NOTION Music Forum

This is something I expected a notation program to be on top of. Maybe I am just being silly, but the ability of a program to import MIDI (the world-wide standard for more than 50 years) is the most basic requirement of a notation program. Without it Notion's claim of being able to integrate with other programs is just a plain lie.

I want to import a simple midi file created in Band in a box.

http://www.dog-on-blues.co.za/various/BIAB.MID

It imports at first into the sequences staff. Most of it plays reasonable except for the drum parts that does not play nor display right.

The real horror starts when I convert it into normal notation. Nothing plays right. Note start times and lengths convert incorrect. The drum parts somehow just goes totally out of time. Notion can not even fit the midi data correctly into measures. Playback is totally erratic. The drums does not display even remotely like drum parts.

I would really appreciate help if I am doing something wrong or if there is a better way of getting it right.

I noticed that, too, but didn't officially complain yet because I first wanted to make sure it was no user error.
MIDI import would be extremely useful for Sibelius users because Sibelius can not export Music XML
Few people can afford the very high-priced plugin that enables this. So from my side every bit of improvement to Notion's MIDI import would be greatly appreciated.

Yes I also tested the MIDI import from Band in a Box and the drum parts all had to be moved up by an octave or two to sound properly in Notion. On another MIDI aspect I was very disappointed in was the Realtime notation accuracy of Notion 3. I tried recording some music - a simple piano part in notation view, clicked record and annoyingly record starts as soon as you begin to play with a metronome beat to play to. Strangely there is no option for a count-in so you need to leave an empty bar or two before playing the music in. Once recorded I played it back and regrettably it was not a faithful reproduction of what I had played as the timing had all kinds of glitches. So then I tried recording with a sequencer stave - the result was perhaps slightly better but still not an accurate representation of what I played so definitely not usable. In other words you could not treat Notion 3 as a DAW-style MIDI recorder with genuine timing accuracy. Having recorded my music example in Notion 3 in sequencer view I then decided to convert it to notation. I quite expected the notation to look all over the place but far more disturbing was the fact that the playback now was far worse than it had been before. In other words converting your sequencer stave to notation changes the playback timing in the process. All very disappointing.

Okay, not to pile on but I noticed the same thing.

I thought it was my poor timing playing to the metronome, but FWIW I can't get a good recording. Nothing plays back the same I play in it no matter how careful I am.

I also tried importing a midi project from Cubase once and it was so bad I figured I did it wrong. I'll check again when I have time.

This almost behaves like when you don't have 'use windows timestamp' checked in Cubase.

Yes for a program that is supposed to be a bridge between DAWs and Notation the handling of MIDI is really not good enough.

Hey guys,

Just wanted to make sure you guys are aware that we are working on optimizing the transcription features and its high on our priority list of things to do. While I can't give you an ETA, I want to assure you, work is done on this issue.

Thanks

Lubo Astinov

That's pleasing to hear. It would also be good if you could edit rather than having to re-record say a modulation wheel volume curve in sequencer staff. Correct me if I am wrong but you can't change the curve of a crescendo or descrendo or indeed write in a curve like you would be able to in a sequencer program. Also it is vital that when a sequencer staff has been recorded and is being converted to notation the timings should not alter which they do at present.

Thanks Lubo

That is really good to hear.

Same problem overhere
I'm newbie with Notion (just have it a couple of days) and i had import some of my compositions (in Midifiles) from Motu Digital Performer 6.0.2
to Notion. Import goes fines the score is there, than converting to standard notation via the tools menu.
Notion gets stucked and the famous beachball comes up.
Only option is to force quit Notion.
This is a big problem for me since i have to prepare some good readable scores.
Any solutions for this issue ?

I just got my copy of Notion loaded a few days ago, hooked up to my midi keyboard, and had the same FRUSTRATING experience as you've all described. I thought it was my latency settings, my sound card, etc., etc. Then I found all this commiserating on the forum. At least I feel better knowing it isn't me!!

I bought Notion specifically with the hope of getting away from qwerty keyboard single-note entry for a change.

Sigh...