Dorico working along Cubase (instead of full integration)

Dorico
1

In the Cubase forum, people dreams about a Dorico-Cubase integration. It would be wonderful of course, but I think that the workflow in an engraving software like Dorico is so different to the workflow in a DAW that instead of “integration” it would be better (and easier) if they simply were able to work along each other, with some common things in sync like tempo, measures and video.

So this is my idea:

  • Cubase and Dorico share the time measure track, the marker track, the tempo track and the video track. (Tempo track is different -but related- to the Tempo marks displayed in a score).


  • Cubase and Dorico share the MIDI devices, so you can use your keyboard in both programs at the same time to input data.


  • Cubase and Dorico share the virtual instruments and other inputs, to reduce the effect on RAM.


  • You can copy data from Cubase to Dorico and vice versa (I think you already can drag and drop Midi events). You could achieve this also with some “integrated” MIDI track -for instance, the dorico instrument pointing to a midi track in Cubase which data is synced, however this may be more soffisticated-

This things would improve a workflow that already exists, the one that Alan Silvestri explains in this video: Alan Silvestri, Scoring a Blockbuster, Part 1: From Cubase to Dorico | Artist - YouTube

And will improve this workflow because you wouldn’t need to “change” the program, as you can have both programs working along. And I think these things are doable, as you already can do them in some ways. They just need to be improved a bit.

There are also some cool features in Dorico that the Cubase team should consider to implement, like flows, but this may be more difficult to do.

In my opinion, I don’t need a real Dorico integration in Cubase because the way you input data is actually very different. In Dorico, a violin is a violin, and it may have divisi but nothing else. Everything is going to be in the same part. On the other hand, when you’re working in a DAW like Cubase, you may have a lot of different tracks for that violin. A track for short articulations, another for long, another for legato, another for cool effect. You can even include the violin part in an ensemble track… So the total integration of both programs will be actually worse.

I prefer to manually adapt the tracks of Cubase into an instrument part in Dorico. Even copying manually the values, as usually you’re going to deal with latency (some VI are recorded with “latency” for more realism) or legato programing, etc…

I’ve been working in a score recently, thus I’ve been thinking in the features I would have liked to have, so I wanted to share with you in order to improve this great program. I though that Dorico forum was more appropiated than Cubase, however is a “multi” “feature request”. Well, actually it’s just an idea which may or not be useful. I hope it makes sense!

1 Like
2

Hi,

here’s a scenario I experience quite often and it’s one of the reasons I like the idea of having just one software for everything.

I do my arrangement in my DAW.
I transfer/export everything into my Notation app and put together a nice score.
I send an audio demo (made in my DAW) and the finished score to my client.

Then the client says: Oh, very nice, but… can we please have the dancebreak not after the first, but second chorus… and could it be 16 bars longer?

From that moment on I have to do all my corrections or rework twice: in my DAW - to get the corrected audio file; in my Notation app - to get the scores right.

I like working in a DAW (for me that’s Logic). It’s more ‘playing’ music than ‘writing’ music. But I hate to do things that are already done. It’s a waste of time.

3

Hello,

Well, if they were synced, then you would change the audio and the score at the same time, because time signatures, measures and time would be shared. Of course, one thing is the virtual instrument (which you may use several instruments for just one part) and another would be the score (made of parts, and each part would behave like a Midi track in Cubase).

Syncing both programs seems easier and more practical than integrating Dorico inside of Cubase. More practical because you wouldn’t have to change your workflow to adapt to the score engraving part and easier because you shouldn’t have to change as many things in both programs. And you could make it step by step, starting by sharing the same Midi Devices, the tempo track, the markers and the number/type of measures.

When you import a tempo track from a midi file in Dorico, what you’re doing is copying these things (except the Midi Devices, of course) inside Dorico. Instead of “copy”, sync it! :slight_smile:

4

Greetings,

I wonder if an improved & more efficient Rewire connection between Cubase & Dorico would achieve what reztes, christian68, myself & others have been envisaging (for quite sometime, now) would be like as an ideal workflow that would link Dorico to Cubase. A partial link that would not sacrifice Dorico’s engraving nor Cubase’s sound/midi editing specific workflows.

Just a thought. Cheers

5

I’m a bit late for this… But this is absolutely the way I would like to work with both programs… An integration (or maybe… A connection) between cubase/dorico but not in a destructive way (for both sides). Imagine having 2 monitors, one with cubase and the other one with dorico, linked in a session maybe… That would improve so much my workflow…

1 Like