Importing audio into Dorico

+1 is my vote!

  • Also in Dorico for iPad.
    Note: StaffPad has already this feature with several tools for audio modifications!

Just wanted to chip in and say that I would really value this feature as well!

This is a feature I really need to. I like to do rescore competitions and not being able to add audio tracks for dialogie, ambient sound, etc. makes it a pain.

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I do a lot of hybrid scoring with electronics, sound design, atmospheres, and pre-recorded samples, so +1 it would be great to have some way to bring such elements in, even if it’s on a single audio stem/track, just to marry with the rest of my orchestration more easily (than the video workaround).

This issue was what kept me away the first time… My first incoming project since diving in this time around from Finale requires it. I hope you guys prioritize it…:folded_hands:t3:

As a new Dorico user coming over from “that other notation software that is going away,” a fair percentage of my projects involve syncing some sort of audio. I have had success (often but not all the time) using the Smart Tempo feature in Logic Pro and creating a MIDI file that includes the tempo track. If using something like Final Cut Pro to make a video file that I can sync to that imported MIDI file will work, I will be satisfied for the moment, but +1 for sure on the audio file thing.

Welcome to the forum, @Larry_Nelson1. Rest assured that we know this is a feature wanted by many users. We need to work on it in concert with our counterparts in the Cubase team, because we need more features from Cubase pulled out into our shared audio engine. Hopefully we will be able to agree on a timeline to work on this in the relatively near future, but I cannot promise that it will be worked on imminently.

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This post started in 2021, and now it’s 2025. Finale has had audio import for decades. I no longer want to hear excuses about why it’s so difficult to implement a simple audio track into a program that costs over $500 in 2025. I’m tired of the excuses. You are STEINBERG! Just make it happen!

There is a high probability that MuseScore will get this feature before Dorico…

Another one of our ambitions is to introduce audio staves , which can seamlessly interweave real audio tracks with the playback generated from your notation. Using a time-stretching technology we recently introduced to Audacity, audio staves will retain their relative length even when you change the tempo of your score.

Source

There are a lot of different feature requests and limited ressources. Please stay calm and let Steinberg decide, when it is time to implement such a feature *). Usually, requested reasonable features are available eventually and work well out-of-the box then.

*) currently, there are other users eagerly awaiting the new Nuendo release

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First, I am calm.
Nuendo? Ah, another excuse. :sweat_smile:
By the way, I thought I was writing on the Dorico forum about a request from 2021, not about Nuendo.
You see., I am a professor at Columbia College Chicago who has to explain to his music production students why they should pay for Dorico when it does not even have an audio track import feature. I will refer them to your answer.
I really like the program, by the way.
CHEERS!

Source

Thank you for the link, @ikos.

Nevertheless, I think the Musescore team forgot to add, in the HOW WE WORK section, a point:

4. Copying Dorico features trying (unsuccessfully) to make them work as elegantly as in Dorico :rofl:

(Please nobody be offended, it was only a Joke. But it would be interesting to know to what extent software ideas/functionalities could be copyrighted)

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First, I’m not with Steinberg and i’m just another very satisfied Dorico user from V1 on. Second, personally I do not need an audio track import feature, so I could ask: why should I pay for it?

I do respect, that other users are requesting it and that Steinberg might implement other features first, although I’d like to have other ones implemented. Personally, I prefer having such a solid program as Dorico is (even if some features are still missing) over having quick-and-dirty solutions. Being a programmer myself, I do know, that good things take time.

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I am unclear about why you are defending Steinberg in this post. A forum exists for asking questions, providing constructive solutions, and expressing our needs and wishes. I wish Steinberg would have a suggestion box, but this forum is the only way I know to communicate my needs as a user to them.
Until you work for Steinberg, I would prefer that you refrain from giving speculative answers about why certain features are not implemented yet.

What you provided and expressed was an outraged demand, while reading as “excuses” what one could (more accurately?) read as an explanation (individually convincing or otherwise). While I happen to agree with you that keeping this design aspect “on the back burner” for so long may not be the best look for Steinberg, it has been made clear many, many times that they know we want it. Continuing even to request — let alone demand — it is not constructive, @Thomas_Gunther, plain and simple.

I, and I suspect many of us here, would prefer that you refrain from “shouty” kinds of posts. This is one of the greatest forum cultures anywhere, and it would be a shame to lose that.

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I also wish dorico had audio tracks.

But the funny thing is, I have gotten so used to the workflow with dorico + txl time code + logic that I would probably continue working in that way even if audio tracks were implemented.

Me too, but with Cubase. I also have some bidule tricks for simpler sorts of audio file syncs.

It’s great for my ‘personal’ workflow, but it’d be nice to be able to mix it all down to a single stereo or surround sound file and attach it natively to the Dorico project (with a choice on packing the referenced audio file inside the *.dorico file archive, or keep it separate). I.E. Keep it off to the side as wav/aiff/ogg/mp3/flac/whatever until ready to pack and ship/share the project. Tap an option to pack, and it all (video too) goes into one *.dorico file together that’s ready to share.

We can kind of do this by muxing the audio into a mp4 container and having Dorico’s video player handle it, but it’s a bit kludgy (two separate files), and not exactly ‘open and play without a bunch of manual twiddling’ for collaborators on different systems.

Sharing a ‘multi-app’ project with others require quite a ‘software requirement’ list, and pretty deep documentation on how to get it working as intended. The setup I use is rock solid, but it’s dependent on me retaining several settings the same…I.E. audio clock rate, minor differences in latency as the apps interact and such. If I move these projects to a different machine, it takes some ‘doing’ to match things up so they act/perform the same. Lots of little parts that’d be really annoying to attempt to share with collaborators (assuming they have all the same software bits to get it done).

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You’re in my neck of the woods! I live in Printers Row.

As Daniel states above, it’s not just the Dorico team that is needed for this feature, but also the Cubase team, who code the audio engine. So, it’s not just competing with other Dorico feature requests for attention, but Cubase feature requests as well. This is not an excuse, it’s the reality.

Dorico stands on the features it has. If audio import is a dealbreaker then you either need to do the workaround of importing it as a video or use a different app. Of course, if you use something else, you lose Dorico killer features such as auto condensing or the flexibility that the flow/layout features provide.

It’s simply a choice of how a user prioritizes their needs.

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Now that the Dorico engine is the score editor in Cubase, it might be feasible to do some of this audio importing directly in Cubase - I haven’t tried it yet but I’m curious.

And of course it would be great to have audio staves in Dorico, too. (I’m down the interstate from you both in Urbana, Illinois, hello!)