Does Notion 4 contain guitar tab ability?

[Halogen Sky]

Looking intently at Notion 4 reviews in SOS magazine, can someone tell me for sure if theguitar tab ability that it apparently contains is as good as "Progression" stand alone?

Thanks all,
HS

[Surfwhammy]

Looking intently at Notion 4 reviews in SOS magazine, can someone tell me for sure if the guitar tab ability that it apparently contains is as good as "Progression" stand alone?

Thanks all,
HS

NOTION 4 has stellar guitar tab abilities, and with a bit of experimenting you can make the NOTION 4 Electric Guitar sound like a Lap Steel Guitar or a Pedal Steel Guitar using the various types of string bends, slides, vibrato, whammying (a personal favorite), and so forth and so on . . .

These are the guitar and bass articulations on the NOTION 4 palette, and they look to be the same as the Progression guitar and bass articulations, but all I can do is guess, because I do not have Progression . . .



This is an example showing how the NOTION 4 Electric Guitar sounds when run through AmpliTube 3 (IK Multimedia) with one of the Jimi Hendrix amplifier and effects rig presets and a bit of T-RackS CS Tape Echo (IK Multimedia), which provides a clue to the virtual festival of possibilities for having a bit of FUN with lead guitar solos, since with NOTION 4 running in 64-bit mode on a fast computer with a lot of memory, you can use elaborate effects and lots of other stuff . . .

A Bit of FUN with Lead Guitar (Surfwhammy ft. Pretend Jimi Hendrix)-- QuickTime MPEG-4 Movie -- MP4 (6MB, approximately 35 seconds)

And since NOTION 4 works with all VSTi virtual instruments, you can use MachFive 3 (MOTU) and its electric and acoustic guitars, where the following basic rhythm section demonstrates having a bit of FUN with the MachFive 3 Jazz Stratocaster playing rhythm and lead guitar--where (a) the rhythm guitar has vibrato done with a MachFive 3 script and (b) the lead guitar is run through Timeless 2 (FabFilter Software Instruments) for advanced echoes--all done with music notation and virtual instruments . . .



[NOTE: All the instruments are done with music notation and virtual instruments in NOTION 3 (32-bit) where the NOTION 3 generated audio is recorded as soundbites in Digital Performer 7 (MOTU) via ReWire and then produced, mixed, and mastered in Digital Performer 7 on the 2.8-GHz 8-core Mac Pro (early-2008) with 20GB of memory here in the sound isolation studio using a carefully selected set of Audio Unit (AU) signal processors and effects plug-ins, which was done in June 2012 before Digital Performer 8 and NOTION 4 were released, which I forgot, but so what. The difference that Digital Performer (64-bit) and NOTION 4 (64-bit) make is that you can do a lot more stuff, since the 4GB 32-bit application workspace limitation is gone, and with increased memory on your computer, Digital Performer 8 and NOTION 4 can use it when running in 64-bit mode, for sure . . . ]

"I Want To Dance With You" (The Surf Whammys) -- Basic Rhythm Section and Lead Guitar Counterpoint -- MP3 (9.9MB, approximately 4 minutes and 34 seconds)

And if you enjoy Classical acoustic guitar, then this is an excellent example of what one can do with NOTION, which is done by another FORUM member (JohnF), which is fabulous . . .

[NOTE: According to the description, this is done with the Expansion Sounds for Classical Guitar (Notion Music), which provides more articulations and dynamics . . . ]

"Adela" (John Freese) -- YouTube music video

Fabulous!

[Surfwhammy]

As a bit of follow-up, I decided to compose a song using the examples from the guitar tab video in my previous post, augmented with the 24-note equal temperament quarter tone scale from the video example in another topic, and after having a bit of FUN for 12 hours or so, this is the song, which is fabulous . . .

