Lack of General MIDI support (and GM Drums) in Notion 4

[dhodgson]

Notion 4's lack of support for General MIDI is a genuine headache when creating Notion projects out of imported General MIDI scores. One reason for this is that Notion doesn't offer any out-of-the-box way to play back GM scores, and the second is that it doesn't offer any note conversion mechanism between GM drum note conventions and its own drum-score note conventions. A third problem is that the MIDI export feature of Notion is lazy when it comes to drums; attributed notes like open-hi hats export as closed hi-hats, even if they play properly in Notion as such. And a fourth, of course is that the instruments (and drums) provided by Notion are but a tiny subset of the full GM spec.

Now I've written to Tech Support about this a few times, and only heard crickets. I've since gone on to write some scripts in Cakewalk's .CAL language for SONAR to provide a bespoke level of drum note translation, but it's a clumsy solution at best. I'd like to hear some response from Notion Music as to where they stand on the issue of General MIDI and while they're at it, explain why these boards are so dead. I'm guessing that all of the company's resources are being spent on the iPad at present - but that doesn't explain the paucity of user group support on display here, where time seems to have stopped around the era of Notion 3.

[trevorblu]

I completely agree. Even if they do not want to support the soundset, at least provide the option to pass program changes, etc. as a basic bit of the MIDI spec. At the moment, I have some GM MIDI tracks I made a few years ago for a musical and now we are performing the show. I really want to use the NTempo feature, but the playback limitations are frustrating. I've tried Rewire hosting to no avail. I can't find anything like NTempo features. Finale and Sibelius have their version, but it only records tempo (and it's very choppy during recording). Ableton Live can do this to a degree, but not as well as Notion. Ah well, I agree, rant completed...

[wcreed51]

There are GM VSTi, like Roland's HyperCanvas.

[dhodgson]

Roland's HyperCanvas is long out of print, actually. And yes, I do have other (bulkier, costlier) GM softsynths at my disposal but that's not the only issue here - see original post. Notion is affordably priced and cross-platform, and I'd hate to see it limited to the classical music community alone. The vast majority of MIDI music in the wild is, after all, GM, and Notion Music is shooting itself in the foot with such token support... in its fourth version!

Plus: If I can rough out a GM note translator in an evening, surely Notion can do better. The fact that they haven't given much thought to this is disturbing. There's surprisingly little information on hand regarding GM support anywhere in the manual, documentation or sales copy.

[wcreed51]

Somehow that seems like wanting a car manufacturer to still support using leaded gasoline...

[Surfwhammy]

Somehow that seems like wanting a car manufacturer to still support using leaded gasoline...

+1

[Surfwhammy]

Notion is affordably priced and cross-platform, and I'd hate to see it limited to the classical music community alone.

NOTION is excellent for DISCO, Pop, and every other genre, for sure . . .

For sure!

All these songs are done with NOTION 3 and NOTION 4 on the 2.8-GHz 8-core Mac Pro (early-2008) with 20GB of memory here in the sound isolation studio, and they span several genres, a few of which I created specifically for some of the songs . . .

[NOTE: With the exception of the real lead guitar doing glissandi and whammying in "Feel Me", all the instruments are done in NOTION with music notation and a blend of IK Multimedia virtual instruments and a few NOTION bundled virtual instruments, where the NOTION generated audio is recorded as soundbites in Digital Performer (MOTU), where I apply special effects from T-RackS CS Grand (IK Multimedia); ProC, Saturn, and Timeless 2 (FabFilter Sotware); and a few others . . . ]

"I'm Going Goo-Goo Over Ga-Ga" (The Surf Whammys) -- YouTube music video

[NOTE: Justin Bieber should record "Feel Me" . . . ]

"Feel Me" (The Surf Whammys) -- YouTube music video

This is one of the new songs I am developing for another of my pretend musical groups, and it has synthesizers and drums from Reason 6.5 (Propellerhead Software); virtual instruments including MachFive 3 (MOTU) played via music notation in NOTION 4; and a similar set of special effects done in Digital Performer 8, where everything is 64-bits . . .

