Sherry Crann promotion to Product Designer at Notation Software

Hello Sherry and Mark,

Regarding Shery Crann's promotion. It seems impossible to post directly under Mark announcement, so I post it here.

This is great news for me as a Notation Composer customer. I have posted a little earlier in this forum and learned that time how friendly Sherry was in this forum. She even wrote a nice comment on my Sound Click's electronic music page (which is what I make).

I just want to say congratulations with your promotion dear Sherry. I am sure it is well deserved. I also like the friendly company profile you and Mark makes together. Notation Software is the best personal service software firm I ever has came across on the net. Don't change this please. This is also a reason why I always read all mails from you guys too.

Here is much as before, I just bought "the worlds most expressive synthesizer" and are still reading the hand book for it. It actually makes it hard to recognize it's a synth and not a real violin or the chinese violin (Erhu) playing. In march I will start my next composing project I hope can end up in CD.

Best regards from

Geir Laastad in Norway
a.k.a Rieg

Hello All,

I'm pleased to announce Sherry Crann's promotion to the position of Product Designer at Notation Software. This promotion reflects the active role Sherry Crann has increasingly held in designing features and user interfaces for the Notation software products.

In this forum you will observe Sherry Crann's role as Product Designer on a daily basis. When you are discussing product usability problems with Sherry, she is carefully taking notes, as though she were observing an experiment, where Notation Composer or Musician is being subjected to testing, by you. You might not know this, because you might think of Sherry primarily as the delightfully friendly, and quite knowledgeable, Notation Software customer support person. You might not know that Sherry Crann communicates with me almost every day about where we should improve the products, and how we should set our priorities.

Or, perhaps that much is obvious to you, that Sherry and I discuss what new features or usability fixes should result from your feedback in the forum and the helpdesk. Maybe what isn't obvious to you is the Sherry prepares specifications of new product features, and improvements in user interfaces. For example, Sherry wrote the specification of the new chord chart feature recently introduced in Composer and Musician version 2.3. At this very moment, Sherry and I are actively discussing several major user interface improvements in the upcoming Composer 3.0, based on Sherry's first drafts of the designs.

Sherry Crann joined Notation Software on September 1, 2005. Before that time, Sherry was a well-known member of the Notation Software community forum, and active beta tester. She demonstrated her excellent communication skills in the forum as well as by editing the first Notation Composer Users Guide.

During Sherry Crann's 2-1/2 years with Notation Software, she has worn many hats, including: competently serving as the more active of the two of us in the forum and at the helpdesk; preparing content for and editing much of the web site, especially the large Community section of the web site; and managing business relationships with affiliates and other partners on the Internet.

Some earlier background: Sherry Crann earned an M.S. degree at the University of Michigan in biological chemistry, after undergraduate study at North Carolina State University. Her subsequent 12-year career at the biochemistry laboratory of the Kresge Hearing Research Institute included managing laboratory personnel, designing and overseeing studies and experiments by staff and students, and writing and editing research articles for publication. The laboratory's research focus on auditory systems is perhaps not unsurprisingly related to Sherry's love for music.

Sherry has always been actively involved with computers, including experience in programming before the days of PCs. She served as the computer support liaison in the biochemistry lab at Kresge Hearing Research Institute, coordinating the data collection by researchers with computer processing of the data.

Sherry, her husband Bill, and their children (Mahala, Aaron, Tommy and Josh), reside in an old stone farmhouse near Bad Axe, Michigan in the mid-west United States. They all enjoy making music to some degree, and it was Sherry's participation in arranging music for her church and other local groups that led to her initial interest in using MidiNotate and then Composer some years ago. She and her family actively participate in the music program at their church, and with other homeschoolers. Sherry plays bass (and other instruments) for the worship team and a few "gigs" as well. She enjoys dabbling with instrument making, which has given her a great appreciation for the craftsmen of fine instruments, and the challenges of translating the performance of those instruments digitally via computer. You may have read in our Share Your News section about their house fire last year. Sherry says that this experience has given her an even greater appreciation for the gift of making music to "oil the waters" of life, and help her keep an even tempo in the midst of turmoil.

Although this somewhat formal announcement can convey what Sherry Crann does technically, it cannot clearly convey Sherry's personal warmth, which you might only learn by talking with, or observing, Sherry in the forum.

Congratulations, Sherry, on your promotion. I greatly appreciate your contributions to the Notation products, and for your sincere advocacy of the users of these products.

Sincerely,
Mark Walsen

Congratulations, Sherry. Congratulations, Mark, for recognizing Sherry's talent and value to your company.

Susan

P.S. Sherry, someday I plan to send you a long message with my suggestions for marketing a special version of Musician for piano teachers.

