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Controlling multiple MIDI CC inside Notion - my custom method

Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 5:39 am
by matthieudulong
Hello to the Notion Team and the Notion users !


I am very excited today because I finally found a solution for using multiple MIDI controllers (MIDI CC) inside Notion 6 !

I am composing right now some music for a video game where the director wants the music to have a lot of synth sounds so I bought the wonderful Zebra2 synthesizer (Hans’ Zimmer soft synth !) and today I realized that we can use multiple CC’s (with a somewhat readable translated notation) inside Notion.

I made a quick video and I will certainly make another one to make it clearer but I wanted to show you my method (and my enthusiasm) right now !


This is the video I made this morning :

phpBB [video]




So « my method » uses sequencer staves and their respective dynamics markers to control different parameters (e.g. MDI CC) in Notion.

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Here are the different steps I made to make this work :

1) Create a new track and assign in the VST (if it is not already done) a MIDI CC to a function.

2) Create a new rule (shift+Y on mac to open the menu) and select the CC you want to control (in my example for the Zebra2 main track I chose CC7 to control the main volume of the synth). In some VSTs, the crescendos/decrescendos don’t work properly if the minimum is set to 0, so I always set this minimum to 1 so things always work. Then place this rule to the beginning of the staff (don’t forget this step ! :) ).
[To have Zebra2 control the volume with CC7 I notated some dynamics and crescendos/diminuendos in the score, engaged the MIDI learn function in Zebra2 and played a few bars so the VSTi can learn that CC7 is linked to the volume knob in the synth - again : don’t forget to have placed the rule you created in the staff before ! otherwise nothing will happen].
Before 3), check by inserting some notes and dynamics that everything works fine.

3) Create a new track with no VST in it (just choose the default basic track in notion) and in the track settings window (cmd+shift+T on mac), and (this is optional) for better readability you can make this staff a single-line staff.

4) We want this second track to « work » (in the absence of a better word) with the main track, so click on the first track and press shift+I to open the « instrument change » window, then click « OK » and place the indication on the beginning of the second track (as we did with the rules). Now the second track should have its name changed and you can rename it (like the controller : for me it was Low Pass Filter).

5) As we did for the main track, create a new rule and choose the CC you want, then place this new rule at the begging of the new track. [Again, if the VST needs MIDI learn, use the same method as described above with the dynamics on the new track (use rests rather than notes to place the dynamics), but make sure that when you press play only the dynamics of the new track are read by Notion].


The way it works is as follows : the dynamic markers are used to control the various parameters (MIDI CC) you have configured. All « CC » tracks (not the main track) - I assume that you can create as many as you want but I haven’t tested yet, I discovered it today! - are made to control the MIDI CC, and because of that they should not have notes in it (otherwise it will play the notes !). So to have dynamics (i.e. CC variations) that change where you want it, you must use their rests equivalent instead of the notes, and place the dynamics and crescendos/diminuendos like you will usually do with traditional notation.

Et voilà !

Please remember that I only discovered this workaround today, and it may not always work without problems for all users. I'm going to study this custom method over the next few months, and I'll let you know if things can be improved (and I promise I'll make a better tutorial video!).


… oh, and sorry for the mistakes in english, I am french.


I wish you a great day,

Matthieu Dulong

Re: Controlling multiple MIDI CC inside Notion - my custom method

Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 12:48 pm
by Rudi_UK
Hi Matthieu,

Thank you for this ingenious trick - it looks very interesting.
Hopefully at some stage the Notion programmers will give us proper CC control lanes, but in the meanwhile this is very helpful.

Best,

Rudi

Re: Controlling multiple MIDI CC inside Notion - my custom method

Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 10:16 am
by jonathanfreese
Matthieu,
Thank you so much for this information! It's a pain to setup, but finally allows for a little more control over our VSTs. If you find out anymore tips please post. Again, thanks for sharing this tip.

Jonathan

Re: Controlling multiple MIDI CC inside Notion - my custom method

Posted: Wed Aug 15, 2018 1:33 am
by matthieudulong
Thank you a lot Rudi and Jonathan !

Yes we are all waiting for this feature to come available in Notion :)

In the meantime, I have (almost successfully) made some presets for Notion that doesn’t necessitate any MIDI CC recording and with just two or three adjustments here and there in the score.

If you are interested, I have made a post in which I will be releasing some of the presets I made for Notion : viewtopic.php?f=169&t=31356.

I wish you a great day !

Matthieu Dulong

Re: Controlling multiple MIDI CC inside Notion - my custom method

Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2020 1:08 pm
by aouameurfarid
C’est Ingénieux. Merci Mathieu
Farid

Re: Controlling multiple MIDI CC inside Notion - my custom method

Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2020 12:42 pm
by richardbevin
Just wondered if you've tried adding the rules you have created to the single original vst staff. It seems you can have up to 4 custom rulesets per staff. So 4 different CCs could be sent for the hairpins. I am currently using the EWQLSO presets and an addition rulset the has CC1 set for hairpins. So when this played, both CC1 and CC11 are sent simultaneously. Hope this helps.

Re: Controlling multiple MIDI CC inside Notion - my custom method

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 7:41 pm
by petergardner1
Hi Matthieu
I recently watched your great tutorial: ''Cinematic Studio Strings Presets for Notion 6 and followed all your steps, but I am unable to get the notes to sound. It works fine when I select a VST Instrument (Kontakt) but when I select a VST Preset the list of VSS instruments appears and a score sample labelled for example Violin 1, but no instance of Kontakt is opened, so there are no sounds.In your tutorial we see a brief flash of the Kontakt window opening and then immediately see a string quartet example with all the preset sounds assigned. Please explain step by step how to get Kontakt to open using Presets.

When I go to the log file, I get this error, so it seems that Notion has a problem, how did you get yours to work?

C:\Users\Peterg\AppData\Local\Notion Music\Notion 6\Logs

[2021/02/14 20:13:50] Sampler: could not open overlapped file
[2021/02/14 20:42:42] voCreateEngine failed


I have searched Google and Notion forums for any info on this and you seem to be the only one who has come close to getting this to work. I would really appreciate if you could help me with this vital step, so I can make full use of Notion's fantastic features.

BTW you demos and video posts are really good, if you have the time, please update the presets for all the latest products in the Cinematic series as CSW and CSB are both available now.

Regards
Peter Gardner