The user interface is packed with common sense it is because I’m able to write down some notes for my composition without looking at the manuals or consulting in the user forums. You can also add lyrics to the music.
User interface rating: 5/5
Audio Mixing features
This type of software includes a fully functional audio mixer that allows you assign effects such as reverb, EQ, etc that will bring utmost clarity of your musical compositions. To start using this feature, simply click “Mixer” and you will see this:
Notion mixer
Learning how to use this mixer as well as applying effect plug-ins is a completely new topic that is outside of this review. I suggest you will read the following tutorials for more details:
Notion3 Mixer Console Guide
Install VST Plugin in Notion 3
It fully supports VST plug-in but I have not read any support for Direct X. The good thing is that it has a default set of plug-ins such as reverb that would be very useful for most orchestra compositions. I suggest you will read my mixer tutorial (link above) to learn more about the techniques on how to use this feature. The mixer console for Notion3 is powerful enough to shape your composition to professional sounding quality.
And then there is a Rewire integration that would allow this software to communicate with other DAW or audio editing software. With this option, you can send tracks to other software for mixing, post-processing.
Mixer console rating: 5/5
Music sheets printout
The printout quality is great. As long as you have printers installed, you won’t have any issues printing your music sheet. Take a look at this example printed music score by Notion3.
Printout
This is created using CutePDF driver installed first on your system.. I recommend this open source PDF creator when printing music sheets to Acrobat reader format.
Most students might print the music sheets to PDF. To install, simply go the CutePDF site and click the free download link to install that to your computer. It will require PS2PDF converter (GhostScript) somewhere in the installation process. Simply download that also and proceed to install.
Print out quality: 5/5
Audio Export quality
Finally after completing your compositions or transcribing music in Notion, you can export the audio by going to File – Export Audio. The output audio is a 16-bit, 44.1 KHz wave file. In a more recent build/release, it allows you to export to 24-bits resolution which is appropriate for post-production work such as mastering.
It even allows you to directly export/upload your music to SoundCloud to easily share your music. See some screenshot below from Notionmusic.com:
Notion bit depth
Export quality: 5/5
This is a sample Bach Fuga VI sound recording created using Notion3:
Recommended Usage
Based on the features as illustrated previously; Notion3 is recommended for songwriters, musicians and for anyone that would like to create music. With its huge sound library and user friendly interface, any aspiring musician can create a fully arranged and produced song using only this software.
Notion3 is also recommended for those musicians with music production background. You will be able to mix your instruments and tracks within the software through the use of VST plug-ins/effects.
My overall rating on Notion3 is 4/5. The price is reasonable at $199 (price can change in the future) in Amazon
Content last updated on July 21, 2012