NOTION Music Forum

Hi everybody,

I recently bought Notion 4 and the overall aethestic output of the score is awesome!
But nonetheless, I noticed three issues I am desparately looking for an answer:

1. When I enter a low note value in a system (either continuous mode or Page Across/Down), it appears to me, that if I use the usal notation size of 4.0 (default) I can't enter low notes (e.g. in a Violin I system). All notes below middle C becomes highlighted in grey. That is indeed a serious bug which needs to be fixed as soon as possible (compare the attached screenshot).

2. The hairpins are positioned automatically. This very useful tool leads - unfortunately - sometimes to cases where I would love to change the horizontal position of the hairpin. Please update that feature, so that it works in the same manner as for the ff/p-signs: here, I can at least change the horizontal position and it still stays connected to the note.

3. It is further absolutely necessary that one can move a note manually, if you enter note values in different layers. If you compare Screenshot 2 (Notion) with Screenshot 3 (Finale), it becomes obvious why:



Compare bar 4: I would love to move the g. I tried to enter it separately (layer 1 and 2) and even using CTRL+5 (share the note), but I always get this output.
Bar 3: Here you see what I mean with my second question (hairpin).

May I just state something: The print quality of Notion is brilliant and since I am working as a professional orchestrator/copyist for some German film composers, I would love to use Notion in that professional environment.

Warm Regards
Raphael.

Dear Raphael,

Thank you for your input.

1. Note Entry Issue: You can input the notes that you desire. This is the way that Notion works just because of staff spacing. Here is what you will have to do. The lowest note that is available will need to be inserted first. Then select the note that you want to change and use either the mouse to drag the note where you want it to be, or you can use the Up and Down Arrow keys to move the note down to the desired location.

2. Hairpin Markings: the same issues with staff spacing come into play when dealing with needing to move hairpins. You cannot drag the hairpin around, but if you attach hairpins to dynamic markings, you can get the hairpins to automatically space with the dynamic markings.

3. Manually moving Note Placement: Currently, this is not a feature in the design of Notion. I understand your predicament. However, the playback of Notion is currently attached to it's location in the staff to the measure. It is an issue that we are aware of and hope that one day we might offer such a feature.

I hope this helps,

-Admin

Thanks a lot for your answers.
I understand what you suggested for my first question, but it is strange that I have to stick to this procedure, even if I have on single system (let's say I Violin), working in the continuous mode. Staff placing should actually only apply if I have severals staves.

2) Your solution only works if the notes that are concerned with the dynamic markings, are in the same low or high range. If you e.g. have one motif in a low register that skips to a higher octave and it shall be performed f - crescendo - decrescendo - piano, I fail to position the descrendo on the same horizontal line. It tried your procedure for the p-marking : I placed it, moved it to the same horizontal position as the f and then tried to space the crescendo-hairpin. Either the descrendendo "deletes" my p-marking or I get the following output:

I also attached the Notion file, perhaps I still follow the wrong path...

I am well aware of the fact that "changing" means re-programming and a scorewriter is obviously an extremely complex programm. So please take my comments simply as suggestions for improvement and not criticism.

Warm regards,
Raphael.

Hi rt2013,

If you want hairpins to line up,they have to be connected, not only to their starting and ending dynamics, but also to each other. In the screen shot below, I simply extended the crescendo hairpin so that it ends on the downbeat of the second bar, and suddenly everything is lined up. On rare occasions, the pitches of the notes cause the two hairpins to be at different vertical positions, especially if the hairpins are several bars long, but 99% of the time it works.

Best wishes,
Thorrild