Composers await Thursday release of radically updated Notion software

In the not-too-distant past, professional musicians used dedicated sound modules and sound synthesis hardware to produce realistic representations of full orchestras. We're not so certain what composers used to do before such hardware existed, though they probably all sympathized with Ludwig van Beethoven struggling with his immortal Ninth Symphony while deaf.

As PCs rapidly evolved, their CPUs and everyday sound chips became theoretically more capable of producing and reproducing realistic sound samples than dedicated MIDI sound modules. So software very quickly assumed the role not only of sequencer but of virtual orchestra; and just like in every other field of software, one or two standards-bearers swiftly emerged: Sibelius (named for the composer) and Finale. And a very familiar logic was applied to them: If you were a composer and you didn't produce scores using either or both standards, you were officially declared non-professional.

But North Carolina-based Notion Music is taking a gamble that the state of competition in this niche of the software market has not calcified the way it has in most other segments. Tomorrow, it releases version 3 of its surprisingly capable Notion composition software, which premiered in 2006. Its formula for breaking through the Sibelius/Finale barrier this time just might work, beginning with a price markdown of $50 to $249 for both Windows and Mac (Notion suggested a $249 price for 2.0 last July, though dealers continued to sell it for $299), and an upgrade price for existing Notion 2.2 users of eight bucks.

Notion is the company's top-of-the-line product; up to now, it has sold a scaled down version for journeymen and small band composers called Protégé (which deals with fewer instruments in polyphony at a time), and a separate package for guitar composers called Progression. Starting with Notion 3, however, the company is throwing in the full guitar functionality from Progression, including the fret controls, along with a completely upgraded library of samples featuring acoustic and electric guitars, and electric and upright bass.

Rather than just hire an intern to pluck strings, Notion has borrowed the talents of renowned professional musicians such as Grammy Award-winning soul artist Victor Lamonte Wooten.

"Notion 3 will include an enhanced and expanded instrument library -- more instruments including guitar, bass, and drum samples from Progression -- [plus] close mic recordings," Notion Music Marketing Director Jake Van Wyk told Betanews.

We'd noted that Notion 2 had used a third-party copy protection scheme which was giving Windows Vista (and Windows 7) users fits, especially during installation. Van Wyk acknowledged that in ditching this scheme for Notion 3, the protected samples in Notion 2 would no longer work for upgraders. That could be a problem, because so many of those samples were sold in expansion packages that sold for an average of $40 apiece.

Notion's solution to the problem, however, is to go all out: It's actually throwing in completely re-mixed sound samples, recorded by members of the London Symphony Orchestra at their own studios overseas, from five of those sample packages which used to sell separately, in the new Notion 3 package along with remixed samples from the original set. For example, though Notion 2 came with samples for string sections of the orchestra, solo strings (and the various playing techniques that are associated with them) used to be sold separately; tomorrow, they won't be. Woodwinds used to come standard except for contrabassoon; and brass was standard except for saxophones and euphonium.

As for other instrument samples which Notion used to sell in collected packages, it now plans to take an almost "app store"-like approach, selling instrument samples online a la carte though an "instrument library." There, samples can be collected for prices starting at $1.99 apiece. As Van Wyk told us, "We will be adding to the library on an ongoing basis," although he advised us that the first entries in this library will not include wild percussion instruments or, as I suggested, a harmonica...to go along with the banjo and mandolin. (Hey, if you're composing bluegrass...) "We are focusing on instruments that are more broadly used, and with traditional playing techniques," he said.

But the completely new feature that floored composers during Notion 3's initial demos in August when they saw it for the first time, was a realistic sound mixer panel for regulating recording-quality volumes from not only individual instruments, but digital tracks such as MP3s blended from the outside world. So you can mix demo tracks using the same methodology you'd use if you were still using sound modules and sequencers; plus, Notion is bundling reverb and amplifier simulators from sound software producer IK Multimedia.

"Notion is fully VST and VSTi compatible," Van Wyk told Betanews, "so you can integrate just about any sound into your music."

Tomorrow could be a test for how an underdog breaks into an established, if not yet entrenched, software market with a more competitive product -- a test that publishers and manufacturers everywhere may want to observe. If you care to join in, you may hear me in the background -- I'll be the one making samples of my Hohner Chromatic.