Adding Instrument Staves

[aekeus]

Hi,

I'm a music teacher and we are looking into whether to purchase Notion for our school image (1:1 laptops).

Huge problem -- There are no school instruments available in the demo! Where are the soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders? Where are the ukuleles? Where are the handbells?

To be honest, if I can't add these, then I probably won't recommend this program for my school. Could you please advise me on how to add these staves? My gut reaction is that I really like Notion because it's so visual (and I teach ESL kids)... but if it can't deliver what I need it to do...

Thanks,

Amy

[Surfwhammy]

There are no school instruments available in the demo! Where are the soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders? Where are the ukuleles? Where are the handbells?

After watching the movie about George Harrison ("Living In The Material World")--released at the iTunes Store this week--where Tom Petty shares a fascinatingly surreal story about George Harrison bringing him an ukelele one day and then leaving several more ukeleles based on the premise that one never can tell when one will need more ukeleles, which included Tom mentioning in the interview that the trunk of George's car was filled with ukeleles, I like your attitude, for sure . . .

For sure!

It appears that you have selected a rather nonstandard or unusual set of instruments for what one might call "Traditional Western Music", but so what . . .

So what!

The reality here in the sound isolation studio is that I learned to sight sing Classical music as a child when I was in a liturgical boys choir, but I only learned the soprano range of the treble clef, and sometime later I switched to what I call the "play by ear" strategy where I learned Rock and Roll songs by playing vinyl records as slower or faster speeds, where at first I identified and memorized notes one at a time . . .

In those days, there were no personal computers and music composition software, so I did everything in my mind primarily using the "play by ear" strategy, which was and continues to be vastly excellent, where one of my more curious projects involved teaching myself how to play grand piano simply by thinking about it and imagining myself playing grand piano, which took approximately 20 years and now maps to being able to do compose and play songs like this in real-time on the fly in the first take, where the "grand piano" actually is a KORG Triton Music Workstation (88 Keys) with a grand piano and synthesized fog preset, and I used some slowly cascading echo units to make it sound like a "Wall of Pianos", even though it is only one part . . .

[NOTE: The key to this strategy is discovering how to reprogram the Frontal Eye Fields region of the brain, which is the only way one can play so many notes so rapidly, where the basic rule is that all you need to do is to discover how not to think about what you are doing in any immediately conscious way, since after sufficient pondering over time your unconscious mind already knows how to play grand piano, at least in the Twelve Tone System when applied to Jazz, which basically maps to discovering how to get in touch with your inner idiot savant . . . ]

"Starlight" (The Surf Whammys) -- Kick Drum, Electric Bass, Grand Piano, Synthesized Fog -- MP3

Frontal Eye Fields (wikipedia)

Twelve Tone Techinque (wikipedia)

In 2010, I decided to do a Flamenco song in a modified Bulería style that I call "Surrealería™", and while I am a reasonably proficient drummer, there are limits to what I can do with elaborate rhythm patterns, since my primary instruments are electric bass, electric guitar, and keyboards, hence after a bit of pondering I decided to explore the possibility of using music composition software, and since I am a huge fan of IK Multimedia products, I purchased Miroslav Philharmonik and then discovered NOTION 3, which after approximately 18 months of diligent work now maps to my being quite proficient in music notation and VSTi virtual instruments, in part because NOTION 3 has a feature where I can do everything on the treble clef in the standard soprano range but specify that the notes are played some number of octaves higher or lower, which is great for me because I think in soprano treble clef, and being quite proficient in Mathematics, Geometry, and Acoustic Physics, my perspective is that there are 12 notes and 8 octaves, which is the most elegant perspective in my opinion, because it is extraordinarily simple, which is fabulous . . .



[NOTE: This is the Flamenco song in the Surrealería style, and all the instrumentation is done with music notation in NOTION 3. The song is a romantic story about Mary the Moonchild and Paul the Firecracker, where the current plan is that for the YouTube music video during the interlude--which features a custom designed 36-beat Flamenco rhythm--I will do a Flamenco Dance and Mime reenactment of The Mayan Story of the Creation of the World while wearing ballet tights with an impressive codpiece, pointy toed slippers, and a Venetian mask as I juggle unshucked ears of corn, which not only (a) makes excellent sense but also (b) explains why I am a bit annoyed by Miley Cyrus stealing my idea for the Venetian Mask in her music video for "Who Owns My Heart". And this song has a blend of NOTION 3 bundled instruments and IK Multimedia VSTI virtual instruments . . . ]

"Maríta de la Luna y Pablito el Petardo (No Es Tanto Lo Que Es Como Lo Que No Es)" (The Surf Whammys) -- MP3 (7.8MB, 279-kbps [VBR], approximately 3 minutes and 40 seconds)

Fabulous!

