NOTION Music Forum

Finally one of my colleagues decided to buy Notion as well, but that was only possible because of the BLACK FRIDAY SALE! Wow, Notion at 49.50$ !

I think it was very good timing. An offer hard to refuse!! I hope many people that has been waiting for a good opportunity, finally adopt Notion.

Way to go!

-e

Hope there are some seriously juicy updates in the works for those of us who paid full price!

Seriously though, Notion is a bargain in my mind for $99.00.

Remember that the Expansion Sounds also are discounted by 50 percent . . .



NOTION Expansion Sounds (Notion Music)

As an example, this song was done by Notion Music FORUM member JohnF with the NOTION Expansion Sounds "Classical Guitar" instrument, and it is remarkably realistic in every respect, which is fabulous . . .

"Adela" (JohnF) -- YouTube music video

Fabulous!

Yes!! The expansion sounds!

I've already got classical guitar, and the mandolin/banjo/etc pack. I'm thinking about the strings... or the whole package!

idiotSavant,

Agree with you...

I've learned about this sale from a blog about music education.

I use MuseScore to enter scores for my kids, and to help them practice piano and singing.

I bought Notion thanks to this sale, because it has great sounds and a dedicated "play" mode, which is "read-only", so that you cannot make accidental changes to the score.

The "play" mode is very good, an order of magnitude better than in MuseScore. The Performance mode (with NTempo) is excellent!

I used Notion for just 2 days, and I love it! I've found some other great features, like ability to play on an attached MIDI keyboard with the accompaniment of the score.

There's more: having Notion allowed me to buy Finale 2014 "competition upgrade" for $139.

I'll use all 3 programs: Notion, Finale, MuseScore - each of them has unique features that are very valuable to me (and my kids).

Notion team: Thanks for this sale and for the great product!

It's a great sale if you don't have it, but 50% off feels wrong. If it had been 20%, ok, but what message does a 50% discount give?
1. We don't care about existing customers, only new ones.
2. We need money. Desperately.
3. We're closing down.

Whatever scenario I come up with, it doesn't bode well for Notion, perhaps even for Presonus as a software company. If anyone can contradict this, and say that updates for Notion 4 are well underway, please do so...

TGV wrote:It's a great sale if you don't have it, but 50% off feels wrong. If it had been 20%, ok, but what message does a 50% discount give?

Being among the group of folks who actually stayed awake during university Accounting and Economics classes, there are quite a few reasons for having discount sales, one of which is increasing market share and when the discount sale includes products that existing customers might not have but probably want, then it also is an excellent way to increase customer loyalty . . .

And while a 50 percent discount always is appreciated here in the sound isolation studio, the fine folks at IK Multimedia routinely have discount extravaganzas that start at 50 percent discounts and include additional free products depending on the number of customers who participate in the "group buy", where IK Multimedia either (a) sets the participation levels reasonably so that they are reached or (b) extends the "group buy" for a few more weeks so that the highest level is attained, where at present IK Multimedia has a discount extravaganza for its expansion sound libraries for SampleTank, which incidentally will work with the new 64-bit version of SampleTank that is scheduled to be shown at NAMM in January 2014, hence is just around the corner . . .

The way it works is that you purchase one sampled sound library at a 50 percent discount and then you get two more sampled sound libraries for free, since 500 customers are in the "group buy". When the number of customers in the "group buy" increases to 1,000, everyone gets a third sampled sound library for free, which maps to an 87.5 percent discount, where you pay half price for one but you get a total of four . . .

Why would IK Multimedia do this?

(1) The sampled sound libraries are delivered via electronic download, hence it costs nearly nothing in terms of packaging, manufacturing, and so forth . . .

(2) When they hired the various musicians, IK Mutimedia either (a) paid them in cash or (b) negotiated fair royalty rates with a product lifetime maximum, and if it was the latter, then the lifetime maximum royalty already has been paid, hence the entire 12.5 percent is pure profit, which is pretty good for any business . . .

(3) It increases market share and customer loyalty . . .

