Many great things here. The software is of course immature, but the overall design is a marvel, really. I have entered a movement of a string quartet this morning and am obviously getting used to the interface as the number of times I use ctrl-Z seems to be diminishing! I know everyone will clamor for their favourite feature. I have seen a few of them, and many deal specifically with notation and/or playback, but I thought I’d put a list of what matters to me and why.
I am fast. VERY fast. Speed is one of the things that make me competitive. Already, I can see where the design of Dorico will eventually take me in terms of its time-saving capabilities, both in terms of what’s there and what’s obviously to come. It is clearly designed to make input and preparation faster in theory (although I’d quibble about a couple things in terms of the properties panels, but that’s for another post). But I would like to share what makes me the Usain Bolt of arranging/orchestration, and would like to see in future patches and versions of Dorico. I know full well that the team is flooded and I’m certain they are aware of all of those things. So this is simply just another list.
- Fast code. Right now, Dorico is sluggish on large scores. Even small projects show some delays with certain commands. I realize that will take time and has been mentioned already, but it is not a bad idea to reiterate.
- Filters. The great power of Sibelius lies in its filter IMHO. To be able to select and isolate voices, notes on top, all quarter notes, lyrics only etc … is of massive importance to me. I was aware they would not be there, but I am surprised how little this has been mentioned by other users. I use filters dozens of time on any project, even small ones. My use of filters makes me 40% faster than if I did not use them.
- Explode/Implode. Which I absolutely did not expect to see in a first release, but I put it to you anyway as I use this a lot as well.
- Better selection for large chunks of music. I tried copying a couple of hundred bars in order to move them from one flow to another. Even reducing view to 25%, I had to do it in two batches with the marquee tool. In this case, I realize I might be missing something though …
- Multicopy. Which someone else as mentioned. Again, I did not expect to see it in this release.
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Transpose tool. Big time saver!
This coming April, I have a project (which I do every year) which involves children tunes for small orchestra and children choir. I typically write about 30 of them. The more these features are added, the likelier I will be to use Dorico for all of it. I will use Dorico for some of it anyways!
Congratulations on the development team. It will be an exciting year!