How to win over the school market! (a dream for NP/Dorico)

Dorico
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Just dreaming here… (how Dorico could truly win over the huge music education/school/college market)

Dorico iOS is probably the best notation software for iPads/tablets as far as usability, stability, ease of use, and interactivity with it’s large ‘mother program’.
(…sorry, but the other notation software companies iOS offerings pale in comparison to what Steinberg has achieved)

NotePerformer works incredibly well with the ‘mother Dorico’. Quick, foolproof, light on resources, etc. etc. etc.

As is known, NotePerformer is perfect for playing back works in progress, proof-listening, creating mockups for conductors, performers, publishers, etc. etc.

Wouldn’t it be great if NotePerformer was available for iOS and other tablets?

But, because schools and education systems are on tight budgets, they can’t afford to upgrade all their iPads and tablets every year.

So NotePerformer would have to be useable for iPads/tablets made over the last 5-8 years of so.

For example, older iPads/tablets with Dorico iOS struggle to use software instruments like Iconica Sketch and others. If NotePerformer could be ported over to iOS, just think of how happy that would make music educators around the world! (…I’m not an educator, but I do work for them quite often and my daughter is a music student growing and learning ‘all things music’)

Sales of Dorico iOS would go up, and a new user base would lead to increased sales of the big Dorico. More professional composers/arrangers would be forever thankful to NotePerformer and Dorico if they collaborated on something like this.

School administrators would be thankful, as they could even buy used iPads/tablets that are very recent and would be plenty powerful enough to run Dorico/NotePerformer.

Just dreaming…maybe it’s been thought of before?

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Wouldn’t it be great if the iPad version had all the computer and Dorico Pro features? Wouldn’t it be great if you could run HalION and Cubase on iPad?
Due to iOS and iPADOS limitations, this would be very hard to implement. Steinberg and Wallander would have to set up a whole new system for iPad.

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Iconica Sketch on the iPad is not bad at all! But it works best on newer iPads.

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I meant VSTs normally downloaded from SDA. But yes. Newer iPads, that is.

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Yes, Iconica Sketch only really works on new IPads. But is barely functions for work on an iPad Pro 3rd generation, for example, with 4 GigRAM.

And, most schools don’t have any iPads that powerful. They have to use iPads/tablets that are a few years older at any point in time.

Plus, most musicians/students/educators need more instruments than what are available in Iconica Sketch .

NotePerformer offers enough instruments suitable for concert bands, brass bands, wind ensembles, jazz groups, etc. etc.

Iconica Sketch is great for people only working in the ‘classical/chamber’ genres.

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I just wish iPads could run .dmg files…

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If there is a account management system like in sibelius for education — that would spice up the market. Right now if a student is working on UNI machine on Dorico with a big project — they can’t just transfer the license to the student for the duration of the course, and the work needs to be done AT the uni. Not ideal for composing

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I’m not convinced that better playback on tablets is going to be the major ‘draw’ for educational establishments; but I could be wrong.

I would have thought that east of deployment/licensing, and suitability for the course would be the prime motivators.

I can’t find any comments by Arne Wallander about an iPad version (I must have imagined that he had ruled it out); but he has made an iPad library in the past, so it may not be impossible.

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The iPad is a toy. Unless it is capable of running the MacOS and full Mac applications, it will never be able to produce anything of any value, musically speaking, that is.

Mike

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There are thousands of professionals who would vehemently disagree with that statement, with plenty of evidence in the form of work produced. It almost sounds like you’re just trolling to get a response.

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Perhaps so, but how many serious users of iPads also have a desktop installation at home and use the iPad version as a convenience when necessary while deferring to the more capable desktop version?

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I’m not a troll, and I take offense to that. I’m a respected member of this community who is just expressing his opinion.

Mike

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School administrators aren’t buying iPads though, at least not on any large scale. In the US, high schools are buying Chromebooks, because they are very cheap, easy to fix/replace, and the Google software suite is free. Unless I’m mistaken, I haven’t heard of any college requiring an iPad either. My daughter is a current undergrad and loves to use her iPad to take notes in class with Goodnotes, but it’s not required by the school. Here’s a sample of the current undergrad tech requirements some US universities: Duke University, Emory University, Temple University, Berklee College of Music, and for fun (since my daughter is doing a summer semester abroad there) LSE. None of them require or even mention an iPad.

