I am an orchestral composer and a devoted Cubase user with a trial version of Dorico, considering whether Dorico might be the right fit for me. I currently compose in Cubase and export to Sibelius for the final polishing of notation.
In Cubase, I can input a string of various scales in the Chord Track (harmonic rhythm) whether simple (major-minor) or more complicated (double-harmonic, octatonic), or even random collections of pitches. This is very convenient because, with color settings in the (MIDI) Key Editor (piano roll), I immediately see whether the notes I input match the particular scale.
Is there a similar functionality in Dorico and if not, how do you work around it?
Hi. I’m not sure I understand what happens in Cubase. Do you enter notes, or do you just type sonething like, “C Natural Minor” and then it fills in the notes? I’m trying to visualize this. If you have to give it the notes, I’m note sure how it helps.
By the way, I’ve used other motation programs, and Dorico is by far the fastest and easiest. I bought a video training course, but there is excellent free video training online. It is 10x easier than Finale. (There are one or two minor things I found odd at first, but now think are very logical. Everything else is extremely easy.)
There’s no feature to “colour” modes, there are composing tools that use them (as in transpose in such mode) that have been introduced in version 4, I think. It’s all the features that go with the shift-I popover (along with retrogrades, cycle shifting etc).
Maybe if you have a very specific example, you’ll get a precise answer?
The scales and chords (I prefer scales) are entered into the Chord Track. Then what you end up with is a kind of grid in the Key Editor (piano roll). When you input the MIDI notes, the color of the note will tell you whether this particular note belongs in the scale or not.
So let’s say I have 25 instruments and my harmonic rhythm changes every bar. Looking at the score or the MIDI roll, how do I know which notes are in the correct harmony and which are not, short of checking each one manually?
Yes, it would be ideal to work in one software package, beginning to end. Cubase is great in the MIDI department but the score editor is too rigid. And yes, I have downloaded the trial version of Dorico Pro 5 and have been tinkering with it.
I really struggle to understand this question. Clearly, it depends what your composition method is.
Personally, I find it excellent, but then I’ve worked many, many years with notation (both as composer and performer), have appalling piano technique (so cannot live record) and am completely baffled DAWs… Show me a chord (or rhythm) on a score and I’ll hear it. Show me a bunch of lines on a piano roll and it’s just a bunch of lines…
It really doesn’t matter whether it’s notation or the piano roll (Dorico has both and so does Cubase). I understand that we all have different compositional techniques. My fundamental question for the software (any software) is how do you quickly read, input, and adjust harmonies? I’m sure you can understand that when you have an orchestral score with dozens of instruments, some of them transposing and in various clefs, it can be difficult to immediately know what is happening with the harmony. I can hear and know what is off, but ideally, I should be able to see that in the software. Cubase alerts me with the different colors but what about Dorico?
I do not think Dorico will color code notes outside a given scale or mode (other than the harp pedaling function), but you could look at the color options in the View menu to see if you would find them helpful.
It is a skill that can be learned (Listen to pieces and follow the score). But if you are uncomfortable reading transpositions, you can always work in Dorico at concert pitch.
My question is about the functionality of the software. I do have advanced listening skills and a deep understanding of how the score works. If someone wants a quicker way to transpose a passage, will you advocate for the functionality in the software (we thankfully already have it), or will you tell them it’s a skill that can be learned?
Dorico can map a passage to some 20 different scale patterns (at any source or destination root). If you want to “correct” your pitches to a scale, it takes just a few clicks.
Dorico has extensive capabilities to transpose by interval (Make a system selection and it will even transpose your chord symbols for you).
Dorico can transpose passages (selections) using the shift-I t… command - which I use frequently.
Will it show you out of scale notes? No. Why should it?
Will it force you to enter in scale notes? No. Why should it?
If you need colours to tell what scale you are using…
In Preferences / Key Commands you can assign a shortcut to “Toggle Layout Transposition.” I can’t remember what the default is for that, but you can easily switch between concert and transposed with just a single keystroke. You can also program clefs to appear differently between concert and transposed, in case there’s a clef you are unfamiliar with reading, or something with a zillion ledger lines.
With the octatonic pattern in the gif below, I’m switching between concert with treble clef, and transposed with alto clef, just by using a single keystroke.
As I already wrote, there’s no “harmonic content control” in Dorico but I do see how useful it could be. This could be an interesting feature request. To compose, but also for another proof-reading process.
Let’s not discuss the transposition feature here because it’s a very basic function and all notation and MIDI programs have it.
As far as Dorico’s 20 scale patterns, it’s a good start but not enough for my needs. It would be helpful to have custom scales capability. For example, recently I used the following scales: 7-32, 10-2, 9-6, and so on. These are not common scales but are a part of the set classes (List of set classes - Wikipedia). So yes, a color function would help me immensely, not because I am deficient in understanding what a scale is but simply to see at a glance which pitches might be off in a large pitch collection.
Bully for you. Enjoy you compositional journey. There were many hundred years of western composition that survived without knowing about Allen Forte. And many music traditions across the World that use non-western scales. Feel free to explore Dorico’s excellent support for microtonal tuning systems… and I hope you enjoy notating them in Cubase.
@Symmetry
Thank you for explaining. I don’t think that feature would be very useful to me–since my music is crazy as hell --but it sounds very cool. Cubase rocks.
Sometimes I write directly in Dorico and sometimes in my DAW: Dorico if I know what I want and DAW if I’m experimenting.
--but it sounds very cool. Cubase rocks.