Protégé

Reviewed by Daphne Kalfon

This link below contains information about both Notion and Protégé, including a comprehensive listing of features for each, mp3 and WAV samples of music created using the orchestral sounds that come with each program, usage comparison chart and system requirements. http://www.notionmusic.com/products/software.cfm

The demo link below is just that – all you have to do is fill out the form here:

http://www.notionmusic.com/demo/

Within about a week you will receive the demo disc in the mail. The demo version contains all the features of the full version but will only function for 30 days. During the 30-day trial period, or at its end, you can convert the program from demo to the full software simply by clicking “Authorize” when you open the program.

For the time being, Notion and Protégé are not Windows Vista capable but the company anticipates that a Vista version will become available by the end of March 2007.

Getting Started:

I put the install disc in the disc drive, double-clicked on the installer, typed in my password as requested, clicked through the end user license agreement that came up, and then the install process began. There is also a license agreement for PACE (anti-piracy software), which allows Protégé and its extensions to run. Unfortunately, I had to agree to it in order to install the program, but I understand that PACE can be quite problematic in regards to other programs you may already have on your computer.

When I then double-clicked on the Protégé icon, a window came up asking me to authorize the program. After I clicked “okay”, another window came up asking me to activate my copy of Protégé either via the Internet or manually, so I chose Internet.

This then opens a Product Authorization page on the Internet, and after choosing to activate authorization, another window appears, asking users to first create a NOTION account in order to be able to authorize their software.

For those who don’t have an account, such as myself, I was then directed to a new page where I had to fill out information, as well as fill in the very long authorization code that came with the software, in order to be able to authorize it.

After I received notice that authorization was successful, a Protégé window came up, asking me to press the finish button to complete the registration process, at which point Protégé finally launched.

May I say again that as with other program installations, this was a bit long and tedious, and I believe it is because companies are trying to incorporate safeguards to discourage pirating. I would like to say here once again, that I think the only thing this really accomplishes is not to discourage pirating, but to annoy those who have already made their purchase and would just like to get on with using the product they have purchased.

I went under the File menu and chose new. A window appeared, called “Score Instruments”. This window allows me to set up my page of instruments that I would like to use, such as strings, woodwinds, brass, vocal, percussion, keyboards and such. I have to keep in mind that Protégé only allows up to 8 instruments, and that a limited selection of instruments are available to me within this program.

There is a 27-page tutorial to help you get started with Protégé, as well as demo files that are installed with the program. In addition to that there is an extensive Help menu for Protégé online, which is what I used. It covers everything from an overview of the program to using the keyboard and mouse, score setup, how to enter notes as well as all kinds of special markings including text and lyrics, editing the score, using MIDI, playback and audio options, printing and more.

I set up a page with 4 instruments on it. What results is a score page divided into 2 parts. One part is the score page of course, and to the right is what they call the sidebar. The sidebar contains 4 sections: Tools, Entries, Expressions and Properties. Under the Tool section, clicking on each item, one a time, will bring up the corresponding keyboard shortcut for that tool. Clicking on other items in the Tool section will bring up information and settings options corresponding to it in the Properties section, or will bring up all the items contained in that tool. Holding the mouse over a symbol brings up information pertaining to it, such as what it is, and if it has one, its keyboard shortcut. This makes for easy reference to everything needed to create your score.

Pressing F2 will also bring up a quick reference keyboard shortcut chart for everything from accidentals, articulations, dynamics, notes and ornaments.

As I went through, once or twice I found that the help menu wasn’t accurate in its description of how to find something. Perhaps that’s because the program has been updated and the help section has not, or because the description is more accurate of what one would see in Notion rather than in Protégé.

As with other notation programs, in Protégé, you can enter notes by either selecting the note symbol you want and clicking it in yourself, by computer keyboard using the shortcuts indicated, or by MIDI, using whatever instrument you have. I particularly like the keyboard shortcut assignments for entering notes, because whenever possible, the key with the first letter that corresponds to the note value, is the assigned key. For example, if you wish to enter a whole note or rest, the corresponding keyboard key is “W”; if you wish to enter a half note or rest, the corresponding keyboard key is “H”, and the same sort of thing goes for entering quarter, eighth, sixteenth and thirty-second notes.

Protégé has a feature (optional) whereby if you have too many beats in your bar according to your selected time signature, the note or notes you have entered will be in red, instead of black, indicating to you that you have too many beats in that bar.

Barlines have to be entered in oneself – they don’t seem to appear automatically after you have completed each bar, although manual entry is pretty simple using the keyboard shortcut.

I would have liked there to simply be an eraser tool, which there wasn’t. The eraser is activated by a key command and is not that intuitive when it comes to actually using it.

I tried implementing the slur tool exactly as indicated in the help menu but had a great deal of difficulty getting it to work using both methods available. Adding staccato proved very easy using both methods (from the sidebar or using the indicated keyboard shortcut). Certain keyboard keys allow the entry of several different articulations – all you have to do is press the selected keyboard shortcut key repeatedly in order to toggle through the various articulation options associated with that key, and then select the one you want when it appears.

The articulations are very good. I implemented a number of them and was very impressed with the quality of playback in adjusting to whatever articulations I entered, whether it was an accent, staccato, slur or whatever else I selected.

I may have missed this option, but I did look for it and didn’t find it. As Protégé played back my French horn part for the first time, I realized it was not playing at concert pitch but expected me to notate the French horn as it would be for a score. I was hoping I would have the option of notating it at concert pitch, because at least for me, I find it a lot easier and faster to work that way rather than having to keep working out the transposition. (French Horn sounds a fifth lower than written.) Same goes for my bass clarinet part, which sounds a major ninth lower than written. I think this is totally unnecessary and annoying as the odds of having any orchestral piece played live, by someone using Protégé to create it, are rather remote. On the other hand, please disregard this rant if I just missed the “play at concert pitch” option.

There was definitely some flakiness when it came to being able to hear the correct instrument via my MIDI keyboard – clicking on a staff brings up its name at the bottom of the score, and allows you to play the instrument sound via your MIDI instrument. However, it only worked some of the time or not at all, at least for me. Either the wrong instrument sounded – for example, even though on playback, the bassoon would sound, if I tried playing it through my keyboard, I would get what sounded like probably a cello - or it didn’t sound at all. Or worse, Protégé crashed when I tried to hear the instrument sounds by clicking on each staff.

I also had problems with being able to implement accidentals – I didn’t always get the corresponding correct note after placing it in.

As for the instrument sounds, the quality is okay but I would not say that they are of terribly good quality.

The NTempo feature is very unique and I really like that I can control the playback tempo of my score in various ways just by activating this feature and then, via my computer keyboard, tapping out the tempo variations I would like to have while my music score plays back.

The score itself looks very professional. What I did manage to print out looked very good but it wasn’t what had appeared in my preview before printing. I probably need to get some help with page setup.

The “Save as .wav” feature worked perfectly.

Conclusion:

In all, Protégé is a decent starter program for those just entering the field of orchestration and scoring for orchestra. It is pretty good value for the cost of the program.