Of course figured bass is a feature that should have been since Dorico 0.5 pre-alpha. It could have been but it wasn’t. If Dorico wasn’t mature enough for your need prior to this release, you’d be better served with Sibelius. I only switched definitely to Dorico with Dorico 2.2, and knowing some of its limitations, even if I was aware of its development since the beginning.
I personally adore how any even glaring missing feature does come very elegantly implemented and then is further refined. It makes me trust the software and of course I’m going to endorse it with money.
Of course figured bass is a feature that should have been since Dorico 0.5 pre-alpha.
For the record, this comment is ironic. It’s easy to say that all features should have been earlier, yet none of their competitors could make it as comprehensive as this is.
I can remember one Sibelius “update” that contained no new engraving features at all. In fact it didn’t contain anything that you couldn’t do for free with a few other apps (and most people who needed that functionality were already doing it that way, of course)
It’s a long time since I was an impoverished student (actually I never was impoverished, because in those days the government paid people grants to fund further education, instead of making them take out loans) but if you value your time at more than you can earn by flipping burgers, if the new update saves you one or two days’ work it has paid for itself already.
(Burger flipping is probably locked down at present, but that’s beside the point!)
I’m not sure how feasible this is Daniel and I don’t know what constitutes Dorico SE (or whatever the basic package is called), but is the team eventually aiming at a package that could be sold to say 3 or 4 user bases? One would obviously be people who make a living from engraving and feature everything. One would be for composers like myself who want good playback but don’t need the myriad of engraving tools. One would be for a beginner, to acquaint them with the Dorico product but had everything automatically done (Halion assignments etc)(probably like the SE package).
I’m just curious as to where you see (or hope to see) the product being in say five years time?
Was it Sibelius 7.5? An update after years of draught of updates, with no significant improvements. I recall that as the consequences of a bad business decision. I think they charged also more or less the same money than for Dorico 3.5, with no significant improvements.
Come on folks! This isn’t really an expensive upgrade. I spent more than that on a gallon of high quality paint for our dining room last week. The economics of software development for a niche product are such that if we wish to have excellent tools continue to be developed for us, we should buy upgrades or if you are using open source software, donate when you can. TANSTAAFL!
Sadly, I see this as a way of increasing the cost of a full version upgrade. I previously paid £85 for 1.0 to 2.0 and £85 for 2.0 to 3.0. I see that the cost of 2.0 to 3.5 is £136 (= £85 + £51, i.e. the same as separate upgrades).
Assuming that the team can still only do a year’s worth of work in a year, that means that having a paid x.5 release before the next x.0, the annual cost has gone up by 60%. Anyone who has worked in SW development knows the real cost of producing a golden master so, arguably, the team will be less productive by having half-yearly cycles, plus bug fixes and interim releases.
And, yes, of course I want the dev team to be paid but many arts organisations are helping out by waving royalties, reducing costs, extended trials etc. My paid work has dropped by over 80% (combinations of playing, recording, arranging etc). I don’t like to see the cost of my main composition software going up by 60%.
Times is hard…
Yesterday I wanted the 3.5 pro update installer, but it cost almost € 75 !! € 75 for an update? Really?
I’ve Dirico pro for a few months and I have to pay so much money for an update already!
Sorry but if every new update costs € 75, - I think it is really a bit too expensive!
guys instead of deleting my message (now for the fourth time), please give a sensible answer please!!
otherwise I’ll just keep posting.
What I find odd is the inability of some people on the forum to distinguish between an “update that includes features irrelevant to my particular specialty/workflow” and an “update that is somehow ‘bad’”. There are so many features that I do not use in this program, and yet I pay for them just like everyone else. Sure, figured base isn’t for everyone… but neither is comprehensive drum set notation or guitar. That’s just how this works. Getting mad at the team for what is ultimately a large update after 6 months when they charge only $60 just seems so odd to me. I’m truly grateful that I have the finances that permit me to purchase the upgrade, and I realize some don’t; but by the same token, I don’t expect to have access to features that I don’t pay for. I also don’t think it unreasonable to ask people to pay an upgrade fee for new features.
