I currently have Dorico Elements 3 and Finale Printmusic 2014 mainly for creating Lead Sheets and Guitar Tablature, not full orchestral scores. I’m thinking of upgrading to either Finale v26 or Dorico Pro 3, at the moment Dorico Elements doesn’t have text options I need to make notes on the score.
I need some help in deciding which one to go for, has anyone transferred from Finale to Dorico and for what reason. Financially it would be cheaper to go to Finale v26 at half the upgrade price, but the support seems better for Dorico.
Yes, I moved from Finale, because with Dorico I don’t have to spend hours manually fiddling with things that ought to be done for me.
Because notes and lyrics and staves and symbols don’t crash into each other.
Because I don’t have to tell Dorico not to put a syllable on a rest or the second note of a tie.
Because using Chord symbols isn’t a byzantine pain in the.
Because real-time MIDI input works.
Because creating instrumental parts with section headings is effortless.
Because Dorico releases more bug fixes and new features each year than Finale does in a decade.
My suggestion is for you to download the Dorico Pro demo. By holding down the ALT key (from clicking on the program until the appearance of the splash screen) you can open the Pro demo as Elements to see the difference.
You may want to wait a week or two to get the demo of the upgrade to see the very latest version expected shortly.
I own a Yamaha Genos keyboard and would like to create Lead Sheets with information in the top left hand corner suggesting which Voice and Style to use with each song, Elements 3 is currently unable to produce such a simple task although Daniel did say he would look at it.
The upgrade price for Finale v26 is £153 and for Dorico Pro 3 £386 so you can see my dilemma in choosing the right product for my needs.
If you type text into the dialog box, you can only enter a single line, but you can get two lines of text into the field if you create the text in a text editor (e.g. Notepad) and then cut-and-paste it into the Project Info dialog.
That will give you something like the attachment, and should work in Elements.
Of course in Pro you can edit the Master Page to make any format you want.
If you’re finding that your use case is consistent and limited, you might be better off getting a 30-day trial of Pro, fixing a “template” file to your liking, and using that in Elements for the foreseeable future.
Another long time Finale user in the process for converting to Dorico here. I’m making the switch for basically the same reasons that Ben & Dan outlined. I transcribe a lot of music and Dorico will be a great time saver. I was becoming more and more frustrated with the various quirks, bugs, anomalies, etc. that just seemed to suck time from me.
The real cost of these programs is not the amount paid but in the time needed to learn the program and the amount of time it takes to do the tasks that YOU need to do once you’ve gained the needed proficiency.
Not sure if I qualify for the cross grade as I own Finale Printmusic not the full Pro version. The cross grade information when buying Dorico Pro 3 does not make it clear as it just says Finale ?? If I can cross grade using Printmusic then its a done deal - can any of the Steinberg staff comments please.
I would like to say a big thank you to all the people that responded to my question, you all came up with some very interesting points and its given me something to think about.
If I can get the cross grade deal then I will be buying Dorico Pro 3
I recently cross-graded from Finale 2012 to Dorico Pro. I bought a retail cross-grade package that simply said “Dorico” on the box. IE: No version number. I expressed concern to the salesperson that I might be in process of effectively cross grading to Dorico-1, which indeed turned out to be the case, except while installing the licence up popped a message saying that I qualified for a free upgrade to Dorico-3. Of course I had to download the newer Dorico software, but so what, I now have Dorico-3 pro! Point is, at no point did the cross-grade installer ask me what software I had previously been using! Maybe it found Finale on my PC and satisfied itself without me knowing?
With regards to Finale: I looked at (trialed) the various upgrades that had come along since Finale 2012 and just never seen a good reason to upgrade. Keep in mind I had been using Finale since back when it was owned by Coda Music, circa 2000. When I trialed Finale v26 I realised I needed to start looking for something else to use. At that time I hadn’t even heard of Dorico, but became aware of it via the Steinberg website as I am a staunch supporter of certain other Steinberg products. I migrated over to Dorico (after trialing the Pro version) in December 2019, so I am still very new to Dorico, but already enjoying it immensely.
Don’t get me wrong, Dorico still has a few issues that need sorting, but from what I have seen it will get there VERY fast.
Geoff, I believe the retailer is responsible for checking your eligibility for crossgrade pricing. There’s nothing within Dorico itself that checks what other software you have installed.
I want to be but Dorico isn’t there yet. Pardon me if I don’t run out there waving pompoms. If your needs were the same as mine, you’d likely think the same as I. Apparently, they’re not.
I do own a license and am not on the sideline carping. Do you own one for Finale 26? If so, you get to compare. If not, you serve no one by criticizing.
I have 25.5, and I have to use it periodically. Generally immediately followed by a walk around the block to clear my head. I didn’t feel the need to part with $150 for articulation stacking and vuvuzela templates or whatever 26 offers, so this is the last version I’ll ever own.
The idea that it is impossible to evaluate a new product before actually buying it is ridiculous (and if it is true of Finale, that is a big addition to the list of reasons NOT to buy it).
I don’t need to actually test out a flashing Christmas tree in the software (see the next post!) to decide how useful it would be to have that option.
