NOTION Music Notion3 - Notation and Performance Software

New Features

User Interface

Easy Score Setup

• Creating a score with NOTION3 is simple, intuitive and fast
• You won't get stuck wading through long lists of options, hunt for the instruments you want or endure multiple repetitive steps every time you start a new score
• Your instrument choices are presented in organized and logical groupings using a semi-transparent overlay on top of the score area
• This enables you to quickly add, move, change and delete staves with simple mouse click

Simply Smart Tool Palette

• Musician's tool belt with all the essential tools neatly organized within easy reach
• Simply move your cursor over a graphic or text and a menu of options automatically opens
• Roll over a different graphic or text, and a different menu opens
• If you want quick access to a specific group of tools, you can "lock open" that particular menu
• It's your choice where to place your palette; on the score, docked at the bottom of the screen, or hide it altogether when it's not in use

Interactive Fretboard and Chord Library

• Guitarists often find it convenient to first capture the fingerings they perform on an instrument before translating them into tab or notation. The interactive Fretboard offers a quick, convenient way to build your score by clicking virtual strings
• You can customize the fretboard stringing to resemble (and capture the notes of) a 6 or 7 string guitar, 4 or 5 string bass, or other fretted instruments
• NOTION3 also lets you enter chord names or select from the comprehensive chord library and add slash marks to show the rhythm

Easier to Use

• Sometimes you can have too many choices. Most other notation software programs try to show you all the options—all the time. As a result, you are often confronted by multiple cryptic icons that usually open pop-up windows onto your score with a whole new batch of options
• NOTION3 was built to give you what you need when you need it
• If you're not sure what a particular button does, a tool-tip appears when you hover your cursor over the symbol with summary information

Easier to Learn

• NOTION3's design makes it amazingly simple to learn, despite the amount of advanced capabilities and features
• The typical user can learn how to compose, produce, publish and perform a score very quickly
• You don't need strong technical skills or detailed knowledge of how to patch different pieces of equipment together - just a basic knowledge of music

Bundled Sample Library

From Classical To Rock

• NOTION3 includes a greatly expanded sound library that now includes all of the Guitar, Bass, and Drum samples from PROGRESSION. From Orchestral, to jazz, to rock, NOTION3 has the sounds to support virtually any musical genre
• Features a new enhanced sample library of the London Symphony Orchestra recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Each instrument was painstakingly recorded to capture a full set of multi-timbre samples, articulations, performance techniques and expressions
• The library was recorded in stereo capturing numerous dynamic levels per sample. The end result is a fuller, richer sound with greater expression and when combined with NOTION3's pro-audio features, scores can be played back with incredible realism
• NOTION3 features thousands of electric and acoustic guitar samples from world-renown guitarist Neil Zaza, as well as electric bass and drums samples from Grammy Award winners Victor Wooten and Roy "Futureman" Wooten

True Expressive Control (TEC)

• A proprietary TEC Sample Management Engine automatically maps every score element to the exact sound, enabling the user to experience the full palette of sound unique to each instrument without having to deal with MIDI editing and without the need for external software or hardware

Add Instruments

• You can purchase and download additional instruments and playing techniques to your NOTION sample library
• New instruments are being added on a continuous basis
• Current expansion sounds include banjo, mandolin, harpsichord, advanced playing techniques for string sections and a broad range of percussion and sound effects

Included Instruments

String

• Violin I
• Violin II
• Viola
• Cello
• Double-bass
• Violin (solo)
• Viola (solo)
• Cello (solo)
• Double-bass (solo)

Woodwinds

• Piccolo
• Flute
• Oboe
• English Horn
• Clarinet
• Bass Clarinet
• Bassoon
• Piccolo Clarinet
• Contrabassoon

Brass/Saxophone

• Alto Saxophone
• Tenor Saxophone
• Bari Saxophone
• Horn
• Trumpet
• Tenor Trombone
• Tuba
• Bass Trombone
• Euphonium

Keyboards/Guitar/Bass

• Piano
• Electric Piano
• Clavinet
• Harp
• Celeste
• Techno Synthesizer
• Electric Guitar
• Acoustic Guitar
• Electric Bass
• Upright Bass

Drums/Cymbals/Percussion

• Standard Drum Set
• Bass
• Snare Drum
• Snare Drum (high)
• Crash Cymbals (orchestral)
• Suspended Cymbal
• Crotales
• Glockenspiel
• Marimba
• Concert Toms
• Roto Toms
• Temple Blocks
• Timpani
• Tubular Bells/Chimes
• Vibraphone
• Xylophone
• Cabasa
• Castanets
• Caxixi
• Claves
• Cowbell
• Ganza
• Gong
• Guiro
• Sleigh Bells
• Tam-tam
• Tambourine
• Triangle
• Wood Block

Studio Compatibility

Rewire Support - Master or Slave

• Provides full ReWire functionality - including both host and slave options
• Developed by Propellerhead, ReWire is best described as a "virtual audio cable" that allows you to not only route audio between two different applications, but also to synchronize and control them simultaneously

