Just started using Dorico in my workflow… so disappointed that it doesn’t export chords in MusicXML! This pretty much kills my desired workflow to go from Dorico into Cubase and Newzik. Any news on when this feature might be added?
I’m sorry that this is an obstacle to you. Improving Dorico’s MusicXML export is a high priority for us, and we expect to make some progress in this area this year, but I don’t anticipate that we will be able to achieve a huge amount of improvement before our next major release, as the roadmap for that is stacked pretty high already.
Thanks Daniel… I’ll make due until the feature makes it to the top of the stack! Love Dorico otherwise!
Fingers crossed that you include a bit of MusicXML export improvement in the near future (at least things like chords and - if it’s not yet there - system text). I’m trying mightily to convert some Broadway colleagues to Dorico from Finale, but in the meantime they are requesting musicXML exports of all my Dorico work and I’m trying to (optimistically) hold them off with the hopes that Dorico’s MusicXML export will be fortified (at least somewhat!) in the interim…
D.D.
We do expect to work on MusicXML this year, but you shouldn’t expect any immediate improvements. For one thing, there are no further updates to Dorico 2.x planned, and for another, we do not expect MusicXML export improvements to be part of our next major release.
Thank you Daniel for being so upfront and honest with the Dorico development regarding Music XML import/export.
I find the import from Sibelius MusicXML excellent, but the export from Dorico is not that crash hot yet, but that is okay; something to look forward to.
Best wishes to the team as always of course.
That’s admittedly pretty disappointing, only because I know you’ve been working to fortify all basic functionality to “level the playing field” and MusicXML export is presently so rudimentary (compared to import especially). Of course, I understand why it would not necessarily be considered as much of a priority to allow those with Dorico to get their charts into other competitor’s formats via MusicXML, and I personally wish everyone would just switch to Dorico (and I’m seriously working on it, and have several converts already!) But there are still many situations where the person with whom someone might be working doesn’t yet have time to make the switch (for example, my experience is that the entire Broadway world seems to be using Finale), and so not being able to share my completed Dorico files with this Broadway orchestrator is a serious problem (I just tried an export and it didn’t export system text - a problem since we’re talking about many, many rap lyrics!, chord symbols, or enough of anything that would make it usable without a complete re-write on his end). So (selfishly, of course!) I do hope you’ll consider adding at least a bit more feature parity to MusicXML export in the nearer future just so I can confidently say that Dorico truly does as much as the competitors through and through (which it’s now close to doing otherwise). My two cents of course (and I certainly realize you’ve got a lot on your plate).
- D.D.
Funnily enough, I’ve just spent ~7 hours over the past couple of days, exporting a 65 page Piano/Vocal score from Dorico to Sibelius and tidying up. Somebody’s orchestrating a show that I put together in Dorico, and sadly they’re expecting Sibelius files.
For anybody that has to go through this painful experience, here’s what seemed to transfer correctly:
- Notes (mostly in correct upstem/downstem voices)
- Accidentals
- Time signatures
- Key signatures
- Most slurs
- Some dynamics. Hairpins that turned up were in rather odd places
- Special barlines (double/repeat etc.) - I note that at each special barline a redundant time signature shows up
Here’s what needed adding manually:
- Chord symbols
- Staff text
- Some dynamics
- System text
- Tempo markings (both text and metronome marks)
- Articulation marks
- Some slurs - some were missing, some appeared like tiny slugs attached to nothing
- Token-based text (Title/Composer/Cue line etc.)
- Rehearsal marks
I worked with Sibelius on one screen and Dorico on another (actually on two separate computers). I opened each flow as a MusicXML file in Sibelius, copied and pasted straight into my Sibelius template, then sorted out the token-based stuff. Then I cross-referenced system by system, addressing everything apart from chord symbols. When I reached the end of the song I skipped back to the beginning and went through again, copying in chord symbols manually.
There’ll likely be a proof-read to do on paper in a couple of days’ time.
