Questions & Answers

Notion 7?

+14 votes
5,329 views
asked Feb 27, 2021 in Notion by kyfisher (1,540 points)
I Have Had Notion 6 for a few years now transitioning from Muse Score.
and now i am transitioning back to Muse Score as it is light years past Notion.
the good about Notion is that it integrate with studio one and the sounds are great but everything else dose not hold up against muse score or sibelius. and the bad far out weight the good.
with most issues coming to the workflow and flexability, if you need examples just download both and try writing the same score in each.

can we expect a notion 7 that is usable?
or even updates in the future?

3 Answers

0 votes
answered May 31, 2022 by herbievantetering (380 points)
edited Jan 26, 2023 by herbievantetering

Notion 6 has a lot of features for programmability.

The files Notion 6 can handle can range from short pieces to 1.5 hours long pieces. However, Notion 6 running at 48KHz 24bit might be slightly surpassed by other way more buggy software; especially feature wise.

Made with Notion 6 (with all the customised MIDI features and custom programming):

Listen to Wide Tundra by Herbie van Tetering

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/YkJ8Q (dynamic conducting features)


Mark my words: Notion 7 is 'coming soon' to a PC near you, and it will be wonderful. However, the features in Notion 6 are so advanced, Notion 7 might even be unnecesary. Mozart and Beethoven would have been extremely happy with Notion 6 already.

Below album was made with Notion 6, with the additional MIDI filters and 48KHz recording, hopefully similar conducting features will soon be available in Notion 7 like CC, WAV and MIDI smoothing. Because Dorico cannot do anything properly.

Listen to Family Man by Herbie van Tetering


https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/XiRxR (dynamic conducting features)

+1 vote
answered Jul 4, 2023 by lancejames (190 points)
It seems that Notion 6 development has gone dormant.  I would agree that it was great several years ago but other products kept evolving and now lead the way.
0 votes
answered Aug 10, 2023 by nathanielwalker2 (420 points)

Notion 6 is basically out of development.  PreSonus hasn't even bothered updating it for Apple Silicon (M1) Native.  They just put the Notion Mobile App on the Mac App Store instead (they did the same on Windows).

Regarding @herbievantetering response...

Notion's MIDI Editing features are about as robust as Finale's, but it lacks Finale's Human Playback System, better support for Garritan Personal Orchestra 5 (which was designed to be used with Finale's HP system), superior Engraving and support for a multitude of advanced notation features.

Software like Dorico go far beyond what is available in this area, and with the Elements version having Unlimited Staves/Players now... well.. that's a problem... for Notion.  Cuase hte price point has positioned it in a weird place in the market.  MuseScore and Dorico Elements sit below it, and then Finale 27 has halved the Price tag to $299 and has multiple 50% Off sales per year.

The statement about Notion 7 coming soon aged quite well.  What we got was an update to Notion Mobile (actually worse than it was on iPad, IMVHO) and instead of making Notion 6 M1 Native and bug fixing/improving MusicXML support... they shoved the Mobile App into the Microsoft and Mac App Stores.  At least the price for that version makes more sense, though.

I still like it on Mobile, for the Windows Pen, Apple Pencil and S Pen Support.  But once you graduate out of "true beginner" status, I think Notion will provide more limitations than worth it to stay with it over MuseScore or just getting something like Dorico Elements or Finale.

Notion 6 (and Mobile) is fine for getting MusicXML out of Finale, Sibelius or Dorico into Studio One.  Studio One cannot import MusicXML, so importing to Notion and then sending the Note Data to Studio One is the best way to get those scores into the DAW.  That's the only reason I use it.  I do sketch with it on mobile, when I'm doing simple things and want to write quickly into he score... but for more serious composition on mobile, I will use Dorico for iPad because it's just a more appropriate tool for the job.

Other Notation Packages have too many QoL and Workflow-accelerating features to make it worth using Notion over them.  Notion's ease of use is a competitive advantage, but only insofar as the end user isn't at the level where they have need for the better functionality (and therefore do not feel the disparity in efficiency for not having them).

Even Finale, with its historical UX and Workflow, will run circles around Notion due to its deeper functionality and ability to utilize plug-ins (some of the best distributed with the software itself, these days).

I hope they launch Notion 7 soon.  I don't really see myself going back to using it as a primary notion software (honestly, I barely use Studio One, these days... as it's more convenient for me to sit within an Apple + Steinberg ecosystem duopoly), but it would really deliver some serious value to the users who have standardized on PreSonus software.

I just don't see how they could ever catch up.  MakeMusic can deliver 1 feature every 2 years, and it would probably still take PreSonus 5-10 years to catch up to Finale (outside of UI/UX, which isn't a hard task)... and that's the least innovative/heavily developed competitor.  Catching Dorico, Sibelius and MuseScore will be much more difficult, IMO.  It's going to be hard to pull users from there, or win mindshare due to the software being allowed to language for so long.  Most people I know already consider it to be, basically, abandonware and won't touch it.

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