d.h.hermansson wrote:1. There's an elaborate workaround that might be useful. [I like to experiment with plug-in order to determine the "best" final product, so this workaround does me no better.]
It is not so much a matter of being an elaborate workaround as being an advanced practical technique, although if allowing inserts to be moved and copied are easy enhancements done at a time when there is nothing else that needs to be done, then I am not so opposed to it . . .
The practical aspect is based on the simple rule that saving your work frequently always is a smart idea, and this certainly applies to signal processor and effects plug-in settings . . .
It is not so difficult to realize that the primary focus is a combination of producing and mixing, which is different from composing and arranging, although I usually include arranging as part of producing, and producing occasionally includes doing a bit of composing . . .
Most signal processor and effects plug-ins support user-defined presets, and it is not difficult to save the current settings for a plug-in as a user-defined preset. This has the primary advantage of being able to recall the preset at a later time, and it avoids needing to remember a lot of stuff . . .
And as one gains more experience and expertise with plug-ins, one realizes that most of the time it is not necessary to experiment with the sequential order of plug-ins in a chain, since there are rules for the optimal position of specific types of plug-ins in a chain, where some of the rules are standard, although perhaps not so readily documented . . .
These are the rules I use:
(1) Correct the pitch: I do this with the Melodyne Editor (Celemony), and it applies primarily to singing. When used, it is the first thing to do, since it creates a new audio file that replaces the original audio file, although the original audio file is preserved, of course . . .
(2) Establish good signal strength: Good signal strength is a primary requirement for mixing . . .
(3) Remove hiss and noise: This also is a primary requirement for mixing . . .
(4) Constrain the frequency range: This is a producing technique which conserves and optimizes sonic space . . .
(5) Constrain the dynamic range: This is a producing technique that adds focus . . .
(6) Alter the tone: This is a producing technique, and for example with Electric Guitar it might map to using AmpliTube 3 (IK Multimedia) to get a specific type of tone based on a custom Electric Guitar amplification rig with effects pedals and so forth . . .
(7) Add reverberation, echoes, and other time-based effects: This is a producing technique . . .
(8) Control the final dynamic range: This is a mixing technique and typically is done with a brickwall limiter set only to activate on what should be occasional peaks or spikes, where ideally in this specific use of a brickwall limiter, the brickwall limiter is doing nothing nearly all the time . . .
Most of the time, these eight rules map to using only one signal processor or effects plug-in, where the primary focus is (2), which happens when material is recorded correctly and needs only a tiny bit of enhancement, where a simple example is the Latin percussion Castanets that come with NOTION 4, which are recorded at a very low level, hence for
DISCO and
Pop songs need to be boosted to be heard, and I do this with the T-RackS CS Grand White 2A Leveling Amplifier plug-in, but since this plug-in has melodic properties it also affects the overall tone and makes the Castanets a bit brighter, which is one of the sonic characteristics of the White 2A Leveling Amplifier . . .
For Electric Bass, I use the T-RackS CS Grand Vintage Tube Program Equalizer EQP-1A, which is a very accurate emulation of the classic Pultec Program Equalizer EQP-1A, and I use the "FATT-1A" preset, which does a bit of boosting but primarily adds deep bass tone, and this typically is the only plug-in in the chain for an Electric Bass, although in some instances I will add a tiny bit of discrete delay to one channel of the stereo signal to have a bit of FUN with the Haas Effect, which is one way to make Electric Bass sound "bigger" . . .
From a different perspective, the goal is to develop a well-defined system or formula, with the general idea being to have a procedure with well-defined rules for everything, so that instead of everything being variable, as much as possible is static, which is way over time that one develops a "sound", as in the Glenn Miller sound, Motown sound, Beatles sound, Beach Boys sound, and so forth and so on . . .
These things evolve over time, but having a system or formula makes sense in a practical way, and it makes it possible to focus on creating songs rather than needing to define everything all the time starting with nothing predefined . . .
Whether this particular perspective is useful depends in part on the specific genre, but it certainly is useful for
DISCO,
Pop,
Rock,
Rhythm and Blues, and
Country Western songs . . .
d.h.hermansson wrote:2. A few plug-in don't behave well on saving and closing, so why bother ? [Perhaps to the author is satisfied to leave it alone, but none of the plug-ins that I use seem to fail in the way described, so for me, the fix would be very valuable. This is really a red herring. Should a lame implementation be excused because "some" plug-in don't play well?]
At present, this happens with FabFilter Software Instrument plug-ins, and I consider it to a bug with their plug-ins, but their plug-ins are
stellar in what they do, so it is easy to save a set of parameters as a user-defined preset, and this solves the problem . . .
d.h.hermansson wrote:3. What you want shouldn't be there- that kind of implementation belongs to "real DAW's"
Simply put, if a feature is offered, then it should be offered with the very best possible implementation. Notion is not an inexpensive step child to the big-league DAW's. After instrument purchases, it is considerably more expensive than Logic Pro 9. It's focus is (thankfully) different and should be preserved, but just because it handles notation based composing very, very well, does not mean that other included functions should be less than sterling.
My concern is avoiding what in software designing and engineering is called "scope creep", where an application which does something useful and unique wanders into doing other things that are not unique and from a practical perspective are not so useful, either . . .
In some respects, this depends on what one is doing, but if you consider the big picture of doing everything, then it make excellent sense, because the fact of the matter is that when you are doing everything, you need a full-featured Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application . . .
NOTION 4 does
not record real instruments and voices, and there is no reason for it to start doing this, because these are functions of a DAW application, and there are advanced DAW applications that do this, hence I consider this to be "scope creep" . . .
NOTION 4 does
not support direct in-application video with all the advanced stuff that one needs to do film scoring and so forth, and wandering into messing with that stuff is something I consider to be "scope creep", because full-featured DAW applications do this, and having NOTION do it makes no sense in the grand scheme of everything . . .
NOTION 4 is used for composing instrumental music using music notation and virtual instruments, and it handles the audio generation and performing aspects, which is where the NOTION 4 Mixer comes into play. The focus is correct, and I have no problems with adding a few bells and whistles to the NOTION 4 Mixer but mostly if there is nothing else to do, which I do not expect to be the case . . .
Making any changes or enhancements to an application requires a virtual festival of resources which are limited, hence the vast importance of focusing on what makes the most sense for the application . . .
I have Digital Performer 8 (MOTU) and Logic Pro 9 (Apple), and I do
not need a third DAW application, although Reason 7 (Propellerhead Software) also functions as a DAW applicatinon, which makes it the third DAW application here in the sound isolation studio. In some respects, it is nice to have so many different DAW applications, but at some point it becomes a bit absurd, and for the most part I focus on Digital Performer 8, since it makes the most sense to me. And for reference, I got Logic Pro 9 primarily because it was 64-bit at a time when there was no 64-bit version of Digital Performer, and I got Reason because I like its synthesizers and more sequential focus on creating instrumental music, where the DAW stuff appeared later, as did the truly stellar Rack Extension technology and External MIDI controlling functionality, which is new in Reason 7 . . .
In other words, I think it makes more sense for Notion Music to focus on enhancing support for music notation; rules; MIDI; real-time performing, including recording and transcribing real-time external MIDI device input; and engraving, since these things are central to what NOTION does . . .
The NOTION 4 Mixer is
excellent, and it does what it needs to do in a complete system, where by definition a "complete system" for digital music production includes a separate DAW application, which is fabulous . . .
Fabulous!