Another perspective on moving to Dorico

Dorico
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Many new users have expressed frustration adapting to Dorico. And some have even given up.

I thought that my own experience may be helpful. Around the time of the first release of Dorico, I read a detailed review which described Dorico as the way of the future for notation software. The author was compelling.

At the time I was a Sibelius user, which I quite liked, but I have always taken the view that it is better to 'keep up with things’ then being a laggard. And noting that the key members of the Sibelius team had moved to Steinberg gave me additional confidence.

I left it about 12 months for the software to settle - and then made the jump. I vowed not to return to Sibelius, learning a new piece of software is better than trying to work with two different kinds.

My needs are moderate - I primarily notate lead sheets for multiple instruments with chords, lyrics (love the way Dorico handles this), many repeats and codas, transpositions, and similar. I started with simple ambitions, and learnt slowly rather than trying to understand everything at once.

I get much pleasure out of the progress I have made and my increasing confidence (and although this is oft discouraged, I ask ChatGPT how do something in Dorico and it has never let me down. I am sure that is because the User Manual is so well designed).

Attached is example of my current skill level: experts will see lots of areas for improvement, but I am happy.

I am 73 years of age.

Phil

Dancin’ for Joy.pdf (549.1 KB)

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Phil… I am pleased that you have been having good luck with Dorico. You were very wise to let Dorico settle for 12 months.

I, however, jumped on it the day it was released, and it was horrible. Well…to be fair, the documentation…or, rather, the lack thereof…was horrible.

One would think that a person could look up something such as “bar…adding” or “measure…adding” and would be able to find that, but you would be wrong. After a rather frustrating first day, I put Dorico down and did not return to it for two years.

Dorico has somewhat redeemed itself over the years, but I still think the documentation is its weakest link. And, although I think the videos are nice and worthwhile, when I am trying to figure out something in a hurry, I don’t have time to sit through a video.

Dorico is an amazing product, but it will not be the premier scripting software, until its documentation is tightened up.

Craig

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p.s. Phil…I like your “Dancing for Joy”. I am not much of a singer, but I played it on my piano. The scripting looks very well done!

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