Built-In Support for Major Sound Libraries

• Built-in VST instrument presets for some of the top orchestral libraries available today
• Every instrument preset contains mappings for all available articulations and performance techniques, requiring nothing else of the user, but writing music
• Instruments from different libraries work seamlessly together, one can even copy paste between them and preserve playback of all score markings

Supported Sound Libraries:

1. Vienna Special Edition and Special Edition Plus
2. East West Quantum Leap Platinum
3. Miroslav Philharmonik
4. Garritan Personal Orchestra (ARIA)

Import Finale or Sibelius Scores

• With the integrated MusicXML import feature you can use the power of NOTION3 with your existing Finale or Sibelius scores without requiring a third party plug-in

Audio Import, Save as WAV

• Import your own audio files directly into the score. You can also export your score to a WAV file for further production use

MIDI and XML

• With greatly enhanced MIDI functionality, NOTION3 is capable of handling all MIDI related tasks
• Edit MIDI data, overdub and record, import, export and output as well as use both notation and sequencer style staffs

Sequencer Staff

Working with MIDI

• With the Sequencer Staff you can record or import a MIDI performance with a familiar "MIDI roll" appearance, while still working with the data on a notation staff
• With color-coded velocity, controller curves and preserved pitch location on the staff, the Sequencer Staff combines the best of both worlds

Editing MIDI

• Notes on the Sequencer Staff can be edited similarly to how you would edit them in a sequencer
• You can shorten, elongate, move them, as well as record over the existing data or re-record a passage
• Colors show you the recorded velocity and your controller changes appear as curves above the staff, again, similar to how this data is represented in your sequencer

MIDI Overdub

• With MIDI you often need to overdub a passage or merge recorded data with new events
• NOTION3 allows you to overdub your recordings in either merge or replace mode giving you full control over the resulting performance
• Overdubbing is great for adding expressive controllers, recording key switches or simply trying that line one more time

Audio Mixer

Monitor and Control

• Input level meters are present on each channel strip, which give you a visual representation of the level of your signal enhanced by dynamically adjusted color intensity based on decibel output
• Peak monitoring and warning as well as signal meters on each side of the fader give you a wealth of information about your audio
• You can control parameters graphically, by click and drag, or numerically by typing in precise values

Solo, Mute and Stereo "Power" Pan

• With the panning feature you can control both left and right output individually, gaining finer control over the positioning of your sound in the stereo field
• Solo and mute multiple tracks or individual channel strips, to adjust sections of your mix

Insert Effects

• Each channel can have up to 4 individual insert VST effects
• In addition to your own collection, NOTION3 comes bundled with 2 plug-ins from IK Multimedia - CSR Hall, a powerful reverb unit, and AmpliTube X-GEAR for guitar and bass amplifier simulation

Live Performance

• Advanced, real-time tempo control that includes vamps, repeats, score navigation and other features allowing it to be used like a musical instrument with accompaniment, for rehearsal, or for a professional live performance

Full Feature List

User Interface

• Clean, streamlined user interface with great emphasis on clarity, workflow and score readability
• LCD Display with Rehearsal menu, timecode and tempo
• Timeline strip with point and click and "GoTo" measure navigation
• Tooltips
• Score Entry Palette docked and floating neatly organizes and contains all score symbols and expressions allowing you to quickly and easily find anything you want to add
• 24 fret interactive Guitar Fretboard for score entry and guitar chord/diagram insertion
• Pro-audio Mixer UI with visual and numerical entry, mixer groups, signal meters and peak indicators
• Master channel meter on the toolbar with peak indication
• Color coded mode dependent playback marker
• Quick start screen on launch

