Hello! I’m still learning how to use Dorico (I’m a Finale refugee) but I was curious if Dorico has any features that specializes in graphic and contemporary notation? I often use repeat boxes, clusters, slashes indicating “as fast as possible,” and free-drawn lines that show a certain melodic contour. Will these be added in a future update or am I not seeing where these features are or is there a workaround for these. Thanks!
You can do a lot of things with the line tool. For boxes you can use the line tool to make an “box top” and “box bottom”. If you add them to the same spot they should match up and form a box without any fuss. Another technique I use is putting in custom graphics as either playing techniques or custom noteheads. Playing techniques are preferred, but custom noteheads can be a better approach if you need the graphic inside the staff. Just hide the stem.
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Dorico is phenomenal, and congratulations to the team. I am a Finale “refugee” too and as many of us, I am wondering why didn’t I convert earlier…
Now, in the contemporary notation aspect, besides what you describe I am surprised on how easy is to create most of the contemporary notation elements such as fanned beams, the ease to hide rests, noteheads, stems etc, the various lines, pressure wedges, custom symbols, open and polyrhythmic time signatures, microtonal music, nested tuplets and so on.
The only “standard” notation elements not natively supported for more experimental music as far as I can see are a) cut away measure notation/ the ability to change staff styles without instrument change. , b) aleatoric boxes c) a “free hand” line tool and d) cluster notation
So, although there are work arounds and the above are discussed previously,I am curious too, if there is any hint of incorporating those elements in the future versions…
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Yes. It doesn’t matter that Dorico thinks in terms of “instruments” rather than staff (as Finale does), but there is an urgent need to incorporate the ability to create an instrument with 0 lines in the staff; similarly, to offer the option of displaying no barlines for this instrument (currently, we cannot go below 1).
This would be approximately the equivalent of Finale’s powerful staff styles.
But… Dorico is still in its infancy, and I’m confident that future versions of the software will offer more and more features, because there are so many requests for contemporary music notation.
Patience.
In the meantime, Finale is still working, and there’s no rush to abandon it completely.
because there are so many requests for contemporary music notation
Dorico at first seemed to me like it was targeted towards film scoring and more “mainstream” user base. But in this unexpected turn of events thousands of Finale users are now into Dorico and since Finale was maybe the most popular option for experimental/contemporary composers now, all of a sudden, most of them are Dorico users!
For contemporary notation the only real alternative (excluding lily pond etc) is Sibelius but Sibelius is dated, buggy and developed by AVID. … so… If Dorico incorporates some more contemporary notation elements then it could EASILY dominate the whole industry.
Additionally, if more contemporary elements are natively incorporated Dorico will push the boundaries for experimental notation for beginners too.
I have one very interesting example: I teach composition and some of my students that switched to Dorico started experimenting with pressure wedge notation. If it wasn’t so easy to create them in Dorico they maybe wouldn’t bother experimenting at all because eg in Finale it was a p.i.t.a. to create them! So, there is an educational aspect too on this experimental request endeavour too!
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The team are well aware of the work that still needs doing.
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Seeing Spreadbury’s reply made me smile! I am looking forward for Dorico 6!
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I’m assuming that your students was not experts in handling Finale; let’s face it, the software is sometimes “rugueux” (in French).
Nevertheless, my students (I taught orchestration at the CNSMDP for 30 years) knew it perfectly well and were able to do some remarkable things with it. The key, as always, is to have read the manual…
It’s not a good idea for us to get into childish judgements about “qui est le plus fort dans la cour de récré ?”
As I said, I have every confidence in Dorico’s team of developers that this software will soon offer what is essential for engraving contemporary music (but also early music, as these needs often go hand in hand).
It is not about the level of proficiency some one has of the software but what the software suggests. For the specific example of wedge notation, in Dorico it is more invitive than in Finale. Of course this is possible in Finale but in Dorico it’s just at your finger tips.
I agree. Dorico has many possibilities that other softwares have not, or not very easily (for example, the custom key signature, sometimes used by Ligeti is a nightmare to do in Finale).
Similarly, the layout concept is truly perfect in Dorico, alongside the divisi tools.
But… I’m very surprised by the haste of some people to obey MakeMusic’s orders and rush to Dorico right away, as if an asteroid were about to hit the earth.
On the one hand, because Finale doesn’t suddenly stop working, and on the other, because for some, it will be wiser to adopt Sibelius than Dorico.
The future is ours ; we have choice.
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Haha, me too! But the truth is that sooner or later we will have to move on to the post-Finale era. And Dorico seems like the best overall choice nevertheless
Or, perhaps, a post-worldwar era, alas. 
I love the paradox of standardizing the experimental!
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These are pretty easy to do now with Notehead Sets. It just depends on exactly how you want them to look.
@dan_kreider 's AleBoxes font works well for aleatoric boxes in Dorico too.
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Thank you for the aleatoric box resource! Btw, when the cluster is chromatic (black) the altered notehead solution is fine. But with diatonic clusters (no fill) there are always the square note head borders shown… I am sure there will be a workaround but at the moment it seems like too many steps to bother!
that’s spot on. Can you give us some more info?
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Sorry, I won’t be back in front of my computer until later, but you just have to apply a Notehead Set. I can’t remember if the Cluster sets are factory or if I created them, but they aren’t that hard to use. Just check out the documentation for Notehead Sets.