Questions & Answers

A "basic" score editor intergrated into Studio One is really needed [Completed 5.0]

+338 votes
16,863 views
asked Dec 21, 2015 in Completed Feature Requests by marktwine (250 points)

I think a basic score view is a must for Studio One, it doesn't have to be print/publish ready fabulous...you have Notion for that, but at the very least a basic score view - more for reference while writing..(Cubase, DP, Logic Composers etc know what I mean), that would make a few things a bit quicker sometimes. (how things look, ..if you read music that is. :reading: )

It's really the only feature missing in this great DAW that a "media/film composer" could call home. :thumbup:


Cheers.

28 Answers

+33 votes
answered Dec 21, 2015 by jpettit (11,810 points)
edited Jun 26, 2017 by jpettit
 
Best answer

Although a full fledge notation editor is not needed in Studio One there are a few gaps not having basic notational view of the Instrument data.

A post of my from two years ago when Notion joined Presonus 2013.
http://forumsarchive.presonus.com/posts ... age#269925
 

Since that post management has said there are no plans to develop a notional editor within Studio One.

I agree a full fledge notation editor is not needed in Studio One however there are a few gaps not having basic notational view of the Instrument data and certainly many low hanging fruit opportunities. 

From a recent forum  post.

The one gap that I experience is when I record site reading musicians and we want to edit something they feel lost looking at a piano roll and would much prefer and notational View of the data. That is what my mock up was aimed at. Just a notation view of the instrument data for formally trained musicians. 

The vision for tighter integration is better than nothing but relatively little has been done to improve that from the S1 side so far. I realize it's all a matter of priorities but here are a few integration features that I would hope to see: 

1) Drag instrument from S1 and drop on Notion to add a staff. 
2) Drag a Staff from Notion and drop in S1 as instrument data. 
3) Both midi and audio supported in the Rewire implementation both directions.

+20 votes
answered Jan 2, 2016 by Funkybot (21,640 points)
I'd like to see Notion integrated via either a dedicated staff view, or ARA. Sometimes it's just easier to compose and view MIDI in standard notation. I don't need every feature of Notion built in, or expect Studio One to become a full blown score editor, but some basic score editing would be great. Bonus points if it could be on par with Cubase's offerings.
+16 votes
answered Feb 29, 2016 by dr4kan (810 points)
I totally agree: at least a basic score view should be integrated in S1.
+14 votes
answered May 1, 2016 by trtzbass (1,520 points)
YES PLEASE

that's just about the only thing that keeps me from selling all my other DAWs and be a Studio One monogamist!
+14 votes
answered May 21, 2016 by scoredfilms (6,850 points)
edited May 24, 2016 by scoredfilms
Feedback to Presonus:

Please don't add notation the way Cubase did. Logic does a better job and still gets it wrong IMO. While a DAW doesn't need to be an engraving masterpiece, it does need to have a "semi" appearance of an engraving program... just without the full load of engraving features.

The main thing I want is that like Notion and Overture, the piano roll is a fine tuner while notation remains clear and legible. When I write and read I think notation. Piano roll is only for MIDI tweaking. Given the fact that for 2,000 years notation has been the most common way we've all learned, and still prefer to work in, it's worth considering. I also want to make a point about why I don't use Notion and use S1 instead, as it relates to this. But I will in another question and link to it here.

Cheers,

Sean
+11 votes
answered May 22, 2016 by dawayneking (540 points)
edited May 22, 2016 by dawayneking
Actually, I was just demoing Overture 5 from sonic score over the weekend.  Yes, it is buggy right now, crashes a lot when configuring articulations....but this is "THE RIGHT IDEA"!  I have for so long wanted my DAW to allow me to record midi, but edit in Notation.  And have the ability to either playback the notation or the Midi performance.  I mean holy cow that is awesome. Or how about Write in Notation, but then in the track view of that notation, change the midi data, but not affect that actually notation to get a humanized performance.

Yes, I bought Notion to do Rewire into S1, but the articulation mapping is freaking insane...I mean...Really, some strange scripting "Thing" that if you can figure out how to get it to keyswitch a instrument correctly, then muddies up the score with channel switch tags...?  Overture does it correctly. It is limited to its ability to route multiple instruments into a single instance of VEP5, but heck, it still allows you to do it.  I have to create one VEP instance per orchesta instrument, like yeah...it will be a lot to map it across.  Articulations are easy to setup, its a one to one channel and keyswitching or program change settings.  actually only seconds to create, and when writing in notation or recording midi performance into it, or writing in piano roll "yes it has all of it" you and also write, record any CC data to the track.   The stability issues are when you are righting articulations and changing them.. At least that is when I run into it.  Set staccato,  maybe a legato, and then delete it and it will crash.   

If S1 did this...Actually had all of this build into it, I mean everything that Overture 5 can do, inside Studio One...I would be on cloud nine.  I mean as it is I am already looking at Overture 5 as my Composing tool.  I can just export all midi data out and import into S1 for fine tuning.  Overture does have Video and time lock for film composers like me I just hate the extra step of having to export/import everything back into S1 then re-lock to film.

