2014 Summer NAMM Show: PreSonus has announced that it is now shipping Notion 5, a major upgrade to its music notation software.
Notion 5 includes a new video window, new effects from PreSonus Studio One, an enhanced chord library, a custom rules editor, and many notation and publishing improvements.
Here’s the official intro video:
Presonus Notion 5
This is the first update since Notion joined PreSonus. The user interface has been redesigned to more closely resemble Studio One and other PreSonus software, and Notion 5 comes with PreSonus’ Native Effects Limiter, Compressor, and Pro EQ plug-ins.
The new version also adds a variety of enhancements for film, TV, and video composers, including a video window with a new timecode view. It can import a variety of video formats.
Notion 4 offered rules templates for orchestral VST libraries so you could load up an instrument and write dynamics, effects, and instrumental techniques into the score without using the VST interface or programming keyswitches. Notion 5 adds the ability to create custom rules for any VST library without editing XML files by selecting from drop-down menus.
Notation improvements make Notion even faster and easier to use, including an enharmonic spelling tool, cross-staff notation, layout and printing improvements, and new shortcut sets. You also get an enhanced chord library with more library chords, user-created chords, and recent-chord recall.
Version 5 also adds Mac Retina display support and Windows 8 touchscreen optimization.
Other Key Features:
- Notion works well with other studio technologies (including full ReWire support);
- Playback with sounds from world-class artists and studios, including the London Symphony Orchestra;
- Notion is the only notation software that can output 32 audio pairs to a mixing console or in a ReWire session; and
- Notion is the only notation editor that supports Mac, Windows, and iPad and the only one that can run 64-bit on both Mac and Windows.
Notion 5 is available in English (US and UK), French, German, Japanese, and Spanish (Latin American) at an expected MAP/street price of $149. Academic pricing is available. See the Presonus site for more info.
Not sure yet whether I am lucky to have bought Notion 4 when it was 99 USD and not yet owned by Presounus. Although the improvements do sound promising, so far I’m still satisfied with version 4.
At least it is still far more affordable and flexible than the finale + garritan combo.. 🙂
I really like that the samples are integrated into the product. It feels much more streamlined and it also handles playback much better. I was never happy with the playback from Sibelius and thus use of samples running through a plugin always felt a little tacked on.