(4) It increases the interest in SampleTank 3, which is a paid major version release, hence stimulates SampleTank 3 sales in a few months, because IK Multimedia has confirmed that the sampled sound libraries work with SampleTank 3 in the 64-bit universe, which makes this an excellent time to get sampled sound libraries . . .

THOUGHTS

The fact of the matter is that doing digital music production at the dawn of the early-21st century is expensive, no matter how one makes purchases, and the strategy I use here in the sound isolation studio is to get on mailing lists for newsletters and announcements; to check product websites regularly; and to be patient until something I need is on sale at an attractive discount, which nearly always happens . . .

By doing this, I am able to save enough money to get more stuff, and getting more stuff is good, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

However, if you had paid attention in Psychology 101, you might have learned that now there is a tendency to stay away from any IK Multimedia (or Presonus) products until there is a 50% discount. If someone really can't hold off, and has to buy it, it will result in less customer loyalty with the new buyer than with smaller discounts. That's cognitive dissonance for you.

And the other way around, if the company wants to increase market share, they should lower their prices permanently, not just one over the top action.

Hoping it's just a marketing fluke...

TGV wrote:However, if you had paid attention in Psychology 101, you might have learned that now there is a tendency to stay away from any IK Multimedia (or Presonus) products until there is a 50% discount. If someone really can't hold off, and has to buy it, it will result in less customer loyalty with the new buyer than with smaller discounts. That's cognitive dissonance for you.

And the other way around, if the company wants to increase market share, they should lower their prices permanently, not just one over the top action.

Hoping it's just a marketing fluke...

Everyone has unique experiences, but the way it worked here in the sound isolation studio is that in January 2010 (a) I did not know what a VSTi virtual instrument was or what one might do with one and (b) I did not know there were software applications that made it possible to do do stuff with music notation . . .

At the time, I had decided to do a song in the Bulería style of Flamenco, but after a doing a bit of research on Bulería rhythms I realized that there was no easy way for me to play a Bulería pattern on the drumkit here in the sound isolation studio, which led to having the idea that I might be able to do it with some type of orchestra percussion, which then led to recalling that IK Multimedia had an orchestra product called "Miroslav Philharmonik", which I got but had no idea how to use, noting that I had T-RackS 1 and was using it, hence I knew a little bit about IK Multimedia products . . .

The next thing I got was NOTION SLE for Miroslav Philharmonik, and it was very easy to use once I started to remember what I had learned about music notation years ago when I sang in a liturgical boys choir, which was entirely soprano treble clef, and then a few weeks later I got an email from Notion Music about upgrading to NOTION 3, which I did, and this made it possible to use other VSTi virtual instruments, so I started checking the IK Multimedia website and participating in their FORUM, and one of the FORUM moderators let me know that Musician's Friend was having a "Stupid Deal of the Day" on Sonik Synth 2 for $29.95, so I got it . . .



[NOTE: It took a while to make sense of music notation and to get up to speed on VSTi virtual instruments and ReWire, but it made sense are a bit of work, and this is the song, which has a standard Bulería rhythm pattern for the verse and chorus but has a custom 36-beat rhythm pattern that I call "Surrealería" for the interlude in the middle of the song . . . ]

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

There were more emails about discount promotions, and I got all that stuff and realized that it was good stuff . . .

And then they had the 15 Year Anniversary Sale, and after studying the rules for a week or so, I realized that I could get two products that had to be shipped rather than being entirely downloadable, which then qualified me to get everything else they make for desktop computers for free, since it was a "group buy" extravaganza, which is what I did . . .

Overall, it took approximately two years, but IK Multimedia sold me everything they make for use in desktop digital music production, including a Stealth MIDI Pedal and the ARC System for calibrating studio monitors, most but not all of which I got at very nice discounts, and I use all of it at various times, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

P. S. I am very prudent about making purchases, and as an example this is the week when I get frozen turkeys, since the local Walmart Supercenter has them on sale for 59 cents a pound. I have a freezer, and a frozen turkey is good for a year, so I fill the freezer with frozen turkeys and have roast turkey anytime I want, plus I save enough money to get some music stuff, but only when it is on sale at a nice discount, really . . .

Really!