Hi all,
I am a long time Cubase user. I just took a punt with Dorico as it was on sale and I did not have a score package. I have always used Cubase score and found it good enough. TBH I just fancied taking a look and spent my dosh.
As you all know, not all performances lend themselves to a score - try notating a Muddy Water’s Harmonica wail, or a guitar thrash. It also seems to me to be pointless to notate a synth part that consists of putting down one finger and waiting four bars for the sound to play out. Then there is orchestration. Of course Dorico is useful for that, but when your using an ensemble sample (say strings and woods) what do you do?
Are any of you guys using Dorico as part of your workflow with Cubase and other libraries? Do you use expression maps? How do you switch between the two. I am of the opinion that Dorico has not achieved full integration with Cubase yet, am I right about this?
It’s entirely outside of my expertise, but you might try reading redtidemusic’s posts on virtual midi ports (see Steinberg Forums for instance) and searching through ptram’s posts.
There is no proprietary system by which Cubase and Dorico can talk to each other - they are two separate programs built by mostly separate teams - but you can use virtual midi ports in order that Cubase handles the output, if you wish.
Yes notation has value for, in my opinion, nearly all music - even that harmonica wail or a guitar thrash*. As I’ve been teaching my electric guitarist son. My observation is that what happens without notations is it limits your horizons. Especially so, I think popular and media music these days suffers because many don’t use or know a lot of fundamentals, such as even how to read music. On my present project it’s a musical battle between an orchestra and an electronic band (mostly synth, drum and guitar) and it’s all scored up and driven by Dorico, as Leo pointed to above.
People think improvising and lead sheets are something new, but in the 17th century all musicians were taught this way. Mostly started in the Italian school with the Partimento tradition. All the great composers learned this (Bach, Handle, Mozart, Beethoven …), the main difference is working from a figured bass instead of a chord progression. Kind of bottom up instead of top down.
I think the only music which AFAIK doesn’t need or use notation is world music such as Gamelan etc. And getting back to my horizons comment, if you’ve ever heard a gamelan concert, it’s pretty much continually the same thing being played (even if it evolves in some way).