If Steinberg really wants to “win over the school market” they should focus on hardware that schools are actually requiring students to use. That’s certainly not an iPad.

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Sweeping generalizations are never true.

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As someone who taught in a public HS in a small city in the US Midwest for years, I can attest to the reality @FredGUnn addresses.

Beyond the costs associated with the devices themselves (which I believe includes special, costly replacement “insurance” policies that might limit the purchase choices for new vs. used), the biggest factor that ultimately steered my school corporation (same as “district” in other states) to MS Surfaces about ten years ago was the needs on the IT side.

I don’t know if things in the iPad realm have changed since, but at least back then every one of the (maybe 5,000) devices would have had to be physically touched by IT for any instance of maintainence or upgrade. It was simply an untenable choice for their limited personnel and resources when, by contrast, other devices can have updates, fixes, and additions remotely pushed out over the network.

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“If you sweep, dirt will be moved around.” Ha.

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Yes…they’d take over the education market if they did that!

Chromebooks are much less expensive as well, which is a big selling point. Hey…they have excellent built in sound as well!

My daughter’s school system uses Chromebooks, and that severely limits any serious music apps that can be used. She tried to do some arranging on some app that ‘all the kids’ found on their Chromebooks…some ‘online thing’…that only worked when ‘online’. It was a very basic, mouse-oriented, primitive kind of notation thing. (I couldn’t make heads or tails of it!) And, then she and her friends proceeded to lose about 3 weeks of work due to some software system updates.

That’s not the way to go for education of any kind. That actually turned her of any thoughts of using a computer for getting into composing/arranging.

I showed her Sibelius iOS and gave her an older iPad, but frankly it’s just not in the same league as the Dorico app. Actually pretty difficult to wrap a young head around it’s concepts.

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Totally disagree with you. Not everyone is looking for their iPad to be the ‘do-all-end-all’ for their professional music work. (Apple may want you to think that, though!)

For example, the beauty of Dorico iOS is that you can edit work transferred from your main computer and send it back and forth. Do part formatting, get some musical ideas sketching underway, etc. etc.

Many people will find the iPad versions of Dorico and other apps perfect for what they need to do, and Dorico iOS can totally be used for professional level work if one wants to limit their work to an iPad.

Apple is making Logic pretty amazing for iPad. You could totally use it for professional work. Some people edit films on iPads with iMovie iOS.

The iPads and Chromebooks don’t offer the same level of options as laptop or desktop software will, but they serve a purpose for millions of people.

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By that logic, wouldn’t it make more sense for Steinberg to develop a Chromebook or web-based version? It seems a lot easier to develop software for systems that school districts are already using, than to convince townships to raise homeowner taxes, and school boards to allocate additional technology funding, to pay for iPads which are substantially more expensive to purchase and maintain. (Google’s management tools make Chromebooks easier for IT departments to manage too.) I’m not advocating for Steinberg to allocate resources to do that, just pointing out that it would be much easier to write software for devices that students are already using, rather than convince schools to change devices for one fairly niche music program. (Not to mention, this will certainly not be an option at all in many cash-strapped districts, where it seems like arts funding is always the first thing to be cut.)

A web-based version of Dorico, like the web-based MakeMusic Cloud, could be an entry pathway toward the full version of Dorico, and a Chromebook version would make Dorico SE accessible to many more students. If the developers think it’s a good use of development time, they could always consider those routes. Personally, I’d just like to be able to condense doubling instruments first. :wink:

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Sure! I just advocate for Dorico to be a ‘player’ in the music education market in whatever way they can, because it’s the best and easiest route for composing/arranging and for ‘wanna-be’ musicians in becoming comfortable in what’s required in order to uphold musical traditions and standards.

There are musical ‘standards’ and ‘traditions’ that will never disappear within the next several generations or lifetimes! Music for live musicians is here to stay.

MuseScore is free and that’s attractive, but it’s OpenSource and that’ll never fly in the school systems and IT departments.

(My main wish… have NotePerformer working within Dorico on iOS!)