Notion 4 rewire with Studio One 2.5

[devonmyles]

Any folks using this combination ?
If so are the two playing well together as Rewire ?
I have asked on the Presonus forum, and no takers yet.
I was hoping there would be a N4 demo so i could try with ST1.

x64 versions.

Thanks for any input.


Garry

[Surfwhammy]

Any folks using this combination ?
If so are the two playing well together as Rewire ?
I have asked on the Presonus forum, and no takers yet.
I was hoping there would be a N4 demo so i could try with ST1.

x64 versions.

Thanks for any input.


Garry

It will be helpful to know whether you want to do this on the Mac or on a Windows computer, as well as which version of the respective operating system you are using (for example, Mac OS X 10.8.2 [Mountain Lion] or Windows 7) . . .

I have not done any testing with Studio One 2 and NOTION 4 on the Mac, but I did some testing with Studio One 2 and NOTION 3 where everything was 32-bits, including ReWire, and the ReWire capabilities were limited and a bit awkward to use, really . . .

Really!

The way Studio One 2 did ReWire in 32-bit mode involved being able to play everything interactively, but when you want to record the NOTION 3 generated audio, this is done by an offline procedure called "Export Stems", and it is done as a batch processing activity . . .

In great contrast, if you use Digital Performer (MOTU) or Logic Pro 9 (Apple), then all you need to do to record the NOTION generated audio is to enable the tracks in the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application for recording and then to press the "Record" button, where the recording is done online in real-time on the fly and for all practical purposes it is the same conceptually as recording a singer with a microphone or recording an electric guitar or keyboard using direct input . . .

Consequently, on the Mac I recommend Digital Performer 8 and Logic Pro 9, since these DAW applications do everything in a very logical and straightforward way, where my personal favorite is Digital Performer 8, since I think it is has a more intuitive user interface and does ReWire 2 (64-bit) in a more direct way . . .

The difference is that with Digital Performer 8 you create a stereo audio track and then set its input to one of the NOTION 4 ReWire channel pairs. To hear the NOTION 4 generated audio, you click the Digital Performer 8 "Input Monitor" button, which turns blue. To record enable the track, you click the "Record Enable" button, which turns red. Then from that point forward if only want to play but not actually record, then just press the "Play" button, but if you want to record, then press the "Record" button. And once you have recorded the NOTION 4 generated audio as a soundbite, to hear the soundbite you unclick the "Input Monitor" button, which basically provides two ways to work with ReWire 2, where if you click the "Input Monitor" button, you hear the NOTION 4 generated audio in real-time on the fly, but when there is a soundbite recorded and you unclick the "Input Monitor" button, then you hear the soundbite that you recorded . . .

Doing the same thing in Logic Pro 9 is a bit different, and it begins with configuring an Auxiliary Channel Strip to receive the NOTION 4 generated audio via a ReWire 2 channel pair. Then you route the audio from the Auxiliary Channel Strip to an Audio Track via a stereo bus, and it is the Audio Track that does the recording, playing, and so forth. Additionally, there are similar buttons for "Record Enable", "Input Monitor", and so forth, but you need to remember to set the "Record Enable" button for the Audio Track before you press the "Record" button to record the soundbite, and once you have recorded it, you need to deselect the "Record Enable" button to hear what you recorded by pressing the "Play" button, all of which works but it little bit less elegant than the way it is done in Digital Performer 8. It is not a huge difference, but I prefer the way it is done in Digital Performer 8, because it is very simple and straightforward with no intermediate Auxiliary Channel Strip and bus stuff. Also, you can leave the "Record Enable" button ON in Digital Performer 8 but it does not actually record so long as you use the "Play" button, where recording is tied to using the "Record" button, which I think is very straightforward, where in contrast with Logic Pro 9 you need to toggle the "Record Enable" button depending on whether you only want to play the track or you want to record it . . .

In other words, with Digital Performer 8, I usually leave the "Record Enable" and "Input Monitor" buttons ON and then play or record by pressing the "Play" or "Record" button, respectively. If I want to hear the NOTION 4 generated audio in real-time, then I leave the "Input Monitor" button ON, but once there is a recorded soundbite of the NOTION 4 generated real-time audio and I want to hear the recorded soundbite rather than the NOTION 4 generated real-time audio, I just unclick the "Input Monitor" button, all of which is simple and maps to using the various buttons in obviously logical ways . . .

If you want to hear whatever input is being streamed to the track, then you click the "Input Monitor" button, but if you want to hear what has been recorded for the track, you unclick the "Input Monitor" button, where using a singer in the studio who is singing into a microphone as an example, if you want to hear what the singer is singing, then click the "Input Monitor" button, but if you already recorded a track and want to hear what you recorded, then unclick the "Input Monitor" button. The microphone in the studio is the input device, and to hear it you click the "Input Monitor" button, but there can be already recorded audio for the track, so to hear the already recorded audio for the track, you just unclick the "Input Monitor" button. And the "Record Enable" button simply tells Digital Performer 8 that if you press the "Record" button, then the input to this track will be recorded . . .

MOTU is releasing a Windows version of Digital Performer 8, although I am not certain when they will release it. My best guess is that they are doing some changes for Windows 8, hence have not released the Windows version of Digital Performer 8 . . .

Prior to Digital Performer 8, MOTU only provided Digital Performer for the Mac, so support for Windows is a new endeavor, and it is taking a bit longer than MOTU imagined . . .

You can do digital music production on a Windows machine, but if you want everything to work intuitively and smoothly without needing to mess with a bunch of technical computer stuff, it is much easier to do digital music production on the Mac using professional quality software, which for DAW applications maps to Digital Performer 8 and Logic Pro 9, as well as NOTION 4 and Reason 6.5 (Propellerhead Software) . . .

Cubase 6.5 certainly is a professional quality DAW application, but it only does 32-bit ReWire at present, so I do not include it in the list of DAW applications I recommend for the Mac . . .

Pro Tools (Avid) does 64-bit ReWire 2, which includes the MIDI aspects, but I do not have Pro Tools, hence I cannot recommend it based on actually using and verifying that everything works correctly, which mostly is a matter of not needing anything beyond Digital Performer 8, where I got Logic Pro 9 because the price is attractive ($199 [US]) and it probably has some advantages when one is doing video work with Final Cut Studio X . . .

Being a digital music production "Consumer Reports" type if entity is not one of my goals, and for me there currently is no added value in venturing beyond Digital Performer 8 and Logic Pro 9, although if there is a free DEMO version, then I am fine with doing a bit of testing to see how everything works, which is what I did with the 32-bit version of Studio One 2, but the DEMO period expired and I cannot use it to do 64-bit ReWIre 2 testing with NOTION 4 . . .

If Studio One 2.5 does 64-bit ReWIre 2 directly without the intermediate batch processing "Export Stems" step, then I might be comfortable recommending it, but the intermediate batch processing stem is awkward at best, and it does not map to a smooth and transparent ReWIre experience . . .

Lots of FUN!

[devonmyles]

Ok, thanks for the reply.
PC/W7/X64.

Quite happy on windows.On previous [my] DAWS there was always a MIDI score editor, which i like to use sometimes and not just for printing out pages and scores. Recently i have started to use ST1 V2.5 for various reasons, but there is no score/notation editor. So for that reason i am interested in what Notion 4 rewire x64 has to offer on that front using Studio One.

Thanks

Garry

[Eftwyrd]

Hey I use N4 with S1 2.5 Pro on Win7 x64. Until now I only tested it once to know if its working or not and yes it worked but I haven't used it much till now, so I don't know if there any special complications or else.