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I'm quite comfortable with Notion but this is a newby question nevertheless:

I've been composing with Notion since Notion 2 and have returned to Notion 6 after painfully flirting with Sibelius for a year.

I understand that Notion 6 has built-in VSTi presets for certain sample libraries, such as Vienna Symphonic Library Special Edition, East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra Platinum, Gold, and Silver, and a couple more. I've used these sounds in the past, and they're quite good.

I want to dramatically expand my available instruments by using EWQL instruments from an annual subscription. I do not want to be limited to "just" the presets, and I do not want to spend even another minute rolling my own XML rules -- flirted with that for Sibelius and had some successes, but I just do not have the time for that and want to spend it composing.

So, my question: I'm wondering if I can use a DAW, and Studio One in particular, to accomplish this? I'm wondering if this workflow is valid: Notion > Studio One > EWQL sample libraries

The reason I ask is that I've just read that Notion 6 and Studio One integrate. To ask my question a different way: Can I compose traditionally with Notion and then play the score using EWQL instruments through Studio One (and of course use Studio One to polish the score) and then bounce to an audio file?

I've never used a DAW, Studio One or any other, but if this can work, I'll have some follow-up questions but right now, I just need to know if this is correct thinking.

Thank you, everyone, for any advice and tips you can give me.
Last edited by stephennill on Mon May 18, 2020 3:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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by Surf.Whammy on Mon May 18, 2020 3:14 pm
Yes! You can do this with Studio One Professional and NOTION . . . :)

SUCCINCT OVERVIEW

You can do it . . .

It works very nicely . . .

There will be some new stuff to learn and to understand . . .

There are smart ways to develop a "song formula" with user-defined "templates" so you can begin work on a new song in a few minutes . . .

It's vastly powerful when combined with EWQL "Composer Cloud" . . .

THOUGHTS

I was helping another forum member in a different topic and along the way discovered the subscription feature for all the EWQL products; so I subscribed for a month and then forgot to change to a by-month yearly subscription, hence was billed for another month at the full rate, but so what . . .

I will switch to the better rate before next month . . .

This is the topic, and the question was focused on using the EWQL subscription service in NOTION 6 (current version), so I did a quick video to show it working in NOTION 6 . . .

Can't enable /Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST/Play.vst (PreSonus NOTION Forum)

[NOTE: This YouTube video shows how to use the EWAL "Composer Cloud" in NOTION 6 as a VSTi virtual instrument, which on the Mac is very easy to do . . . ]

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STUDIO ONE PROFESSIONAL + NOTION + ReWire MIDI

I do not have a YouTube video for this, but I plan to do one--presuming I can get everything loaded to a different Mac, since at present my Mac Pro (Early 2008) is having problems and everything is on it, including ScreenFlow; but perhaps I can find a way to do a YouTube video . . .

I'm on a 2012 MacBook Pro, and it has Studio One Professional and NOTION; and I have the info for EWQL "Composer Cloud", so if I can get ScreenFlow, working, then great . . .

Based on the way EWQL "Composer Cloud" works with NOTION 6, it will work equally well when it's a VSTi virtual instrument hosted in Studio One Professional and the music notation is on ReWire MIDI staves in NOTION, which is all NOTION will be doing in what I call the "ReWire MIDI Strategy" . . .

This topic has detailed information on the "ReWire MIDI Strategy", and shows how it works when SampleTank (IK Multimedia) is the VSTi virtual instrument, as well as a few others . . .

Project: ReWire ~ NOTION + Studio One Professional (PreSonus NOTION Forum)

[NOTE: This YouTube video shows how to configure SampleTank (IK Mulltimedia) as an Instrument in Studio One Professional which will be played via music notation and MIDI sent from NOTION to Studio One Professional. The music notation is on ReWire MIDI staves in NOTION. This is done in a ReWire session where Studio One Professional is the ReWire host controller and NOTION is the ReWire slave. It's interactive, so for example you can compose in NOTION during the ReWire session, make changes, and so forth. As always, save your work frequently . . . ]

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OBSERVATIONS

This can appear to be vastly complex on first inspection, but this mostly is a matter of "busing and routing", which in some respects is the most important but typically unknown aspect of digital music production . . .

