Many users have wanted instrument note editing using a score editor. Having Notion's score editor inside a S1 editor is interesting but not likely to happen anytime soon IMO.

You can put in a FR for it if you are serious about it though.

Thanks for the reply. I'm just happy to hear that other people are interested in a note editor. Is there a DAW out there that has this function? I was a Notion user from early on and only got into SO due to their acquisition of Notion, but since experiencing how powerful SO is compared to N6 I'm now wondering is there isn't a better workflow for me. Appreciate any and all input.

I have Notion and Logic 9 I tend to use Logic 9 for scoring and everything else. The only reason I got Notion was the ability to use it on my Mac my iPod and my iPad. Other wise I am used to Logic 9 been using it for years.

Thanks for the reply. I'll look into Logic 9. Thanks.

You can do this with the current versions of Studio One Professional and NOTION 6 in a ReWire session . . .

In the NOTION 6 score, you will use ReWireMIDI staves, and everything works nicely for audio . . .

If you need to record the MIDI, then as best as I can determine, you will need to switch to External MIDI staves . . .

However, it's easier to use the new features of Studio One and NOTION 6 to send the ReWireMIDI directly to a Studio One project, and this has the advantage of separating the MIDI channels so each instrument gets only its specific notes . . .

If I were going to do this, I would do it the way shown in the first YouTube video to do the composing and then I would do the "Send Notes to Studio One" but using a new empty song. After this I would copy the MIDI and paste it into the first score where I recorded the audio . . .

This might appear to be a bit complicated, but once you do it a few times, the roundtrip takes just a few minutes . . .

Another way to get the MIDI notes into Studio One is to export the MIDI from NOTION 6 and then to copy and paste it into the Studio One project . . .

I tried recording the MIDI directly in Studio One using the ReWireMIDI strategy, but it didn't work . . .

Using External MIDI staves works somewhat nicely for recording the MIDI, but after doing a lot of experiments I could not get the channels separated, so the recorded MIDI for each instrument had all the MIDI channels for the "virtual MIDI cable", which is a bit messy really . . .

Exporting MIDI and using the Send Notes to Studio One strategies keep the channels separated; and it takes just a few minutes to copy and paste the MIDI into the Studio One score where the audio is recorded . . .

Recording the generated audio works very nicely, and as explained (see above), there are at least two ways to get the MIDI into Studio One as a "piano roll" sequence . . .

[NOTE: This is the first YouTube video, and it provides an overview of using ReWireMIDI staves in NOTION 6 to play VSTi virtual instruments hosted in Studio One. The instrument samples are not so modern as in the second version. There is voiceover on this video, and it runs for about 11 minutes . . . ]



[NOTE: This is the same set of note, but I used External MIDI staves and a different set of samples. I did a lot of experiments to determine what the deal is for recording MIDI, and each time I changed the instrument samples, which eventually wandered into some type of strange Techno, House, or Dubstep song . . . ]



Lots of FUN!

Thanks for the reply Surf. I am aware of the transfer options between SO an N6, I just don't care for them. I'd ideally like to run the vst's in SO and notate in N6, which I know is possible, but the routing isn't ideal and takes too much time to set up. I really don't want to use other products as I'm a long time Notion user, but I'm trying to define a better and more efficient workflow.

Right now rewire, utilizing both programs, is what I've been using. Simple, quick to set up, but I find the traditional 'cubes on a grid' piano roll is not very efficient, nor is it what I would consider musical.

Admittedly I've only scratched the surface of what N6 can do; I haven't dug into writing custom rules and only use EW Symphonic Orchestra (which I've found to not work that well in N6) aside from native Notion sounds as I've found the integration to be cumbersome when using other vst's in N6.

I tend to edit the sounds in SO once the writing process is complete. Again, this is not ideal. I find that being able to edit the sounds, i.e EQ, reverb and the like, while composing very beneficial, and with N6 this is problematic.

Digging in to the custom rules may be the option I need to explore, but that brings me to the fact that, for me anyway, running multiple vts's in N6 lags, while I can run a great number in SO without the comparable cpu usage.