The good news is this: if a .5 update is insufficient for you and not worth the money [for you personally], then by all means, wait an entire year between your own personal update cycle. You’ll pay twice as much and get twice the features. And you only do it once a year (not unlike many other programs). Then you’ll feel like you get your money’s worth. You’ll go from major version to major version (read: number change). Problem solved; no B&M’ing required.
Rolly, welcome to life. I don’t mean to be rude, but for one, you posted this right next to an existing thread of the same topic. Second, you are not forced to update. You don’t want to pay? Then you don’t have to! In life, sometimes you buy a car right before the new model is released. If you purchased recently enough, then you qualified for a free upgrade. If you are outside that window, then that means you had full access to the program for a while and got your money’s worth.
Software development costs what it costs. The alternative is subscription pricing, which is more expensive in the long run.
The Local 802 General Price List “Straight Time” scale for copyists is currently is $34.50 an hour, (in all honesty I haven’t billed that low in probably over 15 years) and the 3.5 update is $60. The pitch before duration feature in the update alone will likely save me 2 hours over the course of a week, so at that rate the update will have paid for itself and then some in just a week’s time. Everything after that is just increased productivity for me. If the new features won’t dramatically affect your workflow, then just sit this one out. Yes, it means you’ll have to pay more when 4.0 comes out, but that’s how most non-subscription based software works.
Dorico 2.0 was released 5/2018, 3.0 9/2019, and now 3.5 5/2020. No idea when 4.0 will be out, but roughly following that schedule would be January 2021-ish. If you prefer subscription based software (which I hate) just think of it as $7.50 a month until then. I totally understand the crappy financial status of a lot of musicians right now, but if Dorico isn’t worth at least that much to you, just skip this one.
me:
Yesterday I wanted the 3.5 pro update installer, but it cost almost € 75 !! € 75 for an update? Really?
I’ve Dirico pro for a few months and I have to pay so much money for an update already!
Sorry but if every new update costs € 75, - I think it is really a bit too expensive!
guys instead of deleting my message (now for the fourth time), please give a sensible answer please!!
otherwise I’ll just keep posting.
Post by Romanos401 » Fri May 22, 2020 2:47 pm:
Rolly, welcome to life. I don’t mean to be rude, but for one, you posted this right next to an existing thread of the same topic. Second, you are not forced to update. You don’t want to pay? Then you don’t have to! In life, sometimes you buy a car right before the new model is released. If you purchased recently enough, then you qualified for a free upgrade. If you are outside that window, then that means you had full access to the program for a while and got your money’s worth.
me again:
it is not a new car model, it is a maintenance of a new car! A new QUALITY car does not need that for so much money, you get it free from the factory.
I’m sorry, but I fail to see your logic here.
2018 update was £85
2019 update was £85
2020 update is £60
(2021 update will presumably be £60 or £85?)
I’d say the annual price has gone down. 3.5 is just a number. If you look at the amount of added features, it might as well been called 4.0. According to Daniel, 3.0 was ‘delayed’, which in practice gave 2.x users another big free update. They’re now trying to shift the cycle back to early summer updates, and made this year’s update cheaper to do so (my interpretation). Even though the timetable is a bit odd, I cannot see how the annual price has gone up at all.
Hi Rolly-
Your post was not deleted. Rather, it was moved to a thread containing all such complaints, which can be found here.
No need to keep creating new threads about this topic.
Dave
I watched the live broadcast on YouTube on Wednesday and it looked very interesting. However, there was nothing interesting to me, that can happen of course. Is there a list somewhere where all updates can be found? Before I and all my students have to pay so much money for an update, I would like to know what improvements have been made. Otherwise I think it is best to stay with Sibelius (for the students) and Finale and Sibelius for me.
It’s pinned at the top of the forum page… https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=246&t=189116
And please, let’s not get back into the car discussion again…
62 pages’ worth of updates:
Thank you!
I’m pretty sure the top 2/3 of page 50, alone, will cover the upgrade cost for me inside a week.
The headline features in any update may not be relevant to some users, but don’t forget about the improvements and bug fixes.