I don’t know if you can say anything about it yet. will the new Ikonika sketch be part of the Dorico update? I would highly appreciated since the halion orchestra doesn’t sound up-to-date.
And will we be able to use it in Dorico if we get Cubase 13? (I’m still downloading it… I guess I’ll have the answer soon)
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In general, as you know, we don’t talk about the specifics of what we are working on, but in this instance we need to make an exception, since Iconica Sketch is not only included with Cubase Elements 13 and Cubase Pro 13, but will also be available for sale separately from today, and we don’t want Dorico users to go out and spend $120 on it right now.
I am pleased to be able to tell you that Iconica Sketch will indeed be included at no extra charge with both Dorico Elements 5.1 and Dorico Pro 5.1 when they arrive later this year. Dorico 5.1 will be a free update for all existing Dorico 5 users.
You can actually load the Iconica Sketch sounds in Dorico 5.0.20 because your Dorico Elements 5 and Dorico Pro 5 license already includes a license for the new sounds, but you really need a playback template and expression maps to be able to make good use of the new library. That playback template will be included with the next update as well.
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This is great! HSO was really outdated, and it was difficult to explain it to new users, especially since Musescore 4 was out…
I’ll wait for the playback templates to play with it 
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That’s great!!! Thank you.
Here’s a little preview:
This is actually pretty old, and it has a couple of errors in it because it was early in the development of the playback template, but you get the general idea.
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That really sounds great. Is it using the current playback template or with playback advancement of the next version?
That’s captured directly from Dorico playback. The original music was input live into Cubase, so there’s lots of human variation in the performance, which is why it sounds so lively.
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I see. Thank you
Okay. Maybe I don’t get it? You say it’s captured from the playback template. But you also say it was played in Cubase. So what we hear is the Cubase capture?
No, the Dorico project was created by exporting MIDI from the original Cubase project, and I then fixed up the notation while retaining the original playback data from Cubase. So Dorico is playing it back, but the nuance in the performance (timing, velocity, dynamic variation) comes from the MIDI data imported from Cubase.
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Now I get it… will the future playback improvements have similar results? Like playing short articulations when 8th are notated… the pitch contour works great with my Sample Modeling, Audio Modeling and Aaron venture libraries. So the missing thing I hope for are in-note-envelope in the library… I totally understand if you can’t comment on that
It will work pretty much as you expect: if you notate staccato, you’ll get the staccato samples; in this project you’ll see “spiccato” markings in the strings, for example, which triggers the spiccato samples; slurs trigger the legato effect, etc. It’s as automatic as possible.
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So it could be compareable to Noteperformer… but in the end I can adjust what I need in the XM-editor
Wow @dspreadbury, this is so exciting!
By the way. Daniel said it but I didn’t realise: from the Steinberg download Manager you can load the iconica sketch (under the Cubase 13 folder) and use it right away in Dorico 5…
I know what Iconica is, but what exactly IS Iconica Sketch?
It’s a stripped down version of iconica that was introduced today with Cubase 13. It will be available as a separate plugin to purchase. That’s why Daniel confirmed it will be in the next Dorico update so people don’t buy it and then get angry because they get it for free days later.
Here’s the documentation for Iconica Sketch:
Here’s a video introducing it in the context of Cubase 13:
It occupies less than 5GB disk space, loads fast, and is pretty light on RAM. Sebastian Breiter in our sound design team has carefully produced a new mix from the original Iconica recordings that provides a punchy, cinematic sound that retains the character of the Funkhaus in Berlin where the recordings were made by our partners at Orchestral Tools.
Obviously the library is considerably cut down from the full Iconica, with fewer velocity layers, fewer round-robins, fewer articulations, no choice of mic position, etc., but the result is something that sounds good out of the box, and which your computer will be able to handle without breaking a sweat.
Even though I’ve let the cat out of the bag about Iconica Sketch, we have one more related surprise up our sleeves which I won’t spoil…
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Forgive my ignorance but how will Iconica Sketch be compatible with NotePerformer? It seems to me that they’re completely separate sample libraries.