I am also concerned with Overture 5's stability.  I know its BETA, but if the could resolve that...then maybe I am in.  But Studio One should do this...I am a composer, I write for film, games and it would be so nice to think like a musician for once.  As it is, I already write my stuff by hand when I am really thinking out a part, but it would be so nice to be right into the DAW, looking at it.

PreSonus,  Please take a look at what Overture is doing, I know you could do this.  Studio one is Freaking amazing,  I am a recent Cubase convert. If you added this to Studio One as a solution for Notation and Expression Maps, You would dominate the market for Film and Media composers...Hands down.   

Thanks for listening to me and I really hope I was offering something meaningful to this conversation.  I am not trying to sell another companies product, I already Own Studio one which I love, and Notion, which is great and is 50% there in my opinion.  Overture 5 is 90%-95% there in my opinion and is the solution I was looking for for years and years...Its just not a DAW.
+8 votes
answered Apr 12, 2017 by davidhoffman1 (380 points)
I'm a long time Sonar user and recently purchased the PreSonus StudioLive AR16 USB Mixer, which has me using Capture and checking out the free version of Studio One. I like it a lot and I'm ready to switch EXCEPT I found that Studio One doesn't allow you to edit notation like Sonar does. LMK when that's available and you have another paying customer :)
+4 votes
answered Jun 26, 2017 by godis (370 points)
I would love to be able to view and export the Score Notation version of all MIDI tracks. I see that the Edit View only allows for a Piano Roll form of the MIDI track. Is there a way to see it as I would a traditional Score with whole notes, half notes, rests, etc.?

Also, is there a quick and easy way to integrate / synchronize concurrent projects in both StudioOne as well as Notion 5. It would be awesome to be able to record spontaneous ideas in StudioOne and have those very ideas immediately available in Score Notation form in Notation 5. Is this something that is possible now?

Thanks so much!
+9 votes
answered Dec 11, 2017 by devonmyles (440 points)
Really would like to see this. Although I use Notion 6, it really is a workflow killer going back and forth between apps.

It's not about the printing (as many think. It's about the composing and referencing of large Orchestral templates.

I hope the penny drops with someone at some point.
+4 votes
answered Dec 28, 2017 by davidwhite20 (400 points)
This feature is desperately needed. I'm coming from SONAR which had a "staff view".  Being a musician who reads music, I prefer to edit my MIDI data and quantize using a staff/notation view.  I'm not looking for a scoring package like Finale or Notion, just a basic editor where I can read and edit the music on a staff.

Also, we could use a MIDI Event Viewer for fine-tune editing.  I have never used the Piano Roll format, and for me it is far too confusing than seeing music on a staff.

The integration with Notion provides a clunky import/export workaround but it is far from ideal.

Thank you.
+7 votes
answered Jan 4, 2018 by ionian (2,110 points)
This is the one shortcoming in Studio One.  I'm a professional musician - I don't read "Piano Roll".  It's frustrating to have people send me stuff to work on and I want to see what they've played on their midi tracks and it's impossible.  As a multi-instrumentalist and a good sight reader, plenty of times, I've had people send me tracks with their midi bass lines, for example, and in my previous daw (sonar) it was really simple to play their track and as the notation view scrolled by of their bass midi, just sight read it and lay a track of real bass instead as the notation scrolled past.  

I bought the studio one / notion package but really notion is far from ready for prime time, and the whole "send to notion" thing is severely lacking and very flawed.  For example, midi tracks seem to always get sent to notion as a single staff.  There's no way to split the staff.  If I do, I end up with a treble with all the notes in it and a bass staff with nothing in it.  It's amazing to think that notion is a notation editor that's incapable of splitting a staff AND the notes in a single click or staff setting.  It shouldn't be that hard to institute a simple notation viewer or editor in studio one.  Even for reading's sake.  It doesn't have to be engraver quality - just something that lets musicians actually read the midi they've played.  

This is really the only major shortcoming, in my opinion in Studio One.
+3 votes
answered Jan 9, 2018 by mikeanaro (220 points)
I think it would help A LOT, I mean we are in 2017 is not that hard to include a standard Staff Editor to write our VST, even Mario Paint has a midi editor.
In Sonar I write and print my music to register my songs, is a big deal to us songwriters.

Then they can sell the more complex Notion as a more advanced alternative.
+3 votes
answered Jan 17, 2018 by PreAl (2,710 points)
Would prefer better Notion intigration with Studio One. I don't expect score editing to be bundled.  More a Notion feature request and. Studio One feature request to intigrate the product better
+2 votes
answered Jan 31, 2018 by neiljordan1 (18,440 points)
edited Mar 12, 2018 by neiljordan1
Totally agree. So long as it supports guitar/bass tabs, I would definitely make regular use of it.

I really hope to see it open from and save to the .song file itself, rather than keeping a separate file somewhere.

