NotBlock – (Score VST-Plugin)

NotBlock is the Swedish word for a booklet of empty music papers in witch you can write your own musik. The NotBlock plugin is a vst-plugin that you can load into the daw (desktop audio workstation) of your choise (Cubase, FL-studio, Reaper, Cakewalk by Bandlab, Waweform, Podium etc) and show your music scores and notes on the screen. You can the buttons on screen, swipe, use midi keys or the controller of your choice to change side using realtime changes (sustainpedal etc) or programmed in a miditrack. You can use it live and in studio. Here is some screenshots of NotBlock in use:

I developed NotBlock as a Vst® plugin for my own use.
Thats what I need when I play shows live with my band. We play floorshows and use backing tracks in my daw to play along with.

Instead of having a bunch of papers I now have everything synced inside my daw that I controll from my synthesizer.
Backingtracks, midiprogrammed lights and also my musik scores (leadsheets, notes, reminders and my lines in the show), I can have it all automatically setup night after night.

No need to change side in my papernotes, NotBlock does all the work inside my Daw programmed from a miditrack, on my screen.

Also I can edit my notes and also create new notes using my touchscreen and pen directly inside the plugin.

Here are some of the key features of NotBlock:

• NotBlock can show images with your music notes and scores as jpeg, png and bmp directly inside your daw.
• NotBlock can also show RTF-text files directly in your daw.
• You can access 128 patches/programs with 128 images each and all patches has it’s own settings.
• You can switch between your pages using midi keys, buttons on the plugin user interface, swipe left/right, and go to the next image using the controller of your choice (default is CC# 64 – sustainpedal).
• You can switch patch using midi and controller that you assign or buttons on the screen.
• Each patch can store settings for Touch on/off, Midi CC# and on/off including the controller of your choice, keymode on/off, program-change on/off and the default start image.
• NotBlock has a built-in editor for editing your images (not jpeg or png, only bmp) with touch/pen support and also a RTF editor with full font-setup including text-color.
• You have four diffrent pen-presets to chose from with custom color and width. Use white to erase.
• You have five levels of undo and one level of redo while editing notes/scores.
• When creating a new image (as bmp) you can have eight difftern templates of your choce to start with depending of what you are going to notate.
• You also have eight templates for RTF-files for writing notes fast on the fly.

NotBlock is avaiable as VSTi-plugin for VST-compatible host in Windows 64-bit and 32-bit format. It has been tested on Cubase 10 elements 64-bit, Cubase 11 AI 64-bit, Reaper 64-bit, Cacewalk by Bandlab 64-bit and Savihost VST3.

NotBlock acts like a VST-instrument but does not produce any sound at all. You might mute the NotBlock track.

To install NotBlock into your DAW just follow this instructions:

1. If your DAW is 32 bit you just copy the file “NotBlock-32.vst3” to C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3\
   If your DAW is 64 bit you just copy the file “NotBlock-64.vst3” to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\
   Or if you have an other location where you store your VST3 and your DAW cand find them just copy the files to that location.
2. Create a new folder on where you want to store the NotBlock data (default location: c:\NotBlock-Data).
   You can have your data-folder on a sedondary drive as long as it has a valid path including drive-letter (even a network drive will work but it might be slow).
3. Copy the directory GRFX from the install-zip file to your data-folder including all files.
4. Open your daw and create a track for NotBlock as an instrument (VSTi).
5. On the first start NotBlock ask you to select your data-folder you created in step 2 and type in your registration-code from your invoice. If you downloaded a update-package from our webshop and do not have a purchased serial NotBlock will not work.
6. After initial setup NotBlock will register the code on your system and create necessery system files.

Now NotBlock is now ready to use.

NotBlock has a file directly under C: on your system drive called “VST-NOTYBLOCK.TXT” that holds the serach-path to the data-folder you created for NotBlock in the initial setup.

In the data-folder there is one GRFX-folder that you installed from your zip-file that holds all system-images for NotBlock.

• BOTTOM.PNG – The skin of the bottom panel in the GUI.
• TOP.PNG – The skin of the top panel in the GUI.
• LEFT.PNG – The skin of the left panel in the GUI.
• RIGHT.PNG – The skin of the right panel in the GUI.
• TEMPLATE1.BMP to TEMPLATE8.BMP – Your TEMPLATE-image that you can use as a template for editing scores/notes. You have eight tempaltes. You can edit your own templates in the editor of your choice. Has to be W800 x H530 and saved as BMP.
• TEMPLATE1.RTF to TEMPLATE8.RTF – Your TEMPLATES for RTF-files. You can edit them in wordpad or word or any other RTF-compatible texteditor. You can not use images.
• STYLES.TXT – Textfile that holds your four custimated pen setups.