It seems to me that N6 is simply a midi program not unlike the piano roll in SO and that the integration would be possible. Granted the nuances of notating different instruments would be a programming challenge, I believe it could be done.

anthonyparkison wroteThanks for the reply. I'll look into Logic 9. Thanks.

Don't think you can get 9 anymore but the latest version is just as good if not better,

anthonyparkison wroteI'd ideally like to run the vst's in SO and notate in N6, which I know is possible, but the routing isn't ideal and takes too much time to set up.

Right now rewire, utilizing both programs, is what I've been using. Simple, quick to set up, but I find the traditional 'cubes on a grid' piano roll is not very efficient, nor is it what I would consider musical.

This appears to be a bit illogical . . .

Am I missing something?

THOUGHTS

Based on the information you provided, I am presuming that you do not need nor want to work with MIDI sequences (a.k.a., "piano rolls"), which matches my perspective here in the sound isolation studio . . .

There are times when it's necessary to wander into the MIDI "piano roll" universe, and Studio One has an excellent MIDI Editor for this purpose, where the practical example is the MIDI editing that is necessary to make Realivox Blue (Realitone) sound human in a realistic way when doing legato, which also requires doing some advanced audio editing in Melodyne (Celemony), all of which takes hours no matter how proficient one becomes . . .

[NOTE: When I first started experimenting with Realivox Blue, it took days to customize simple phrases, but now it only takes hours; so I am fine with hours (as contrasted to days, anyway) . . . ]

So long as you do not need to work with the music in "piano roll" format, doing ReWireMIDI with NOTION 6 and Studio One Professional is very easy . . .

And there is a strategy that makes it even easier . . .

Specifically, instead of starting with blank scores for every song, take a bit of time to create a few templates, which you then can use to create a new song via opening templates and doing a "Save as . . . " to create the NOTION 6 score and Studio One project for the new song . . .

You can do this in both NOTION 6 and Studio One . . .

I am more focused on what I suppose are different types of "modern genre" songs rather than on orchestral and symphonic types of songs; and I always start with what I call a "basic rhythm section" (drumkit, bass, rhythm guitar or keyboard, and a simple melody instrument); and once this is coming along nicely, I add more instruments . . .

Since I do everything myself, I create songs in layers; so adding instruments one-at-a-time happens quickly once I determine which instrument to use and how it needs to sound, which (a) is fine with me and (b) is the same way it's done with real musicians in a recording studio for these types of songs . . .

I am doing a bit of speculating on this, but I do not think Mozart composed songs using a huge sheet of paper with 128 staves and going top-to-bottom, left-to-right writing the next vertical column of notes for all 128 instruments in sequential steps . . .

It's possible but unlikely . . .

Instead, I think he worked on parts and began with a sketch or an idea and then proceeded in an orderly way to transcribe the music onto paper for the individual musicians and singers . . .

Until recently, I have done everything with Digital Performer (MOTU) as the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) application; but I like the Studio One MIDI Editor, which I use to fine-tune Realivox Blue legato . . .

So I did an experiment to get a sense of how long it takes to do a basic rhythm section the way I suggest with music notation on ReWireMIDI staves in NOTION 6 and with the virtual instruments hosted in Studio One . . .

Starting with a blank NOTION 6 score and an empty Studio One project, it took about an hour to create the NOTION 6 template and the Studio One song--which is a one-time activity, since now I can reuse the template and song project via opening them and immediately doing a "Save As . . ." to clone them to create the new NOTION 6 score and Studio One song project . . .

Then I composed the music notation and did a bit of producing, which took another three hours and included making a new YouTube video . . .

I do everything on the 2.8-GHz 8-core Mac Pro (Early 2008) with 32GB of system memory and 3TB Seagate Barracuda internal hard drives running Mac OS X 10.11.6 (El Capitan); and even though it's about 9 years-old, it's plenty peppy for doing digital music production . . .

