Will there be a version 3.6? It all sounds as there is a version 4 round the corner. That would mean that 3.5 would have had a short life as paid version. There was just a step to 3.5.12. Will the next version still be usable on an older Mac with OS 10.12 (High Sierra)? I can’t update my computer to a newer OS.
I might be incorrect, but Dorico 3.5 has been out for about a year.
Robby
You are correct. Dorico 3.5 release notes were published in may of 2020. There’s nothing “short” about this product cycle (especially when compared to the previous development cycles).
I should also mention that Daniel has stated that the next version would be the new paid version, so that means that we shouldn’t expect any new maintenance updates to 3.5. (As it is we had 3.5.10 and 3.5.12)
Short is the row of updates. In the history of Dorico there were many free updates between two paid versions.
Sure. 3.5 cost less than the previous paid updates, though, and the development team have clearly been spread across multiple different things, as Daniel wrote about back in May: Feature request: multimeasure play - #13 by dspreadbury
Unfortunately, IIRC, the next version is going to require Catalina (10.15). In my case, that’s the most current OS my computer can support, but my computer is in deep need of a replacement. If you can’t upgrade the system because your computer doesn’t support it, my opinion is that it’s time to think of an upgrade. I guess it’s not the answer you want to hear, but the reason is that Apple doesn’t update any OS prior to Mojave (and soon Catalina) so, if your computer is connected to the internet, it’s a permanent security threat.
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That are bad news for me and perhaps a lot of other users of Dorico. My computer isn’t supported for newer OS and I don’t want to buy a new one, because it’s otherwise not necessary for me.
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All I wanted to say on the topic - your Dorico 3.5.x edition won’t stop working the minute Dorico 4 is released. You can carry on working exactly as you have been…
Having said that, as system requirements will change moving forward, what we might see occcur is something similar to whats happened in the past for Cubase releases - namely, a further ‘final’ v3.5.x release (a v3.6…?), that brings over those bugs/fixes/improvements from the v4 development that can be safely backported.
Now, it may be that this amounts to only a few selected/important fixes and no new improvements (to existing v3.5 features) at all.
However this way at least, it gives a little more ‘extended’ window of v3.5.x use, for those who cannot (or don’t want to) readily upgrade their system, just to switch to running v4…
I have not seen the Dorico Team do this kind of maintenance on past versions so far. That may be due to the small size of the team and the newness of the Dorico software relative to the situation at Cubase.
I would certainly wait for the release and see what the requirements are, rather than acting on rumour and second-guesses.
I’m guessing a 2011 vintage Mac?
You haven’t got USB 3, nor Thunderbolt. Your Bluetooth version is 2.1 (current is 5.0). You can’t connect to Wifi using 802.11ac.
Developers need to take advantage of new features in new OS versions, which inevitably means that OS (or later) is required.
Modern software is also going to expect much faster CPUs than a 2nd gen Intel i5/i7, so even if things do run, performance may be poor.
10 years is a good innings for any computer. As said: you can continue to run Dorico 3.5 for as long as the machine holds out. But it can only compete with brand new hardware for so long.
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Ben, I agree - except with “10 years is a good innings for a computer”. If you use an Apple computer, you can be still a very happy user after 10 years (my experience)…
Of course you can still use them ‘as they are’, but connecting to more contemporary devices and keeping up with the latest software becomes harder and harder. (Also I forgot to mention the main reason for the High Sierra cut-off for those old Macs is the lack of Metal support in their GPUs.)
Also, I meant “for any laptop”, rather than any computer: the battery will be needing its 3rd replacement after 10 years.
(Yes, I know, consumerist consumption and all that.)
Back to the original question of this topic. At the end of the Scoring Notes Podcast on Dorico for iPad, one could get the impression, that Dorico 4 is not extremly far away. As Steinberg is releasing new versions of Cubase every year in November (or December) since 2012, I am quite sure, that Dorico 4 will be quite some time ahead of this. The last release of Cubase 11 didn’t went seemlessly, therefore I’m guessing, that they are introducing the new licensing system with a “smaller” program like Dorico, instead of jumping right into it with their best selling program.
With the soon coming Silicon chip and the move to the Universal Distribution model for the M1 chip, my guess is that v4 is a ways off. I know 3.5.12 works on the M1 with Rosetta 2, but it may require more “digging” in the app to get it to work with the new architecture. That’s my guess, anyway. And, 3.5.x should continue to work for a long time to come. The M1 I think is the biggest hurdle to overcome and thus it will take time. The team isn’t huge so they have to spread their time around lots of different projects. The port to the iOS looks fantastic!
I do believe Daniel has indicated he hopes it will come before the end of the year. (And native m1 will be a part of that. Mind you, new iPad pros have m1 chips and no Rosetta, so I imagine they’ve already worked out quite a few kinks.)
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I forgot about that, you’re right, that is a big step. Not sure if with the macOS there are more hurdles to overcome. I did hear Daniel mention their hopes. The developers do such a great job, I am sure they don’t want to come out some buggy version like, ahem Microsoft likes to do! 
M1 is the same ARM architecture as all previous iPhone and iPad chips, so nothing is different for iOS and iPadOS.
Apple Silicon support on Macs is dependent on a stable release of QT 6.2 which is scheduled to be released by October. It remains to be seen if it will be bug free enough to be usable.
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This reinforces my point in a way: if they can get it running essentially 1:1 on iPad with that arm architecture, it seems they have already tamed the beast as far as a native m1 transition is concerned. The proof is in the iPad pudding.
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In yesterday’s Scoring Notes podcast, Daniel described how bits of Dorico - such as the entire playback engine - had to be rewritten for iPad, seeing as iPads can’t handle VSTs. That rewriting will presumably need to be redone for macOS.
It has to do with the QT APIs. iPads were always on ARM so no porting was required to support M1. The APIs have to be modified to work with macOS on ARM. The fact that QT already had ARM support on the backend certainly accelerates the process.
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