Notion 4+

Compose anywhere

NOTION Music, Inc.

    • 3.5 • 734 Ratings
    • Free
    • Offers In-App Purchases

Screenshots

Description

With over 10 years in the App Store, Notion Mobile is a free, award-winning music composition tool for iOS, iPadOS®, macOS and more! You’ll effortlessly create dynamic compositions in traditional musical notation or guitar tablature with its intuitive touch-based interface and incredibly broad editing capabilities.

With a user-friendly interface and simple interactive piano keyboard, fretboard, drum pad, and even optional Handwriting Recognition, Notion Mobile makes it easy to get started composing your music. You can also hear your music performed with the most realistic playback possible, using real audio samples recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios.

Notion Mobile is a native cross-platform app, meaning you can write anywhere on any device without requiring a constant Internet connection. And when you’re back online, you’ll be able to sync your work across multiple devices — either through your preferred cloud provider, or through the optional wireless transfer between PreSonus applications on any device. Start your work on one device and finish it on another. Once you are happy with your creation you can share the Notion file, or export as MIDI, MusicXML, PDF or as an audio file.

Compose, edit, and play back your music performed with real piano and orchestral samples recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios — along with outstanding sampled guitar, bass, drums and other popular instruments. And when you’re ready for more sounds, you’ll find the extensive library of Notion Add-on Soundsets to purchase as part of the Feature Bundle. To save space, the initial app download contains just piano — you can then manage which of the bundled Soundsets to have on your device or keep in the cloud, just tap on Sound Installation.

Notion has been featured in various Apple campaigns including the 2014 YourVerse television commercials and has won several awards, including a prestigious music industry NAMM TEC Award for Best Smartphone/Tablet App.

What you get:
Notion Mobile includes unlimited staves, comprehensive editing features and core orchestral and rhythm section Soundsets — all for free. You can optionally register (also for free!) to unlock an additional Soundset (containing Solo Strings, Classical Saxophones and Glockenspiel), the multivoice function that allows writing in up to 4 voices per staff, and access to the friendly Notion Mobile User Forum. Then for the full experience, either sign in with your Studio One+ membership or purchase the Notion Feature Bundle. This unlocks Handwriting Recognition, Layout Controls, all the Expansion Soundsets (including many auxiliary instruments and additional articulations and effects), additional audio export formats (m4a, OPUS, FLAC) and direct file transfer between any PreSonus application running on the same network (including Notion Mobile, Notion Desktop, and Studio One.)


Free:
Unlimited staves
All editing features
Core Soundsets
Export as MIDI, PDF, wav, mp3

Register for free:
Reward Soundset including Solo Strings, Glockenspiel, Classical Saxophones
Access to the new Notion Mobile User Forum
Additionally write for voices 3 and 4 in a single staff
Export as MusicXML, Compressed MusicXML

Feature Bundle (in-app purchase or sign in with Studio One+):
Handwriting Recognition, powered by MyScript
Available on iPhone, iPad and macOS (macOS with supporting graphics tablet or using Sidecar with compatible iPad)
Automatic pen vs. finger recognition to switch between handwriting and edit mode
Pressure-sensitive support for Apple Pencil
Adjustable timer for Handwriting Recognition
Override handwriting timer by double tapping Apple Pencil (2nd Gen)
Layout Control
All Expansion Soundsets
Additional audio export formats (m4a, OPUS, FLAC)
Direct file transfer between any PreSonus application running on the same network (including Notion Mobile, Notion Desktop, and Studio One)

What’s New

Version 3.3

Welcome to Notion Mobile 3.3
All new features and changes here: https://shorturl.at/amrDW

Top Features:
-New Layout Control tools added to Feature Bundle
-Notation improvements
-Harp Tuning Tool
-Document Recovery

For hints, tips and more help, visit our new Notion Mobile forum at forums.presonus.com

Ratings and Reviews

3.5 out of 5
734 Ratings

734 Ratings

Solarborn ,

Usable but glitchy and unintuitive

I did manage to hack out a (very) simple score with this app but it took literally hours! The “undo” function represented by the counter clockwise symbol sometimes fails to erase the highlighted note or chord. The “redo” function, which I assume is the clockwise symbol, never worked! I frequently resorted to cutting the measure contents and reinstalling the notes one by one. Also, it’s unclear how to edit a note in the body of the song without backing up from the end or cutting an entire measure. I wanted to write for guitar and the interactive fretboard is a nice feature but it still rings out like a piano even after a guitar is selected. Not a big problem. The notes work but it would be nice if it sounded like the instrument I selected. Perhaps I missed something. That said, printing the resulting page was a snap! I also appreciate the ability to save to iCloud as well as to the device. If I need to do a more complex piece of music, I don’t know how long it would take! If this has the ability to use the built in mic to transpose the notes it hears, I could not get that feature operational. This really has the potential to be an extremely useful tool for someone like myself who has some basic music education but is a bit sketchy on writing music. Unfortunately the quirky “undo” feature as well as the less than intuitive interface could use some work!

