dcoscina wrote:So I got it into my head that Sibelius 5 and Finale 2009 offered more features to better composer orchestral music. What I found was the following:
1. Both ARE very deep programs with lots of fantastic scoring features
2. Both have varying levels of learning curves. Each interface has its own pros and cons
3. Both are able to use VSTs like EWQLSO and VSL whose libraries are stunningly real for playback
4. Both are further ahead of NOTION when it comes to printing options and general score parameters
5. Both left me dazed, confused, frustrated and not having written much of anything of worth!!!!
I do hope NOTION 3 closes the gap especially when it comes to printing out one's score and moving things around for aesthetics purposes but as a compositional device, it still allows me to write music faster and more clearly than those other two. I desperately tried to get both Sibelius and Finale to worth with my bigger libraries in the hope to get a realistic sound but I found that there was no easy way to set things up and worse, the memory demands of those libraries was so taxing a large orchestral section brought my Mac Pro to its knees. A BLOODY MAC PRO for crying out loud!!!! What the heck???? (FYI- it's because both program is very limited as a VST host).
If I wanted to resort to the built in sounds from either, I had to live with Garritan's sounds which IMO sound AWFUL. I'm sorry, really but I will take NOTION's built-in sounds ANY DAY over Garritan, especially the brass which at least DO react to dynamics changes and gets brassier and louder! So, like the prodigal son (not the Prokofiev piece although that is lovely), I have returned to NOTION in the hope that I can actually compose rather than futz around with settings, sounds and all that nonsense all day long.....
p.s. I hope NOTION 3 is not going to be a huge expense to us NOTION 2.2 owners. Free would be even better. I'm sickened by the rates that Sibelius and Finale charge their users for upgrades. $170 for Sibelius 5 to 6. $99 for Finale 2009 to 2010 (those guys have quite the racket- having a chargeable upgrade every bloody year?? Who do they think they are, Cakewalk?
Sorry for the rant. I love NOTION..

I've been Beta testing Notion 3. Now, let me say, I'm working in a different realm, right now, than what you describe. I'm a jazz guitarist, teacher, arranger, composer. I've only had Notion 3 Beta for a couple of weeks, but it has already helped me produce a score I used on a gig, just tonight. I have a steady gig, guitar and baritone sax. The sax player, Danny Harrington, is a Berklee professor, a Vandoren artist, has played with a long list of name acts. We've been working together for years. Recently we've been playing Danny's transcription of the Chet Baker - Gerry Mulligan "Line for Lyons." It inspired me to write two-part jazz counterpoint for the John Lewis tune "Afternoon in Paris." I wrote the arrangement very quickly in Notion 3, printed out the parts, and we read them on the gig tonight. It was a big success. A local piano player, sitting at the bar, at the end of the night, said, "The first tune of that last set -- was that Mulligan?" As we packed up, Danny told me this and said, "So you achieved your goal."
Notion 2 had problems with D.S. and Coda. Notion 3 has cleared that up. I was able to solo out the bari and practice my part along with the bari. To print the bari part, I just checked that off, and unchecked the guitar. The part I printed for Danny is very professional, and readable -- and Danny has read parts with Gladys Knight, Tommy Dorsey, -- a long list. If it's good enough for Danny -- it's pretty good!
So, yeah, Notion 3 has got it right. All you have to do is click a button to see a list of instruments, then check off the one you want to print, and uncheck the others, and it prints WYSIWIG. Are there tweaks we'd like to be able to apply? Sure. But for pure productivity, Notion 3 is amazing!
Right now, I'm not using Notion to produce "production quality" audio output -- which seems to be what you are discussing in your post. (Althogh, to digress, I did use Notion 2 to produce my
"Touching Light" CD -- which has had some success.) I'm using Notion 3 to produce jazz arrangements and parts that I will use on gigs -- I have a gig for a seven-piece band, mostly Berklee facutly, coming up next month -- and Notion 3, although still Beta, is working great.
I love Notion!
Steve