Some of the "busing and routing" stuff is documented, but (a) it's not easy to find and (b) all the digital music production companies presume everyone knows about busing and routing, which nearly never is the case for most folks . . .

Every digital audio workstation (DAW) application does busing and routing in different ways; and this also is the case for VSTi virtual instruments, although there are similarities in most of them . . .

Conceptually, what you are doing is telling the VSTi virtual instrument whence it's MIDI comes . . .

In a ReWire session where the music notation is on NOTION ReWire MIDI staves, what happens is that NOTION generates MIDI from the music notation and sends the MIDI to Studio One Professional to play the various VSTi virtual instruments . . .

The "busing and routing" aspect involves telling the VSTi virtual instruments where to "listen" for MIDI coming from NOTION . . .

For example, when you have a ReWire MIDI staff in NOTION for electric bass, the ReWire MIDI staff has a bus and a channel on that bus; and this is the information you need to configure the VSTi virtual instrument in Studio One Professional so that the VSTi virtual instrument "listens" to the respective ReWire MIDI staff and its generated MIDI . . .

This will make sense after you do it a few times and get everything working correctly . . .

Once it makes sense, the easiest way to use this strategy is to make user-defined "templates" for things you typically want to do . . .

As I use the term, a user-defined "template" is created by doing a "Save As . . . " in Studio One Professional and NOTION for standard things you want to do . . .

For example, I have a "Basic Rhythm Section" that I like to use when I start a new song . . .

It has 10 or so instruments (drums, bass, rhythm guitar or synthesizer for chords, a simple melody instrument, and a few other things) . . .

I configured everything and then did "Save As . . . " in Studio One Professional and NOTION . . .

Now when I want to start a new song with my "Basic Rhythm Section", I open templates and then do a "Save As . . . " to create the Studio One Professional and NOTION projects for the new song . . .

There is no music notation in the NOTION user-defined "template", and all the Studio One Professional "template" has is the matching busing and routing for the VSTi virtual instruments hosted in Studio One Professional . .

In other words, one it makes sense--which can take a bit of working and experimenting--when you get to the "cookie cutter" or "song formula" step, then all the configuring, busing, and routing stuff already is done via the user-defined "templates" . . .

My focus is on what one might call "popular music", and popular music tends to have a lot of consistency . . .

Look at it in terms of the way things were done in recording studios for song sessions for Elvis Presley, Beatles, Motown artists, and so forth . . .

Everything was setup before the musicians and singers arrived, and this is what user-defined "templates" do in the "ReWire MIDI Strategy" . . .

It's a pattern and a formula, so you commit it to memory via "Save As . . . " user-defined "templates", and there you are . . .

On the Mac Pro (Early 2008), which currently is not working, the general rule is that Studio One Professional can handle 10 VSTi virtual instruments at a time; so I start with the "Basic Rhythm Section" and then render the music to Audio tracks, followed by zapping all the VSTI virtual instruments and then adding another set of 10 VSTi virtual instruments which are bused and routed to 10 new ReWire MIDI staves that I add to the NOTION score--noting that since NOTION only is doing music notation and MIDI generation, it does not use a lot of system resources, hence I can keep adding more ReWire MIDI staves in the NOTION score with no problems . . .

There are some archiving steps along the way, so I keep everything for a song in a specific folder for the song, which then makes it possible to go backward and forward as the need arises; but overall you want your "song formula" to go forward, since going forward is easiest . . .

Look at it this way: At first there is a lot of new stuff that needs to be learned and understood. It's not actually difficult, but it's new stuff . . .

