Questions & Answers

The ability to draw MIDI curves (a DAW-style automation track) instead of just recording it with a MIDI controller.

+253 votes
4,943 views
asked Dec 17, 2015 in Notion Feature Requests by janiukkonen (1,120 points)
edited Dec 17, 2015 by janiukkonen
Currently, it is too hard to control things such as expression, modulation, midi channel volume, etc in Notion. These, however, are very important things when it comes to MIDI orchestration.

Having a MIDI automation track under the staff would fix this issue. Recording it with a MIDI controller every time is a pain in the ***. The user could, of course, hide/show this track whenever they need it.

It is nice that Notion has a good support for VSTs, but to realize their full potential, we need to have a better control of the MIDI CC data.

24 Answers

+6 votes
answered Dec 17, 2015 by AlexTinsley (925,410 points)
Thanks for the suggestion.

If anyone else agrees, please vote the feature request up.
+15 votes
answered Dec 19, 2015 by michaelmyers1 (4,750 points)
YES!  This is a must for Notion to be a truly effective performance tool, rather than just another ho-hum notation tool.
+11 votes
answered Jan 1, 2016 by rodderco (650 points)
The top request on my list for a long time.......
+9 votes
answered Mar 2, 2016 by gianfrancocalvi (580 points)
YES! This is going to make Notion much more usable. It already sounds good with library such as Vienna SE; having the ability to fine tune midi cc in an easy way (without relying on an external keyboard) let you manage all the process from composition to rendition totally inside Notion!
+8 votes
answered Mar 22, 2016 by janiukkonen (1,120 points)
edited Mar 22, 2016 by janiukkonen

@gianfrancocalvi 

Yes, this is exactly what I'm going at.

The only severe "bottleneck" Notion has in comparison to a DAW in my opinion is the poor control over MIDI CC. Solving this would allow users to make better sounding mockups inside Notion, without using a separate DAW just for that.

In my opinion, it's time notation programs take the next step to become more than just notation programs (like michaelmyers1 also said)

It could even be a good selling point for Notion, especially considering the fact that Notion already capitalizes on playback. This would be in the same category. The Google search result of Notion starts like this: "PreSonus® Notion™ is famed for outstanding playback sounds"
 

+9 votes
answered May 15, 2016 by gillesdulong (850 points)
edited May 15, 2016 by gillesdulong
Totally agree, this would be awesome !!

Actually, I make all my compositions inside Notion and this is a wonderful software and a GREAT alternative to the classic DAWs which lack an useful notation feature (I am a classical trained student and I achieve better results when using a score instead of a piano roll, which makes orchestral compositions very difficult to compose).

With the custom rules, I have done my own templates which sounds VERY good thanks to the easy implementation of the sound libraries inside Notion. Here is an example with some East West libraries, entirely scored and produced inside Notion 5 : . (You can see other tracks on my website (matthieudulong.wix.com/compositeur/) entirely done with Notion and the VSL (like "Spring", "Poudlard's Hall", "Garden Gnomes") or Notion with East West libraries ("Amour Retrouvé", "The Duel", "Les enquêtes d'Hercule Poirot")).

I will do some tutorials on how I do my templates inside Notion this summer, to show how amazing the results can be with this software !

Thanks to the Notion Team for having done such a wonderful notation program with already great integration of the sound libraries and DAW-like functions, and the results could be even more amazing with the integration of some more DAW functions (like the ability to draw MIDI curves for non-linear crescendos for example !).

I hope that my comment will be useful and I wish you the best !

Matthieu Dulong (a french student)
+8 votes
answered Jul 20, 2016 by josephgiliberti (1,030 points)
This is a great idea and its just the problem Notion has right now. As PreSonus knows, Dorico is right around the corner and they are promising this feature right out of the box.  If you guys don't want to be left behind and lose customers, adopting this feature will be crucial in the coming months.
+3 votes
answered Sep 7, 2016 by janiukkonen (1,120 points)
So it turns out they still didn't add this feature in Notion 6. I am very disappointed, as this is the ONE feature that I need. I don't care about handwriting or some gimmicky **** like that. I just want to get 100% out of my VST libraries.
+6 votes
answered Sep 7, 2016 by martinkutschker (3,040 points)
It didn't made it into 6? Too bad :(

Any chance for a 6.1 release which includes this feature?
+4 votes
answered Feb 1, 2017 by lvarodelgado (610 points)
I agree with almost all of the comments.

VST becomes more and more complex, real edit of the CC data is a must.
+4 votes
answered Mar 7, 2017 by scunacc (2,580 points)
Definitely - and alongside this a piano roll editor too.

Plus the ability to have expression maps like Cubase in such a view.
+4 votes
answered Mar 12, 2017 by petergardner1 (280 points)
Absolutely. This is the most important feature Notion is missing. The existing method of recording CC data blind (cannot hear the changes until played back) is most unsatisfactory. I really hope Notion includes this on the NEXT update, many people here expect it now.
+5 votes
answered Apr 3, 2017 by lvarodelgado (610 points)
There is any news about this request?
+2 votes
answered May 29, 2017 by martinverby (370 points)
Hello?

I really need this feature! The lack of control of MIDI channels and curves is a big problem, and I don't want to keep spending money on upgrading Notion until I know it's in! I need to be able to manually edit CCs, and I need to be able to choose which CC my modwheel is affecting. Ideally I'd also like the ability to draw the curves with a mouse where necessary.

