work is copying and pasting, which is one of the keys to using NOTION 3 to create songs and is the basic strategy I use, where everything is done in layers based on a an idea which is the foundation for a song, with the foundation needing to be just a few measures when one uses some of the principles from Joseph Schillinger's System of Musical Composition (SoMC), which is a personal favorite, since it is based strongly on mathematics, geometry, and acoustic physics, which is fabulous . . .

[NOTE: Focusing on the "play by ear" strategy for several decades helps, since it is the best way to discover how to determine when things sound good . . . ]

Joseph Schillinger's System of Musical Composition (wikipedia)

Fabulous!

P. S. If you need help with anything, let me know. This is an excellent FORUM, and there are some very smart and knowledgeable folks who participate regularly, so someone will be able to provide a bit of help. My focus is more on technical stuff for the Mac and devising strategies for doing elaborate multidimensional stuff for silly DISCO and Pop songs about ladies underpants, which works for me . . .

Thanks for the links, I will check it out

And thanks for offering some help. I think I would need it, lol. I love writing dance music in addition to choral and classical music. Genre is not so important. What is important is what you want with the music and what you want to express. Thus genre is mostly a method.

I will thank MTV and pop music for my melodic skills that I use in classical music aswell. But I'm a total newbie when it comes to producing. So although I'm excited about using Notion, Miroslav, Sampletank I'm also very anxious about it because I'm just used to pen and paper