Really super update folks- people have been asking for cutaway scores for ages and I have to say the implementation and output looks absolutely brilliant. I might even try re-visiting an old cutaway style score.
The features that really stand out to me though are -
Being able to change properties within the Jump bar interface (without even picking up a mouse!)
Proof-reading - super useful, and a feature that I can see getting more and more useful (perhaps with some AI help?)
As banal as it seems, being taken straight to the font style with âEdit fontâ by right clicking
An improvement that is less spectacular, but truly great:
Dorico 6 makes it possible to see all properties for the selected items, regardless of
the number of different types of items in the selection. To enable this, set When
selecting multiple items of different types to Show all properties on the Note Input and Editing page of Preferences.
I havenât even watched the videos yet to get the full scope of the enhancements, but Iâve been hoping for âCycle Playbackâ for a long time - it will help my transcription endeavors greatly. It works wonderfully!
Also, the âProofreadingâ facility looks great (although it doesnât like using the thumb to fret the sixth string on a guitar - which Iâve been doing for over 50 years - grin!)
Iâll be doing a detailed post of my own on this theme after Iâve upgraded, but the two most promising ones are the enhanced condensing (no more uncondensed staves just because youâve changed the instrument or transposition for both players) and the DTP-style typography features, in that order. Iâm sure that there are many others, but the typography was especially nice because it wasnât even on my radar, except in a âback-of-my-mindâ way. (It still is, but itâs nice to have!)
I noticed the proof-reading, too. I do like the idea, but I would very much prefer that Dorico not go down the AI rabbit-hole as Sibelius has done. (Or subscriptions, for that matter! )
My favourite thing about this update is that they didnât call the proofreading feature âAIâ the way every other company does with everything now. They very easily could have gone down that route but chose not to, and I really really appreciate that.
I was kind of waiting for someone to make a remark like that. At the same time, does it qualify as AI in the way we usually think of? Itâs certainly not generative AI - the program simply checks for such-and-such item that it knows ahead of time to see as problematic. Itâs like a spell-checker in a word processor - then again, maybe thatâs AI, too.
I cannot say witch one is my favourite improvement!
Iâm so astonished to see this amount of new features that I just canât believe it. Iâll try to summarize my thoughts:
(EDIT: as usual I cannot write long stories shorts⌠sorryâŚ)
Cut-away: this feature itâs just chef kiss, this is something I was waiting and itâs incredible that the developers made it work just in the way I always dreamed (just one click!). I suppose they are going to improve this feature in the future, but if this is the âstarting pointâ, I just canât imagine what awaits us in the next minor releases and/or with boxes! I will finally copy those compositions of mine and leave definitely the other software! Great job!
Kerning and OpenType: Iâm so happy to see that! Iâve been commissioned a work just a few days ago and I though that something like that would come in handy⌠what a luck!! The more I was reading the blogâs post/watching the YT videos, the more I could not believe the amount of work they put on!
Chord Symbols: I remembered someone of the team saying it was an inside joke the fact that someone was always working on chord symbols. While I was reading to the post, I found myself laughing, wondering who was going through this for Dorico 7, after all this work for v6 (and feeling bad for themâŚ)
Proofreading and other engraving/workflow improvements: I found so many features I just could not imagine I actually needed them! The jump bar is more powerful than ever and the new popovers are so inspiring! I cannot wait to explore them further tomorrow! There are so many things to write about I must stop here! But⌠I have to say, the new status bar was something I felt too shy to ask as a feature, so even it is the âless powerfulâ feature, I was really happy when I saw that. A cherry on top of the cake as we say in ItalyâŚ
Last but not the least: we always focus on features, but may I say that the new user interface is cleaner than ever? I really, really love the new look in general, from the hub to all the options menu (not to mention the icons). Itâs really a beauty for the eyes. I think that the people who took care of this particular aspect need so much appreciation here! Itâs the little thingsâŚ
A comparatively small thing that I find very useful: Having the Tempo markings in the Paragraph styles, so it is possible to have different size for full score and part layouts.
Hmmm, end note durations. Humanizing those is something I have to do a lot, havenât spent time with the new feature yet but should ease the burden there.
Hoping in a future release if that gets extended to similarly up to par with the other contextual humanizing like the pitch contour analysis. Coming up with an example âŚ
At a slow dramatic tempo Iâd likely need to spend some time fiddling the end duration of those quarters for the drama. Human players would know to do this automatically, really weight those three notes and articulate them with clear separation, so I donât want to over notate it in the score just for playback. Iâd likely end up pushing up CCâs and shortening durations, usually iterate a few times until it gets close enough
Maybe not a great example but off the top of my head would love to see this extension, but meanwhile am very happy with 6
For me, itâs Fill View. Absolutely perfect for Piano/Vocal where copying sections saves a lot of time. I tested it out by loading up a 54 bar song, with the Preferences panel, chords, lyrics, signposts etc all on show at 150% zoom. Basically, the entire song is editable without navigating through pages - brilliant!.
Proofreading and Cutaways are âClassic Spreadburyâ â more than we asked for, and something we didnât know we needed.
Rulers and Grids is awesome.
But a lot of the little things make a huge difference.
Parentheses of Playing Techniques, extending lyric lines, the interface improvements (double clicking on Staff Labels is a massive timesaver; âEdit FontâŚâ, etc, etc.) Everything feels much more polished and ârealâ somehow.
One improvement that made me very happy, because it solves an impossible problem before (and something that apparently was perfectly doable both in Finale and Sibelius) is the new dialogue for system-attached items and the new way to handle big Time signatures (I see them kind of linked because itâs the same kind of score that will benefit from those). No longer will I have to write that itâs not possible to do that And coordination line, for the same reason (was impossible, easy now).
I agree with you, it absolutely does not qualify as AI. Although that doesnât seem to stop other companies from marketing old, basic features as AI to make more money. Thatâs why I appreciate Steinberg not engaging in any misleading, hype nonsense like that.
Indeed. Itâs simply a benefit of Doricoâs âsemantic approachâ, in which it knows that âpizz.â is not just âan expressionâ, nor even just some text that triggers a MIDI key.
Dorico knows that it is the pizzicato Playing Technique for String instruments. Dorico knows that âmfâ is the mezzoforte dynamic. And so on.
I was thinking that D6 feels like it stepped over a threshold too. D4-5 was the maturing to a first class usable app, but the polish applied to D6 makes it feel like best of class.
)
And coordination line, for the same reason (was impossible, easy now).