NOTION Music Forum

Custom rule writing comrades,

I have a proposition. The folks at Notion provided a bit of information around the future of custom rules. Although we cannot integrate libraries as neatly as those already supported by Notion, it appears that Notion 4 will allow us greater flexibility in writing rules for other libraries.

Instead of assigning rules to a VSTi, it appears we will soon have the ability to write rules to a "group ID" which can be assigned to any staff at any time. More specifically, the group ID will be a unique four character string. I suggest that we establish a naming convention for group IDs so that we can more easily share and use custom rules without creating unintended coding conflicts. This would be completely unofficial, but I think it would make integrating each others' rules much easier in the long run.

My recommendation is to use the first two characters of the group ID string to establish the library or producer for the given rule. For example, we could use "la" for the first two characters of LA Scoring Strings, "ch" for Chris Hein libraries, and so forth.

The third character would be used to identify the instrument family the rule belongs to. "b" for brass, "w" for woodwind, "f" for fretted strings, etc.

Finally the last character could be used sequentially to separate one rule set from another within the same library and instrument family.

Some examples:
"lasa" would stand for LA Scoring Strings, strings, first group ID
"lasb" would stand for LA Scoring Strings, strings, second group ID
"chfa" would stand for Chris Hein, fretted instrument, first group ID

Thoughts?

Here is a list of family codes that I think would make sense:

Code: Select all

b = brass
c = chromatic percussion
d = drum kits
e = electronic and synth
f = fretted instruments
h = harp and fixed strings
k = keyboards
o = other
p = percussion I
q = percussion II
s = strings
v = vocal
w = woodwinds
x = cross over / multi-timbre

A list of library codes that I sketched out:

Code: Select all

la = LA Scoring Strings
wi = Wallander Instruments
gp = Garritan Personal Orchestra
gj = Garritan JABB
gi = Garritan Instant Orchestra
gw = Garritan World Instruments
gc = Garritan Concert and Marching Band
so = EWQL Symphonic Orchestra
sy = Synful Orchestra
sc = EWQL Symphonic Choirs
ts = True Strike
ch = Chris Hein
es = EWQL Hollywood Strings
ew = EWQL Hollywood Winds
eb = EWQL Hollywood Brass
cw = Cinewinds
cb = Cinebrass
mp = Miroslav Philharmonik
ve = Vienna Ensembles
ml = Music Lab
ps = Project SAM
kf = Kontakt Factory
zz = generic rules

Generic rules would be useful for piano plugins that typically have the same controls (sustain pedal, etc).

Obviously this is not a complete list, and I certainly don't have all these libraries. These were just the first to come to mind.

Also, custom rules in the new format for Notion supported instruments may be useful still as we can add more detailed percussion rules to patches that contain multiple percussion patches.

Thoughts?

BRILLIANT!

It seem surprising that they're only providing 4 characters for this purpose.

dcd111 wrote:1. Add KF for Kontakt Factory Library.

Done

2. Add CE and CA for Chris Hein Horns Complete and Chris Hein Horns Compact, respectively. They require very different rulesets, and since they cover the same instruments the instrument type identifier won't be sufficient to differentiate between them if they both use "CH".

Well, "ch" might be sufficient. I have the compact library, do you or does someone else have the other horn libraries? If we just use lower case letter to separate rules, then we have 24 rule sets that could be created for Chris Hein wood winds (chw_), another 24 for Chris Hein brass (chb_), and so forth. A set of rules for a saxophone in the compact edition might have a group ID such as "chwa" while a saxophone from volume 1 could have a group ID of "chwb" and so forth. We will need to map out the different combinations and see if it warrants different library codes.

3. It might be a good idea to differentiate between orchestral brass/orchestral woodwinds, and jazz-style "horns", in the instrument-type identifier. Same instruments, but the available articulations are typically very different. For example, the Kontakt Factory Library has both types of instruments, but I believe the rules would not be interchangeable (I have not worked with these instruments very much, though, so I could be wrong).

I agree on the whole, but I think we can use the last character in the group ID string to differentiate. Again, a jazz trumpet sound could have a code such as "xxba" while a classical trumpet might have "xxbb."

4. Consideration should be given to excluding either the number "zero" or the letter "O" from this naming scheme to avoid the confusion to which those characters often lead. Since the letter "O" will be useful in plugin name abbreviations, perhaps we should try to avoid "zero". The "zero-zero" suggestion for a generic ruleset could be replaced with "zz", or something similarly unlikely to be used for other purposes.

Agreed. Let's try to stick to letters and not numbers. I have changed the generic rules code to 'zz' per your suggestion.

Also, I may create a shared list on Google docs or someplace similar to act as a reference point if we get more interest from the rules writing community where we can list out the group IDs, the libraries the rules are written for, and the patches the rules would apply to.

dcd111 wrote:I hope I have not appeared presumptuous to everyone by repeatedly throwing my two cents into these discussions about custom rules, considering that I'm still something of a Notion "newbie" and I haven't produced a single ruleset for the community so far. I was close to having a complete ruleset for Chris Hein Horns Compact that I intended to share, including some Kontakt presets for the plugin to go along with it, but got frustrated with how Notion 3 handled the custom rules for a few issues and didn't finish it, especially once I heard Notion 4 was coming. I'm hoping Notion 4 solves enough issues that I can make it useful enough to share.

I also plan to work on rulesets for AAS Strum Electric GS-1 and Era Medieval Legends if those interest anybody.

I don't think you are being presumptuous. I only wish that other rules users would contribute to this thread as well, but I have a feeling that some of them stopped visiting the forum some time ago. Maybe they will return when Notion 4 is released.

At any rate, I look forward to seeing your rules if and when you are ready to share them.

cool, you got my vote too. This is a good way for us to all gain by a cooperative naming convention.

When I do get to writing new rules for Notion4 I will definately refer back to this thread and use same (and share!)