NOTION Music Forum

I notice that whenever I have any staff using an instrument other than a native Notion sound I only ever have the same playing techniques available on the palette. It says "EWQL Techniques" or "GPO Techniques" and nothing is specific to the instrument I'm using. I don't understand why this is so as Notion is supposed to support these libraries.

Dear GaryExo,

Sorry about that. I will submit a bug report on the issue. I thought that we had this worked out, but I now see that it is plugin specific. It works in the Vienna Ensemble sets, but for some reason it is not in the EastWest sound sets.

By the way, what version of Notion are you running, and what build is it on?

-Admin

Actually, VSL has a generic palette too. Load a flute, and you have all the string articulations showing, plus a few brass.

I'm running what I presume to be the latest version which is 4.0.320 64 Bit on Windows 7.

Thanks for looking into it. Unfortunately it's a nonsense at the moment when it comes to relevant playing techniques! From what Bill added it does sound to me as if it affects anything other than your Notion sounds as I intimated at the start. EWQL, GPO and VSL all seem to have the same issue.

So in regards to this issue, I mispoke yesterday. These techniques that show up are the VST techniques that are going to show up in the palette. I thought what was happening to you was that you were getting the message, "no specified techniques".

The difficulty for this matter is that many of the libraries that exist have so many different ways of working and so many different instrument sets, that we did a general set. However, we do support the ability to add all of the other techniques that are available in Notion 3.

There is a way to insert any technique available in Notion anywhere in the score. This technique is called "Express Entry". The way to access the Express Entry mode of entering techniques is as follows:

1. Press the apostraphe key on your ASCII keyboard (" ' ").
2. Your cursor will then display [x].
3. Once the cursor is displaying the [x], begin typing the name of the technique you want to use.

For Example:

' pizz
' fluttertoungue
' harmon
' roll all
' arco
' muted
' normale
' con sordino
' sul ponticello
' rim shot

There is a complete list of all techniques available on pages 6.14 - 6.16 of the Help File. I have found this mode of entry to be very useful and efficient and provides support for all of the functionality of your VST's if there is a technique available in the Preset. If the technique is not available in the Notion Preset, and you are using VST's that contain samples that go beyond the Preset lists, then you can use all of these techniques in your custom rules to send key switch data to the specific plugin you are using.

I hope this helps,

-Admin

I'm not certain I understand. In my pictured example I show the instrument, Anvil, selected and yet I do not have a palette offering "Anvil Techniques" which are pertinent to that instrument and only that instrument. That is what happens when any Notion instrument is selected. Select Notion's Viola and you get a "Viola Techniques" palette. Great! Select any non-native instrument and all you get is this generic palette which shows all of the available techniques from an entire library, not the relevant instrument. It's stupid.

Are you saying that Notion cannot do this with any of the supported libraries?

What I am saying is that currently the techniques palette is not updating to every instrument in the supported VST arena. I am also saying that you can still use the instrument's techniques by using Express Entry.

-Admin

I see. I think I expected the palette to react in the same way with the supported libraries because you're only really supporting 4 products: VSL, EWQL, MP, GPO. I could more readily accept you adopting a generic approach if you were attempting to support all the libraries out there.

Do you think Notion will improve this area in the future or will I just have to get used to the express entry method you described?