I have been using a different strategy when Digital Performer is the DAW application; but I like the way ReWireMIDI works with NOTION and Studio One . . .

I composed the music notation and did the initial producing and mixing in a continuous ReWire session that ran for approximately 3 hours, so the stability is there . . .

Nevertheless, I save my work frequently . . .

Once I had Studio One configured with the 16 AU and VSTi virtual instruments, I worked primarily in NOTION 6, where the focus was on composing and arranging with music notation . . .

The mixing and producing work took about 30 minutes and mostly was focused on volume levels and a custom echo unit (Timeless 2 [FabFilter Software Instruments]) for the MachFive 3 "Mark79" electric piano, which has approximately 2.5GB of chromatically sampled sounds . . .

There are 5 instances of Addictive Drums (XLN Audio), 10 instances of SampleTank 3 (IK Multimedia), and 1 instance of MachFive 3 (MOTU), which is more stuff than NOTION 6 can host in one score; so this is a very nice strategy . . .

It's a ReWire session, so Studio One is running the show and is responsible for the audio; but most of the time I worked in NOTION 6, which is the ReWire slave . . .

I have created basic rhythm sections in a variety of different ways over the past decade--switching from real instruments to music notation and virtual instruments in NOTION in 2010--and when most of the instruments are virtual and are played via music notation, this is the fastest and easiest way, which is why I like the new "ReWire MIDI" strategy . . .

When I was doing this with VSTi virtual instruments hosted in NOTION scores, I could only have a handful of instruments per NOTION score, which ranged from 1 to as many as 10, where for a "core hog" like MachFive 3 when it's running one of its advanced instruments like the "Mark79" electric piano, I just have 1 instrument for the NOTION score . . .

[NOTE: For the younger folks, the term "core hog" originates over half a century ago when mainframe computers had perhaps 64K of main memory and hard drives were 500MB (and cost about $80,000 [US]). A program that used a lot of memory generally was something everyone avoided unless there was no way to avoid it. Lazy programmers who did not focus diligently on efficiently using memory created programs that slowed everything, hence the term "core hog" and its usage either (a) to encourage better programming or (b) to express a bit of frustration. The MachFive 3 "heavy" virtual instruments use a lot of system resources (processing and memory), so I call them "core hogs" but more in the latter sense, because (a) they are chromatically sampled, which requires a lot of memory, and (b) they are the highest quality possible, hence are state-of-the-art. The "core" aspect comes from the way electromagnetic memory was designed and built. Each memory "bit" was a tiny iron toroid through which three wires similar to plain steel guitar strings were run. System memory literally and physically was a collection of tiny iron doughnuts (or "cores") . . . ]

The MachFive 3 "Mark79" is one of my favorite instruments for texture, so when I call it a "core hog", it's a compliment . . .

As you can see in the new YouTube video, this is an elegant way to compose a basic rhythm section . . .

[NOTE: If you listen carefully with studio quality headphones, you will hear notes that are not in the music notation, and these notes are created by the Timeless 2 echo unit and the way the echoes interact with the other instruments in the same frequency range. At present, the song has a bit of a Doors and Moby feel, which I like . . . ]



[NOTE: The Doors and Moby aspect mostly is the combination of the MachFive 3 "Mark79" and the two SampleTank 3 "Bright Tremolo Wurlitzer Electric Pianos" . . . ]





SUMMARY

If you need to have 100 to 200 instruments for a song, which certainly can be the case when there are several "sparkled" instruments--where "sparkling" is the term I use to describe spreading the notes for one instrument over as many as 6 staves with each stave panned to a very specific location so the notes can be put into motion from far-left to top-center to far-right in the Rainbow Panning Arc--then my recommendation is to have a set of NOTION 6 templates, where each template has 16 ReWireMIDI staves . . .

Since it's not practical to attempt to work with 100 to 200 instrument tracks in any DAW application when producing and mixing, the practical solution is to bounce sections of instruments and then to work with the submixed, stereo audio tracks . . .

