I bought in today

I bought Dorico today. I was a reluctant purchaser when pricing was first announced, even though I was entitled to a competitive upgrade. I decided I didn’t need it for the things I do, mainly studio charts and an occasional choral composition. Already owned the Steinberg sounds, etc. Then, 2 things happened:

  1. I needed to import an old Encore score (anybody remember Encore?) into Finale and prepare it for a performance.
  2. I watched Daniel’s presentation on rollout day.

OK, so I had to reinstall an older version of Finale, because the newer versions have dropped the Encore import capability. Then save it as Finale file, open in more current version, and get to work editing, etc. After many hours, and pulled hair, I still don’t have a very presentable score. I’ll get by, but I’m not excited by the result.

In doing the editing, I remembered just how clunky the interface still is. I can’t get it to do what I want, every simple move requires deleting and re-entering bars at a time, etc. Might have been better off entering it all from scratch, but still saddled with the funky way of entering dotted rhythms, getting lyrics to line up properly, etc. I mean, yes, I can produce a decent score, but I have to do it by trickery. I’m really not complaining about Finale, either, though it may seem like it. It was there when Encore went under, and was way better! It was just a different time in the cycle of improving PC capability.

Daniel, when I saw the default output of your entered music I got excited. But the kicker for me was watching the ease with which music can be entered without the constraint of the bar line barrier. That sold me. I know, I know, it still has features that are missing, bugs, perhaps, etc. I’ve heard the complaints.

All I can say is I hold you, all the developers and Steinberg in gratitude. Here is a product developed with a true vision of how good it could be (will be) when it has matured. You really started with the fundamental questions. I’m willing to take a small risk and purchase now to validate the enormous risk you have all taken, and to support you in continuing to refine and expand it.

Many happy versions!