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Re: Notion 4 VSL Special Edition Presets 1-4 Fix

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 1:25 pm
by TOSCANINI
ottomc wrote:One last thing: When I select orchestral violas directly from the VI or VI Pro tab, the patches won't load. I have to load them manually by opening the VI/VI Pro window and select the Notion viola preset. Not a big deal, but it looks like a bug, since the other instruments seem to load normally. Another peculiar thing is that the VE window automatically opens when I select orchestral violas directly from VI tab, and only then -- it does not happen when I select other instruments from the VI tab, and it does not happen when I select orchestral violas from the VI Pro tab either. Does anyone else have the same experience?

Thanks to the Notion team for a great product :D


Same for me for orchestral viola

Re: Notion 4 VSL Special Edition Presets 1-4 Fix

PostPosted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 2:05 pm
by Surfwhammy
achambily wrote:. . . what are [presets] for ?


This is what the NOTION 4 User Guide says about "presets" with respect to VSTi virtual instruments . . .

Presets take care of converting common articulation and performance techniques into commands the different VSTis use.


The NOTION 4 bundled instruments already are mapped with respect to the way various articulations are implemented or executed, so that when you specify staccato for a NOTION 4 bundled violin, NOTION 4 knows how to generate and to play the violin note staccato, but this is not necessarily the case for VSTi virtual instruments, where the "not necessarily" aspect might be absolute in the sense that NOTION 4 literally has no idea what to do other than to request that the note be played in a generic way, but I think that at least some of the more standard articulations probably are handled, either (a) by NOTION 4 itself, where various algorithms within NOTION 4 handle "standard" articulations via emulating them computationally or (b) by the VSTi virtual instrument engines in a similar way to (a), where for example forte ("f") might be handled simply by increasing the volume level, where this is done either (a) by NOTION 4 or (b) by the VSTi virtual instrument engine, with the caveat that simply increasing the volume level is not the same as what happens when a musician plays an instrument forte, but it is at least "ballpark" . . .

[NOTE: I use the term "articulations" in a general way, so that it includes dynamics, playing styles, and anything else that a musician or singer does with respect to playing or singing a note, where as best as I understand the terminology the primary distinctions are (a) dynamics and (b) articulations, but I think that there probably are other aspects of playing and singing notes, hence it is easier to call all of it "articulations" . . . ]

In contrast, the function of a "preset" is to provide information that NOTION 4 uses when it packages and then sends a request to the VSTi virtual instrument engine to generate and to play a particular note, where the advantage of having a set of "presets" is that this provides VSTI virtual instrument specific information which ensures that the articulation (or dynamic, as the case might be) is generated and played correctly, as contrasted to generically . . .

The key to understanding this is knowing that behind the scenes the bulk of the work is done via MIDI instructions and MIDI controller changes, hence presuming my understanding of the overall technology is correct, a "preset" essentially is a mapping of a MIDI instruction or a MIDI controller change to something that NOTION 4 understands, which also involves "rules", where if you examine "rules", you will discover that they ultimately resolve to MIDI instruction or commands or MIDI controller changes, where there also are MIDI ports and MIDI channels involved . . .

Using Kontakt 5 (Native Instruments) as an example, it has the ability to have several MIDI channels for an instrument, where in this context "instrument" maps to a staff or clef in NOTION 4, and this in turn allows the possibility of assigning specific instrument playing styles (a.k.a., articulations, dynamics, and so forth) to different channels, where for example "staccato violin" might be assigned in Kontakt 5 to MIDI channel 15, while "pizzicato violin" might be assigned to MIDI channel 16 for the particular violin, hence instead of needing to use a computation-intensive algorithm to emulate pizzicato, all you need to do is change the MIDI channel to 16, and once this is done the note will be heard pizzicato, because this is the way the sampled sounds for MIDI channel 16 were played by the real violinist, recorded, and then transformed into a sampled sound, while if the specified articulation in the music notation is staccato, then NOTION 4 only needs to know to tell the Kontakt 5 engine to generate and to play the note using MIDI channel 15 . . .