Based on a bit of speed-reading in the Studio One User Guide, I think there is a way to save a collection of instruments as a group or whatever, so that when you need it later you do not need to create everything from scratch . . .

I am very happy with what I have discovered and verified so far; and while it requires some one-time, initial configuring, doing new songs does not require a lot of configuring after you have the system established . . .

There are DAW applications that have music notation functionality, but they are primitive and not the least bit easy to use . . .

In great contrast, NOTION is both intuitive and easy to use for music notation; so you can't beat NOTION . . .

Studio One interacts very nicely with NOTION; so I think this is an excellent combination . . .

I think the NOTION and Studio One "ReWire MIDI" strategy provides a practical solution for the work you described . . .

The way I put this into a realistic perspective is that if you were doing everything with real instruments, it would take an hour to load all the instruments, amplifiers, effects rigs, and so forth into a truck; another hour to drive to the recording studio; and another hour or two to get everything into the recording studio with microphones setup and so forth . . .

This is one of the reasons I switched from (a) doing everything with real instruments to (b) doing most of the instrumental work with music notation and virtual instruments, although there are a few real instruments that I use occasionally, but mostly because there are things I can on drums, bass, guitar, and keyboards that are not easy to do with music notation, and in some instances are impossible to do with music notation . . .

The first few songs will require a good bit of configuring and experimenting; but it will start making sense quickly; and after a while it will be intuitive . . .

In 2010 when I decided to make sense of ReWire, it took me three months to get everything working; and I have a Computer Science degree and at the time nearly 25 years of experience as a Windows application software engineer and about 10 years of experience as an Apple application software engineer . . .

Now I can show someone how to do ReWire on the Mac in about 5 minutes . . .

Nobody is born-knowing how to do all this stuff, but it's not an impossible thing to do . . .

Making sense of the various technologies and making the two YouTube videos in my previous post to this topic took about 18 hours; but doing the configuring for the new YouTube video (see above) took about an hour, because I already had done the hard work of making sense of all this stuff . . .

So yeah . . .

It requires a bit of work to define everything required for this "ReWire MIDI" strategy, but the payoff is worth the effort . . .

I am intrigued by what I have discovered and verified so far; and I think it makes sense to explore the possibility of creating groups or collections of instruments that I can load into Studio One quickly and easily, which I think is possible . . .

Consider my "Sweet Hour of Prayer" project . . .

So far, it has 39 NOTION 6 scores with a few instruments--including Realivox Blue singing--per score . . .

When the instruments are hosted in NOTION 6, this is the way it needs to be done when the instruments are high-quality VSTi virtual instruments, most of which are chromatically sampled . . .



If the "ReWire MIDI" strategy maps to perhaps 20 NOTION 6 subscores, it will be stellar; but in the grand scheme of everything, it doesn't matter, because the Aliens From Outer Space don't beam me complete songs . . .

I get songs one part at a time; so doing songs with ReWire MIDI is easier regardless of how many templates I construct in advance or whether I do most of the work on the fly . . .

And it removes most of the planning necessary to prevent overloading NOTION 6 scores with "core hogs", which is a huge bonus . . .

Lots of FUN!

Interesting and informative as always, SurfWhammy. Much appreciated!

Reha

rehaartan wroteInteresting and informative as always, SurfWhammy. Much appreciated!

Reha

The more I use this "ReWire MIDI" strategy with NOTION 6 and Studio One, the more I like it!

THOUGHTS

As explained in my previous post, I have tried quite a few strategies for creating songs in the digital music universe; and I have a nice strategy that I use when Digital Performer (MOTU) is the ReWire host controller, but instead of using ReWireMIDI staves in NOTION 6, I host the virtual instruments directly in NOTION 6, which works but it requires a lot of subscores since the virtual instruments I prefer tend to use a lot of system resources, which is fine with me, but it's a bit cumbersome . . .

I started with Digital Performer, so it's very intuitive for me; but when I started exploring Realivox Blue (Realitone), I discovered that getting her to do legato required a bit of MIDI sequence editing to overlap the durations of the notes she sings; and this led me to Studio One, because it has an excellent MIDI Editor . . .