[NOTE: The psychedelic dolphins are done with MachFive 3 and one of the garbling presets in Volcano (FabFilter Software Instruments), while the sirens and fog are done with Xtreme FX in MachFive 3; and there are some VSTi synthesizers from Kontakt 5 (Native Instruments). The deep bass is done with the Cyclop (Sugar Bytes) VSTi virtual instrument via music notation in NOTION 4 . . . ]

"Whammy Twist" (DJ Surfwhammy & Subsonic Weggee-Z) -- MP3

This is a bit of Surreal Jazz Grunge done by yet another of my pretend musical groups, which features Pretend Kenny G on Tenor Sax and Pretend Nirvana on Grunge . . .

[NOTE: The Tenor Sax is done via MachFive 3 (MOTU) and is played with music notation in NOTION 4, as are all the instruments. The Electric Guitars are done with the NOTION 4 bundled Electric Guitar and MachFIve 3, but I run them through AmpliTube 3 (IK Multimedia), and I "pump" everything with T-RackS CS Grand effects plug-ins and signal processors, and it features Addictive Drums (XLN Audio) and a bit of Latin Percussion via the NOTION 4 bundled Percussion virtual instruments. This could be the theme song for a BBC detective mystery series . . . ]

"The Darkest Hour" (Tyrone Deluxe & The Funky Monkey Mind Chickens) -- MP3

This is one of my new Country Western songs, featuring Pretend Johnny Cash with Burps by Bubba, and the pedal steel guitar is done with the NOTION 4 bundled Electric Guitar, which is vastly cool . . .

"It Was Only A Dream" (The Surf Whammys) -- MP3

And this is a Flamenco song in the new Surrealería subgenre of Bulería, which features an intriguing 36-beat interlude during which for the YouTube music video I plan to do a Flamenco Mime dance reenactment of The Creation of the World wearing a Venetian mask, ballet tights, impressive codpiece, and fuzzy bunny slippers while juggling unshucked ears of corn, which is fabulous . . .

"Maríta de la Luna y Pablito el Petardo (No Es Tanto Lo Que Es Como Lo Que No Es)" (The Surf Whammys) -- MP3

Fabulous!

[dhodgson]

Good job, Surfwhammy. Maybe if a few users like yourself were to contribute some freely redistributable popular music tracks that Notion could bundle with the product, it would help lighten up the product's appeal a bit. You've got to admit, popular music is not the focus of Notion Music's corporate face - it's more like the Sibelius/orchestral/academic/scoring 'n arranging crowd, don't blame me - I only call it like I see it.

[Surfwhammy]

Good job, Surfwhammy. Maybe if a few users like yourself were to contribute some freely redistributable popular music tracks that Notion could bundle with the product, it would help lighten up the product's appeal a bit. You've got to admit, popular music is not the focus of Notion Music's corporate face - it's more like the Sibelius/orchestral/academic/scoring 'n arranging crowd, don't blame me - I only call it like I see it.

Glad you enjoyed it!

I like your idea of including example NOTION scores for songs in different genres, which is something that the Propellerheads do with new releases of Reason and is helpful . . .

Propellerhead includes demo songs by various musicians with Reason, and I used one of the songs ("Faster" [Techno Squirrels]) in some videos that I made to demonstrate using Reason 6.5 with NOTION, where the fascinating aspect is that you can write music on a NOTION External MIDI staff and it will control and play a Reason 6.5 synthesizer, which in a practical way adds the Reason 6.5 instruments and the new synthesizers available as Rack Extensions to the festival of VSTI virtual instruments that work with NOTION 4 . . .

The next version of Reason (Reason 7), which is slated for release this month, adds its own External MIDI interface, which when you think about it for a while in terms of quantum physics could alter the spacetime continuum . . .

NOTION works very nicely with Reason, which is important because Reason favors people who play keyboards fluently, so for people who are not so skilled in playing a MIDI keyboard, NOTION makes it possible to use music notation to create input for Reason instruments and synthesizers via either (a) exporting MIDI from NOTION and then importing it to Reason or (b) using a NOTION External MIDI staff to send MIDI commands and notes directly to Reason instruments and synthesizers . . .

Lots of FUN!