Right now I have to maintain a separate TXT file for tabs, and that's a rubbishy workaround.
0 votes
answered Jun 23, 2018 by tommasoscalici (1,790 points)
Totally, yes. Don't know what's wrong with MIDI/piano roll, but sometimes I just need the standard music notation to figure out things in the composition phase. That will speed up my workflow / creative process a lot.
+2 votes
answered Sep 11, 2018 by jackietison (180 points)
The only notation composer of any DAW that I have found that actually works and is flexible for anyone trained in music is a standard part of Sonar. I think the Studio One is a decent DAW for recording  instruments, as are many out there, but if you are serious in the field of actually composing via MIDI on staff (notation) in Studio One, I guess we will have to wait until they realize that not all songwriters use simple instrument recordings to 'compose' with. I would like to see them put some time into this effort, as Studio One has a decent layout (Maybe not as user friendly as Sonar or Pro Tools, but decent.), and is easy to integrate into the Presonus digital boards for live recordings.
+1 vote
answered Sep 21, 2018 by sunlove (4,330 points)
In fact, Reaper has a very decent notation editor. It's not like Logic nor Cubase. It's very flexible; more like a cross between midi piano roll and standard notation. Later on this year, they're implementing an articulation editor.
+5 votes
answered Feb 17, 2019 by federicosilva (4,550 points)
This is a must have. I own Notion 6 but the workflow of switching between apps is not good, I'll like to see the notes right there in the DAW. IMHO working with midi right now on Studio One not very musician friendly, you only see a piano roll which you have to zoom in a lot to see which notes are being played, making harmonies in this way is a lot of work.
+5 votes
answered May 22, 2019 by annakersley (310 points)
Yep. I am thinking of jumping ship from Logic X, but the lack of even basic notation integration is holding me back. As the new update has just been announced, I am slightly annoyed that PreSonus still haven't integrated basic score notation into S1 4.5. You only have to look at the number of upvotes on this thread to know that people are starting to get frustrated at having to stare at the piano roll for all eternity.
+4 votes
answered Aug 8, 2019 by mjbutler (220 points)
I'm coming from a 100% FREE DAW called Garage Band ( you may have heard of it ) it literally comes pre-installed with every new iMac and MacBooks!  If you can read music and/or want to notate your music/score, I'm like "ugh".  I was super excited to move over to PreSonus Studio One 4, but now I've kinda lost my drive to learn a new DAW ( regardless of how highly reviewed it is ) because there's no score option, darn it.  It seems like an easy fix, how expensive could it be to add it into your software?  I don't know.  Just my thoughts. In fact, I watched one video where the dude was really impressed on how "PreSonus listens to it's members".  Maybe this can be resolved without importing a 3rd party software system like Notation 6 and make producing harder than it already is.  Thanks for listening.  Peace
+3 votes
answered Oct 13, 2019 by hasegawamiki (410 points)
I'll put it like this: GarageBand has it.

Come on, Presonus, it will not cannibalize Notion sales. It's just a very simple view for the editor, just like the "new" drum one.
+5 votes
answered Nov 20, 2019 by sunlove (4,330 points)
Right now, Melodyne is much more integrated to Studio One than Notion.
0 votes
answered Nov 23, 2019 by fabianmitchell (1,030 points)
This would make the features recently added for midi editing feel a little less random and technical in my opinion. If I recall correctly, Protools had it so that you could play midi and edit the notation after double clicking on that midi event. Basically how its done with melodyne in Studio One. This probably would make editing melodyne midi data much less of a chore as well if there was a notation editor that helped decipher the mess of notes on the piano roll that is created when converting an audio file. Melodyne often spits out random articulations and octaves and I feel like if there was a way to edit this in a more musical interface with a notation editor inside of Studio One it would be a game changer. I tried out Notion and there were no ways to transfer any data over into midi, and it felt like it was less integrated to Studio One with ReWire than you guys have with daws from other companies which I don't understand.
+1 vote
answered Jan 17, 2020 by davidviera1 (420 points)
Reaper have this function you can alternate views Piano Roll/ Score in realtime without need of annoying rewire application...Notion INSIDE Studio One...or at lest a basic view / editing.

Studio One is an amazing Daw but... Be a liitle more serious with standard and serious composers!
0 votes
answered Feb 25, 2020 by jaimeramirez4 (500 points)
YEEESSS.. Is needed please.. For composer that makes scoring to brasse and strings. To see the composition and edit and harminize. The piano rool isn't enough.
0 votes
answered Apr 5, 2020 by kevinv3 (180 points)
I would already be happy if you could just view notes. Even if you can't edit them. it would be so easy to know where you are at a glance in a score.
0 votes
answered Jul 10, 2020 by leedickholtz (1,470 points)

Hurray for Studio One 5's Score View (Score Editor).

0 votes
answered Oct 14, 2020 by petersalt (1,500 points)
This is marked as completed in 5.0 but the notation editor is dumber than dumb. It can even do triplets. Useless!
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