Over the past week or so, I started exploring ReWireMIDI in NOTION 6 and hosting virtual instruments in Studio One; and it's very nice . . .

As you can see in the new version of "Flying In The Storm", there are some resource intensive AU and VSTI virtual instruments in the Studio One project; and this is more than NOTION 6 can handle the way I was doing it with Digital Performer . . .

In particular, the MachFive 3 (MOTU) "Mark79" is one of the advanced virtual instruments in MachFive 3, and it's what's called a "scripted" virtual instrument, which maps to having a virtual festival of advanced functionality. It's also chromatically sampled, and has a sampled sounds library approximately 2.5GB in size . . .

In the Digital Performer strategy, I would have the Mark79 in a separate NOTION 6 score, which is what needs to be done to ensure the generated audio is the highest quality and is fine with me . . .

In this new strategy, the basic rhythm section is hosted in Studio One, and the music notation is done on ReWireMIDI staves in NOTION, which is a significantly better way to do it . . .

I need to determine the best way to have sets or collections of virtual instruments defined in Studio One so I can make custom templates; and this is something I am exploring . . .

In the universe according to me, I should be able to save a set of tracks and then load and unload them as needed; but here I am not talking about audio clips . . .

Instead, I want to save the definitions of the tracks like a "preset" . . .

As best as I can determine, Studio One does not do this; but from the perspective of software engineering, the information is available; so it's something that can be done . . .

The reason for having "track definition presets" is that it's probably not practical or feasible to have 100 or 200 tracks of resource-intensive virtual instruments in a single Studio One project . . .

My thinking at present is that I can have 10 or 20 NOTION 6 scores to use as templates, each with unique purposes; and then in Studio One, when I need to work with a specific NOTON 6 template, I would load the corresponding set of predefined instrument and audio tracks . . .

Once I do the corresponding composing and recording, I can unload the current set and then start working on a new set, which to keep everything practical can include bouncing the previous set to a single, stereo audio track, and so forth . . .

What I know for certain is that the "ReWire MIDI Strategy" using NOTION 6 and Studio One is very nice . . .

I can work on 16 instruments at a time, and this is a practical set size . . .

[NOTE: This is the new version of "Flying In The Storm"; and for reference, I like to use particular types of chords that sound good when they are moved upward or downward by selecting and dragging with the mouse in NOTION 6. This way, I only need to determine whether the chord pattern needs to go up or down for a while, which is easier than pausing and pondering music theory and all that stuff. I do this with the mouse rather than with the transposing tool, because it doesn't introduce sharps and flats when the chords are moved vertically upward or downward with the mouse. I do everything with treble staves in the key of C (or A Minor), so this works nicely. Once I modify the chord pattern, I switch focus to the bass and then change the bass notes to fit the chords. I have been playing bass for over half a century, so doing bass lines is intuitive (music notation or real); and once you discover how to do bass lines, everything follows naturally. With these types of chords, the bass note effectively modifies the chord and makes it a different chord. If I thought about it for a while, I could make sense of the chords and what happens, but generally I do everything "by ear", so for me this way is more intuitive . . . ]



Lots of FUN!

If you are looking for something to host VST and AU instruments in, that has both score and piano roll style MIDI editing, you may want to take a look at Overture 5.

It works more or less like a MIDI sequencer, with decent score and MIDI editing capabilities. Also has a track view and mixer for the instrument parts. Not a full DAW, so no audio editing, but for arranging virtual instruments it can be useful. I have managed to figure out how to use it with SampleTank 3. I don't have any major sample libraries, so I cannot say how this thing acts when 'loaded up', but it performs well with the simple arrangements I have tested with. Imports and exports MIDI and musicxml. The main thing I like here is you can split the screen with a score view and a piano roll.

Any way, just another tool that may be worth mentioning...

