I was reluctantly “forced” to switch to Dorico when Finale was discontinued, after more than 25 years of using it. My first copy of Finale came on a 3.5” floppy disk (I was using Encore before that). I’ve worked as a copyist since graduating from music school in 2003 and have a few published books u…

[image] FredGUnn: How about something more modern then :joy:

So, @k_b , does that mean that notation shows ornaments that are improvised? I’m not sure I understand. For example: improvisation, at least in my training as an organist, has nothing or very little notated (perhaps a melodic or rhythmic theme). So, how does an improvised performance relate to not…

Not all embellishments are written. Performers of all sorts embellish the straight tunes with flourishes as they perform. That has been happening at least since the baroque all the way to modern pop singers. Whether all of these have notational equivalents is debatable, but certainly ornaments can …

Meanwhile, the free Musescore plays beautifully most ornaments, well enough to give an idea of the final result, which is what most users in the educational field need from Dorico. Hopefully, someday…

[image] FredGUnn: A fully implemented ornament designer with the ability to customize how they should be interpreted Game changer right here!

[image] FredGUnn: A fully implemented ornament designer with the ability to customize how they should be interpreted for playback would be a very cool feature! A very cool idea indeed, suggested some time ago…

I remember reading fairly recently that Steinberg has hired the person who developed Finale’s “human playback” thing. The ornament playback with that wasn’t bad at all, so there’s reason to be hopeful.

Having formerly used Finale for 30 years and relied upon it for audio recordings of my compositions, I generally found HP to be a mixed bag. I turned many of the options off, since it sometimes made a mess of the overall balance, expression and rhythmic accents. But it did well with humanizing thing…

I was Encore → Finale → Sibelius → Dorico about six months ago. I’ll be honest, it’s a bumpy transition. There are quirks and head scratching items. Good luck!

[image] m_ravel: Then came the inevitable switch to Dorico, Why? Certainly not. On the one hand, Finale continues to work, including on recent versions of OS X (at least up to Sequoia); on the other hand, you are free to choose whichever software you wish. The Make-Music => Dorico offer is m…

25+ years using Finale and forced to switch to Dorico

Dorico

MarcLarcher March 13, 2026, 9:11am 70

A very cool idea indeed, suggested some time ago…