Notion3 And Miroslav

[Surfwhammy]

Issue 1: Whitenoise with no content in measures.
Here is a flash video showing this weird behavior that is really ruining everything. As you can see it happens on a score with no notes! It uses Notion3 Flute(solo). The cursor in notion does not move when I press play because there is no notes to play, yet, it introduces periodic white noise !
"http://grossmann-venter.com/issues/Notion/Whitenoise.swf"
Paste it into your browser.

QUESTION: Do you have the Presonus Firebox set to standard CD quality (44.1-kHz at 16-bits)?

[NOTE: NOTION 3 and Miroslav Philharmonik do audio at standard CD quality only, so trying to do it at a higher resolution will not work. I use a MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid, and it has a software control utility that lets me set the audio resolution, and I think that there should be a similar utility for the Presonus Firebox. Also, if you are running Windows Server 2003, which was based on Windows XP, or some variation thereof (one of the flavors of Windows Server), this might be part of the problem. It has been a while since I did anything in Windows, but the consumer versions of Windows are different from the server versions, and it is unlikely that anyone tests Windows Server flavors for digital music production software . . . ]

I watched the Flash video, and my best guess is that the noise might be due to Miroslav Philharmonik not being registered or a problem with the licensing software, since this is something IK Multimedia virtual instruments and effects plug-ins do when there is a problem with the registration or licensing software . . .

It might have something to do with the way you have the user account privileges configured on your Windows XP computer . . .

Doing an experiment will be helpful . . .

(1) Go to the IK Multimedia website and download SampleTank FREE, which is the full version of the SampleTank engine and has no restrictions. Then install it and register it, followed by going to your IK Multimedia User Area where you can download the sample sounds for SampleTank FREE, which you also will install . . .

[NOTE: The link to download SampleTank FREE is found at the following IK Multimedia website page . . . ]

SampleTank FREE (IK Multimedia)

(2) When this is done, enable SampleTank FREE as a VSTi virtual instrument in NOTION 3 and then create a new NOTION 3 score, where you will add one instance of SampleTank FREE to create a single staff using one of the SampleTank FREE instruments that you downloaded and installed . . .

(3) Save the new score and write a few measures of music notation; save the score; and play the song . . .

Let me know what happens, which should provide some clues . . .

Regarding the score you are using that has problems, another possibility is to trim it to one measure and then to PM it to me using the Notion Music FORUM PM feature, so that I can see if it has problems on the Mac Pro here in the sound isolation studio, and you can change the notes so that all of them are "Middle C" (C4 in scientific pitch notation), which should be easy to do using a copy of the original score, of course . . .

If it works on the Mac Pro here in the sound isolation studio, then this narrows the problem to Windows XP account privileges or perhaps the IK Multimedia registration and licensing software, where IK Multimedia technical support can help if it is a registration or licensing software problem for Miroslav Philharmonik . . .

However, if the SampleTank FREE experiment has good results, then you can use SampleTank FREE as the engine and user interface rather than using Miroslav Philharmonik as the engine and user interface, which does not require a lot of extra work--mostly just replacing Miroslav Philharmonik as the source of instruments and then selecting the specific instruments for what then will be SampleTank FREE staves . . .

The Miroslav Philharmonik sampled sounds work for SampleTank FREE, but you need to copy them to the SampleTank FREE "Instruments" folder . . .

The reason I suggest SampleTank FREE is that it is the most current version of the engine and user interface . . .

This is what comes to mind at present, but it might be related to running Windows XP, which is a bit out of date . . .

Lots of FUN!

[retnev]

Remember that in Differential Geometry 4-dimensional Curl is well described. It is nothing new. No need to define "Dynamic Curl"
The term Dynamic Curl does not make sense as a new concept as 4-dimensional curl already exists and has been general knowledge since 1900 (Grossmann and Einstein used it in Tensor form to create General Relativity) and arguably earlier in the late 1800's with Riemann's work. I honestly don't see the connection.

I really cannot see the correlation between a Particle Scatter diagram and the Tensor form of Curl.

Anyway, my question was about Notion and I need to solve that.

[retnev]

Surfwhammy,

Thank you very much.
You hit the nail on the head.

It so turns out that CSR Hall is creating the whitenoise trouble. I received registration codes for it with Notion3 and it initially registered perfectly, but on further investigation it seems as if it is now not reported as registered. Entering the supplied registration codes on the black page that came with Notion now fails to register.
I have contacted IK to try and resolve that, so I will take it further with them.

I went through it instrument for instrument in the score. What I dont understand is that Miroslav instruments are available when I edit the scores and can select an instrument, but after it is selected and successfully loads and I return to normal mode, if I click on notes in that instrument score, then it does not sound. This I dont understand as it is available in Miroslav and it is made available in Notion (thus the miroslav instruments are seen in Notion) but there is no sound for that Miroslav instrument.

My initial hunch is correct. IK is the problem as it always was with everything I bought from them. They have great vision but pittyful implementation of their ideas.

[Surfwhammy]

Surfwhammy,

Thank you very much.
You hit the nail on the head.

