Hi Folks,
I write, orchestrate and even mock-up primarily in Dorico. I use a VEPro server PC and CSSeries as my core library. I just particularly dislike writing and orchestrating in a Piano Roll environment, it doesn’t work well with my brain. There are also a lot of cool features for making a mock-up like per-articulation track delay and batch writing of CC information for multiple instruments. FYI I have played around w/ Cubase 14’s new “Dorico” score editor and it just wouldn’t work, unfortunately.
I’ve gotten pretty far with Dorico mock-ups but I’m ultimately limited by the following:
- I/O options for stem printing and working with audio
- Mixer capability is limited in Dorico, no multi-out, no options for printing audio or working with audio etc.
- Dorico can export individual audio tracks but doing so w/ a VEPro set-up means it will do it in real-time and in serial and could take hours
- Options for layering in other simultaneous articulations and sample libraries for the same part that don’t create a lot of staff clutter
- Percussion is ultimately easier on a DAW just because the process is often “hunting and pecking” for the right snare or cymbal roll
With all that I’ve been trying to come up with a sensible and efficient “jump point” where I could take my mock-up in Dorico to a certain point and then export MIDI and import it into a DAW (I’m open to any DAW that someone thinks might work best). It doesn’t make a lot of sense to leave ALL of the mocking up till the DAW stage (i.e. orchestrating in Note Performer and then exporting MIDI) because I would lose all my articulations and have to manually re-enter them. So I think it would be best to do the “core” mock-up in Dorico and then jump to a DAW to finish it. The DAW template would connect to the same VEPro server.
There are a couple of pain points I can identify:
- Getting the MIDI to efficiently and accurately populate the existing routed tracks in the DAW template
- I’ve asked some Cubase user friends if this is possible, they said now but maybe I could create some sort of fancy macro? A friend who works in Reaper said it might be possible to script? (i.e. a script that says MIDI w/ the filename Flute 01 goes to Flute 01 in the DAW template etc.)
- Expression maps
- Happy to be proven wrong here, but I doubt there’s a DAW that has the functionality to “reverse-interpret” KS or CC messages to read as an expression map. What I could do is re-export MIDI from Dorico (i.e. for strings) with a different exp map for say a Spitfire library but I would lack the functionality to be able to copy and paste in the DAW and have it follow a new expression map.
Anyway, I know this is a lot but if anybody has any solutions to the previously mentioned “pain points” or has a completely novel approach I am eager to hear it!