MOTUnation.com

I've always liked the Notation editor. It's very unique in that it's actually a MIDI roll editor with staves for a skin. Very easy and fast to work in.

However, with monitors and resolution getting larger, and the Notation editor not able to zoom verticality it hurts my eyes to even try to use it.

Does anyone else care about this and has anyone made the suggestion to MOTU to add vertical zoom to the Notation editor?

Steve

I suppose you could use QuickScribe, but yea, not the same thing. The Notation Window is a neglected, vestigial feature. (I personal STRONGLY prefer the piano-roll editor). But yea, I don't see a way to vertically zoom in that window.

Looks like, for the time-being, you are left with changing the screen resolution. That is how it is for some DP features where the screen elements are too small for modern high-res monitors.

I just realized I haven't used the Notation feature since the last update to DP. There are times when I need a piano roll but forget that Notation gives this as opposed to being just a slight variation of QuickScribe. But more often than not, I'm transcribing parts for transposed instruments and need QuickScribe's features.

I have an old monitor so might not experience the need for vertical scaling that you mention. I'll give it a launch when I start my DP session for the day, as I'm doing harmonic analysis of multiple parts at the moment anyway and shouldn't have been attempting that in QuickScribe where I can't see enough context at once.

I use the NE a lot. I so wish it had more view features.

Unless I did something wrong, I was unable to get more than one track to show up in the Notation Editor the other day. My primary purpose of such a screen-wasteful feature would be to compare harmonic elements between parts, as there isn't enough context in page-based layouts like QuickScribe.

mhschmieder wrote:Unless I did something wrong, I was unable to get more than one track to show up in the Notation Editor the other day. My primary purpose of such a screen-wasteful feature would be to compare harmonic elements between parts, as there isn't enough context in page-based layouts like QuickScribe.

Wasteful and impractical. If we could show multiple tracks in that window as separate staves that would be very nice, indeed.

I know $h)# about programming, but it seems to my little mind that DP is not all that far from being a notation program. I know, I know, graphics v. MIDI data, still with Finale on the rocks, Sibelius as convoluted as ever, and Doritos [sic] limping along, how many programmer hours would have to go into adding robust, really robust notation aspects to DP to make it a DTP type app? I mean, how elfin' cool would that be and what might that do to MOTU's profit margin if it really took off?

Pipe dream?

mhschmieder wrote:Unless I did something wrong, I was unable to get more than one track to show up in the Notation Editor the other day. My primary purpose of such a screen-wasteful feature would be to compare harmonic elements between parts, as there isn't enough context in page-based layouts like QuickScribe.

File this under ridiculous user tips:

Go to the Page Setup... and create a custom page size. Under Paper Size, choose "Manage Custom Sizes". In the left box, click the + below and create a new paper size. Now you can define this as something crazy like 60" wide. I made a 50" wide by 12" high paper called "Crazy Wide". Now you can see lots of context. Then just switch the page size back to standard when you're done.

MIDI Life Crisis wrote:

mhschmieder wrote:Unless I did something wrong, I was unable to get more than one track to show up in the Notation Editor the other day. My primary purpose of such a screen-wasteful feature would be to compare harmonic elements between parts, as there isn't enough context in page-based layouts like QuickScribe.

Wasteful and impractical. If we could show multiple tracks in that window as separate staves that would be very nice, indeed.

I know $h)# about programming, but it seems to my little mind that DP is not all that far from being a notation program. I know, I know, graphics v. MIDI data, still with Finale on the rocks, Sibelius as convoluted as ever, and Doritos [sic] limping along, how many programmer hours would have to go into adding robust, really robust notation aspects to DP to make it a DTP type app? I mean, how elfin' cool would that be and what might that do to MOTU's profit margin if it really took off?

Pipe dream?

Keep this in mind.

1) Studio One 3 (Presonus) now owns Notion 6 and Notion iOS which is being integrated into Studio One. Btw, Notion is nothing to sneeze at (it's every bit as good as Staff Pad on the Window's Surface device. It's much more powerful than most people give it credit for. I use it on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil achieving amazing results. It's handwriting recognition is VERY fast as is its workflow. After starting a thread on the Finale forum to build an iOS version, kindly reported back after Finale discussed it, that they have just decided to not produce an iOS version of Finale for a couple of reasons. One big reason is that they think Notion iOS is a very good notation platform on iOS. Btw, I don't believe Finale is "on the rocks."

2) Cubase will integrate parts of Dorico into Cubase. That could be a slight blow to new DP sales and reputation.

3) The Logic Score Editor is very good. But I'm not sure how many Logic users use that feature.

Digital Performer, being the standard amongst LA film composers should have a "best in class" score editor. I've grown to like Quickscibe somewhat. And the Notation edition has an amazing premise in that it's a MIDI roll editor with a "notation skin" - try draging notes and they act not like Quickscribe but thee MIDI editor. It's unique and powerful. But the staff and staves are so small as to be useless to most people.

My opinion is that not many coding hours would be required to add some of the additional functions needed to make Quickscribe and the Notation editors more competitive.

1) The interaction between the palettes and Quicksribe desperately need to be brought up to date.

2) Percussion staffs would need to be added. Dialog boxes miss many features.