It so turns out that CSR Hall is creating the whitenoise trouble. I received registration codes for it with Notion3 and it initially registered perfectly, but on further investigation it seems as if it is now not reported as registered. Entering the supplied registration codes on the black page that came with Notion now fails to register.
I have contacted IK to try and resolve that, so I will take it further with them.

Glad to help!

CSR Hall Reverb is nice, but you can use the NOTION 3 reverb, which also is nice, and regarding the noise thing, it is what IK Multimedia products do when they are not correctly registered, which could be a problem with the licensing software or no telling what, but there are solutions and as you realized, contacting IK Multimedia technical support is the best strategy, since there are some things involved in registering and licensing that involve databases that only the vendor (IK Multimedia in this instance) can modify . . .

I went through it instrument for instrument in the score. What I dont understand is that Miroslav instruments are available when I edit the scores and can select an instrument, but after it is selected and successfully loads and I return to normal mode, if I click on notes in that instrument score, then it does not sound. This I dont understand as it is available in Miroslav and it is made available in Notion (thus the miroslav instruments are seen in Notion) but there is no sound for that Miroslav instrument.

I suggest doing an easy experiment, where you switch to the NOTION 3 Mixer and then click on the name of one of the Miroslav Philharmonik VSTi virtual instrument tracks . . .

This launches the VSTi virtual instrument version of the standalone user interface for Miroslav Philharmonik, and it is where you select instruments and adjust the various controls, knobs, and so forth . . .

Once the Miroslav Philharmonik user interface is visible, click on some keys on the mini-keyboard at the bottom of the user interface, and you should hear the notes played through your studio monitor system or headphones . . .

The only reasons for not hearing notes are (a) the track is muted; (b) the note you click is out of range for the selected instrument; (c) the output of the track is sent somewhere else (perhaps to a ReWire channel pair) that currently is not producing audible audio, although there might be a few other reasons, except that none come to mind at the moment . . .

If you hear the notes as you click on the keys of the mini-keyboard, then this is good . . .

THOUGHTS

As I recall, there were times when replacing a VSTi virtual instrument required creating a new staff for the replacement VSTi virtual instrument, followed by copying the notes from the original staff to the newly created staff, and this strategy works nicely, hence is something you might want to try as another experiment . . .

For example, consider that you have a Solo Violin staff that is assigned to Miroslav Philharmonik where a set of solo violin sounds are selected, but you do not hear anything when you press "Play" in NOTION 3 for the Solo Violin . .

(1) Switch to Score Setup and create a new staff underneath the current Solo Violin staff, and assign Miroslav Philharmonik as a VSTi virtual instrument to the staff, which will launch the user interface for Miroslav Philharmonik, where you will select a solo violin instrument or whatever, and be certain to verify that you hear the violin when you click on the mini-keyboard. When this is done, close the user interface by clicking on the red "X", and then exit Score Setup, at which time you have the original Solo Violin staff but now have a new staff assigned to Miroslav Philharmonik directly under it . . .

(2) Save the NOTION 3 score as a copy, which you can do with "Save As . . . ", and then select all the music notation on the original but not working Solo Violin staff and copy it, followed by pasting the music notation onto the newly created staff . . .

EXPECTED RESULT: When you click on the "Play button, you will hear the solo violin notes being played on the new staff, and if this is what happens, you can delete the original staff and use the replacement staff from this point forward . . .

THOUGHTS

The primary problem with doing replacement staves is that you might not be able to determine whether any "COMBI" presets were used, and if so then which specific instruments were assigned to the 16 "voices" of each "COMBI" . . .

If you are using the NOTION 3 provided rules and mapping for Miroslav Philharmonik, then specific articulations in NOTION 3 will be mapped and played automatically by specific samples for the various Miroslav Philharmonik instruments, which can be good, except the mappings are based on what Notion Music decided was best, which is fine with me, but you might think that another mapping is better, but the real problem occurs if the person from whom you purchased the score used a different custom user-defined set of rules and mappings, in which case unless you know it and have the information readily available, all you can do is guess . . .

Why is this vastly important?

As an example, I received an email this morning from the Finale folks announcing that Finale 2014 is available, and I got the email because I have Finale 2012, even though I never use it . . .

Naturally, I did a bit of research and listened to some of the audio samples, and all the audio samples are terrible to the point that suggesting the strings, brass, and woodwinds sound like a 1960's Farfisa Combo Organ would be a very unkind insult to an excellent 1960s electronic organ . . .

In some respects, I might prefer to be spanked; to be put in a cold room with bright lights; and then to be forced to listen to "96 Tears" (Question Mark & The Mysterians) at 85 dB SPL over and over with nothing to eat and drink but flat Coca-Cola and stale rainbow-colored peppermint mini-marshmallows from 2009 . . .

"96 Tears" (Question Mark & The Mysterians) -- YouTube music video

[NOTE: I know! If the song was "Wooly Bully" (Sam the Sham & The Pharohs), it could be a FUN weekend, but not "96 Tears", please . . . ]

"Wooly Bully" (Sam the Shamk & The Pharohs) -- YouTube music video

So, try this experiment, and let me know what happens, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!