Tips! To make NotBlock as fast and light as posible just remove the skin-files and it will only show a white panel.

The data-folder also contains a file called “temp.txt” that holds the temporary settings of your plugin. Do not edit this file.

There is also a lot of folders with numbers from 0 to 127 that holds the images to display in your plugin, your scores and notes. Inside those folders are your images and also a file called “Patch.txt”. This is your settings for your patch (program-change). Please do not edit this file manually.

Images can be stored in JPG-, PNG- or BMP-format but you can only edit and save BMP-images inside the plugin, it can only show JPG and PNG.

RTF-files can be edited in any RTF-compatible texteditor (word, wordpad, openoffice etc) but NotBlock will not show images embedded in RTF.

When you edit an image or create a new image and save it, the old version of that image will be renamed with an “.bkup” extention so you can recover it.

To the left of the top-panel you have checkboxes for switching on/off the four modes:

• Key-mode: Select image using midi. All images/scores/notes have a number linked to a midi key (0-127, C3 – middle C is 64).
• Folder Change (ProgramChange in V1.0): Select patch using Midi-CC#. You can edit the desired CC#-number. A program is a collection of images and can hold it’s own settings.
• CC#-Mode: Step to next image (increase number by one) using the midi-controller of your choice. You can edit the desired controller after the CC#: by clicking on it and type in the number you want. Default is CC#64 (sustain pedal).
• Touch-Mode: You can switch picture by swypeing left or right on the picture. Needs some practicing.

The Image-lable shows the loaded image full path. You can klick it and open the image in your default program. The Patch-lable shows the loaded/selected patch full path, the patch-folder. You can click it to open the patch-folder in explorer. The Program-lable shows the patch/program number. You can klick on the number and type in the number you want to load. You can have 128 (0-127) diffrent patches. The Key-lable shows the number of the selected key, or pressed by midi. You can type in the number of the key/image you want to load. If the key/number has a corresponding image it will be loaded.To the right of the top-panel you have 4 style-slots for pen settings. When you enter edit-mode the first slot will be selected. To Select at slot click on the kolor and you can see it will be selected. After the color you have a number with the width of the pen. You can click it and enter the width. When changeing width it will be saved to styles-file. Chose color using color button.The button with the blue feet to the right shows the about dialog.

• Close the about dialog.
• Show the NotBlock help-page online in browser (this page).

Description of the icons in the top-panel:

• Step to the previous/next image. You can also swipe left/right on the screen or step to next image using Controller mode (midi) or switch freely between the images using key-mode (midi).

• Clear the image and insert new image from one of the eight image-templates or RTF-Tempales for RTF-mode. You can also import PDF-file using this button.

• Edit the loaded image. Does not work on JPG- or PNG- images, only Bitmaps (BMP). The pencil in the icon changes to red from white when in edit-mode. To exit editmode click the red pencil. RTF-files are always in EDIT-mode.

• Undo and Redo your edits. You have five levels of undo and one level of redo.

• Save your edited image or RTF-file. NorBlock will make a backup of your old image named “NR.bmp.bkup” when saving the new image. When saving an image from a template it will be saved and assigned to the midikey of the number in the Key-label (key-edit). Saving a RTF does not remove images but are loaded befor images so when deleteing a RTF the image will be showed if it exists.

• Step to previous/next patch. A patch is a program with it’s own settings and are stored in the folder with the patch number. You can change this using MIDI-ProgramChange.

• Save settings for the loaded patch. Saves modes, midi-controller and default image to load.

•  Chose color of thye four pen-slots. Changingh color will directly save settings to the Styles-file.

To remove a PDF- or RTF-file just delete it from the data-folder or for RTF right-click and chose Delete RTF. You can format your RTF-text if you select your text and right-click.

After install and setup of NotBlock you have to add some notes. You can do so in several ways. Here is a tytorial for Image, RTF and PDF.

Image Method one:

1. Enter the notenumber in the NotBlock gui or hit the key on your keyboard to activate the right key to assign notes to.
2. Hit the edit button or the templates button to activate edit and insert your template.
3. Select the pen-slot (color and size) you want to use and draw on screan using pen or mouse.
4. Save.

Image Method two:

1. Open your paint-app of choice (gimp, paint, photoshop…) and create a new image 800 x 530 pixels and draw on it.
2. Save it in folder 0 (or other depending of what patch youre using) and give it the key-number of the key you want it to be assigned to.
3. Play that key on your keyboard, type in the keynumber in the key-field and it will load into NotBlock.

