Note Performer Posted by daveje - 12 Feb 10:30PM Hide picture I've just realized that I put my recent post on Note Performer in the wrong place, so here it is again: I purchased Note Performer a few months ago, and I can highly recommend it. I'm very pleased with its playback. You just download it, then open Sibelius, and there it is, ready to go. Bring up a score and it will immediately play back with Note Performer. Read through the user manual because a little tweaking in the mixer may be necessary. It's also quite possible to switch back to Sibelius Sounds, etc.. At approx £100 it's excellent value for money, and contains an extremely comprehensive library. Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Peter Roos - 13 Feb 12:57AM Hide picture You're not the first to discover it ... but you are right, the playback is very impressive, especially considering the very light memory and CPU use, and the musicality of the playback. Load time is almost immediately. Very impressive, an example of excellent programming. -- Peter Roos www.summeroflovemusic.com IMDb: www.imdb.com/name/nm2039241 Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Tony Cliff - 13 Feb 10:50AM Hide picture I second that and for me it has made operating Sibelius a pleasure to use again. Playback is instant and very responsive to all the articulation added to the score. Users of a certain competing notation program are quite jealous I think Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Chris Crawley - 13 Feb 11:28AM Hide picture "Users of a certain competing notation program are quite jealous I think" There's a rumour that Arne might be working on getting NP to work with that program. Now that might be a really big deal. -- Chris Crawley (composer and horn-player) using Dorico 1.2, Sibelius 7.1.3, NotePerformer 2.0.2, Windows 10 64-bit, Intel Core i7, 3.30GHz, 64GB RAM, DacMagic 100 Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Adrian Drover - 13 Feb 12:50PM (edited 13 Feb 12:52PM) Hide picture I'm also impressed with NP and its ease of use, tho' it seems to be more friendly with classical styles than with jazz (swing). I guess tenuto and legato have different interpretations between Beethoven and Basie. But that's life. I look forward to a version which includes a bebop switch ;-) Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Jesper Elén - 13 Feb 09:49PM Hide picture +1 for a bebop switch. Jesper -- MacBook Pro Retina, 16GB, OS 10.13.2, Sibelius 8.7.2, Wallander Instruments Brass & Woodwind 2.3.83, Wallander Instruments NotePerformer 2.0.2, EZDrummer 2.1.4 + Jazz EZX 1.3.5, Pianoteq Pro 6.0.3, Acoustic Samples The Upright Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Tony Cliff - 13 Feb 09:54PM Hide picture I think Arne is working on further improvements so let’s look forward to future editions. It is an amazing product though. I am sure that other notation program would love to have NP available but I am not certain how close that might be or whether it is just wishful thinking. Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Gustar - 18 Feb 07:37PM Hide picture What is your opinion on Note Performer vs. the current Sibelius 8 Sounds library? Would I benefit from purchasing Note Performer even though I already have the full ~35 gigabyte Sibelius sound library installed? I am just surprised, because the memory footprint of the software seems so small... -- Sibelius 2018.1 & Photoscore Ultimate 8.8.2 / Cubase Pro 9.51 / Windows 7-64bit Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Peter Ballinger - 18 Feb 08:42PM Hide picture I have Sound Essentials and GPO, but Note Performer is an order of magnitude better than GPO. I have tested it with parts of Firebird and Mahler's 4th and even skeptical people have been surprised at how realistic it sounds. I was even able to simulate a viol consort by adding 'non vibrato' to its modern string quartet score, hitherto very difficult to simulate because of the constant vibrato. The modest price is hard to beat, too. -- Win7 Professional 64bit, 2 x 3.0Ghz, 8GB RAM, Sib 6.2,7.5, GPO, Sound Essentials, Note Performer Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Kerwin - 19 Feb 05:21PM Hide picture > What is your opinion on Note Performer vs. the current Sibelius 8 Sounds library? > Would I benefit from purchasing Note Performer even though I already have the full ~35 gigabyte Sibelius sound library installed? > IMHO, for Baroque and Classical-style orchestral work I think you will find NotePerformer an advantage, especially if you also work on a laptop. I actually don't have the Sibelius 8 Library installed on my laptop, just Noteperformer; but I keep in on memory stick just in case. For more modern rhythms, such as swing and jazz, it may not be wholly satisfactory. (Although I did get some nice swing results by explicitly notating the rhythm.) YMMV. Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Kerwin - 19 Feb 05:29PM Hide picture > There's a rumour that Arne might be working on getting NP to work with that program. Now that might be a really big deal. > The last time I spoke to Arne on the subject (which was admittedly a few months ago), there are infrastructure needs that Sibelius satisfies, which other programs have not (as yet) met to make Noteperformer work. Although I wish it was otherwise, I would not expect to see it in 2018. Both teams do talk regularly (so I am told), so perhaps the functionality needed might get accelerated, but I was certainly not encouraged that it is a priority. Both developers did acknowledge the interest. Perhaps Arne or Daniel will start a Kickstarter. ;) I was sort of hoping that Arne was going to clarify things at NAMM, but everyone has been tight-lipped on this specific subject... Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Chris Crawley - 20 Feb 04:19PM Hide picture "I was sort of hoping that Arne was going to clarify things at NAMM, but everyone has been tight-lipped on this specific subject..." Which might suggest something - or not. -- Chris Crawley (composer and horn-player) using Dorico 1.2, Sibelius 7.1.3, NotePerformer 2.0.2, Windows 10 64-bit, Intel Core i7, 3.30GHz, 64GB RAM, DacMagic 100 Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Mike Lyons - 20 Feb 10:36PM Hide picture All depends on how much the other company are willing to spend, I guess. -- Win 10 Pro x64, 1.6GHz Intel i7 Quad core, 8GB,7TB 7200rpm HDD, Scarlett 6i6, Sib 6.2,7.5, 8.7.0 NotePerformer, GPO4 & 5, COMB2, EWQLSO Plat, EWQLSC, Si me castigare vis, necesse est me intellexisse. Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Tony Cliff - 21 Feb 12:36AM Hide picture Since having NotePerformer I have not used the Sibelius sound library at all. I certainly feel that it is far better overall so would definitely recommend it to any Sibelius user. It is not perfect but Overall I think it represents a brilliant piece of design. I agree it is not ideal for jazz scoring but there are unique problems in that genre for notation software playback to adequately cope with. I believe there is now a demo edition so you can test it out so you really have nothing to lose. I love the way it operates so seamlessly and loads so quickly. You cannot use it with Sibelius flexitime recording but I have never really used that as it never produced useful results for me. Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Adrian Drover - 21 Feb 08:47AM (edited 21 Feb 08:56AM) Hide picture I never installed the sib sound library, even before getting NP. I found Yamaha XGM far more convenient. I am very happy with NP. So easy to load and good demo sounds. My only complaint with jazz (swing) playback is that tenuto marks shorten duration rather than playing a note's full value, tho' this is partly due to pre-v8 "Guy Lombado" style playback of swing 8th pairs. Hat accents are over prominent too. It doesn't pay to over-articulate jazz scores for NP playback, but even Sammy Nestico was economical in this respect, leaving interpretation to the knowledgeable jazz performer. Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Tony Wakefield - 21 Feb 11:26AM Hide picture Do we indeed have any jazz performers left playing I ask. After yesterday`s late night Radio 3 jazz prog, I switched off and read. I wonder how these (last nights young guys`n`gals) would get on with NP? -- Sibelius 6/7/8. Win7. Note Performer, with various other no longer in use programs & audio. Web:http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/tonywakefield Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Gustar - 21 Feb 11:49AM (edited 21 Feb 11:51AM) Hide picture I tried the demo and I am a little torn. On the one hand, it is very reasonably priced, has a small memory footprint for what it does and works right out of the box (with the little tweaks to the mixer and the expression setting). I would also agree that the interpretation of dynamics and the overall texture is superior to the Sibelius library. However, when it comes to certain single instrument sounds (i.e. piano) I feel the Sibelius library is on par or even better than NP. On the other hand, when the official website goes as far as claiming you could "Use your music in movies, games, apps, TV series, online videos, documentaries...Or publish it as original recordings on CD or online streaming services" I can't really agree. I feel there is no way you can simply export a score with NP and use it as a final product. Of course, you could argue this is not NP's main purpose, especially keeping in mind the price point and the modest system requirements. But if you need your audio export to be as close as possible to a real orchestra, it means you probably still have to spend a lot of money on sample libraries, computers, a DAW and tweak the score by hand. I am still going to purchase NP as a composing tool - for the current price you basically can't go wrong. -- Sibelius 2018.1 & Photoscore Ultimate 8.8.2 / Cubase Pro 9.51 / Windows 7-64bit Back to top | All threads

Re: Note Performer Posted by Laurence Payne - 21 Feb 12:10PM Hide picture Every artificial instrument since the Hammond organ has been marketed on its ability to faithfully imitate the orchestra! I wouldn't worry so much over whether you get an accurate fascimile of a live recording, more about whether you can present your music effectively. Back to top | All threads