VSL and Logic Pro X. Which notation program?

[pavel_k]

Hello friends

I need your advice. I am composing now a film score, which will be performed with studio film orchestra an I need to print music for orchestral players. Could somebody recommend me the best suitable notation programe which will work with the software which I am using? I work on Mac and I am using Logic Pro X, VSL and other plugins like Native Instruments, Synthogy Pianos etc. Logic has also notation software but I am afraid that it is not enough and that it is very slow to work in it. I am interested what are your experiences?

[hetoreyn]

Notion SLE and Notion 4 are very good .. also very affordable when compared to the others (Finale, Sibelius). Also Notion actually has the ability to interface properly with VSL and allow you to write dynamic information in the proper score format and it will play back your music according to the correct score .. give or take!

If I ever need to write an actual score I will write everything in Logic first .. then tidy it up, prepare it as best as I can and then export the midi file .. import into Notion and then I've very little messing around to do. Assuming all your time signatures and stuff was correct in Logic, it will be correct in Notion. Personally I would have no idea how to insert or change a time signature half way through a piece without totally screwing it up in Notion .. but that's just me .. haven't read the users manual quite as much as logic yet.

Like I said .. if you make sure your logic file is good, then it's perfect in Notion and writing all the dynamics is easy after that.

Check them out.

[pavel_k]

Hello Hetoreyn

thanks a lot for your advice. I will look on Notation and I will try it. Hope it will work without problems. I haven't a lot of time to learn it so it is very important for me if the notation software is user friendly. Tell me please if I will use - for example - detaché - in vsl and in logic it is C1 as a note. In score - I need that it will not appear as C1 but like sign detaché. Is it possible in Notion or you have some other method how you put this music signs into score? If you play legato - is it written legato in Notation automatically or you have to make it manually as in Logic?

I listened music extracts on your site - it looks very good :) Nice music!

Have a nice day

Pavel

[hetoreyn]

Notion is pretty smart .. you right the actual score dynamics where you need them, and assuming you're using the VSL Special Edition .. to which Notion is aligned with, it will playback a pretty accurate account. You can also view a midi mode overlay to tweak note lengths. There's a good instructional video for Notion with use via VSL on their website .. I'd sugesst checking it out.

I can't swear Notion will be the absolute winner for you, but it's cost effective, pretty intuitive and the people who run it seem to be very nice and helpful. And although I'm not terribly up on how to write with score in any program (personally I find it very klunky and slow .. on every score SAW I've tried), I have played around with it and found I was writting stuff very quickly. But for me it will always be a case of writing with midi in either Pro-Tools or Logic, and then exporting to Notion to make my actual score print.

Try the Notion video and see what you think. I personally feel this company offers us composers a lot.

[Andreas 1]

I would take Logic X for it, if you don't need a professional printed score for a publisher. Nearly everything is possible with the score of Logic and it's possible to work very fast with it. You are only losing much time if you export your score to another notation program. But if you need also a professional score for a publisher I would export the score with MusicXML to Finale or Sibelius (Sibelius is more easy to use, Finale is more flexible). 

Best,

Andreas