When you learn and understand all the stuff, you can compose a new song very quickly, because you have "cookie cutters" and a formula for creating songs . . .

With EWQL "Composer Cloud", you have thousands of instruments and voices, and if you need a superb female soprano vocalist who has a phonetic scripting language, then I recommend Realvos Blue (RealiTone) . . .

Realivox Blue (RealiTone)

The first time I tried to make sense of ReWire (2010), it took me about three months to get it working; and during that time if folks from Notion Music and MOTU appeared in the front yard, I probably would have chased them around with an axe; but I got it working eventually, and now I can do it in about 5 minutes . . . :P

ReWire is easy, but the problem is that nobody actually documents it for specific DAW applications, NOTION, and specific VSTi virtual instruments--mostly because everything changes and there are too many variables (DAW versions, NOTION versions, VSTi virtual instrument versions, operating system versions, and so forth) . . .

If someone documented everything, by the time they finished the detailed documentation all the software applications would have new versions and everything mostly would be different, which is the reason nobody actually documents this stuff in great detail other in this forum . . .

Explained another way, all user guides PRESUME you know at least as much as the software engineers who tried to explain everything to the technical writers; and good luck on that . . . :P

SUMMARY

This is easy to do--once you learn and understand what probably will be a bunch of new stuff--and the reward is that you will be able to do pretty much everything by yourself with a computer, external digital audio and MIDI interface, one or two good microphones, and if you play an instrument, then an instrument for when you want to play or sing a part rather than do it virtually . . .

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[NOTE: Reason (Propellerhead Software) now is in version 11 and "Propellerhead Software" now is "Reason Studios". The new version does not support ReWire, but it has a VSTi virtual instrument; so now my beautiful diagram is outdated, but so what. I will update the drawing, and all will be good . . . ]

Image

If you are doing this on the Mac, then I can provide help; but if you are doing it on a Windows machine, it works pretty much the same way, but I can't be much help on Windows machine specifics, since they are different . . .

Lots of FUN! :)

P. S. This the most recent version of the song in the YouTube video, which is fully documented in vast detail in the aforementioned link (see above) . . .

[NOTE: These are best enjoyed when listening with studio quality headphones like SONY MDR-7506 headphones (a personal favorite), since there are a lot of motion effects . . . ]

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This is a complete song done with Digital Performer (MOTU) as the DAW application and NOTION for music notation, which is fabulous . . .

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Project: "Sweet Hour of Prayer" (PreSonus NOTION Forum)

Fabulous! :)

Surf.Whammy's YouTube Channel

The Surf Whammys

Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!
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by stephennill on Mon May 18, 2020 3:58 pm
Surf.Whammy, you've made my day! Thank you for taking the time to answer my basic question.

I enjoy technical challenges, so I am strongly leaning toward diving in.

The only remaining question I have, for now, is: in this setup will notation marks I make in Notion, such as dynamics, slurs, and such, be carried over ("heard") in the resulting sounds in Studio One? In other words, does everything work as it does in Notion 6 with the built-in VSTi presets?
User avatar
by Surf.Whammy on Tue May 19, 2020 1:09 am
stephennill wroteSurf.Whammy, you've made my day! Thank you for taking the time to answer my basic question.

I enjoy technical challenges, so I am strongly leaning toward diving in.

The only remaining question I have, for now, is: in this setup will notation marks I make in Notion, such as dynamics, slurs, and such, be carried over ("heard") in the resulting sounds in Studio One? In other words, does everything work as it does in Notion 6 with the built-in VSTi presets?
Glad to help! :)

SUCCINT OVERVIEW

Some of it works the same, but it depends on the specifics . . .

I do not use rules and preset mappings in NOTION, mostly because I think it's "busy work" which overall just makes the music notation cluttered . . .

Some of it does not do what most folks think it does, where the most obvious example is dynamics . . .

Here in the sound isolation studio, if it's there but you cannot hear it distinctly, then it's noise and is not productive . . .

