As the title says, I’m testing it at the moment on my Windows 7 desktop, but half the time I work on my Surface Pro 3. I was wondering what the experience was like, do you use the pen, hand gestures, etc?
I love how everything looks really big in the Desktop, big fonts, score, layout. Everything is really comfortable to see, so I was wondering if this is a huge asset on a small tablet?
Cheers!
I’ve been using it occationally on my Surface Pro 4, mostly for demoing it briefly to friends and clients, and without any issues. Haven’t really exploited it on that platform, but if you have specific questions, I’ll be able to check further next week, in case no one else chimes in 
I’ve used Dorico a few time on a Surface Book, and find that for me it works very well, but (YMMV) a keyboard is practically a must. Dorico’s speed and ergonomics are built around the shortcut system, If you’re looking for a tool to quickly develop ideas on a surface with a pencil that you can then bring into Dorico for engraving, you might look into augmenting your Dorico with Staffpad which is built around a handwriting paradigm.
Thank you Fratveno, that would be great.
Seems to me that a great app would be some sort of programmable keyboard emulation for your smartphone that can wirelessly jack into your tablet. Most everyone I know that owns a tablet also carries a smaller smart phone as well.
I can envision a simple app that lets you design your own interfaces on the touch screen of the smartphone, with all of your most commonly used keys and key-combos all laid out neatly for you…perhaps even with a vertical swipe you could also bring up a little scrolling virtual MIDI key-board of about an octave or so that easily swipes to higher and lower octaves with horizontal finger sweeps.
I understand that Dorico will soon support MIDI Mapping to some extent for a lot of it’s controls and features (and maybe eventually to the extent that we have Generic Controller Maps in Cubase).
Such an smart-phone app would be killer for so many things besides just Dorico. Does it exist yet?
First Websearch hits:
http://www.tunadjgear.com/midicontrollers/
http://www.netmediablog.com/turn-your-smartphone-into-a-midi-controller
And there are more
I’m using it with sibelius and other pc programs as a graphical remote control
brilliant
Oops! I forgot to subscribe to my own post. Never mind!
Thank you all for your posts, next time I test Dorico it’ll probably be on the Surface.
@Traubitz, yes! I do 95% of my writing in Staffpad, hence why I’m so interested in Dorico. I need a software for the publishing stage, where I can import quickly from Staffpad and create decent parts to print.
And yes, there are multiple remote control apps that you can use with just about anything to control anything. But the Surface keyboard can do most of it anyway.
My only quarrel with Dorico at the moment is that it uses the bloody dongle, so my only port is used on that instead of my tiny MIDI keyboard I take on the road/rehearsals… Or more importantly the printer!
With respect to the dongle, I feel your pain. There are some USB over network solutions that can free up that port for you, but they can be pretty fussy to set up. For a MIDI keyboard, Korg has some Bluetooth portable boards, but I’m still working with a USB powered one myself. I pretty much only use Dorico only in docked mode and Staffpad in slate mode; Surface Books have no USB ports when the slate is detached from the base, so Dorico is a non-starter for slate mode.
Oh! I did not know that about Surface books. In any case I’m sticking to the Surface Pro, perfect size and weight, otherwise I rather sit comfortably at a desktop…
The Surface Pro will also give you a longer battery life as a slate (or “clipboard” as Microsoft terms the Surface Book without it’s base.) The Surface Book’s slate is very light, but that’s because a lot of the battery is in the keyboard/base. Surface Books work really well as a notebook replacement–as for a slate/tablet replacement, there are a lot of compromises. 
The screen is reversible, so you can fold the screen over the keyboard like a 2-in-1 and keep your ports and hi-performance, but I find it’s more comfortable with a lap desk when folded. I’ve also found the much maligned Microsoft dock for surface to be helpful in desk-based situations, but YMMV depending on the kind of screens plugged into it.
Just want to add, that Dorico does not require the dongle if using it on a single device is sufficient for you.
And this works well for those who are insufficiently parsimonious to confine their work to a single machine :
It give me room for two licensers, a sample SSD, and a portable keyboard on the road.
How are things today, with Dorico 4 and Surface Pro 9? The new desktop user interface should make using it a bit simpler on a Windows tablet.
The ways I would use it are two:
Tap note duration, duration dots, tuplets, then tap the note(s) in place, or
Tap and hold in the pianoroll, and drag for long notes.
Then, I would tap on the other symbols from the right-side palettes for additional parameters.
How is it, now?
Paolo
I’m curious: how big does a staff need to be for you to accurately tap a note to the correct pitch?
Presumably, you’ve got half a space tolerance to hit between the staff lines (pink) or on/near a line (green).
Can you be that precise with your finger, when the entire staff height is, say, less than a finger width on the screen? Or do you have to use a stylus?
I would think this is the obvious way.
Paolo