Something similar happens with IK Multimedia VSTi virtual instruments, and since I use IK Multimedia VSTi virtual instruments most frequently, I have observed this happening when the standalone user interface is open, where you literally can see the MIDI channels switching based on the articulations specified in the NOTION 3 music notation, where at present the IK Multimedia VSTi virtual instruments only work in situ with NOTION 3, because they are 32-bit VSTi virtual instruments . . .

For reference, you can click on the name of the VSTi virtual instrument at the top of a channel or track in the NOTION Mixer and if the VSTi virtual instrument has a standalone user interface, then it will be launched and you can watch what happens as NOTION plays the notes for that particular VSTi virtual instrument, which is interesting when the VSTi virtual instrument has a lot of articulations and a full MIDI channel map, where for reference the IK Multimedia VSTi virtual instruments support 16 MIDI channels per whatever, and technically there is no explicit requirement that the 16 articulations must be for the same instrument, hence you can have 15 violin articulations and 1 kazoo articulation for a violin, which is a bit odd, but as best as I can determine it is allowed . . .

At a higher level, in this functionality NOTION is a controller, organizer, and blender, where it reads the music notation you specify; translates the music notation note-by-note to MIDI instructions or commands and MIDI controller changes; sends the resulting "request for sampled sound" to the VSTi virtual instrument; receives the sampled sound generated by the VSTi virtual instrument engine; and then adds this bit of audio to the ongoing audio stream that you hear as the "NOTION 4 generated" audio . . .

Simultaneously, NOTION is handling the visual representation and scrolling of the music notation, which is another virtually mind-bogglingly complex set of algorithms; and if you are doing ReWire, then NOTION is doing its part of the ReWire activities; and there is the work done by the NOTION Mixer, which can include controlling VST effects plug-ins; and so forth and so on, all of which is a vast amount of work that must be done essentially in real-time so that the generated audio is smooth, timely, and accurate in every respect, which is the grand scheme of everything is one of the reasons that I nearly never complain about all the work that NOTION does behind the scenes, where this is only a high-level overview of what NOTION is doing behind the scenes and does not include the NTempo stuff, real-time MIDI recording, External MIDI staves, and so forth and so on . . .

THOUGHTS

This is my current understanding, and I think it is reasonably accurate, but as a general rule I do not use articulations and dynamics in music notation unless there is no possible way to avoid using them, because I think it adds complexity which for the genres on which I focus basically serves no useful purpose . . .

Instead, the first thing I do involves determining whether there is a specific set of sampled sounds where the instrument is played and recorded in the particular articulation, dynamic, or style I need, and if there is one, then this is what I use, but otherwise I prefer to handle articulations, dynamics, and so forth in the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application after the NOTION generated audio has been recorded in the DAW application via ReWire as soundbites, and this works nicely for some genres and instruments, as well as being considerably more consistent when a set of sampled sounds for a particular instrument does not have a sampled sound for each note in each specific articulation, dynamic, playing style, or whatever, which is another odd but important aspect of getting the most realistic generated audio from VSTi virtual instruments . . .

The primary goal is to avoid any possibility of either NOTION or the VSTi virtual instrument engine engaging in arbitrary emulations via complex algorithms, with the simple example being what happens where there is a sampled sound for C5 played vibrato by the musician and a sampled sound for D5 played vibrato by the musician, but there is no sampled sound for C#5, hence the C#5 note must be computed or emulated via a set of algorithms, which among other things engage in various logarithmic extrapolations or whatever, with the result that if the C5 sampled sound is used to compute or emulate the C#5 note, then while the pitch of the note might be very accurate, the speed and intensity of the vibrato articulation nearly never will be accurate, and the result is that the vibrato speed and intensity in this instance will be a bit faster or whatever, because a lower pitch real note was used to create or emulate a higher pitch note, while in the reverse scenario where D5 is used as the source note, the resulting vibrato for the computed or emulated C#5 note will be slower or whatever . . .

