PreSonus has acquired Notion

A DAW, hmm. I see mike inputs, which I've no current use for. But I see too MIDI in-out on the cheapie plus USB for your laptop. Hmm. HP top of the line now sports NVIDIA (with its graphics processor speedup-potentials for non-graphic uses, a big plus) but also sports USB 3 ports only, with its menaces for USB 2 connections, such as on the cheapie. At 140 bucks, think one could regard any possible burnouts with equanimity (certainly cheaper than some wireless MIDI-connector will be). Hmm.

Meantime a certain lugubrious soul on the NOTION forum is in sackcloth and ashes about it all. The sky's about to fall. Hope not! And Surfwhammy's blithe about it, a good sign IMO.

Yep, hardware. Motivation's to feed MIDI only from my VPC1 to laptop (though of course the things don't have MIDI inputs), and so avoid the perils of USB 2 connections (VPC1's only alternative to MIDI) with USB 3, as on the otherwise worthy current HP high end laptops.

Well my shopping so far has convinced me there's either a wireless MIDI connection to laptop (safe, expensive) or some USB 2 connection, there's no other options current. So the only alternative to safe and expensive is cheap, and the cheapest ($150)  hardware offered by this outfit (forget the names) has MIDI-in, USB 2 out.

So it's a contender.

Here's a quote from a Sweetwater customer's review, possibly showing Presonus' motives for the acquisition:

Perhaps Presonus got quite some feedbacks like this and nodded. What seems clear, though, is that one should wait for just what the future brings - perhaps a version 2.5, accommodating, (and just maybe an overhaul of NOTION's less-than-very tidy organization - have they fixed the lack of pedal capture with MIDI yet?).

ADDED: I sprung <cough> for one of the hardwares; too embarrassed to say which.

Found it. Notion captures all midi input, including pedal info, when you use a "Sequencer staff," which is its name for a display of midi data on a normal staff. Simple to do. From the manual:

Add a new staff to your score. Then:
1. Go to the Score Setup window.
2. Add a new instrument or click the icon that resembles a gear at the left of a pre-existing staff.
3. In the Instrument Settings dialogue click: Notation/Tab
4. Highlight (check, it means) the “Sequencer Staff” checkbox.
5. Click OK.
The Staff will now appear with orange lines and has been converted to a SequencerStaff.

Works fine. The problem that has worried people is that the pedal commands are not shown on the default staff page, and pedal commands are ignored if you record from that page. You have to go in and enter the pedal marking manually. Not good. Off-hand, I'm not sure if Cubase shows pedal positions in its Score view. But if you record in Score view, the pedal positions are in any case recorded to the midi data. That's where Notion trips up--making you select a certain view to record the pedalling. But not a killer problem. I like the looks of it, and the SequenceStaff view. It works well with Pianoteq. (But you must remember that by default, it opens with its own Reverb turned on, so you must go to the Mixer page and turn it off.)

EDIT: The developers are promising to address this problem. See this recent thread on the Notion forum about using keyboards with Notion: http://forum.notionmusic.com/viewtopic....amp;t=4055

BUT there is the one larger limitation to consider: You cannot record live into Notion. You can import audio files, but you cannot sing or play a real instrument. You have to do that in another program and then import it into Notion.