A few years ago I was curious about the various things one can do with an electric guitar in NOTION, so I did an experiment to determine how absurd it could be; and NOTION had no problems with it . . .

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I have not tried this with the "ReWire MIDI Strategy, but it probably won't work because NOTION is designed to do all the guitar stuff specifically with its native guitars . . .

In the "ReWire MIDI Strategy" you can mix and match; so if something is better done in NOTION, then you can do it in NOTION and send the audio to Studio One Professional via audio channels in a ReWire session where Studio One Professional is the ReWire host controller and NOTION is the ReWire slave . . .

Think in terms of constructing a song in layers, which is the only way it can be done when one person is doing everything . . .

A song can have many layers, and there can be many NOTION scores for one song . . .

To keep everything practical, you need to do submixes in Studio One Pofessional, which is the way it's done in recording studios; since while you might be able to have a few hundred tracks, it's impossible to see all of them at the same time in any detail, which makes it visually cluttered for no useful purpose . . .

Submixing lets you take a bunch of tracks and render them to one stereo track, which then maps for example to having one stereo track for most of a drumkit, although I like to have three separate tracks (panned left, center, and right, respectively) for kick drum and snare drum . . .

In its entirety, it's very flexible . . .

if someone asked me, "Which is the most difficult: plastic surgery, fighter pilot, CEO of Fortune 100 company, or digital music production?", then my answer is that they're about the same level of difficulty . . .

It takes a while to learn and to understand all this stuff, but the reward is that you can do everything when it makes sense, which it will after a while . . . :+1

THOUGHTS

When I first started using NOTION, I experimented with various marks (dynamics, playing styles, and so forth) but soon decided it was a waste of time for no obvious benefit . . .

Remember that my focus is on "popular music", and the rule in this style is that if you can't hear it, then it's noise and doesn't need to be there . . .

The example I use when explaining this perspective is the strings for "Eleanor Rigby" (Beatles() where George Martin highly annoyed the string players by having microphones placed next to their instruments--to the point of causing them to modify the way they played (bowed, mostly) to avoid hitting the microphones . . .

This was an unusual recording technique at the time, but it put the strings upfront in the mix . . .

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In "popular music", the goal is to be able to hear everything that is important; and it requires a lot of arranging, producing, and audio engineering . . .

This can be done to some level in NOTION, but it's easier to do in Studio One Professional; and it's done with effects plug-ins . . .

One of the most commonly used techniques is call "ducking", and it's done most obviously in broadcasting (radio, television, movies, and so forth) . . .

It requires a special type of effects unit that uses the volume level of ont thing to lower the volume levels of other things automagically . . .

I do it with one of the FabFilter Software Instruments' effects plug-ins, and this video shows how it's done . . .

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It's called "ducking", because based on the volume level of one instrument or voice, other instruments and voices are lowered or raised in volume; and when the volume level of the source instrument or voice increases, the other instruments and voices are "ducked" or "lowered" automagically . . .

This can be done with elaborate sets of dynamic marks in music notation, but my perspective is that it's too complex and too much work, hence I don't do it that way . . .

It's not limited to one input source (called the "sidechain"), so it can be done with subsets of instruments and voices, where one example is adding clarity to the combination of kick drum and electric bass, which have overlapping frequency ranges . . .

This can be enhanced by something called "brickwall equalizing", where the concept is to tailor the frequency ranges of kick drum and electric bass so each one has a unique range . . .

If you want the kick drum to be heard distinctly during continuous electric bass phrases, then the kick drum volume is the "sidechain" source, and the electric bass is the instrument being "ducked", so that when a kick drum note is played, the electric bass volume level is "ducked" for the duration of the kick drum note . . .

Done smoothly, the result is that the kick drum notes are heard distinctly and the electric bass appears to be at a continuous level . . .

The more subtle "ducking" is, the better . . .

