Dorico boxed

I just ordered from Randy Akins at Sweetwater this morning. Allow me to clarify a few things from Peter Roos’ post above:

  • The actual price at Sweetwater is $279.99, not $279. For those of you who use “one-time” credit cards or gift cards with a limit, it might make a difference.
  • The $279.99 cost is for crossgrade pricing only. You must email Randy proof of ownership of an acceptable crossgrade product (full version) such as Finale, Sibelius, or Notion.
  • Have your proof of crossgrade ownership ready to email to Randy, so you can complete the order at the same time. I used Grab on my Mac to capture a screenshot of the “About Finale” dialog box to a TIFF file. (Grab comes with every Mac, in the Utilities folder). It was acceptable to both Steinberg (I never completed that order), and Randy at Sweetwater.
  • There was no additional tax or shipping on my order, shipped to California. The final price was $279.99.
  • Sweetwater is expecting their inbound shipment from Steinberg in early November. They use Fedex to send the product to customers. You can choose to require a signature or no-signature-required (with inherent risks).
  • Randy was very helpful and friendly. This was my first order from Sweetwater. Based on my ordering experience with Randy, I expect to place more orders with him in the future. Highly recommended!

Here is Randy’s contact information:

Randy Akins
Senior Sales Engineer
Sweetwater Sound, Inc.
(800)222-4700 ext 1299
5501 US Highway 30 West
Fort Wayne, IN 46818
randy_akins@sweetwater.com
http://www.sweetwater.com

Yes - put in my order with Sweetwater this morning as well. Latest I heard about ETA is November 1. One more week!

If you’re on Sibelius, take a screen grab of your Avid account which shows the Sibelius activation code, and mail that to Randy (or whoever your contact person is – he’s not the only sales person). Great respect for people who pay the full price, but $300 is quite a bit of money for me – I prefer to keep that in the bank for e.g. a Cubase license in the future.

Randy is indeed a super nice and helpful guy - generally I can’t stand sales people but he’s an exception. He recently helped me with a warranty issue on a Behringer sound card as well. I’ve been shopping with Sweetwater for years, never had a bad experience, I can warmly recommend them (and heard many others say the same thing).

Randy Akins told me yesterday afternoon that the expected arrival at Sweetwater (before they ship to customers) will be 2 November, not 1 November. Delivery must have slipped a day after Peter’s conversation.

The boxed Dorico includes two DVDs, a Getting Started pamphlet, and a Steinberg eLicenser (also called a “Steinberg Key”). Unless you simply cannot wait, this boxed offer seems to me to be the best choice if you are in the US and live outside Indiana. It is essentially the same price as the download version from Steinberg, but you get the DVDs and e-licenser. Even if you don’t need them now, the DVDs may offer proof for upgrades (or dare I say it, crossgrades) and the eLicenser may prove useful in the future, even if you plan to run Dorico on a single computer now. I recommend the boxed set from Sweetwater unless you cannot wait, or you find another source at a better price.

(Yes, I recognize that many computers do not have DVD drives, and the DVD will be obsolete as soon as a Dorico update is released. It is the eLicenser that provides the real added value when you buy the boxed package, of course.)

The Dorico box arrived at my home in Southern California yesterday afternoon. I would like to express my appreciation to Peter Roos for recommending Randy Akins at Sweetwater (see above). Because my music life is simple, I had not heard of Sweetwater until now.

My experience from Randy and Sweetwater was exemplary. They quickly resolved a credit card issue, and shipped the boxed Dorico to me the same day it arrived from Steinberg. They kept me up to date throughout the order process by email. (They would have phoned, if I had asked for it.) I am very impressed with Randy’s help and Sweetwater’s competence. If you are ready to order Dorico in a box, I highly recommend them.