NOTION Music Forum

I see that you can have an instrument play chords by entering a rhythm slash. Nice feature that i've not used yet.

Is there a way to then convert that rhythm slash into the notes of the chord being played? In other words, convert the slash into the notes of the chord placed in proper location on the staff?

Dear Michael,

There's not really a way for us to do that at this time.

-Admin

Too bad, that would be a great compositional tool.

Admin wrote:Dear Michael,

There's not really a way for us to do that at this time.

-Admin

This is a shame, because Notion is VERY close to being able to do this: the program converts those rhythm slash chords into notes when it produces playback or outputs them to MIDI. So Notion is already capable of the "hard part" of converting chords to notes.

Seemed like a simple one to me but I guess that's why I'm not a coder.

idiotSavant wrote:Seemed like a simple one to me but I guess that's why I'm not a coder.

Hi Michael,

I'm not a coder either, but I can certainly see that such a feature, while quite magical and wonderful, would be way beyond the scope of a consumer application like Notion. Consider how many ways there are of voicing chords—all dependent on the style of music, the tempo, mood, key, and even the instrument involved and the player's chops. It is not simply a matter of "when I see a slash with chord X written over it, I must play these pitches in this octave."

Best wishes,
Thorrild

thorrild wrote:It is not simply a matter of "when I see a slash with chord X written over it, I must play these pitches in this octave."

Thorrild, that is precisely what this function in Notion is doing.

I certainly agree that the construction of chords is very subtle and complex and subject to all the nuances human nature can contrive, but the fact remains, that Notion is sophisticated enough to construct chords of any variety from tablature and a slash. If it can construct those chords, it seems that at a command it could certainly place the notes it uses to construct them on the staff; it's playing them somehow, and it seems that they can also be output to midi, according to another reply here.

As a compositional/educational tool, I think it would be a great starting point. And I would think that a feature such as this would be even more useful/beneficial for the "average" consumer than the music pro.

thorrild wrote:

idiotSavant wrote:Seemed like a simple one to me but I guess that's why I'm not a coder.

Hi Michael,

I'm not a coder either, but I can certainly see that such a feature, while quite magical and wonderful, would be way beyond the scope of a consumer application like Notion. Consider how many ways there are of voicing chords—all dependent on the style of music, the tempo, mood, key, and even the instrument involved and the player's chops. It is not simply a matter of "when I see a slash with chord X written over it, I must play these pitches in this octave."

Best wishes,
Thorrild

While the note choice may not be appropriate for a final composition in some (or even most) cases, Notion is already making note choices when it plays back (or exports MIDI for) chords over rhythm slashes. No magic required. And considering the currently implemented guitar fret diagram system, where the program makes a library of typical chord voicings available to choose from, I don't think it is far-fetched for a similar library of voicings for other instruments (particularly keyboard instruments) to be made available. The guitar voicings it currently provides are explicitly written out in a data file, not automatically generated: .../Notion 4/Support/Chordlib/GuitarChords.tpk. Making additional voicings for non-guitar instruments would not be a coding challenge, it's a manpower issue related to the research and data entry of typical chord voicings used by non-guitar instruments. There is no shortage of keyboard voicing diagrams and tables around to draw from.

But even without appropriate voicing, it would still be useful for composing if Notion could just plop down the notes from the close-voiced block chord it currently generates to play rhythm slashes. We're not asking Notion to compose for us by selecting the appropriate voicing for every genre and instrument; the idea would be that the composer would create the voicing afterwards by dragging, copying, or transposing some notes, which for some people would still be more convenient than having to enter the notes from scratch.

In some cases, there would also be playback benefits to converting rhythm slashes to chord notes. For example, the velocity of the notes generated by rhythm slashes cannot be randomized in Notion, because Notion ignores velocities applied to the rhythm slash and will only use the dynamic markings in the score to set the velocity of the MIDI notes it generates from a rhythm slash chord. Some guitar VST's can use velocity to alter strum speed and intensity, for example, which would make velocity randomization of chords very useful. Converting rhythm slash chords to notes would make that strum randomization possible (although I'd prefer it if they applied the rhythm slash note's velocity to the notes it generates instead).

There are software tools for having a bit of FUN with various algorithms and techniques for creating melodies, harmonies, and counterpoint based on chords, as well as for having readily available chord and scale libraries, where instead of focusing on modes one focuses on scales, since there are more scales than classic and modern modes . . .

These are two examples of fascinating Rack Extensions for Reason 7 (Propellerhead Software) that use artificial intelligence to have a bit of FUN with series of notes, chords, and scales, where as explained below you can use them in a ReWire 2 session where NOTION 4 is the ReWire 2 host controller and Reason 7 is the ReWire 2 slave, which includes being able to program and play the Rack Extensions and to use them as MIDI input devices via a virtual MIDI cable, so that their MIDI output can be recorded as MIDI sequences in NOTION 4 and then automagically converted to music notation on NOTION 4 staves, and although I need to do a few experiments to verify the hypothesis, I think it might be possible to use music notation on NOTION 4 External MIDI staves to tell these Reason 7 Rack Extensions what to do, where the resulting MIDI generated by them is recorded in real-time on the fly to standard NOTION 4 staves to which VSTi virtual instruments are assigned (or at least one staff a time), noting that I have done a few of the required experiments and have verified that the basic functionality exists and works correctly on the Mac, noting that at least in theory it should work in the Windows universe, as well . . .

The general technique is demonstrated in this YouTube video of the rhythm section for a song being generated automagically by AutoARP in Reason 7 by pressing single keys on a MIDI keyboard, which in terms of a proof of concept is sufficient for the hypothesis explained above where to be more precise a series of individual notes on a NOTION 4 External MIDI staff becomes the virtual surrogate for the MIDI keyboard . . .

AutoARP ~ Improvised Song -- YouTube video

AutoARP (Black & Orange)


AutoARP (Black & Orange)

AutoARP ~ Guitar Song -- YouTube video

AutoARP ~ Tutorial 1 -- YouTube video

AutoTheory (Mozaic)


AutoTheory (Mozaic) ~ Rack Extension for Reason 7

AutoTheory ~ Basic Operation -- YouTube video

AutoTheory ~ Main Tutorial -- YouTube video

THOUGHTS

One of my current hypotheses is that it should be possible to use these Rack Extensions and the new Reason 7 External MIDI Instrument (EMI) to send MIDI via a virtual MIDI cable to NOTION 4 where it can be recorded as MIDI and then converted to music notation. I need to do some experiments to test the hypothesis, but even if it cannot be done directly, it certainly can be done via creating the sequences and then exporting them in MIDI format, followed by importing the respective MIDI to NOTION 4, where in the grand scheme of everything, these two Rack Extensions (see above) are fascinating but do not do everything that at least in theory is possible to do . . .

[NOTE: The new Reason 7 External MIDI Instrument (EMI) is an analog of NOTION External MIDI staff, where the basic functionality is the same, and the curiously fascinating aspect is that in ReWire 2 session where NOTION 4 is the ReWire 2 host controller and Reason 7 is the ReWire 2 slave, one can play Reason 7 synthesizers and instruments via music notation on NOTION 4 External MIDI staves while at the same time Reason 7 is playing VSTi virtual instruments on standard NOTION 4 staves, which also is the case when Ableton Live 9, Digital Performer 8 (MOTU), or Logic Pro 9 (Apple) is the ReWire 2 host controller and both NOTION 4 and Reason 7 are ReWire 2 slaves, which is a bit mind-boggling . . . ]


Reason 7 ~ External MIDI Instrument (EMI)

Reason 7 External MIDI Instrument (Propellerhead Software)

Lots of FUN!