"Dorico 1.2 is the last planned update for Dorico 1.x. "

Divisi and exploding/collapsing staves were primary hoped-for features for me as well. I would love to be able to input woodwind and brass lines separately for each player, then collapse them into voices on a single staff. This particular feature is not a dealbreaker for me, but it would sure be great to have.

If I read the comments of Daniel and some of the team correctly, it seems that some basic design choices might have made this more difficult than originally thought. The same might hold true for auditioning specific selections. See discussion in the Dorico Facebook page here: Redirecting...

Yes, Divisi Staves are the next “big thing” I’d need to finally produce nice scores. I’m writing for wind orchestra, where there are typically more than 25 staves, and scores are typically printed in A4 here in Austria. Not being able to join staves will result in quite small staff heights…

+1

My guess is that it’ll be at least another year, maybe two, before I can use Dorico. It’ll be interesting to see if I’ll have saved any money by buying in at the beginning, and also to see if there are any significant changes on the Avid/Sibelius side. There’s really no reason I have to switch to Dorico; maybe I’ll just stick with Sibelius if it remains stable.

I agree with the first sentence above; but when I upgraded to Sibelius 8, which I have not used, I vowed that I would never give Avid a further penny. I also have v.7.5 and the one that I use most: v.6.

David

Kind of in the same situation as david-p and bobk. Please don’t let early adopters (add professional composers) down. I bought Dorico because I liked the demo and think it is going in good direction. Well, I couldn’t use the demo anymore… it expired. I hate to say but it’s almost useless compared to Sibelius 8.7 (which is ironic given the developers story, with which I empathise).

I really think that version 1 is far from ‘finished’. Version 1 should continue development until it reaches professional scoring and engraving capabilities (call it version 1.9 or equivalent). Leaving the necessary developments/improvements for version 2 is not not a good start, IMHO. Anyway, I’m here and I bought the software, didn’t I? :slight_smile:

No version will ever be close to finished — unless development stops. Developments and improvements will always be possible and necessary. There is really no point in trying to impose a narrative thread on feature rollouts, especially since the policy is not specific to Dorico, but is Steinberg’s common practice. Which, of course, can be criticized, but on wholly different terms.

I’ve already published scores engraved in Dorico. I’ve prepped materials for whole orchestral concerts. And I compose in it pretty much daily, though yes, I do have to think twice before embarking in some projects… but why should that be surprising? If only a year ago I used a different tool and I managed fine, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to work either way. I have to admit it boggles me how some seem to have developed some kind of amnesia after purchasing Dorico. Should we be worried?

"Dorico 1.2 is the last planned update for Dorico 1.x. "

This has been specifically stated. Why is this a question?

Dorico 1.2 is the last significant update before version 2.0, but there has been talk of a minor bug-correction update, sometime early next year after the Team has had a chance to breathe over the Holiday Season.

That is what Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Google, etc, want the world to believe. Ask yourself how many times your work has been interrupted by a program pushing its latest upgrade, without adding any useful functionality. :slight_smile:

David

I know I considered trill playback and the ability to notate and playback string harmonics pretty basic. Finally have white diamond notes almost a year after I bought the crossover version.

I crossgraded recently to Cubase 9.5Pro. I know this is the Dorico forum but here me out.
The last time I used Cubase, was version 3.01 for ATARI…around 1993.

Twenty four years later and I’m returning to a beast of a program with about 2000 pages of manuals to read. I don’t really expect to use another sequencer now until I die (which if it is twenty fours from now will see me almost reach my 80th birthday).

Can you imagine where Dorico might be in 24 years time?

The distance they’ve travelled in these short 3-4 years is impressive. The program produces beautiful looking music and is the most flexible producer of printed sheet music / graphics available. Coupled with Cubase 9.5Pro, I can’t beleieve there won’t be anything I can’t achieve in my music-making aspirations. Cubase sounds excellent…even through my aging Yamaha 02R and RME Hammerfall Card, it’s the best sounding PC software I’ve ever heard.

I bought these two packages via cross-grade offers for around £550…I seem to remember paying around £350 for tha Atari version in 1993 money so well worth the money.

I do understand it would be great if we could sit down and write music using standard notation and that the program would make it sound great. I wonder if this is really feasible though, because standard music notation itself is very limited on data compared to say a sequencer packeage where performacne data can be much more expressive. I would think the nearest we might get to a completely one program solution might be where the data is input and edited to the ‘score’ side of things, and then separate data (using expression maps etc) is played into the playback sequencer which runs in sync of course with the score. What I’m describing sounds very similar to what the Dorico team have already come up with with ‘WRITE’ and ‘PLAYBACK’ .

Just my tuppence worth…

+1
Entering the next round in paying but not using it will not happen…
I think most customers granted an advance on Dorico. But better not asking for a second advance…could be a show stopper :wink:

Please do not attempt to speak for “most customers.”
Your thoughts and suggestions are helpful and welcome, but leave it at that.

Don’t mean to start a discussion here, but I completely agree with cheveyo. I would say ‘most users who are professional composers, engravers or copyists’ granted an advance on Dorico. I think even the developers know this (I hope). It’s also true to say that most professional users who bought Dorico trust the development team and have faith they’ll produce the finest and smartest music notation software.

Playback for me is one of the most important things. I don’t like at all the idea of paying for a new version just to fix the problems in playback :frowning:

I’d easily pay for the next version’s upgrade (at the usual Steinberg fare) on both my licenses if playback could audition my scores at least well as NotePerformer (or directly support NotePerformer.) I have not, however, been given any reason to believe that this is the direction Dorico is going. Perhaps I’ll Be pleasantly surprised…

Anybody knows if next paid update will have academic discount?

Steinberg’s updates do not typically have educational pricing: you get educational pricing for your initial purchase, but thereafter the updates are the same price for educators and non-educators.

Thank you, Daniel, for fast reply.

As a composer, I find myself caught, awkwardly, between Sibelius and Dorico. On the one hand, using Sibelius at this point is really painful because Dorico is just so much better at so many things. Just thinking about starting a new project in Sibelius fills me with existential dread :slight_smile: On the other hand, using Dorico is also painful, because playback is so clearly not high priority, and simply doesn’t work very well. Clicking into the Play tab makes me cringe: the UI is awkward and confusing and I frequently run into bugs. Perhaps even worse, it’s so tantalizing: I can see that the underlying mechanisms are really elegant and powerful, and will someday produce great results.

I think if I could go back in time a year or so and give myself some advice, it would be to just stick with Sibelius for a couple years, and not even peek at Dorico. That way I wouldn’t know what I was missing, and I’d be happily writing music and not stressing about Dorico playback :slight_smile: