Dorico

[JLivi]

It seems like Dorico 3 just came out. Has anyone made the switch? The people I've talked to that use it seem to really love it once they figure out all the necessary short keys.

I'm a Sibelius user that's interested in switching to a notation program that actually has software updates. I'm also more interested in Dorico over Finale because they have the competition cross grade offer, and with my education discount it's only $160 to switch.

[AndrewMeronek]

I use Dorico 3. I like it. Whether you should switch - it depends on what you want out of a notation program. Dorico's greatest strength is its editing. The designers went through a whole lot of work on that from the beginning, and it shows.

[Gary]

I loved Sibelius but have had nothing but annoyance with its subscription and other policies since selling it, so decided to go with Dorico, because it seems excellent and is being programmed by the original Sibelius team.

But their Help and Customer Service has also been abysmal to the point where a member of the Help team suggested I go through a third party for Help. No real value added so I finally went to Finale. We'll see.

[JLivi]

I use Dorico 3. I like it. Whether you should switch - it depends on what you want out of a notation program. Dorico's greatest strength is its editing. The designers went through a whole lot of work on that from the beginning, and it shows.

What do you mean by editing?

[AndrewMeronek]

What do you mean by editing?

Various things. One very notable example would be copying and pasting musical lines. Dorico handles it extremely well when you copy and paste lines such that it starts on a different beat than the original - there is almost no re-editing of unnecessary tied notes and rests that don't match a meter's beat pattern and things of that nature. It stores its musical information such that allows it to automatically re-edit those details according to the defined meters pretty cleanly.

[Neo Bri]

I bought Dorico 2 and was very disappointed to find that simple things like falls weren't available. That was a killer. Have these things been fixed since?

[JLivi]

[tr][/tr]

What do you mean by editing?

Various things. One very notable example would be copying and pasting musical lines. Dorico handles it extremely well when you copy and paste lines such that it starts on a different beat than the original - there is almost no re-editing of unnecessary tied notes and rests that don't match a meter's beat pattern and things of that nature. It stores its musical information such that allows it to automatically re-edit those details according to the defined meters pretty cleanly.

That’s a cool feature! I never noticed how annoying that is in Sibelius. LOL

I bought Dorico 2 and was very disappointed to find that simple things like falls weren't available. That was a killer. Have these things been fixed since?

That’s unfortunate. I would hope they offer a fall, or at least updated it.

I found this video after a quick search. Not sure if it helps, but it talks jazz articulations.

[AndrewMeronek]

I found this video after a quick search. Not sure if it helps, but it talks jazz articulations.

I was thinking of that reference as well.

Dorico has some great ideas, and it definitely still has that "new" feel, where there is a lot of powerful ideas but doesn't have every bell and whistle that older software that has had more time to develop has. On the other hand, it can do some things Sibelius can't, like non-12 equal temperaments.

Version 3 is fleshed out enough that IMHO it works fine as professional engraving software, though. So, as with most software - it just depends on what someone wants.

[JLivi]

I was thinking of that reference as well.

Dorico has some great ideas, and it definitely still has that "new" feel, where there is a lot of powerful ideas but doesn't have every bell and whistle that older software that has had more time to develop has. On the other hand, it can do some things Sibelius can't, like non-12 equal temperaments.

Version 3 is fleshed out enough that IMHO it works fine as professional engraving software, though. So, as with most software - it just depends on what someone wants.

Assuming I get approved for my cross-grade competition with the education discount, I plan to switch over this week. It's only $160. Not a drop in the bucket, but cheap enough where I feel comfortable transition over. Now if I don't qualify for the education discount, then I probably won't switch quite yet.

[JLivi]

So I pulled the trigger and bought Dorico 3 last night. So far I really like it. I haven't done anything in it yet, but I've watched a lot of tutorials on YouTube. Very soon I plan to copy one of my charts into Dorico just to dive in head first.

At first everything moved really slow and I couldn't get the playback to work, but for some reason when I woke up today everything was lightning fast and worked great. I'm not sure what that was about, but it scared me at first.

[AndrewMeronek]

So I pulled the trigger and bought Dorico 3 last night. So far I really like it. I haven't done anything in it yet, but I've watched a lot of tutorials on YouTube. Very soon I plan to copy one of my charts into Dorico just to dive in head first.

At first everything moved really slow and I couldn't get the playback to work, but for some reason when I woke up today everything was lightning fast and worked great. I'm not sure what that was about, but it scared me at first.

Cool, I hope you get some good use out of it.

FYI the Dorico forum over on the Steinberg site is pretty helpful for resolving issues that you can't track down via their help documentation. https://www.steinberg.net/forums/index.php

[JLivi]

FYI the Dorico forum over on the Steinberg site is pretty helpful for resolving issues that you can't track down via their help documentation. https://www.steinberg.net/forums/index.php

I've been all over those forums already. These forums seem to already be better than the Sibelius forums. That's part of the reason I've switched.

Side note: So far I've created a simple work sheet for a student on ii-V7-I's and putting it all together, transposing to the 12 different keys, and cleaning up the part were incredibly easy. It didn't take me that much time to put it all together.

[IanDeterlingComposer]

Here is a fairly decent demo/comparison between Dorico and Sibelius



It is a bit exaggerated, but helpful. I downloaded the trial version and went back to Sibelius after a week. There are a few features that I like, but overall I find it to be less intuitive (personally). There are a couple of things that could be potential game changers, but I just don't see them yet...