I will try to be shorter with this one: I assume, the Cubase engine will also contribute the movie playback of Dorico. That offers chances for huge improvements over competitors. I really hope, you will have a dedicated track for the movie - just like in Cubase - and be able to move the film freely and adjust tempo with a dedicated tempo track. That will be a huge improvement over Sibelius. I also hope, with this basic functionality with v1.0 already there, you will use the chance even more features, that will make composing music for a film pure joy. Some things come to mind …
… adding flutters and punches to the film at hit points.
… something like tap tempo, that will work better and in a more musical way (hey, I am not the developer - conducting would be brilliant, but not easy to achieve I believe …).
… it is hard to be specific without having seen Dorico in action yet, but … I would find it really great (without much hassle) to be able to set bar one or any of its counts to a certain hitpoint in the movie and let that be the first time for now. Then later on, you could just add some bars in front of that, but the first bar created and the following would relatively to the movie stay where it was. I hope, you get what I am talking about! 
Composing for a film does not necessarily happen from start to finish. Sometimes you got an idea somewhere in the middle and want to work around that.
We certainly hope to be able to take advantage of the excellent support for video in Cubase’s engine in Dorico itself, but it won’t be something we can squeeze into the first version. There are other more fundamental playback-related features that we need to accomplish first. However, making Dorico a great tool for film, TV and game composers is absolutely one of our core goals for the application.
Hi Daniel,
I totally agree with FriFlo. I know we’re talking about first release and everything needs time but video is a main feature for people scoring for films indeed.
Apart from that I see that some are asking about Rewire. Let me share some thoughts. There are two ways of working with a notation software :
- Some are working with Cubase or other DAWs and wish to print a score from it.
- Other ones are writing music on a notation software with more or less average quality sounds, import the final midi file to Cubase and setup and play with high end libraries. That’s what I’m doing mostly.
For this last case, it can be very useful to play some non-orchestral elements or a sound design or dialogs track along the score in the notation software. Rewire looks to be the only way to do it. So here’s the idea : playing an audio track in the notation software the same way than the video. A premix could be played with the score then. That would be way lighter than the Rewire staff. I don’t know if it’s something hugely complicated but I think we have to consider a notation software in an evolutive and modern way. This should be a great feature imo.
Furthermore, I play video in Nuendo from a second computer (BMD card to external monitor), synced to Cubase via VST Link. Will it be possible to output (or input) a VST-Link or MTC from (or to) Dorico so as to sync with another computer ?
That said, congrats for this upcoming software !
Best,
Alain
We have certainly not ruled out playback of audio tracks in Dorico in a future version; the audio engine is of course capable of handling this. When we do eventually have video support in Dorico, its audio, for example, will appear as a separate channel in the Mixer so you can control its level relative to your playback output.
I must admit I’m not familiar with VST Link, so I will get in touch with my colleagues at HQ to ask them about what prospects there might be for supporting VST Link in a future version.
Hi Daniel,
Having a separate audio track for the video could do the trick first. Just think about it one day !
Best,
Alain
In the short term just being able to lock Dorico to Cubendo, either by VST link or MTC would be great.
DG
Yes, all this linking to Cubendo is indeed a great prospect! But I understand we cannot expect all of that to happen in the first version. I have to say though, that Playback of a movie file with the score and the ability to move it would be an all-deciding factor for me, if I would jump on board with version 1. Even, if it were a movie file without audio, that might be ok for the time being. But I would only start using Dorico from the day, where I can place a movie to a dedicated movie track and freely move it on the timeline, as in Cubase. Until then, I would sadly have to continue using Sibelius, where I find it really tedious to move the movie on the timeline. That is rather unintuitive there and gives Dorico a great chance to top Sibelius from the first day.
Sorry, FriFlo, but it sounds like you’ll be staying with Sibelius for a little while. We really won’t have time to get video playback working before the first release of Dorico. But we will of course add it as soon as we are able.