Hence, when there is no specific set of sampled sounds for a particular articulation, the solution I prefer is to use dry notes in NOTION but then later--in the DAW application--to run the dry notes through a vibrato effects plug-in or whatever makes the most sense and sounds best, which works for me, because at present I focus primarily on electric guitars, synthesizers, and so forth, where for all practical purposes everything tends to be done with effects, or at least can be done with effects plug-ins once you discover how to use effects plug-ins in this way, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous! :ugeek:

Re: Notion 4 VSL Special Edition Presets 1-4 Fix

PostPosted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 7:29 pm
by dshertz
In case you don't have the Cliff Notes for the WhammyWhim above, the presets are how NOTION sets up VI or VI PRO to play a particular voice. If the presets are not there, NOTION does not know how to set up a voice on VI or VI PRO.

The result is that you select a voice in the instrument palate but then it does not play. When you CNTL I on the staff for the voice, and VI or VI PRO opens, you will find that there is no voice loaded in the player.

The reason there is so much confusing talk about preset files is that there is a set for NOTION 3 and two sets for NOTION 4, depending on your use of VI or VI PRO.

So that Notion does not have to pass a directory name to VI or VI PRO, you place the presets into the Custom Folder of the VSL Directory Mananager (it pops up when you click the Custom Folder button in the VSL Directory Manager). So now VI and VI PRO know how to find the instructions from NOTION on how to set up a voice.

Remember to press the "Rescan existing" after you have added your presets to the VSL Directory Manager. The custom directory should also show in the Directory list of the VSL Directory Manager.

Re: Notion 4 VSL Special Edition Presets 1-4 Fix

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 10:40 am
by Shelley
regarding red slots in VSL Pro instruments, not arrived at through Vienna Ensemble player.....

do make sure that your sample library is properly loaded and recognised by VSL. Rescan using the Directory Manager. It may be that the pathway to your samples is corrupted or lost. The samples should load properly.

For clarity:
on Apple computers:
1. close all applications
2. ensure all Notion Presets are in the VSL Custom folder; on my computer, the folder is in HD:Users:Shared:VSL Custom Data
3. ensure you have downloaded and installed the correct presets for your VSL software; delete the presets that do not apply to your software. If you do not have VI Pro, then don't install those presets.
4. after you have checked to make sure that everything is in the right place, run the VSL Directory Manager, ensure the correct Custom Folder is selected, and rescan. Then close, and restart your computer.

Notion 4 should now run beautifully!

May I also submit that I find the new Notion programme is a fabulous update, and works really well. I also find the MIR plugin from VSL is stunning when active within Notion - a musician's dream come true.

Re: Notion 4 VSL Special Edition Presets 1-4 Fix

PostPosted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 6:11 pm
by Admin
Palette Techniques are in and working for the upcoming update.

-Admin

Re: Notion 4 VSL Special Edition Presets 1-4 Fix

PostPosted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 9:50 am
by achambily
Great !

Re: Notion 4 VSL Special Edition Presets 1-4 Fix

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:34 am
by klushund
Shelley wrote:May I also submit that I find the new Notion programme is a fabulous update, and works really well. I also find the MIR plugin from VSL is stunning when active within Notion - a musician's dream come true.

I use VSL with the Instruments Pro player and it works fine (though there are the staccato and viola issues which will be resolved soon). I am interested in the option to use Vienna Ensemble and MIR. Shelley, do you know whether it is possible to use all three tools together in Notion 4 in a senseful way? How would that look like?
Thanks in advance!

Re: Notion 4 VSL Special Edition Presets 1-4 Fix

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:37 am
by wcreed51
MIR is now available as a VST plugin, so you could use it directly in the Notion mixer.

Re: Notion 4 VSL Special Edition Presets 1-4 Fix

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 10:01 am
by klushund
wcreed51 wrote:MIR is now available as a VST plugin, so you could use it directly in the Notion mixer.

Thanks, wcreed51, but in that case buying Vienna Ensemble would make no sense, right?

Re: Notion 4 VSL Special Edition Presets 1-4 Fix

PostPosted: Mon Nov 19, 2012 11:08 am
by wcreed51
It's no longer necessary for using MIR. It might make sense if you needed more sophisticated mixing than you can do in Notion, wanted to use the preserve feature to keeps samples loaded while changing scores, or needed to use multiple systems to stream samples from.