When one has not done anything with music notation in half a century, it takes a while to recall everything, and I never learned how to do percussion notation, so I had to devise a way to do percussion notation, which took a few months of experimenting, but so what . . .

So what!

If personal computers, music composition software, and VSTi virtual instruments had been available when I was a child, I would be better than Mozart, except that I am better than Mozart, regardless, which I think is evident by the fact that I am making excellent progress on my new album titled "Electric Underpants", and as best as I have been able to determine, Mozart never was able to connect all the dots in this particular genre, really . . .



Really!

NOTION 3 is very intuitive, and because (a) you hear the notes as they are entered and (b) you can play selections easily, it is an excellent system for doing computer-based music composition and in fact is the only such system on this planet . . .

Regarding a full range of recorders, ukeleles, and handbells, NOTION 3 does have handbells, but the range is limited, so if you want a full range of handbells, then the strategy is to use Kontakt (Native Instruments) as the VSTi virtual instrument and to use the stellar handbell sound samples from Bolder Music (a personal favorite), which also has crystal glass sound samples, and a lot of other specialized types of instruments, including sound sample of a fellow banging on washing machines and dryers with a sledgehammer (a personal favorite) . . .

[NOTE: The Kontakt 5 Player is FREE, but most companies charge for their sound sample libraries . . . ]

Kontakt 5 Player (Native Instruments)

[NOTE: I purchased the full version of Kontakt 5 specifically to be able to do advanced experiments with the Bolder Sounds handbells, which are simply amazing, and both companies were having stellar discount sales at the time, so I saved a lot of money, too . . . ]

Handbells (Bolder Sounds)

I am a huge fan of IK Multimedia VSTi virtual instruments, and IK Multimedia also has a FREE version of its VSTi instrument player, which includes 500MB of sound samples and works very nicely with NOTION 3, as does Kontakt . . .

SampleTank FREE (IK Multimedia)

One of the more useful bits of information about VSTi virtual instruments is that all the companies have discount sales every once in a while, so the best strategy is to gather information and then to wait until the VSTi virtual instruments you need are on sale at vast discounts, although with educational pricing this might be a bit moot, and I think that most of the VSTi virtual instrument companies provide educational pricing . . .

For recorders and ukeleles, one strategy is to use SampleTank FREE with the Xpansion Tank 2 World Instruments Collection multisampled instruments expansion pack, since it has quite a few different types of recorders and ukeleles . . .

If a regular set of handbells is sufficient, then the NOTION 3 handbells are fine, but if you need a full range of handbells, then the Bolder Sounds product is the best, and it includes some really big handbells, for sure . . .


Randy Richards holding "Tiny" the C2 Handbell ("Deep C", 65.406-Hz) ~ Handbells V2 for Kontakt 3+ (Bolder Sounds)

For sure!

THOUGHTS

I am vastly intrigued by the idea of having a surreal orchestra featuring recorders, ukeleles, and handbells, although I am inclined to want to add some kazoos and a solo featuring a fellow banging on a washing machine with a sledgehammer, but then I am working on an album of silly DISCO and Pop songs about ladies underpants, so connect the dots with respect to what counts as "unusual", really . . .

Really!

The fact of the matter is that nothing beats NOTION 3, and while there are some considerations depending on the specific types of instruments one needs, there are solutions for everything, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!

[wcreed51]

You can certainly recorders and hand bells. I've never seen ukuleles included in any sample library.

Added libraries won't have the instant ease of use that the included sound libraries have. BUT, these limitations would be the same for any notation program.

[Surfwhammy]

I've never seen ukuleles included in any sample library.

The "World Instruments Collection"--which is one of the multisampled instrument collections from Xpansion Tank 2 (IK Multimedia)--has plenty of ukeleles, as well as recorders, but no kazoos and handbells . . .







[SOURCE: Xpansion Tank 2 Multisampled Instrument Collections (IK Multimedia) ]

Nevertheless, as you noted, there are solutions for everything, and for reference it is possible to create your own sampled sound libraries with SampleTank FREE (IK Multimedia) and a bit of work with a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application and a WAVE audio file editor, which is fabulous . . .

Fabulous!