Hi! I just wanted to take the opportunity of the new release to provide some hopefully helpful feedback on Dorico. I’ve recently made the switch after working with MuseScore and Sibelius in the past and I cannot stress enough how impressed I am with the work that Daniel and the rest of the team have done. Given how young Dorico is, it’s unbelievably ahead of its competition and it’s evident that the team learned all the right lessons from their experience working on Sibelius. The UX/UI is so beautiful and well thought out.
I’ve been wanting to write an extensive post with feedback for a while but with the new version which I got for free thanks to the grace period update, many of my biggest issues have been addressed.
My top new features are:
- Midi Trigger Regions This is a brilliant idea that solves so many problems at the same time. Both using custom notation and symbols while being able to give instructons for playback at the same time is now possible, as well as a neater solution for slash regions. There is so much potential to make creative use of this feature. One limitation that I would love to see addressed is that it’s currently not possible to, say, have the chords played back tremolo, so it would be great if more playing instructions could be specified for MIDI regions.
- Being able to hide clefs in part layouts as well as the capabilities of the instrument editor in terms of specifying clefs depending on the transposition of the layouts. This was one of the biggest things I missed and I am incredibly happy it has been implemented so well. Obviously the capabilities of the instrument editor are far more extensive. Amazing job. One workflow disadvantage is that in order to change the initial clef in a staff in a full score, I have to change the definitions of the instrument and then manually change it back to the default one in write mode for the parts that I don’t want to be affected. If it was possible to change the initial clef in write mode and just hiding that change in a part score while leaving the default instrument definitions alone, that would make the workflow feel more unified and straightforward without having to work two seperate ways for different scenarios.
- Shortcuts for appending and deleting bars. Huge workflow improvement. Thanks.
- Implementation of new fonts. Really appreciate Daniel’s contributions to standardising music fonts and collaborating with “competition”. Really shows his passion and idealism for driving the industry forward rather than being petty.
Honorable mentions:
- View / concert pitch buttons rather than dropdowns
- Text box background and border colour
My top requests:
- A general “hide” button for all elements in the properties panel. Would be very hand for anything slightly out of the box or using custom notations and symbols while still giving dorico actionable notation that can be hidden – Might become obsolete if the midi trigger regions become more advanced, but would still be super helpful to have.
- The ability to add an audio track – would be incredible for arranging if it was possible to add a wav file of a demo or song to write arrangements for directly within Dorico. No idea how realistic it is to implement, but if it can be done, it would be an absolute game changer.
- I know this would break the laws of the universe, but if there was a modifier key or something to make some quick adjustments to the vertical position of dynamics etc. in write mode, it would speed up the workflow so much.
- Some basic align features for frames in Engrave Mode. Photshop-like Align Left Centre Right buttons and potentially smart guides popping up in the centre and at the edges of neighbouring frames with the ability to turn on or off snapping. Would be a giant improvement in terms of layout.
- Changing the beaming direction of notes in the properties panel or somewhere with visual buttons would be more user friendly.
- Maybe some more visual feedback when writing in several voices – could make the color of the caret and note input symbbol follow the colour of the voice currently being written.
That’s all I can think of right now. Sorry fot the wall of text but I do hope it is helpful and again, amazing work. I am really impressed with Dorico and very happy with my purchase. If the trajectory of development continues like this, the competition is in a lot of trouble…