My situation is very similar, except that it’s currently a 320 page piano vocal score that needs to be exported to Finale (for a Broadway orchestrator). I really do hope they’ll improve MusicXML export in the near future just to get it to a basic, competitive level (so fingers very much crossed) - at least until the point where everyone has the time to (inevitably!) switch to using Dorico themselves…
D.D.
Firstly, there won’t be another release of Dorico in the near future. Secondly, the next release of Dorico will not feature significant improvements to MusicXML export. We cannot prioritise everything and we do not have an infinite number of developers or an infinite amount of time. I have already provided you with as much information as I can about when we anticipate being able to spend time on MusicXML export.
You should obviously do things in the order you need to and I’m sure that whenever it’s done it will be industry-leading in implementation (as all of your additions have been)…In the meantime I will continue to try and get my collaborators to switch to Dorico NOW (since they inevitably will LATER anyway) but it’s a tough slog for certain busy people to switch, unfortunately (but again I’ll keep trying)…
Thanks for all you’ve been doing!
- D.D.
Thanks for the update Daniel. Is there any way you could support a developer (such as yours truly) to build support for exporting MXML with chords? Is there an SDK that might let me hook something up?
Long shot, I know, but worth asking ;0).
Unfortunately not, boissec, but we are definitely planning to spend some time on MusicXML export after our next major release.
Finale is the de facto standard in that world for many reasons. There are many things that Dorico just cannot do (yet?) that those arrangers and publishers need. The sooner you get it into Finale, the easier your life is — as is that of the arranger/copyist/publisher to whom you’re sending it.
I’d be curious to hear what exactly you think it is that Finale can do so much better than Dorico in its current form. I was a 20+ years Sibelius user but after using Dorico (including for a Broadway-bound musical score) haven’t looked back. The one current weakness to me is (ironically) Dorico’s musicXML export, making it impossible to share my files with those who are still using Finale. But other than that, I am pretty “good to go” (so again just curious)…
D.D.
Finale’s good features which Dorico still not has:
- automatic sort of instruments
- fix bar numbers per system for selected bars
- automatic beaming according to lyrics
- automatic beaming according to time signatures
- canonic tool: [inversion, reverse, retrograded inversion] + transposition
- automatic harmonics (flageolets)
etc…
Each program has its strength and weakness.
Finale is still flexible and provides more features, but the working speed in Dorico is generally much faster, excepting the adjusting of the layout for parts in Dorico is slower than in Finale. Theoretically, it should not be slower, but it is slow. The reason is I must find the point of page turning, and I must reduce the number of pages. If Dorico provides No. 1 and No. 2, it will be better than the work in Finale.
For me, I prefer to using Dorico, because I now cannot understand adjusting expressions and articulation so often in Finale while I do not need to do it in Dorico. However, at the beginning and end of works, I really miss the feature No. 1 and No. 2.
Regarding musicXML: the musicXML supports of Finale, Sibelius and Dorico are not reliable. Finale and Sibelius can import/export better than Dorico. However, imported musicXML must be proofread, and it is very time-consuming. Rather using a software program would be better… I have not seen a perfectly-exported/imported musicXML document, and I do not think there will be a perfect protocol to allow document exchange among Dorico, Finale, Sibelius and MuseScore.
But what software program in lieu of musicXML? That’s the challenge I’ve been having since they’re all largely imperfect as well…
D.D.
Isn’t this why Michael Good and Daniel Spreadbury are working on the MNX format? I’m sure this has come up before…
https://www.w3.org/community/music-notation/2016/05/19/introducing-mnx/
Hm… I recently imported a musicXML file into Dorico with no problem. I wouldn’t have called it a “big project” - about 70 pages of orchestra score.
Trying to import the same musicXML file into Finale gave the error message. “This file is to big to read.”
Sheesh, it was only about 1.5 MBytes. Maybe the problem is that it wouldn’t fit on one floppy disk, so it hit some restriction left over from 20 years ago in Finale. Even Musescore can work with a project that size!
I guess “Industry standard” doesn’t necessarily mean “not completely useless”.
I’m talking musicXML export FROM from Dorico, not import into Dorico (I agree that Dorico’s import from other programs is quite usable - it’s their export TO other programs that is currently not terribly usable).
D.D.