3) A way to manage the window layout in Quickscribe needs to be improved. It doesn't need to be a complete engraving program (more like Notion in my opionion - I wish MOTU would have bought them as it fits DP perfectly. I compose much more fluently with notation. Currently I compose in Notion iOS and 6. Import the MIDI file into DP, or record the ReWire output into DP, then output the MusicXML to Finale for clean up.

4) Keeping in mind that the Notation editor is just a MIDI editor, only vertical zoom needs to be added to make it great (that I have thought of). The Notation editor wouldn't need to display multiple tracks like the MIDI editor does, because the point of that window is to focus on one track. And the Quickscribe window can be configured to do that. But, I would welcome the feature non the less. Perhaps as tracks overlay on the Notation editor they could use the track colors to signify the individual MIDI tracks.

I'm still a firm believer that DP is far ahead of most DAWs in terms of features with only Cubase coming close (Cubase 9 just now got Sidebars and Consolodated Windows!), but MOTU, other than Music XML export has ignored the Notation editor and Quickscribe for many years.

For the upcoming DP10 anniversary release I've been begging MOTU to overhaul both the Notation editor and the Quickscribe editor. The other major composing DAWs are all doing it. This is DP's supposed strength. It would be a mistake to let this area fall behind.

Steve Steele

Thank you, Steve, for some great info. One small point: when I said "on the rocks" I should have qualified "as a film composing app." The loss of the movie window in F25 was the deal breaker for me. I don't say this lightly. I've used it in all my print projects for over 20 years and was their featured artist at least twice. I'm as loyal as they get, but as Nina Simone says: once lived be stops being served its time to leave the table.

Steve Steele wrote:
1) Studio One 3 (Presonus) now owns Notion 6 and Notion iOS which is being integrated into Studio One. Btw, Notion is nothing to sneeze at (it's every bit as good as Staff Pad on the Window's Surface device. It's much more powerful than most people give it credit for. I use it on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil achieving amazing results. Its handwriting recognition is VERY fast as is its workflow....
Steve Steele

Interesting...

I passed on an inexpensive cross-grade to Notion 6 for Mac because of a couple of workflow issues that got in my way but 6 is the first version that I thought was worth the "dough for the do-re-mi". I've had Notion iOS since the very beginning but have never used it.

I bought a 12.9" iPad Pro a few months ago and am certainly going to look at it again.

Thanks for the heads up!

stubbsonic wrote:
File this under ridiculous user tips:

Go to the Page Setup... and create a custom page size. Under Paper Size, choose "Manage Custom Sizes". In the left box, click the + below and create a new paper size. Now you can define this as something crazy like 60" wide. I made a 50" wide by 12" high paper called "Crazy Wide". Now you can see lots of context. Then just switch the page size back to standard when you're done.

What a great hack! Because of huge monitor sizes these days I'd like to see different types of page layouts types,(Page across, page down, etc..), but after trying a few different Page Setup sizes I found something I can live with now. At 180-200% and 4 measures per page (and layout in landscape), Quickscripe is much more comfortable for me to work in.

Thanks for sharing that tip!!

mikehalloran wrote:

Steve Steele wrote:
1) Studio One 3 (Presonus) now owns Notion 6 and Notion iOS which is being integrated into Studio One. Btw, Notion is nothing to sneeze at (it's every bit as good as Staff Pad on the Window's Surface device. It's much more powerful than most people give it credit for. I use it on my iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil achieving amazing results. Its handwriting recognition is VERY fast as is its workflow....
Steve Steele

Interesting...

I passed on an inexpensive cross-grade to Notion 6 for Mac because of a couple of workflow issues that got in my way but 6 is the first version that I thought was worth the "dough for the do-re-mi". I've had Notion iOS since the very beginning but have never used it.

I bought a 12.9" iPad Pro a few months ago and am certainly going to look at it again.

Thanks for the heads up!

If you want I'll make a Notion iOS on iPad Pro video on my YouTube channel for you. I have the 12.9" iPad Pro also, Notion iOS and the Apple Pencil it's and it's just as good as or better than carrying pen and paper, that I can take anywhere.

A few simple things just make it killer:

Being able to pinch and zoom is awesome! Being able to see vector graphics at that size with a gesture makes the workflow so fast. Maybe Notion on an iPhone looks silly but on an iPad Pro it definitely does not. It's actually changed my life. Over the last couple of years I've grown really tired of sitting in the studio all day long for the past 20 years. Now, with headphones I can go anywhere and, depending on the job, I either get most of my work done, or if it needs to be scored to film I can at least get started on sketching ideas, upload them to the cloud and import them into DP or Finale when I get to the studio.

I make a lot of lead sheets and Notion iOS is great for that. I was a little envious of Staff Pad at first. But no more. Using a stylus on a tablet is not the end all of note entry on a tablet. I use several methods of note entry at the same time and that is the fastest way to work in my opinion.

Lastly, because Notion has some DAW like features (like the Sequencer Overlay and Sequencer staffs), it make Notion great for composing. I can have basic CCs and note velocities already done in Notion before I hand it over to DP.

It's not the best layout program of course, but that's not what I use it for.

Steve

I hear you. Yes, I'd be interested in such a video. I've not bought the Apple Pencil but if it helps me, I certainly can. If Notion can translate the scrawl that my right hand produces, that will be very helpful.