As has been hinted for a little while, and eagle-eyed manual fans might have suspected when the previous “First steps” chapter quietly disappeared from the 3.5 manual, I’ve been working on re-imagining this chapter as a separate guide tailored for Dorico beginners.
The revamped “First steps” guide has now been fully drafted, and to check that I’ve got the tone, content, and level of support about right, we’re keen to get feedback from actual Dorico beginners.
If you have friends, family, or colleagues who are interested in Dorico but haven’t really used it yet, we would love them to get in touch and road-test/beta-test the guide and give us feedback on their experience using it.
Interested parties can email @dspreadbury - his email being d (dot) spreadbury (at) steinberg (dot) de - to receive the relevant materials.
Yes, it’s English-only at the moment - once we’ve finalised it with any improvements that come up from this feedback, we’ll send it out for translation.
Hi,
New user here, testing the demo version, and Sibelius user since 2005.
I have been following the “First Steps” guide and I have finished the first piano solo piece so that’s the stage I am at the moment.
Here’s a couple of observations, hoping they could be helpful for the development team and others:
Pag. 50 - I believe the second bullet point should say “To raise/lower notes by semitone” rather than “octave”
In general, since I have an Italian keyboard layout, the shortcuts are slightly confusing and difficult to find (as they they often do not correspond to the ones indicated by the manual) and in some cases are different, as for example on the “respell using note above/below” where they were on different keys altogether.
If you mean this page, where it says “To raise notes by octave divisions” and “To lower notes by octave divisions”, that is correct and deliberate - in Dorico Pro, you can use the default 12-EDO and 24-EDO tonality systems plus any other tonality system you create/import, with any number of divisions in the octave. These key commands raise/lower notes by a semitone in 12-EDO, but a quarter tone in 24-EDO and by whatever amount corresponds to the prevailing tonality system for others.
The key commands in the English version do presuppose an English keyboard. We will be publishing the Italian translation shortly, which uses Italian key commands.
Hi, Lilly!
While I understand that the description “raise notes by octave division” is perfectly correct on a technical level, just as you described, I would not be able to understand this.
As someone who has been raised in a world without quarter tones and who has never heard things like “12-EDO” and “24-EDO”, this description does not make any sense to me whatsoever. I would not know what “octave division” is, and never would I have been able to understand that this means “a semitone” for my intents and purposes.
Maybe you could find a way to reword this so the “simple folks” like me get a chance to understand what you mean?
Thanks!
The following sentences clarifies the most common octave divisions you’ll come across, naming semitones and quarter tones explicitly, but yes I take the point that 12-EDO/24-EDO could be qualified a little more. I was seeking to be brief to avoid too much complication. You should find that searching the full manual for any unfamiliar terms you come across in First Steps will provide you with further information if necessary (e.g. 12-EDO). The scope of First Steps had to be quite limited.
The guide has been translated now, and we’re unlikely to change it for a while but I’ll keep the note on a list somewhere.