Curiously, over the years the Rolling Stones have developed a strategy where they "duck" themselves when playing, which they do essentially by playing solos during which whatever each one plays is all that is being played, with the exceptions of the electric bass and Mick Jagger's singing . . .

Instead of all the instruments playing continually at the same time, they take turns . . .

The best example is the way Charlie Watts plays certain types of snare drum rimshots, which he does by playing only the snare drum rimshot . . .

It looks awkward, but it sends the snare drum rimshot to the front of the mix for an instant, which I think is hilarious, as well as effective . . .

Somehow, he discovered that he can be the star of the group for an instant when nothing else is happening; so at these times, he only plays a snare drum rimshot--no hi-hats, cymbals, or anything else . . . .

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I call this style of playing "orthogonal", and the Beatles were the definitive orthogonal four-piece musical group, with ZZ Top being the definitive orthogonal three-piece musical group, where the key is that everyone is doing something unique in one way or another rather than all playing continuously at the same time . . .

Before tha advent of electricity and signal processors, the only way to do this was with dynamic marks, playing styles, and all that stuff . . .

Another curious aspect is that most of the signal processors were designed to help radio stations conform to FCC broadcasting regulations, where the radio signals were required to be within strict ranges--not too loud and not too quiet, basically being as consistent as possible without totally destroying tone, dynamics, and all that stuff . . .

Some of the signal processors used by radio stations had melodic properties which made music sound better than otherwise; and producers and audio engineers discovered this and started to use the same signal processors to enhance recordings . . .

Today, all these signal processors are available as VST effects plug-ins; and there are newer effects plug-ins that move this a step forward by doing even more interesting and melodic enhancements . . .

So, one way to avoid dynamic marks and all that stuff is to use VST effect plug-ins . . .

Another very important bit of information is that sampled-sound libraries come in two flavors, (a) chromatically sampled, where every note is sampled and digitized and (b) diatonically sampled, where only every other note actually is sampled and digitized, with "diatonically" being my name the "every other note" sampling strategy . . .

The problem with diatonically sampled libraries is that for motion-based playing styles (vibrato and tremolo as defined for Fender amplifiers, but also for violin playing styles, singing, and so forth), the in-between (non-sampled) notes are computed by logarithmic interpolation or whatever and what happens is that the vibrato and tremolo rates are different for the computed notes, depending on whether a lower sampled note is raised in pitch by computing or a higher sampled note is lowered in pitch to create the in-between computed note . . .

If you want consistent tremolo for diatonically sampled electric guitar, then use the dry version and add tremolo with a VST effects plug-in so that everything is run though a tremolo unit at the same speed, rate, intensity, and so forth . . .

In practice, the custom rules and all that stuff are not doing a lot more than adjusting numerical values, which is the case because all this stuff is MIDI in one way or another . . .

MIDI has a volume level range of 0 to 127, more or less depending on the way one counts in binary; so specifying pianissimo does not map to the note being played pianissimo by a trained musician, as is the case with fortissimo . . .

All that happens is the MIDI volume number is modified essentially like the way you turn the volume knob on a car audio system . . .

This introduces another of my rules, which is that the only way to get the most accurate and realistic sounds is to use samples where the musician or vocalis is playing or singing exactly as you desire; so that if you want real pianissimo, then use a set of samples where the musician or vocalist is playing or singing pianissimo . . .

Otherwise, what happens is that the various dynamic marks and all that stuff tell the computer how to modify the way things sound by manipulating MIDI values . . .

It's a bit more complex, but this is a good way to understand it; and there are ways to switch from one playing style to another using different sets of sampled sound, but so what . . .

I don't use any of that stuff (dynamic marks, playing styles, and so forth); and (a) this makes the music notation as simple as possible and (b) I can modify the way things sound when producing and audio engineering . . .

However, if I want a violin played vibrato by a trained violinist, then I use the set of sampled sounds where the violinist is playing vibrato . . .

If I want another playing style, then I add another staff and set it to an actual set of sampled sounds . . .