As far as built-in sounds I prefer Notion over the included GM sounds of Overture, and overall I think Notion is slicker for pure music notation entry. Plus the score library is a nice bonus! I really like Surf's description of using the Notion integration with Studio One using the ReWire MIDI strategy!

All the posts on this thread point to the most requested feature in Notion....Let us edit CC curves!!! I don't need a piano roll. I just want to be able to edit pitches and CCs for notes by drawing CC curves (not via the clunky record function that requires a keyboard, which I don't play). PLEASE!!! The fact that Overture has this and Notion does not is a joke. Dorico has this as well. Come on PreSonus, you guys are so close to having the perfect notation software!

I did a few more experiments with the "ReWireMIDI" strategy, and this time I added six more AU and VSTi virtual instruments to the Studio One project (a.k.a., "song"), which are played by six more ReWireMIDI staves that I added to the NOTION 6 score . . .

[NOTE: As you can see in the YouTube video, the way I switch back-and-forth from Studio One to NOTION 6 is done by positioning Studio One at the top of the Mac OS X desktop and then by positioning NOTION 6 a bit lower. Studio One doesn't go all the way to the bottom of the screen, so part of NOTION always is visible; and since NOTION does not go all the way to the top of the screen, part of Studio One always is visible. If I want to work in Studio One for a while, I click at the top; and if I want to work in NOTION 6 for a while, I click at the bottom . . . ]



THOUGHTS

I noticed that most of the AU and VSTi virtual instruments have multiple channels . . .

In these first versions I have been using only "Channel 1" in the AU and VSTi virtual instruments, which essentially causes each on to be a separate instance . . .

After thinking about this for a while, I think I can use one instance to do several instruments, and I can map the NOTION ReWireMIDI staves to accordingly to play the multi-channel AU and VSTi virtual instruments . . .

The music notation and ReWireMIDI staves will be the same, but on the Studio One side they will be routed to the respective channels of the AU and VSTi virtual instruments, which maps to needing significantly fewer AU and VSTi virtual instruments in the Studio One project . . .

There probably is an optimal number of individual instruments for each instance of an AU and VSTi virtual instrument, so a bit of experimenting will reveal this number . . .

I use a lot of instruments in most of my songs; but they many of them are instruments provided by the same AU or VSTi virtual instrument and its respective sampled sounds library . . .

I am going to start a new topic to explore the "ReWireMIDI" strategy . . .

Lots of FUN!

So long as you do not need to work with the music in "piano roll" format, doing ReWireMIDI with NOTION 6 and Studio One Professional is very easy . . .

And there is a strategy that makes it even easier . . .

I've only had access to my phone all week so I haven't replied, but I do have to ask a question. First of all I'm on a pc, so do the mac examples apply? And while your explanations are thorough Surf, they're a bit...shall we say...wordy?

What I'd like to see is clear, step by step instructions for setting up the rewire midi for pc so I can notate in Notion while hosting the vst's in SO3.

It was offered elsewhere that to do this on a pc another program was required. I'm not sure of the validity of this but I felt it worth mentioning.

If anyone can clarify this and/or provide a link to set up what Surf is doing, but on a pc, it would be greatly appreciated.

anthonyparkison wroteI'm on a pc, so do the mac examples apply?

I think it's the same when you are doing this on a Windows machine, but someone who has a Windows computer will need to verify this . . .

anthonyparkison wroteWhat I'd like to see is clear, step by step instructions for setting up the rewire midi for pc so I can notate in Notion while hosting the vst's in SO3.

After working using the "ReWireMIDI" strategy on the Mac for a week or so, I have decided to start a new topic to explore this in more detail . . .

This will include some step-by-step YouTube videos showing everything in more detail . . .

Some of the information is provided in the user guides (NOTION and Studio One), but the focus is different, so it's not so clear in terms of how to do everything in a practical way . . .

Nearly every technology is explained this way in user guides, so for all practical purposes the low-level details are provided, but there is no high-level "put it all together" perspective . . .

It's the same with ReWire . . .