RTF Method one:

1. Enter the notenumber in the NotBlock gui or hit the key on your keyboard to activate the right key to assign notes to.
2. Hit the edit button or the RTF-templates button to activate edit and insert your template.
3. Write on your keyboard. To get a new line use return or soft returns using SHIFT-Return.
4. Save.

RTF Method two:

1. Open your RTF-app of choice (Wordpad, openoffice, word…) and create a new RTF-file.
2. Save it in folder 0 (or other depending of what patch youre using) and give it the key-number of the key you want it to be assigned to.
3. Play that key on your keyboard, type in the keynumber in the key-field and it will load into NotBlock.

Adding a PDF:

NotBlock will only show the first part of your PDF if.
Save each page of your PDF in a separate file and as landscape.
You can scroll and zoom the pdf on the screen using mouse/touch.

1. Press a key to select keynumber.
2. Click new and choose Import PDF at the bottom.
3. Done!

You have to manualy delete the pdf to remove it.

A patch saves the modes on/off and what image (keynumber) to load on patch load.

1. Check the checkboxes you want NotBlock to respond to (Key, Controller, Program Change and Touch).
2. Edit the CC# number to the number you want. If you don’t use Controller mode you do not have to edit this number.
3. Play the notnumber/key or type in the keynumber and then save your patch.

Every time your patch vill be loaded, when you enter that patch/program-folder it will load and show the initial image.

To move your NotBlock-Data folder you just move it to the new location after you have closed your NotBlock and your DAW otherwise NotBlock will try to save data to the folder you just moved.

Then you have to open the textfile “C:VST-NOTBLOCK.TXT” in notes and edit the first line (do not touch the second line as it will corrupt the installation) to point to the new data-folder-path. It shuld end with a “”.

Or you can delete the file “C:VST-NOTBLOCK.TXT” after you moved your data-folder and start your DAW and NotBlock plugin and enter the data-location and your Licence-code again.

NotBlock does NOT work properly with Gig-Performer but are tested under Cubase 10 Elements, Cubase 11 AI, Reaper Trial, CantabileLite, Cakewalk by Bandlab and SaviHost Vst3 without problem.

Version 1.1 R2:

Several bugfixes.

Known bugs:

• Sometimes in Cubase using Steinberg Generic asio driver NotBlock will make some noice.
  Restart cubase and it works, reload the driver or mute the channel output.
• When doing a new install it copmplains about a number when showing the editor. It is because the default number in folder change not is set and loaded correctly. Just type in the controller-number and save your first patch.
  An update for this is comming.
• Sometimes it will not save the file with color and pen-size.
  An update for this is comming.

Version 1.1.0:

Converted to VST3.
Added RTF-support.
Added PDF-support.
Change folder using CC# instead of programchange due to limitations in vst3.

Known bugs:

• Sometimes in Cubase using Steinberg Generic asio driver NotBlock will make some noice.
  Restart cubase and it works, reload the driver or mute the channel output.
• When doing a new install it copmplains about a number when showing the editor. It is because the default number in folder change not is set and loaded correctly. Just type in the controller-number and save your first patch.
  An update for this is comming.
• Sometimes it will not save the file with color and pen-size.
  An update for this is comming.

Version 1.0.0:

Intial release.

Known bugs:

• Sometimes in Cubase using Steinberg Generic asio driver NotBlock will make some noice.
  Restart cubase and it works. Or mute the channel output.

When you purchase NotBlock you will recieve an e-mail with your license code. You will also see it after checkout on your screen.

The first time you start NotBlock you have to locate your data-folder and input your license-code.

NotBlock will not work without your personal license-code.
Do not share it with others, pleaze.

To update NotBlock just

1. download your update-archive from our webshop.
2. Remove your old plugin-file (dll or vst3).. Keep the data-folder and all other files
   It’s Importent to keep the c:\VST-NOTBLOCK.TXT file as it is your serial-key and the link to your data-files.
3. Unzip the update-package that you downloaded and
   If your DAW is 32 bit you just copy the file “NotBlock-32.vst3” to C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VST3\
   If your DAW is 64 bit you just copy the file “NotBlock-64.vst3” to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\
4. Copy the Template1.rtf to Template8.rtf files to your GRFX folder in your NotBlock data folder.
5. Start your daw and start using NotBlock.

Please send an e-mail to: support@blafotproduktion.se and tell me whats on your mind and I will come back to you sa soon as possible.

I need your name and also your NotBlock serial-number (license-code/license-number).

If you have a problem I also need your windows version (10/11 etc and 64/32 bit) and what daw your using and version.