[NOTE: The Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, and Piano are the NOTION 4 bundled instruments, and I augmented them with a MachFIve 3 (MOTU) synthesizer and a MIDI drum loop from the Addictive Drums Metal MIDI Pack. I ran the Electric Guitar through AmpliTube 3 and the T-RackS Tape Echo (IK Multimedia) and used Timeless 2 (FabFilter Software Instruments) for advanced reverberation and additional echoes. You will observe that there are no notes on the Addictive Drums staff, and this is because I used a MIDI loop from the Addictive Drums Diabolic MIDIPak, which features drumming by Daniel Erlandsson (Arch Enemy), who is my favorite drummer, and apparently NOTION 4 knows how to control Addictive Drums this way, which is a bit mind-boggling in terms of vast simplicity. And since for the most part I compose in "play by ear" mode, the general strategy is to put a bunch of notes on the various staves and then to listen to it over and over toward the goal of identifying (a) what sounds "good" and (b) what sounds "bad", where in an iterative process I "fix" the "bad" notes thereby making then "good" notes, which basically is that way a real musical group develops a song, absent someone like George Martin, but I also am Pretend George Martin when necessary, which is a handy skill, for sure. For reference, the time signature is 24/4 since this makes it easy to do the 24-note equal temperament quarter tone scale, but the drumkit loop is 6/8, hence I have no idea what the actual time signature might be, except that the tempo is 182 beats per minute, which is a pun on the musical group "Blink 182", so I use it every once in a while . . . ]

"Abyss" (The Surf Whammys ft. Pretend Daniel Erlandsson) -- YouTube music video

Fabulous!

[Halogen Sky]

Uh...gee, thanks Surfwhammy. That sure is a lot of space and time wasted just to tell me you don't know if Notion 4 is on par with Progression 2. It would be great if we could keep it short and simple and stay on topic. Just looking for info on ver 4. Looks like no one else is biting on this one... I'm picking up Progression 2 instead.

End of thread.

HS

[Surfwhammy]

I'm picking up Progression 2 . . .

Depending on the operating system platform and version of your computer, this might work, but perhaps not, and if you are doing everything on the Mac and are running Mac OS X 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion) and are using an external digital audio interface like the MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid, then you need to get NOTION 4, because Progression 2 has problems on the Mac when the operating system is Mac OS X 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion) . . .

For reference, these are the links to the respective User Guides in PDF format, which you can read to determine the differences in the two products:

Progression 2 User Guide (Notion Music) -- PDF (217 pages)

NOTION 4 User Guide (Notion Music) -- PDF (278 pages)

I have Progression for the iPad, but it is not the same as Progression 2 for the Mac, so I decided to get Progression 2, and as soon as the instrument library finishes downloading I can provide the exact set of differences, but judging by the Progression 2 user interface, I think the primary difference involves using third-party VSTi virtual instruments, which NOTION 4 supports but Progression 2 does not support, and this is important for example when you decide to add a horn section to your musical group, which I encourage you to do, really . . .

Really!

VST effects plug-ins are supported in both Progression 2 and NOTION 4, so everything is good in that respect . . .

Another difference is that NOTION 4 has NTempo with full features, which is a conducting tool for live performances that makes it possible to adjust the tempo to match what the real musicians and singers are doing. Progression 2 has the single-beat tap part of NTempo, where for example you can press the "a" key on your computer keyboard to set the tempo, such that if you tap sufficiently fast or slow you can cause the notes to be played at a desired tempo, where each tap maps to causing the note(s) for one beat to be played . . .

Regarding the two User Guides (see above), the NOTION 4 User Guide has a sections on Slides, Palm Mute, and Let It Ring, but these are not included in the Progression 2 User Guide, although they are supported by Progression 2, so if need information on Slides, Palm Mute, and Let It Ring, you can download the NOTION 4 User Guide and use its Chapter 13 . . .

Progression 2 and NOTION 4 run in 32-bit and 64-bit mode, which is done differently on the Mac and Windows, where on the Mac both modes are included in the application package and the specific mode is indicated by the "Open in 32-bit mode" option via "Get Info" for the application, but on a Windows machine there are separate versions where you can install both versions and then use whichever mode you desire without needing to do the aforementioned switching, although most of the time you will want to run in 64-bit mode if at all possible, since it is not constrained by the 32-bit application workspace limitation (Mac and Windows) . . .

Progression 2 and NOTION 4 support ReWire 2 (32-bit and 64-bit mode, but only one at a time), which is excellent when you need to record the Progression 2 and NOTION 4 generated audio as soundbites in a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application like Digital Performer 8 (MOTU), which now is available in both Mac and Windows, where this is the first version of Digital Performer that MOTU has made available for Windows users and was released just a few days ago. The Mac version of Digital Performer 8 was released in Fall 2012, but it took a bit longer to get the Windows version working, probably due to late developments in Windows 8 . . .

