Dorico - An Ongoing Journey

[foorere]

I'd love it if someone created an unbiased comparison grid showing features amongst: Finale, Sibelius, Notion, Dorico, and MuseScore.

Cell entries could include: NEVER, NO, NOT YET, BARELY, YES BUT PAINFUL, YES BUT CLUNKY/STUPID, YES, BEST-IN-CLASS

Some substantial comparisons among these notation programs and even more (like LilyPond and SCORE) have been done at:
www.notat.io
And of course you can always ask for more!
(Daniel Spreadbury is there on the board as well)

[mikehalloran]

I'd love it if someone created an unbiased comparison grid showing features amongst: Finale, Sibelius, Notion, Dorico, and MuseScore.

Cell entries could include: NEVER, NO, NOT YET, BARELY, YES BUT PAINFUL, YES BUT CLUNKY/STUPID, YES, BEST-IN-CLASS

Some substantial comparisons among these notation programs and even more (like LilyPond and SCORE) have been done at:
www.notat.io
And of course you can always ask for more!
(Daniel Spreadbury is there on the board as well)

What thread?

I couldn't make your link work but this one does without www:
https://notat.io/

I've been a member for years but often forget it exists. Thanks for the reminder.

[bayswater]

Any luck with the Halion SE that comes with the free version of Dorico? The AU versions consistently crashes DP here. Just examining the VST3 version leads to a crash. It runs fine as a standalone app and works OK in Logic.

[mikehalloran]

Any luck with the Halion SE that comes with the free version of Dorico? The AU versions consistently crashes DP here. Just examining the VST3 version leads to a crash. It runs fine as a standalone app and works OK in Logic.

Hmmm??? I updated to Dorico 4 and the version of HALion SE 3.5 that comes with that passed DP 11.03 verification over Monterey.

I'm in upgrade hell regarding my license. D4 requires Steinberg Download Assistant which has never successfully run on any of my Macs. Although there's a place to enter my new license on the web site and I'm able to download and install the components without it, Download Assistant is needed to reconcile the older license on my USB eLicenser. So far, none of the usual solutions offered by Support work.This means that I'm stuck in Eval for a product I've purchased. We'll see what happens.

[stubbsonic]

I suspect if you did a comparison grid of whether or not the feature exists in an app, you would find a great deal of similarity--especially in the apps that are targeted for the same kinds of users. The issue is in the ease-of-use category. The difference between "Yes but clunky/stupid" and "best-in-class" might have more to do with a user's familiarity with the process than the process itself. I'm already seeing some of that in my learning of Dorico. After 30 years with Finale some things I think of as easy to do are more about the fact that I'm so familiar with them. When I do the same process in Dorico, it feels clunky because I'm so unfamiliar with it. Yet, I can see how it's logic works and my opinion is likely to shift as I get more comfortable.

I definitely see your point. If there was no grey area, just yes/no, then it might be easier to complete. Also, some notation software gets updates fairly regularly so such a comparison would require as many updates.

Thanks to MH for reminding me about Scoring Notes. Need to spend some time there and get my feet wet. My notation needs ebb & flow, but it's worth having a grasp of the bigger picture.

[bayswater]

Any luck with the Halion SE that comes with the free version of Dorico? The AU versions consistently crashes DP here. Just examining the VST3 version leads to a crash. It runs fine as a standalone app and works OK in Logic.

Hmmm??? I updated to Dorico 4 and the version of HALion SE 3.5 that comes with that passed DP 11.03 verification over Monterey.

I'm in upgrade hell regarding my license. D4 requires Steinberg Download Assistant which has never successfully run on any of my Macs. Although there's a place to enter my new license on the web site and I'm able to download and install the components without it, Download Assistant is needed to reconcile the older license on my USB eLicenser. So far, none of the usual solutions offered by Support work.This means that I'm stuck in Eval for a product I've purchased. We'll see what happens.

SImilar experience. Just getting Dorico SE involved downloading and running three separate authorizer/manager/whatever apps, and account updates. There was even a window with an iLok error that popped up. After an hour I had no idea what I had or didn't have.

[stubbsonic]

What options does Dorico provide with regard to dynamics? With DP, I can play in the dynamics via MIDI how I want them and put display-only dynamic markings. I assume Dorico imposes displayed dynamics, either by adjusting velocity or CC7; but can this be disabled so it plays only the recorded MIDI velocities and ignores the dynamic markings?

I suppose a more general question is whether you can sort of work on the score with minimal impact on the actual MIDI in each instrument/staff (apart from notes, durations)? I might want stacatto marks, but really want my own played in lengths.

[mikehalloran]

Any luck with the Halion SE that comes with the free version of Dorico? The AU versions consistently crashes DP here. Just examining the VST3 version leads to a crash. It runs fine as a standalone app and works OK in Logic.

Hmmm??? I updated to Dorico 4 and the version of HALion SE 3.5 that comes with that passed DP 11.03 verification over Monterey.

I'm in upgrade hell regarding my license. D4 requires Steinberg Download Assistant which has never successfully run on any of my Macs. Although there's a place to enter my new license on the web site and I'm able to download and install the components without it, Download Assistant is needed to reconcile the older license on my USB eLicenser. So far, none of the usual solutions offered by Support work.This means that I'm stuck in Eval for a product I've purchased. We'll see what happens.

SImilar experience. Just getting Dorico SE involved downloading and running three separate authorizer/manager/whatever apps, and account updates. There was even a window with an iLok error that popped up. After an hour I had no idea what I had or didn't have.

I finally got installed and updated from instructions in the 12th post on this thread.
https://forums.steinberg.net/t/steinber ... /759814/13

As of this morning the support page that I referenced has not been updated.

[bayswater]

I finally got installed and updated from instructions in the 12th post on this thread.
https://forums.steinberg.net/t/steinber ... /759814/13

As of this morning the support page that I referenced has not been updated.

I got SE installed, thinking the optional Halion SE might be handy, but both the AU and VST versions immediately crash DP.

[mikehalloran]

Don't know if this is an issue for others but regarding the Steinberg Download Assistant.

After 10 days of Apple and Steinberg passing the buck to each other, I decided on a whim to boot my Mac in Safe Mode with the Shift key held down. Surprisingly, the Steinberg Download Assistant fired up and worked properly installing everything in the correct locations. Turns out there was a 4.0.10 released Friday.

Fixed? No. Workaround? Yes. Till next time…

[bayswater]

I’m starting to remember why I dropped Cubase and switched to DP.

[bkshepard]

I guess I've been incredibly lucky. I've had absolutely no problems with the Steinberg Download Assistant, Activation Manager, or Dorico itself (updated to 4.0.10 yesterday). It has all worked seamlessly for me. Sorry to hear you guys have had so many issues.

[darrell]

Late to the party on this one. One main question for me: Will Dorico accept AU plug-ins as instruments like Finale does? If not, what quality sounds are people using that work with Dorico?