Each application provides specific information on "Here's how to do our part", but there's no "How to do all of it so you can compose and produce music" . . .

This is one of the reasons I start topics; make YouTube videos; and explain stuff . . .

In some respects, I think that digital music application software engineers and technical writers think we are a lot smarter than we actually are . . .

Among other things, I'm a software engineer, and none of this stuff makes any sense to me initially . . .

In fact, it's a bit mind-bogglying, but the software engineering aspect maps to having a set of skills that map to making sense of mind-bogglying stuff, which is something I call "scouting around" . . .

When I read a sentence in a user guide, I think to myself, "This tells me something, but I have no idea exactly what; so it's time to do some experiments to determine the rules" . . .

After a while, it makes sense--but not always . . .

anthonyparkison wroteIt was offered elsewhere that to do this on a pc another program was required. I'm not sure of the validity of this but I felt it worth mentioning.

You can do this with External MIDI staves in NOTION and VSTi virtual instruments hosted in Studio One; but this is different from doing it with ReWireMIDI staves, which is new in NOTION 6 and Studio One . . .

If you do this with External MIDI staves in NOTION, and you are doing this on a Windows machine, then you need a "virtual MIDI cable", which is where the third program is required, with the "virtual MIDI cable" being the third program . . .

The advantage of ReWireMIDI is that you do not need a "virtual MIDI cable" . . .

The caveat is that at present I do not think that you can record MIDI this way . . .

If you need to record MIDI, then there is a different strategy, which basically is to use External MIDI staves in NOTION and a "virtual MIDI cable" when you need to record MIDI . . .

There is another way to get the MIDI notes into Studio One, so there are options . . .

However, if you do not need to work with MIDI, then the "ReWireMIDI" strategy is perfect . . .

As explained in my previous posts, there are times when I need to work with MIDI--specifically when I am adjusting note durations to overlap them so that Realivox Blue (Realitone) does legato correctly . . .

I have a topic in this forum that explains the MIDI aspects of Realivox Blue; and all that stuff works nicely; but it also requires using Melodyne (Celemony), so it's a bit complex, hence the detailed topic . . .

SUMMARY

One of the Windows folks will need to provide the answer regarding whether the "ReWireMIDI" strategy works on a Windows machine; but I think it does, even though at present I cannot prove it does . . .

Look for the new topic, which should appear over the next few days . . .

I provided a few clues to the next set of experiments I am doing, and if the results are what I expect, then the "ReWireMIDI" strategy is simply amazing . . .

Lots of FUN!

As far as "virtual MIDI cable" for Windows, you can use LoopBe1 for free. http://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe1.html

LoopBe1 is free for non-commercial, personal use only. Any commercial use beyond a 30-day evaluation period requires purchase of a commercial use license.

I have LoopBe30 that came free bundled with another product. It works well for connecting the MIDI output ports in one application with the MIDI inputs of another. I have it configured for two ports, but I rarely use more than one.

LoopBe1 offers one 'virtual MIDI cable" that you can use. Since there are 16 channels on one MIDI port (virtual cable), you can split them up to different tracks at the destination.

I also would like to see Notion scores instead of a piano roll. I don't like piano rolls, especially when I need to find a specific part of a song. This would be editing automation much easier, for example.

Just this weekend I set up rewire midi staves in N6 routed to tracks in SO4. Quite simple to set up actually. As an experiment I set up 8 staves, bracketed them, routed them to 8 corresponding tracks in SO4 that I had packed in a folder, and had 1 instance of EastWest Play running 8 articulations of Hollywood strings. It really only took a few minutes to set up. Granted, that's a lot of staves to write one string line but what it allows me to do, once composition is complete, is to simply record the midi in SO4, rather than transfer, and then I can render to audio and compact that to one or two tracks simply by dragging the midi events onto a blank audio track. I'd post screenshots but I'm on my phone.

So while composing rather than specifying articulations in notation I just notate on the stave with that articulation. One could have a Notion stave loaded and follow along with the proper notation there and eventually hide the other staves if your purpose was a written score.