Question

Notion is the only notation software that i know of (and i've tried lots of them) that is not compatible with general midi commands when writing a drums part.

With the Notion included drums instrument, it works fine but if you try to use a VST instrument or map the track to a Rewire midi channel, the drum notation symbols are not mapped to the correct midi note that will trigger the right piece. Notion takes only into account the height of the note as if it was a piano playing the drums.

This might not seem much of a problem for most of you writing only instrumental scores, but it's a huge issue for people like me writing rock, pop or heavy metal. For once, i think the included Notion drum kits is not tight enough and sounds messy in a more aggressive and fast music style. And even if i used the included kit, it stills doesn't map the notes correctly when exporting as a midi file for production in my DAW (which is Studio One).

So whenever i write a song with Notion, i have to use a second software to write the drum parts, which is problematic.

So please, just fix this. It doesn't look like a whole lot of work and it would make Notion a great notation software for people writing modern music. I don't think that i'm asking for much, i'd just like the software to act like it's supposed to.

Answer 1

Thanks, we agree and this is on our roadmap for a future release.

Answer 2

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

Could you give more details about this "future release" ? Are we talking weeks, months, is it for Notion 7 ?

Quite frankly i had high hopes this would have been fixed in Notion 6.0.

Answer 3

This is a biggy for drummers and most modern music. The existing input system is very cumbersome and very non-standard [or at least unlike any standard I have ever come across]. 

MIDI mapping

It should use the same conventions as virtually all the other scoring programmes, DAWs, drum charts, magazines, tutorials etc and use GM drum mapping. At the moment it is a frustrating game of hunt and pack to find out which MIDI notes are mapped to which drum.

This is particularly crucial when inputting drum parts from a MIDI keyboard or electronic drumkit.

Drum notation / scorewriting

Musescore uses a default drum map that you can customise / save / load. Each drumkit MIDI note is mapped (or unmapped) to a specific position on the staff, a voice (which also controls the stem direction) and a note head.

When writing a drum part simply place a note on the staff, there is no need to select voices or note heads!

Being able to save your own custom drum maps would be a bonus.

Answer 4

NOTION IS A TRAP!!!!! DONT BUY THIS TRASH GUYS...ITA A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY AND TIME!!!!!

Answer 5

It is concerning that a simple request from almost 5 years ago with the largest number of user votes for Notion still has no solution. It does suggest that the voting system is not actually taken into account. Presonus' composition program is incompatible with a simple standard, and basically useless for notating drums. Buyer beware!

Answer 6

I totally agree. Here is a link to my recent post (was not aware of this one):

https://answers.presonus.com/75445/how-to-properly-rewire-notion-to-s1-e-g-hh-clsd-open

There is a free NoteMapper VST available from CodeFN42 that works great for BD, toms and such but won't solve the hi hat issue either, as both closed and open HH is sent as MIDI note G4

Notion drums issue needs to be fixed soon as I am close to saying goodbye to PreSonus because Notion drums are not GM compatible und S1 having no MIDI transformer tool and issues with drum sets in Presence (mute groups, open hi hat sustains), Notion and S1 not really compatible when it comes to drum parts. Very sad and disappointing!

Answer 7

The rule editor can do the mapping, but you need to custom program, however, as PreSonus does not provide help with that.

Here is a thread from Martin Kutscher with a solution. Thank you, Martin, works fine for me!

https://forums.presonus.com/viewtopic.php?f=169&t=5498

Answer 8

Why has this not been looked at? The fact that moving drums between Notion and Studio one using their own "send to studio one" does not work is terrible.  We can't use our own VST drum instruments, or even the drum instruments built into Studio One.

The original post was in 2016!  FFS.