Notion 2nd Annual Composition Contest

[Frodo]

http://www.notionmusic.com/contest/

Winner gets $2500 cash, airfare and accommodations to London, and the winning composition is to be reecorded by the London Symphony at Abbey Road Studios.

$1000 for each of three finalists.

Deadline is May 31st, and Notion software must be used.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Interesting. Only in scores Notion versions can be submitted.

What a great scam. So folks go out and buy the $500 program to enter the contest (hoping to win $2500). The company only needs to sell 5 copies to make that back. Probably get Virgin to sponsor the airfare and the London Sym. to work out a deal.

Now THAT'S marketing!

[Frodo]

Interesting. Only in scores Notion versions can be submitted.

What a great scam. So folks go out and buy the $500 program to enter the contest (hoping to win $2500). The company only needs to sell 5 copies to make that back. Probably get Virgin to sponsor the airfare and the London Sym. to work out a deal.

Now THAT'S marketing!

It's brilliant-- on their part.

And for $500 some some composer goes from total obscurity to partial obscurity with an LSO recording credit!

[MIDI Life Crisis]

And for $500 some some composer goes from total obscurity to partial obscurity with an LSO recording credit!

If the London Sym. had commissioned the work, it would be a more important credit, I would think. Also, the fact that they recorded (which basically means a read thru) is quite different than them releasing the recording.

Apparently, we're the only two who seem to care at all.

Makes you wonder....

[Frodo]

And for $500 some some composer goes from total obscurity to partial obscurity with an LSO recording credit!

If the London Sym. had commissioned the work, it would be a more important credit, I would think. Also, the fact that they recorded (which basically means a read thru) is quite different than them releasing the recording.

Apparently, we're the only two who seem to care at all.

Makes you wonder....

All true.

A commission is certainly more impressive than an entry level contest where the *better* composition competitions offer bigger purses anyway.

Dunno. Finale has given me enough fits over the past two years that I'd pay $500 just to avoid further headaches. I've saved that much by not upgrading from 2006. I've also wasted that much on other things. Hmm.

More accurately, I do have 2007 but did not get 2008 and decided against 2009 when the time comes.

Shall we consider it an "advertising" expense?

I'm actually tempted. The more I think about it the less I have to lose.

[PrimeMover]

Not really familliar with "Notion", I switched to Sibelius after years of headaches with Finale, and although I think it's better, overall... I [explicative deleted] HATE Sibelius's note entry system, it just doesn't mesh with my way of working.

Actually, that's something that pisses me off about Sibelius... it's such an institution, you either do something their way or the highway. With Finale, their ways may be convoluted silly, but at least there are multipul ways of doing any one thing. Going back and re-typng a whole messure in Sibelius just because I got one note length wrong (or decide to change it) should NOT be the best solution for a modern-day music notation program.

So, how is Notion?

[explicative deleted] it, I'm about to say, "until Adobe, Apple, or MOTU writes a music notation program, noone's going to get it right"

[Frodo]

So, how is Notion?

LOL! I don't know. I've seen the website, but as you say-- it's not until you get neck-deep into an app that you find out where it won't go the distance.

I dread Finale's note entry method for different reasons than perhaps you dislike Sibelius' method. I just use DP and port over the SMFs. It's so much faster. I've only tried Sibelius, but many orchestra librarians are telling me to get it. I just can't make that leap right now.

Notion certainly looks nice enough. From the descriptions, it *is* a different approach that they claim is more intuitive. The question is always whether the developer's idea of intuition is personal or universal. Someone at Sibelius thought their method of note entry was a great idea, if you take my meaning.

[explicative deleted] it, I'm about to say, "until Adobe, Apple, or MOTU writes a music notation program, noone's going to get it right"

I almost agree with you there to the extent that the ones who've cornered the market on notation have yet to get it all figured out properly, imho.

Adobe? Hmm. How much do they know about music? They would be GREAT with graphical layouts and such, but I'm not sure how musically it would work. Some of their stuff is pretty right-brained.

Apple? Another hmm. I've looked at Logic 8's Score. It's more promising than most other DAW-based notation, but I'm still trying to figure out how to really put it to serious work. Maybe a self-contained app would offer more. Stability would certainly be a plus.

MOTU? Please don't get me started on QuickScribe, if that's an example of what would come later. QS has hardly changed since it was introduced. When Encore was available it was a few steps ahead of QS, and Encore fell off the planet while QS survived only as DP's albatross. Print quality in QS is just plan sophomoric.

Oh, heck. There I went a said too much!

Because all of these notation apps excel in one area and fall short in different ways, I've been loath to switch. But maybe the new year will inspire a brave shift?

[kinnylandrum]

Both Finale and Sibelius have their weaknesses in note entry. In fact I dare say, none has strengths anywhere. I'm back to using Finale on a current show, because few of the Broadway copyists know how to use Sibelius, but I don't like it. Somebody please tell me, because I really don't understand, why can't notation entry be as fast and easy as by hand, or maybe even as painless as word processing. I really don't get it.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

...why can't notation entry be as fast and easy as by hand, or maybe even as painless as word processing. I really don't get it.

Neither do I. Ideally, I'd love to see a program allow "freehand" input via a tablet. I can sort of do that now, but having to change note values (as opposed to actually writing the value freehand) gets old fast. Then once the entry is done, have the program convert to it's font. Duh!

Frankly, I have no problem using the "old" way of writing music (paper and pencil) and find Speedy Entry in Finale to be the best entry mode for me (usually). Even when a DAW is perfectly quantized, Finale and Sibelus (I have both) don't always do a great job of interpreting it correctly.

Another thing in Finale I use a lot is "exploding" music. Allows me to write tight harmonies and divide them into a section quickly. Given only one program to choose, I'd have to say Finale - if only because of the years I have worked in it. I could do it blindfolded. But I do like the cleaner/simpler interface in Sibelius. Unfortunately, I find it almost "too simple" and some aspects are downright cryptic.

[kinnylandrum]

Yeah I still do a lot by hand (lead sheets, rhythm parts, vocal parts, quick transpositions of existing music, even some small horn sections) and I always marvel at how easy it is. This is fine, even preferable, for one-off "get it done now" things, but not a whole score for a show or whatever. God forbid you have to transpose a chart from one of those because the singer can't sing it in the original key.

My only real theory as to why music notation can't be as easy as word processing is that music is a graphic language and not linear symbols, like an Roman-character language. But then I think about Asian languages and wonder how they handle word processing. Oh well..

And then I think about the people who try to actually SEQUENCE AND MAKE RECORDINGS on those notation programs. God forbid.

[mhschmieder]

I'll have to re-read the detail when I'm more awake, as I deleted their email on this subject last night thinking it was of no interest due to some of the requirements. But the paraphrases at the head of this topic makes me think I deleted that notice prematurely.

With a 31 May 2008 deadline, there seems plenty of time to decide whether it's worth it or not to enter.