I’m most often working on scores that are part of a DAW project with a lot of other musical dependencies. It would be a game changer to be able to play back a rough mix of the project alongside Dorico in order to edit the score against the audio from the project. Alternatively a way to have Cubase sync in a start stop fashion the way ReWire used to work with Sibelius many years ago (but better hopefully)
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This request (synching a DAW and Dorico) and wanting audio tracks in Dorico have been already expressed a certain number of times in the forum since 2016… The devs do know we want that 
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Its a huge thing for me. I did a quick search for simiar topic before posting but didnt see it. Perhaps those who want this can do a +1 here to express interest
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This, so far, is the only thing that would make me purchase Cubase or any other DAW.
Your title and the body of your request seem to be suggesting two different developments:
- Import of wav/mp3 to playback inside of Dorico (devs have this on their radar for a future release AFAIK); or:
- Sync with a DAW. I totally agree and +1 for a native solution. In the meantime, since you use Cubase check this video out. The plugin costs a small amount of money but I found it works well at least while we wait for a native solution.
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Daniel has often said that features or scheduling of features is not determined by vote; so cluttering a thread with “plus-one’s” is probably not necessary. As Marc said, the Developers know we want this, but linking with Cubase depends on alterations to Cubase as well as Dorico, some of which have already taken place.
It’s a process, and it is taking place.
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This is already possible. Apologies if we haven’t made this clear to anyone who needs it. You set up Cubase like this:
- Here I have told Cubase that I want to Activate External Sync, and that I want it to synchronize using any Midi Timecode it receives from the midi port “MTC1”. That’s all of the setup that is required in Cubase.
(Note: Earlier I created the MIDI port “MTC1” using loopMidi because I am on Windows. We can talk about creating MIDI ports later if you need us to.)
2. Here I added the TXL Timecode plugin (A seperate purchase, now called TXL Timecode Expert on the web site) as an instrument in Dorico, and I’m telling it to send MTC (Midi timecode) to “MTC1”:
That’s basically it - there are a few details, such as that the frame rate in Dorico has to match the frame rate in the plugin so as to keep the score and Cubase lined up. You have to do this EVEN IF you do not have a video in Dorico. So…
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You can see the frame rate I’ve got set in the plugin above is 24 FPS. So… go to the Setup tab in Dorico, right click on your flow and select “Video properties”.
And then set the same frame rate for Dorico in the dialog box that appears.
That’s pretty much all there is to it. Now add your audio file or whatever to Cubase and enjoy.
….. Except - we are us, and there are other things you might need to be aware of.
First of all, while Dorico and Cubase WILL stay perfectly in sync while playing. (I used some BITC files to confirm), for some reason the Cubase transport always continues to run on for a frame or so longer after Dorico has already stopped. This means that the values look sometimes slightly off when the transports are stopped - but everything is actually fine. It syncs up again when you play or record - and yes you can restart playback/record at any arbitrary point in the score that you would like and be in sync.
Second - as long as you do not assign the TXL plugin instrument to a player, it will be invisible and not clutter up your score or the Dorico mixer, in case you were wondering.
Third - if you ARE working with video, put the video in Cubase. One reason is that you will likely want to export video and sound together at some point - and you’ll suddenly realize that there is no easy way to do that in Dorico, but it’s a built in Cubase feature.
To make that work you have to send audio from Dorico also, I use Bluecat connector. You could do that by just putting Bluecat on Dorico’s main output. But I use several for grouping Dorico instruments into stems (often I have L/R and Ls/Rs stems) and sending those to Cubase for listening and mixing in surround while scoring. Then use Cubase for adding live recorded tracks and for delivery. Those are other subjects I guess. But Cubase 15 became one of my top 2025.
I have no idea if Steinberg has its own evil plan that might simplify this, but this is pretty darn handled for now as far as I’m concerned. Working with all these different parts together, I expected some complexity anyway.
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While I’m waiting for Audio tracks and tempo maps to be added to Dorico I create a tempo map of the audio in Reaper by adjusting the barlines to match the beats in the audio. This creates a tempo track, which can be saved as a MIDI file and imported into Dorico. Cubase can do this too.
That’s all I require myself, but if you could find a way of syncing the start of playback in Cubase and Dorico together using MTC I think that would answer your question.
The lack of a robust method to sync audio apps together is one of the most disappointing things right now. I use the TXL plugin to sync Dorico with Pro Tools mainly and it works well, but the slave does not chase the master, so if you have tempo changes it’s a pain, especially if you adjust them as you go. Rewire was discontinued in 2020 apparently…that software enabled the slave to chase the hosts tempo…It seems very strange that as we approach 2026, we still cannot achieve this mode or working in a satisfactory way. I don’t know what is going on, but I can only assume that Steinberg does not want us to be able to sync Dorico and Cubase together in a robust way. We’ve been talking about it for years as @MarcLarcher pointed out and anybody who works with media music needs this functionality. Of course as @wing mentioned, audio staves in Dorico would be a brilliant addition, and much as I would love to see them asap, they are unlikely to offer the same audio editing features as Cubase.
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I find it satisfactory enough with maybe a couple of qualifiers:
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Export the tempo track from Dorico. (Currently implemented)
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Import the tempo track into Cubase (Currently implemented, Requires Cubase Pro, are there any issues?) I think that handles all your tempo changes, meter changes etc. and you don’t need to adjust anything?
Or - in your own writing space (what I do) you can just reference the Dorico Transport window for bars and beats, and set your Cubase display to Timecode. I don’t suppose you want to run Dorico in the live room of a big studio with orchestra, but if you are doing that I don’t suppose the cost of Cubase Pro will matter much to you. 
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