I’m very appreciative for Dorico 5; it has several small but increadibly helpful features for me, and I’m looking forward to upgrading.
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Arguably, that app is Microsoft Office - at least on iOS and the web
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I have just installed D5 and find it quickly approaching the moment when creating a convincing mockup entirely in D5 is possible. However one feature that attracted me the most seems to have secrets I did not discover yet. Talking about stage templates and live stage. I have opened the project I work on now, went immediately to stage templates, chose orchestra, opened live stage and… nothing. Three of 40+ instruments were recognised, centred and that is it. I closed the project and opened new, factory orchestral template, loaded factory playback template, applied “orchestra” and all was beautiful. So, the question is, how to make such a miracle happen, when I use my symphonic template, my playback template and Vienna Ensemble Pro Server instead of Halion?
Open the top portion of each Expression Map you’re using, and check that “Apply Stage Template settings” is checked. It’s off by default for a lot of maps used in previous versions.
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Thank you. If you were my neighbour I’d invite you for a beer or two 
.
Again, thanks, it worked.
Witold
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Can I come?
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Absolutely.
Perhaps another solution from you. I am trying to add a shortcut for scrub playback, but even if it seems accepted it does not work or show in Play dropdown menu. Any smart suggestions?
The default Ctrl+Space works for me, but I saw Daniel post this earlier so it seems like there may be issues with it.
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This is specifically mentioned in the documentation; often new features are not applied automatically to new projects because they could really muck things up. What if you had copiously done up a playback template which included controlling panning within your respective VSTs, only to have Dorico come along and change how it all worked? Then you’d be fuming mad because you had already finessed it for this project and did not want the new stuff applied! I think forcing the user to retroactively apply the templates is the right approach.
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I can certainly give you a few just at the top of my head:
- Fix the zoom! Can’t get out far enough, can’t get in enough and at the end of flows/projects the zoom continuously jumps back several bars. And it should zoom where the mouse pointer is, not randomly on bar 196.
- Drawing on the key editor shouldn’t draw on the score (I know you’re on it).
- More lines. I need squiggly ones for quick vibrato.
- Much more resolution.
- Allow me to place the play line (head) wherever I want in the editor. Having to place it within demisemiquavers is not useful 80% of the time e.g. tuplets
- The crosshair keeps disappearing (I know you’re on it).
- Remember my editor preferences. Why is it by default 1) set in written notation instead of played notations, we are here to edit no? 2) resolution settings. 3) fullscreen. 4) velocity and CC11. 5) Vertical zoom in piano roll at minimum. These are the things that consume unnecessary time.
- Allow the region editor to raise value without having to lower the whole area first.
- Humanise end offset, it’s weird that they all start at different times but end robotically together. The absolute opposite of real humans.
- Allow humanisation for independent players (as you can for rhythmic feel). In a Big Band I need my brass at 260% sometimes, but I still need my rhythm section tight(ish).
- Send tempo changes, jeez…
- Finally, allow for playback options PER FLOW. There is no possible setting that will accommodate a Presto and an Adagio, I need them to be different.
If you want more I have more, but these are the ones that make me lose my temper.
Love ya!
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I’m not complaining at all. On the whole notation vs playback thing, I have only my 2c to add.
Notation capability is important for people who are creating scores and parts for performance by live players.
Playback ability is important for people who target computer-generated playback, or for people who need to make mockups.
These can be different groups of people, of course with some overlap.
Personally I think if someone is writing for a publishing house or a real performance by players, they are very lucky to be in that position. It’s coveted and very competitive to get into. Many if not most composers are under no illusions that their work may ever be performed.
Of the 60 or so works I have written, only a small handful have even been exported to PDF. Some 5 or so have been performed. There are plenty of composers who don’t even have this many.
So it’s obvious to me at least that there are a lot of people who don’t need advanced notation, and prefer improved playback. If you’re a notation person (why else would you get Dorico) then it’s quite possible you don’t want to have to purchase a DAW and learn how to drive it. This learning how to drive it, and how to massage the most out of your VSTs is time people would prefer to spend writing music. So I think with NotePerformer, and especially 4, the ecosystem exists now to enable a very large number of people to fulfil their goals of making something that they like the sound of.
In the end, only Steinberg / the Dorico team are in a position to see which features are actually used. We have a system in WinGate which reports feature usage back (user controlled of course) to us so we can see how many people use which features, and this allows us to target more important features with some hard data behind it. Maybe Steinberg could think about some kind of telemetry like this as well.
It benefits all of us if Dorico is a successful product and continues to be successful, which enables Steinberg to continue funding development of it.
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All true. Thanks.
Witold
Remember, it’s not only composers whose work is the preparation of scores and parts. There are a great many editors of older music around. (I’m one of those, and from what I read in the forum, I’m not the only one here.)
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I have to say a huge thank you to Daniel and the entire team for all their efforts. I’m happy to support the team and I have already gotten the upgrade to Dorico 5 even if a lot of the things I wish for were not addressed in this release because I truly and honestly believe in the team, what they have done and that they have our best interest at heart. They have a plan that I can’t see. And I trust them because they have really won my trust for years now.
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Well said!
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You conquered my heart with this ending!
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understood. Many even who write for publishing houses are not composing, but copyist, arrangers, engravers etc. But still relatively few people there I think compared to the hordes of dillettante composers (myself in that category).
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I have already become addicted to that one.
This is an interesting release. Most of the past releases included one or two really remarkable features that were easy to point to as breakthroughs.
I don’t think there is any single feature in D5 that has the “gee whiz” factor of automatic condensing, for example. But there are a bunch of things in this release that will save me time and mental anguish. A few seconds here, one less headache there, and it all adds up.
There are at least 5 features that would have justified the upgrade price for me, even if that was the only feature added. It isn’t as sexy as some releases, but I can already see this one is going to improve my productivity more than any other prior release.
I notice that if I apply the playback template that does Halion Sonic + Groove Agent, the drumset does not show up in the stage map. Is that a similar issue? That’s unfortunate because the drumset probably needs the reverb more than most instruments because it is usually at the back of a jazz band and people are really accustomed to hearing the drums bounce around a bit.
Of course, the verb and pan can be applied manually, but it would be nice for it all to work the same way.