Score Editing

• Automatic positioning of score elements - never have to worry about aligning hairpins, dynamics, articulations
• Note entry with mouse, keyboard and/or MIDI device
• MIDI entry on grand staff with split point
• Optimized editing functions - clear, clear special, mass add articulations, duplicate etc.
• "Cuts" functionality supported in score and playback
• Customizable "accel "and "rit" markings
• Partial ("expandable") measures (add more or less notes than the time signature requires)
• Pickup measures
• Linked tab/notation
• Type-in tab
• Bends, holds, bend-releases customizable and playing back
• Tremolo bar symbols and vibrato
• Guitar diagrams generated for every chord symbol with support for custom tuning and number of strings. All 12 positions per chord, which means you get 12 diagrams per chord instead of one
• Edit and customize guitar diagrams on the fretboard
• Guitar chords transpose with transposition
• Left and right hand fingerings
• Palm mute, let ring, slap, pull-off, hammer-on and all other guitar techniques from PROGRESSION
• Click and drag beam adjustment
• Custom beaming
• Custom beaming patterns for time signatures
• Short score feature - up to 4 different instruments on a grand staff, with individual dynamic handling
• Alternate note heads - X, diamond, circles, crossed, etc.
• Breath Comma with customizable playback
• Caesura with customizable playback
• Quickly change note rhythms with a key combo
• Chord library supporting click-in chord symbols with three representation styles: default, minimal and symbol
• Type-in Chord symbols
• Click and drag to position dynamics, notes, beaming, text and other score elements
• Sequencer Staff records MIDI in sequencer style on a regular staff and records all MIDI data such as velocity and continuous controllers
• Edit Sequencer Staff notes with arrow keys
• Overdub Sequencer Staff notes and MIDI CC controllers
• Convert to notation from Sequencer Staff
• Copy/paste to NTEMPO staff
• Crash recovery
• Grace notes, cue notes, tacet notes
• Hide and Reveal score Items
• Dynamics customization
• Enharmonic Respell
• Type-in expressions feature
• Flip stems
• Fill with rests
• 4 voices per staff
• Add voice 1+2 simultaneously
• Harp tuning, respected in playback
• Hidden rests
• 8va/8vb/15ma/15mb marks
• Arpeggio marks
• Harmonics
• Coda, DS al Segno, Segno marks, etc.
• Customizable bar line groups, bracket groups, brace groups and tempo groups
• Lyrics with multiple verses
• Instrument changes with individual mixer channels
• Custom measure numbers with letters support
• Multi-bar rests
• Quick chord construction
• Switch voices
• Repeats and endings with proper playback and export
• Sfz, sffz and other special articulations and dynamics
• Fingered tremolo
• Guitar Slides
• Portamento
• Easily create tuplets or turn existing notes into tuplets
• Drum Library

Score Layout

• Pages View - across and down
• Continuous View
• 3 different UI themes - default, performance (dark) and white
• Concert/Transposed view toggle
• Dynamic parts
• Unique in-document Score Setup with point and clicking adding, removing and moving staffs
• Score headers and footers
• Hide/Show staffs
• Jazz font
• Link measures
• Tempo groups, bracket groups, customizable system breaks, measures per system etc.
• Voice colors
• WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) printing

Playback and Compatibility

• Bundled library with over 10GB of orchestral and non-orchestral sounds
• London Symphony Orchestra, Roy Wooten, Victor Wooten, Neil Zaza and more
• Audio based playback engine without the need of a third party player
• Automatic mapping of samples to score symbols - what you see is what you hear for all instruments with all articulations and techniques
• Up to 4 different and independent audio instruments attached to a grand staff for superior short score playback functionality
• VST and VSTi support
• Bundled VSTi presets for VSL, EWQL, GPO and Miroslav libraries
• Use VSTi preset instruments from multiple libraries, each playing back with unique playback mappings
• Copy and paste between, NOTION and VSTi preset instruments and preserve articulations dynamics and balance
• Bundled Amplitube X-Gear and CSR Hall Reverb from IK Multimedia
• Bundled drum groove library
• ReWire host and slave functionality
• Discrete channel out per mixer channel strip
• Customizable playback rules
• Playback altering of dynamics
• Glissando and portamento playback with respect to harp tunings
• 4 mappable MIDI out ports
• Pro-audio mixer with 4 inserts, 4 buses, power pan, solo/mute, signal meters and peak indicators
• Full MIDI recording on a sequencer staff
• Import MIDI into sequencer staffs
• Import an audio file
• Standard drum staff mappings playback
• Selecting staffs to quickly solo in playback
• Note Audition of entry and selections
• Guitar, bass and drums articulations
• Chord symbols playback, respecting rhythm slashes
• Fermatas, caesuras, breath marks, repeats, accel, and any other tempo or score markings are faithfully reflected in playback and fully customizable
• Piano pedals, shortcut slashes, etc., all playback accurately
• Swing playback with adjustable "weight" and individual staff assignments
• Vamps and repeats playback
• Default rules for playback of MIDI and VST instruments not covered in presets
• Velocity Overdub for more natural expressive dynamics
• VST Manager

Live Performance

• Unique Performance mode giving you full control over the live performance of your piece
• Navigate your score through measures, beats, rehearsal marks and easily move between sections
• Conduct your score directly from your keyboard or MIDI device with customizable MIDI performance commands
• NTEMPO staff for great expressive control - use any tempo subdivision or your own rhythm to precisely control the performance of the score
• Record your performance and save it
• Edit a saved performance session
• Play any instrument in the score with your MIDI device during NOTION regular playback or in performance mode. Also respects instrument changes
• Control the dynamics of your score live, through the velocity of your MIDI device
• "Nudge" tempo slower or faster with the arrow keys, during playback
• Jump through cuts, skip repeats in real time while performing your score
• "Auto-pilot " resume at written tempo or resume at captured tempo feature
• Performance HUD showing performing tempo, written tempo, measure, beat, timecode and rehearsal

Open/Import/Export

• Open NOTION, PROGRESSION, PROTÉGÉ and NOTION Conducting files
• MusicXML
• MIDI
• Audio WAV