I am new to Dorico having switched from Sibelius…
I switched first to Dorico 3.5 trial version and with good results but then in the middle of my trial period I jumped in and uninstalled the trial version and purchased the Dorico 4 pro upgrade from Sibelius (for which I still had a licence).
I did not realise that I would not have further access to the by now somewhat familiar territory of Dorico 3.5 because of licencing issues . I am now floundering a bit trying to get Dorico 4 to do the same things that were easy to do in 3,5 . I would like to know what others think about this. (Normally the owner of an upgraded music software program has access to all earlier versions.)
In particular I am having difficulty at the moment in that I cannot get BBCSO Core instruments to play back properly in Dorico 4.
When I start from an empty project and add section players, or for that matter solo players, (as described in getting started videos) Dorico 4 starts by loading the default Halion Player instruments in a single instance of Halion SE
As I understand it the procedure is to remove the Halion player and insert as many instances of the BBCSO player VST as there are instrument tracks and then to load the BBCSO players with the correct instruments in the order in which they occurr in the track list.
when I do this I find that not all the instances of BBCSO plugin play back in the correct track and some of them inevitably seem to be silent (usually the last couple to be added).
Could Dorico be requiring that the BBCSO instances be set to a particular midi channel or to follow the order of their appearance in orchestral scores.
I have tried every combination of these factors I can think of without results…
Is anybody else having problems with Dorico 4 and BBCSO Core
Have you already installed the playback templates for BBCSO? Here is a video which explains how to set up and also a link of where you can download the templates.
'Thanks for that information. with the Template I now have access to BBCSO Core sounds
The reason you don’t have access to Dorico 3.5 with your Dorico 4 license is because Dorico 4 uses an entirely new licensing system, Steinberg Licensing, whereas Dorico 3.5 and earlier use the previous licensing system, eLicenser. Dorico 3.5 doesn’t know anything about Steinberg Licensing, so without changing the Dorico 3.5 software (which we have no plans to do) it cannot run if you don’t have an appropriate eLicenser license on your system. Users who had purchased a Dorico 3.5 or earlier license can indeed run those earlier versions because they will retain their eLicenser license (albeit in “non-upgradable” form) after they have updated to Dorico 4.
In future, when Dorico 5 and 6 come out, we expect you will be able to run older versions back to Dorico 4 with your Steinberg Licensing license, but not versions older than that.
No comment. A lot of us are already in paradise now 
.
It still seems a bit unusual for me not to have access to Dorico 3.5.
I downloaded the trial version of Dorico 3.5 on the understanding that if I wanted to take it up and purchase Dorico outright that I would have access to the software I had tried out.
In fact this was not the case. Dorico 3.5 was a stable version of Dorico, tried and true after many months of polishing by Steinberg’s developers.
Dorico 4 however is still in its infancy and there are many problems. A quick glance at the forum topic headings demonstrates this.
Whilst I feel cheated that I will not have access to former versions of the Dorico software I feel obliged to state however that I am gradually getting used to working in Dorico 4 and am prepared to admit that although the transformation has not been seamless in my case, I might still be looking forward to the time when some or all of the bugs in dorico 4 have been ironed out.
And version 4 is not so different from version 3.5 in its workings that online help resources prepared for previous versions still mostly apply.
So I am caught in two minds as to whether I am glad to be working in Dorico 4 instead of 3.5. As a previous Sibelius user I am certainly finding that Dorico 4 can do things with sample libraries that Sibelius could not. But there are problems; e.g. the BBCSO playback templates don’t always load properly or are very slow to load. Also the mixer is slower to react to changes I make than I would like.
But the forum help is excellent. No problem I have raised has not been deal with prompltly and efficiently. And the forum is itself a learning environment.
So on balance I am satisfied with my purchase of Dorico 4 Pro although the demands of the licencing system contribute an element of dissatifaction to the overall picture.
Could you please elaborate a bit more on BBCSO, please? It is known for being slow during loading but we can not do anything about that. We do have a playback issue though in Dorico 4.0 but very soon the first maintenance release will come out. You might want to wait and try with that then.
Although I take your point, my take is that when a trial version expires you don’t have access to it anyway so I’m not quite sure why you feel hard done by. I’m assuming here that the trial was able to run for the full 30 day period? Perhaps there’s something I’ve misunderstood?
Anyway, on BBC Core which I own and use. Certainly the BBC SO libraries do have performance issues but I’ve found that the Core version does provide good value for money and an invigorating performance, especially when bought on sale and as an upgrade from the normally free Discover. Both the slow loading time and the overall performance are significantly improved if hosted in Vienna Ensemble Pro --that seems to be universally agreed by those who use the combination in Dorico. I noticed that particularly when just running standalone, the audio performance was noticeably worse than in 3.5 so when the first patch is released imminently, we can perhaps then compare performance. Feel free to PM me then (or just add to the thread) when it’s released.
It’s not unusual: you just don’t like it, and in a way I can understand that. But Steinberg provided you ample opportunity to buy Dorico 3.5 and qualify for a free upgrade to Dorico 4 when it appeared. You could have had both; you presumably made a decision not to buy early.
Yes I am looking forward to the first maintenance release. I’m glad it’s scheduled for soon.
As to BBCSO Core, when I call up the BBCSO Core playback Template I often find that after it has finished loading (the green playback arrow in Dorico is showing (?)) ), then only some of the instruments in a flow will sound when the score is opened in write mode. Clicking on notes in some or all staves doesn’t necessarily trigger a sound from BBCSO plug in.
The work around I have found for this is to reload the intruments manually from the Play page VST rack. The keyswitches are still available but I am not too sure if dynamics marks (cresc dim etc) are then working in the way intended. I seem to get variable results.
During the period when I was using the trial version of Dorico 3.5 I was entirely focused on learning the software and completing an orchestral score. The release of Dorico 4 took me completely by surprise. It was my own fault of course that I did not keep up with developments.
So, seeing little merit in persisting with the trial version when (as I thought) the full version of Dorico 3.5 would be available as part of the purchase of Dorico 4, I took the rather hasty step of uninstalling the trial version after about two weeks of my trial period of 30 daysand buying Dorico 4 immediately.
I also do not remember whether I knew the upgrade from 3.5 to 4 would be free. I was certainly not taking such an eventuality into account at the time during my trial period.
Anyhow I have finally got a playback version of my Orchestral score started in the trial version (‘Journey out of Darkness’) and finally realised in Dorico 4.
unfortunately, the green arrow appearing doesn’t necessarily mean that all the samples have loaded, only that the configuration has. As you’ve observed with the BBC, you may well be hanging round minutes afterwards before all the instrument have got their samples. If you look at any of the instruments in the BBC player interface, you can see how much has actually loaded near the top left. When everything is fully loaded then you will see a steady green light instead of flashing in the BBC player. Don’t try Dorico playback before that happens!
Fair enough, we’ve probably all mistimed a trial or upgrade at some point or other – it’s good to hear that things seem to be working out for you anyway