Developer Response ,

Thanks for the feedback. Couple of answers that might help...

'Undo' rolls back the last user action, rather than erase anything selected. 'Redo' then only works if you have 'undone' something.

By default the app downloads with just the piano sample sound to save space on your device - it is then up to you to download additional sounds from the the Sounds menu. If a sound has not been downloaded, then the piano will sound by default.

Notion cannot analyse audio via the microphone - however it does support MIDI input (with a MIDI instrument either connected via a USB cable and the Apple Camera connector kit, or via wireless connection with a MIDI Bluetooth enabled instruemnt)
And there are various other methods of entering notes, from the onscreen fretboard/keyboard/drumpad, to tapping in with a finger (akin to how a mouse would work) to the optional handwriting recognition (an in-app purchase)

Please do join our new Facebook user group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/PreSonusNotionUsers/

CoyoteCuervo ,

A good app for DRAFTing assignments, tabs, etc for a guitar teacher

This app works very well for most of my purposes composing and arranging pieces for my guitar students. I can create alternate tunings, fair quality midi files (not pro sounding), and the click and point system works well with Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil.

However, it needs a few tweaks to be a pro level app for the composer/musician. Only 2 voices are available, and the system easily gets confused with complex rhythm figures like rumba arpeggios that have syncopated sixteenth notes in one voice against longer 8th note grouping in the lower. This means I constantly have to correct measures and erase notes that don’t fit in a measure. Staff spacing gets wonky and spread out when adding “pima” and left hand finger numbers.

The inability to put in a 3rd middle voice is the really frustrating thing. If I’m writing a Sor style piece where I need a middle voice to rest between a treble and bass voice I can’t do it, or if I want to join a treble half note with an up stem to an 8th note grouping with a downstems to show that a high note floats over a flowing arpeggio: it’s impossible to do. I don’t seems to be able to fuse a voice so it can be a unison which is often a function in right hand arpeggios so that unnecessary rests are not required to fill in the 1st beat before the 3-16ths after the beat. This has me eyeing Orchestra Pro etc . . .

Developer Response ,

Hi, thanks for your review and glad you are mostly enjoying the app.

Yes, Notion iOS has two voices per staff, whereas its big brother Notion 6 for Mac/Win supports up to four voices per staff. This is a popular request for a change however.

For community help, tips and support, join our new Facebook user group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/PreSonusNotionUsers/

Anniedeemarie3 ,

Awesome to get going... so far

I’ve been using this app to compose piano music for 3 months. One of the reasons I got an iPad Pro was to find an app like this, where I can easily input notes directly into the score on the screen. It works so well! The handwriting is fun to use, too. I’m discovering a couple of things that I find to be a pretty big deal for a pianist. The only pedal markings available are the cursive “Ped” and the “asterisk” method, rather than horizontal lines and carrots, which is much more accurate to use. I’m also finding it difficult to place finger numbers beneath the notes, as you would for bass clef notes. The program doesn’t leave enough room for them, which is awkward to mess with. I’ve found work-arounds for other issues (for example, the whole rest in 6/8 translates as too many beats)... I’m hoping they will update the space beneath the bass clef and especially the pedal marks. I may not stick with this program at some point, but it seems so easy to use otherwise!

Developer Response ,

Thanks for taking the time to leave a review. In answer to some of your questions...

You don't need to manually enter whole measure rests at all in Notion iOS - just make a selection (or select all/part), and then More>Fill with rests. Notion will then enter all whole measure rests automatically, regardless of time signature.

The rest you mention above is literally a whole note rest (e.g. the length of 4 quarter note beats) and not a whole measure rest so would indeed be too long for a 6/8 or 2/4 measure. (Note you can manually add whole measure rests in Notion 6 for Mac/Win).

Finger numbers, there's two ways you can add these underneath the LH bass clef staff when writing for piano. Add all the numbers, then make a selection, then More>Attachments>Show Below. The staves will respace to make sure there is enough space between the lowest note and its number, and the following system.
Or you can use the Lyric tool to add your finger numbers underneath - you can change the font of the Lyrics to better match fingering format text style if you wish. Again Notion will respace following systems to make space for the text.

As noted, there are no pedal lines as yet in Notion iOS, but this would be a great feature request! You can post feature and instrument requests here and other users can them vote them up
https://answers.presonus.com/notion-feature-requests/notion-ios-feature-requests

App Privacy

The developer, NOTION Music, Inc., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

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