Howdy,

Thanks Mark, Geir, and Susan. I really enjoy interacting with all you folks on the forum, and it's especially fun to take suggestions and help turn them into improvements in the software. It's also fun, in a different way, to take questions and use them to figure out how to improve the software as well. Susan, please do always feel free to make suggestions such as for special considerations for piano teachers. It's direct feedback from folks who use the software that helps us to improve. I'm all ears

ttfn,
Sherry

Hi, Sherry:

Congratulations. Your work on the forum is one of the reasons that Notation Software has such a good reputation for customer service. When I compare the stony silence from some companies (whom I won't name here) to the warm and open reception that Notation has always shown, it makes me wonder what the other companies find so difficult about talking to their customers.

Looking forward to lots of future discussions.

David

Hi, Geir:

Just curious as to which synth is currently "the world's most expressive synthesizer".

Not to put down your purchase, but I can't help chuckling when I read ads that use those kinds of slogans: "An infinite palette of sounds", "the only synthesizer you will ever need" and so on. I've been reading ads like that since I picked up my first copy of Contemporary Keyboard magazine in 1976 and yet they still make new models every year.

By your description, it sounds like it's a physical modelling synth. Interesting technology.

David

Hello David,

Well this time they actually did not lie. The synth is a Roland V-Synth GT and it is really fantastic. I bought mine for 14 days ago and it's my 5'th synth in my stable. The new thing is something they call AP-Synthesis (Articulative Phrasing) which actually models the expressions of some accustic instrument. This has been missed until now and is the reason for not (so far) being able to produce these sounds quite perfect. But this synth does indeed do that. In addition, it has "tons" of other good things built in. It is both analog and digital. I have been a Roland fan since my first synth (SH-7) in 1980, but this is one is the cream of the cake.
Below is a link to the Norwegian re-seller, they have 23 video demos there. Pay especial attention to the violine, Erhu and flute demos. But all of these demos are worth looking and hearing at really.

Here is the link:
http://www.sound1.com/portal/asp/pro...odukt_ID=3835#

On this page, to the left of the small synth pic itself, there are two grapical icons, one is a small camera click on that to get a larger pics of the synth's front and back. To the right of that camera icon, there is a film icon, click on that to view the video demos. If they stall because of bandwith limits, it may be best to save them to your disk first and they play them.

I hope this clarifies.

Best regards
Geir (Rieg)

Hi, Geir:

Yeah, the V-Synth line is impressive. I demo'd it at a music store here, but unfortunately it's out of my price range.

I've actually just got my two *ancient* Akai samplers working after several years without their disk drives being useable and I'm having some fun playing with samples.

Looking forward to hearing some of your music.

David

Hi Sherry, Mark and all Notation software users

Congratulations to you both and to us all.
Let´s drink to our new Product Designer !
Cheers
Djim

Howdy folks,

I appreciate the congratulations both public and private

In keeping with tying all my life-threads together, here is a link to an animated video of many of the biochemical processes that go on in a cell (my past research life), which is set to a really nice score (my present musical life). Do enjoy it - it's a real treat. http://www.studiodaily.com/main/tech...ects/6850.html

If you want the voice-over version, to explain what's going on, you can visit http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/media.html There are also some other clips there as well.

Enjoy - I sure have
Sherry

Hi Sherry,

I can see why you enjoy this. There are perspectives from which we hardly recognize ourselves. From this one, it's hard to know if you're looking at Helen of Troy or the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The music emphasizes the beauty of what is going on; the version with the explanation uses a vocabulary that is way beyond me. Thanks for the link.

all best,
mgj

Hi Sherry
Thanks for sharing these astonishing videos and truly in depht explanations.I wish I had these possibilities when trying to explain the facts of life to (mostly ) sleepy medical students.It reminds me of the Star Wars series, but no fiction.
Thanks again.
Djim

Howdy Djim,

It's funny you should mention the Star Wars connection, because that's exactly what my kids said the first time we watched the video together. Then, as I was explaining the things that were happening, they thought it was so cool that all this stuff is actually going on in their bodies right this instant

And I agree - I've generally been able to visualize this stuff in my head, but to be able to communicate it verbally to students was always a challenge. I think it's wonderful that CGI capabilities now make it possible to have this type of imagery available, rather than just the old x-ray crystallographs (if you were lucky enough to be able to even get those!)

I also think that the musical accompaniment is so fitting - what goes on in a cell is just like a symphony, with everything working at just the right tempo, doing it's part when it's supposed to and then desisting when done. Only in reality, it's a lot more crowded - I doubt the violinists would like the space constraints very much

ttfn,
Sherry

Howdy,

In this view of life, MG, you'd be looking at both of them. Physical beauty is not even skin deep - biochemistry runs everyone ;)

ttfn,
Sherry