However, on the Mac it does not appear that the Progression 2 Mixer is working correctly for all the ReWire 2 functionality, because in great contrast to the way the NOTION 4 Mixer works, there is no Output option in the Progression 2 Mixer for assigning the output of Progression 2 instruments to ReWire 2 channels. Also, there is no option to set the output for the Progression 2 Mixer Master stereo output channel, which causes a problem when you are running certain types of external digital audio interfaces like the MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid (a personal favorite), since the MOTU 828mk3 Hybrid expects the Main stereo output to arrive on channels 9 and 10, but Progression 2 and NOTION 4 send the Master stereo output to channels 1 and 2, which is easy to correct in NOTION 4 but as best as I can determine is not possible with Progression 2 running on the Mac when the operating system is Mac OS X 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion) . . .

You can use "Built-in Output" on the Mac with Progression 2, and it works, but not being able to assign Progression 2 instruments to specific output channel pairs is a problem . . .

[NOTE: Whether this happens on a Windows computer is another matter, and I have no way to determine how Progression 2 works on a Windows computer, but it has problems on the Mac, which basically maps to making NOTION 4 the best option if you are doing digital music production on the Mac . . . ]

Nevertheless, Progression 2 on the Mac works nicely as the ReWire 2 host controller for Reason 6.5 (Propellerhead Software) when Reason 6.5 is the ReWire 2 slave, which for reference is in 64-bit mode, hence it is ReWire 2 rather than the 32-bit only ReWire 1.7 (or whatever was the last version of 32-bit only ReWire, although I think it was ReWire 1.7) . . .

And while the Progression 2 instruments were downloading, I did a quick test by copying the NOTION 4 instrument libraries into the "Sounds" folder for Progression 2, but only the guitar, bass, drums, and some of the keyboards were recognized, which basically maps to Progression 2 being limited to guitar, bass, drums, and some keyboards, as well as not being able to use third-party VSTi virtual instruments like MachFive 3 (MOTU), Kontakt 5 (Native Instruments), Addictive Drums and Addictive Keys (XLN Audio), and so forth and so on . . .

The instrument sound libraries finished downloading, and the file sizes are the same for the instruments included in Progression 2 as for the corresponding instruments in NOTION 4, so I think that they are identical, and the instruments included with Progression 2 are {Acoustic Guitar, Clavinet, Electric Bass, Electric Guitar, Electric Piano, Piano, and Upright Bass} . . .

SUMMARY

If you are doing digital music production on the Mac and are running Mac OS X 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion), then you need to get NOTION 4 rather than Progression 2, since (a) NOTION 4 has everything that Progression 2 has; (b) NOTION 4 has a lot more features, instruments, and capabilities; and (c) Progression 2 has problems on the Mac when running in Mac OS X 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion) . . .

[NOTE: If you are doing digital music production on a Windows computer, then perhaps one of the Windows folks will provide some insights into how Progression 2 works . . . ]

Based on my initial testing, I think it is accurate to state (a) that Progression 2 is a limited feature subset of NOTION 4; (b) that everything included with Progression 2 is part of NOTION 4; but (c) NOTION 4 has the most current updates, since everything in NOTION 4 is working nicely on the Mac running Mac OS X 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion) . . .

Hence, my recommendation continues to be to get NOTION 4, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

[Admin]

All of the Tab functionality that is Porgression 2 is in Notion 4.

-Admin

[Surfwhammy]

I did a bit more work on the electric guitar and grand piano for "Abyss" (The Surf Whammys), both of which are NOTION 4 bundled instruments, and I made a new high-quality YouTube video which is public, so enjoy watching and listening to some of the advanced electric guitar techniques one can do with the NOTION 4 bundled Electric Guitar, which is fabulous . . .

[NOTE: Regarding the "advanced electric guitar techniques" aspect, there is nothing particularly complex about the notes and articulations in the music notation, but I suggest that actually playing this on a real electric guitar requires one to have advanced skills, if only due to the string bends, slides, whammying, and knowing how to set AmpliTube 3 (IK Multimedia) and the two tape echo units (T-RackS CS Grand Tape Echo [IK Multimedia] and Timeless 2 [FabFilter Software Instruments]). Also note that If you have a high-speed broadband connection, the video is available in HD (720p) as a viewing option . . . ]

"Abyss" (The Surf Whammys ft. Pretend MIDI Daniel Erlandsson on drums via the XLN Audio Diabolic MIDI Pak) -- YouTube music video

Fabulous!