I need this to be able to continue to work with this thing, pretty please?
+2 votes
answered Jun 14, 2017 by Rudi_UK (760 points)
I agree with all the comments above - this is a TOP priority to further move Notion ahead of the notation pack. Having the ability to draw controller curves would take it to the next level.

One request however: make that a facility for all tracks, including the internal Notion sounds - the built-in instruments already sound good, having a control lane would make them even more expressive!
+1 vote
answered Jan 4, 2018 by scoredfilms (6,830 points)

I'm lost...

Multi-note velocity editing... needed

CC Drawing... needed

A Piano Roll... ARE YOU PEOPLE NUTS!?

The Sequencer Overlay is faster to work in than a piano roll. Dorico proves how bad that design mentality works. You can't place notes and edit timings nearly as fast in Dorico as you can in Notion. Piano Roll = a major step backwards. If it's CC, velocity, or even chromatic note input/edits we're talking about, I agree those need to improve. But they should happen the Notion way, not the way Steinberg does it, which is essentially frankenstein UI. To their credit, Dorico looks beautiful. But I care how I use a program being efficient as a workstation (actually getting **** done) and sounding good (oh yeah... music) FAR more than whether it looks pretty. So I'm not trying to bash everything Steinberg does. But I own Dorico and while it has shiny engraving and shiny GUI buttons... the workflow is **** for MIDI editing. Let's not take Notion down that road.

If features are added to Notion, it should be done the Notion way. Embrace what you get right by adding to it, not trying to match what someone else is doing. It's the same as people who try to mimic Zimmer and Williams. Copycat music is ****. Just write what you want and do it well. I hope Notion does things the Notion way... and well. Sorry for going over the top. Can you tell I'm passionate about this? ;)

Rewire:

There's always rewire or sending the data from one program to the other if you want. I'd even opt for a live-input API to have notes show up in both programs at the same time. There's a lot of possibilities there. But I wouldn't add a new piano roll to Notion. Dorico did that and it's not great. I own the DAWs and Notion programs from both companies. So this is at least an informed opinion.

Just my two cents.

-Sean

P.S. I mean no offense to those who like the idea. If you have good reasons I'm missing, I'd love to hear them and address them. I just see what I view as a huge potential UI problem if Presonus does it that way. The editing versatility I agree with. How it's done though...

+3 votes
answered Jan 10, 2018 by matthewventura (550 points)
Please PLEASE PLEASE add this feature!!!  It would be so powerful to be able to draw these for multiple CCs for an instrument.  I recently bought a VI that I need to control vibrato and bow pressure.  I don't even own a keyboard!  :)     I love Notion but this would make your product a real competitor to Dorico.  I know Dorico is including this.  I don't want to jump ship but I will if you don't add this feature. Thx!
+4 votes
answered Feb 17, 2018 by craigdukerschein (420 points)
Does PreSonus consider the interoperability between StudioOne3 and Notion as a replacement for this feature?  It isn't.

Rather than interoperability, I would like to see integration between the two, where Notion is simply a different view of the data within StudioOne.  This would put Notion/StudioOne in a class by itself.  Second best would be Notion having its own standalone MIDI editing functionality that provides MIDI editing as an alternate view of the same staff (not a second staff).  This would make Notion similar to an existing notation program.  The lack of this feature has driven me to another notation program that includes extensive MIDI editing capabilities (plus what I think is a more refined implementation of articulation keyswitching).

Also, the sequencer overlay interface is a clumsy one.  It would be best to stick to the tried and true piano roll presentation of MIDI data

Any news about this?.
+1 vote
answered Jun 28, 2018 by matthieudulong (250 points)
I answer a second time because this is an essential function today.
When you want to compose music with modern sound banks (or software synthesizers) that use a lot of MIDI controllers (MIDI CC) it is complicated to use only one: thanks to the custom rules we can assign dynamics markers to any MIDI CC, but we only have one at a time!

Here is a post in which I explain a temporary solution that I found while waiting for an update of Notion on this subject:

https://forums.presonus.com/viewtopic.php?f=167&t=30871
0 votes
answered Feb 2, 2019 by sunlove (4,330 points)
Look how this graphical interface for Sibelius handles MIDI CC data! Amazing.
0 votes
answered Nov 5, 2019 by walterpaganini1 (510 points)
Any updates? This is a much needed feature.
0 votes
answered Jun 19, 2020 by Rudi_UK (760 points)

Something along similar lines would be a very elegant solution:

+1 vote
answered Sep 15, 2020 by famecastle (170 points)
Sooo... I was looking to give Notion a try. Sounded quite good! Then I came across this post. What of a company is this that it doesn't manage to integrate a feature that was searched for 2,115 times, upvoted 219 times, justified extensively by its paying community?

Now I'm not going to purchase Notion. Not just because an essential feature is kind of missing, but also because PreSonus has a bad attitude regarding feature requests and feedback (not seen much feedback by any PreSonus employee here).
+1 vote
answered Mar 3, 2022 by rodderco (650 points)
6 years people have been asking for this VST curve feature. Totally overtaken by Dorico. Even Finale and Sibelius better support than this.

I understand that you put all of your efforts into Studio 1, but the Notion product has fallen way behind. The scoring feature in S1 is still in it's infancy and not very usable.
asked Nov 9, 2022 in Notion Feature Requests by rodderco (650 points) Delete this blog.....
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