I think you need to give some thought to what you ultimately intend to do with any scores you’d create before asking these questions. The 2 scoring programs are really aimed at different audiences - with plenty of overlap but still different. Keep in mind that scoring is as much or even more of a graphics application than a musical application - how do you graphically show the underlying musical information. Dorico is designed to do professional engraving. So if you want to publish the results, Dorico is where you’d go. But on the other hand if you just want to hand out some horn charts for a pop recording session Cubase can do the job fine (although of course Dorico can too). If your only criteria is which can do the most, then Dorico wins. But if you don’t need any of its advanced capabilities then is the cost worth it.
The answers to your questions are dependent on what you want to achieve.
To add to what raino is saying, the most unique and worthwhile thing about working in notation in Cubase is how completely integrated the editors are. The integration is Dorico is different- there the notation is interpreted to produce midi on the fly, but in Cubase it’s the opposite, playback is of midi directly, and the Score editor interprets the midi to create the graphic notation. Dorico has the Play tab, where you can adjust the rhythms of notes without affecting notation display, Cubase has Display Quantize, where you can adjust how rhythms are displayed without affecting midi playback.
If a person is oriented to making music in Cubase, the Score Editor imo would work best for someone learning notation, since they would be able to leverage all their Cubase know-how while climbing the learning curve.
Good point by -steve- on the integration. I find it is often convenient to open the same Part(s) in both the Score & Key Editors simultaneously because some tasks are easier to do in one or the other.
I want to be able to publish it if needed so that says DORICO
I want to print out parts as well for players so either will do in that scenario
**Seems like Dorico is the way to go but I think I need to do some messing about in Score to get my brain around it. Ultimately if I need to print out a Beethovenish piano work to publish and print parts for orchestral players it seems Dorico is the way to go.
Brings up a new question. IF you do something in Score can one open this in DORICO if need be?
But if you want to use the many other features of Cubase, it’s difficult to use Dorico and Cubase together. Currently, they don’t integrate or even communicate with each other, other than by exchanging midi files.
I use both Dorico and Cubase and can say that, for not too technical demanding compositions, Dorico does a pretty good job in playback and with the expression maps you can set a lot of parameters to your taste as a starting point. Also, the independent dynamics lane in the newest version of Dorico allows you to edit dynamics volume, without changing the notated dynamics. So far Dorico is really a great program and beats Cubase with ease when it comes to the notation part.
However, Cubase is miles ahead in terms of mixing, playback and tweaking everything to the smallest detail, while mixing in Dorico is much more difficult and certainly can’t be done at the same level as in Cubase. All plug-ins are supported in Dorico, but inputting automation is much more work than in Cubase.
Both are great, but both in their own league.
there was a pool from steinberg about dorico integration with cubase,so maybe depending on the pool results and other considerations they will make it in future. but we dont know for sure when and if at all !
Can I ask, if one wanted to capture live performances on MIDI piano and other MIDI instruments,
And then produce from this a legible Human useable sensible score, which package does the better job?
One of my constant bugbears is if I write in notation, then what comes out is lift music, uninspiring exact timing and dynamics. This, for me makes creativity difficult as the playback is so wooden.