There are a few marks that I like to use; and for Cuban trumpet I like to us glissandi when the VSTi virtual instrument and its respective sampled sound library support it . . .

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You will notice that generally I do everything on soprano treble staves, which is possible in NOTION since in Score Setup you can engage transposition so that notes are played one or two octaves higher or lower than notated, which for bass maps to specifying the notes are played two octaves lower than notated . . .

This keeps everything simple for me, since (a) I learned soprano treble clef when I was in a liturgical boys choir and can sight-sing it, which makes it very intuitive; and (b) it's the only clef I learned, so all the others make zero sense to me . . .

This is all the more unusual, since I played string bass and electric bass but never was able to read bass clef . . .

I always had to do a mapping, which required (a) remembering whether bass clef notes are a whole note lower or higher than treble clef notes and then thinking about it while . . .

Here in the sound isolation studio there are 12 notes and 10 or so octaves, 2 of which are reseved for entertaining or annoying cats and dogs, since most folks cannot hear these notes . . .

This is particularly confusing for guitar players who think for years that Middle C is the note at the 3rd fret of the low-pitch "A" string, when actually it's the note at the 1st fret of the high-pitch "b" string . . .

Nearly all this stuff originated when there were no computers; when paper and ink were expensive; and when music notation was done by hand . . .

I use tuplets, because it's the only way to do syncopation with music notation, which is fine with me . . .

I never learned percussion notation; so it took a while to make sense of it when I started using virtual drumkits . . .

I can play it on a real drumkit, but doing is virtually took a bit of time; and after a while I realized that tuplets were the way to do it . . .

Everything else is "regular" or "binary" (whole note, half note, quarter note, eighth note, and so forth), but they can be dotted one or more times, although that's still binary . . .

Tuplets make odd rather than even durations and pauses possible . . .

SUMMARY

You can do some of the useful stuff on ReWire MIDI staves when the VSTi virtual instrument supports it; but overall I think it's best do it with (a) specific samples in the exact style you desire and (b) with VST effects plug-ins in general . . .

When you listen to music played on the radio, the fact of the matter is that it's being processed to adhere to FCC broadcast guidelines, regulations, rules, and all that stuff, which also applies to listening to music on the web, which has a different set of standards . . .

When you study a carefully selected set of songs and listen to them with studio quality headphones like SONY MDR-7506 headphones (a personal favorite) which are balanced and neutral in the sense that they don't change things, you discover the fact that nobody and no musical group actually sounds like their hit records, with the reason being that their hit songs are produced and audio engineered to sound "big", which is another way of saying that it's a carefully crafted illusion . . .

Consider "Who Owns My Heart" (Miley Cyrus) . . .

[NOTE: This is the illusion crafted by Rock Mafia . . . ]

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My current estimate is that there are at least 150 vocal tracks of one type or another, with some of them being designed echoes, syrupy and rapid; others being overdubs for the beginnings and endings of specific words; doubling, tripling, snd various Haas Effect digital enhancements; plus all the elaborate backup vocals and harmonies, where one of the more surprising things I heard after listening to the song over-and-over is the Pink Floyd style counterpoint backup singing . . .

Haas Effect (Wikipedia)

Broadcasters use the Haas Effect to make advertisements appear to be louder without actually making them louder, which would violate FCC rules . . .

Double-tracking, or playing or singing the same thing two times--each time on a different track--is one way to create the Haas Effect . . .

The Beatles did this a lot, and after a while asked the engineers at Abbey Road Studios to create a machine that did it automagically, which they did . . .

Automatic Double Tracking (Wikipedia)

Waves has an effect plug-in that does this ("Reel ADT") . . .

Reel ADT User Guide (Waves) ~ PDF

Lots of FUN! :)

Surf.Whammy's YouTube Channel

The Surf Whammys

Sinkhorn's Dilemma: Every paradox has at least one non-trivial solution!

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