I wanted to put in my two cents about a few things regarding the initial release of Dorico.
I just read a post in a thread about chord symbols that said because chords won’t be in v1.0, Dorico itself is a “waste of time and energy.”
Please, everyone, go read the Development Diaries! All of them. Look at all the careful, thoughtful work Daniel and his team have been putting into this product. These guys are completely changing the playing field for notational software! Do you for a moment think that Dorico will never support such an important feature? No, after three years of development, and with a professional level price tag, Dorico is in it for the long haul. Of COURSE it will have chords, and bell x and whistle y… We just have to be a little patient.
Am I disappointed by certain aspects of v1.0? Well, yeah… But I still intend to put my money down for Dorico on day one. I still have both competing products (A & B), and I still expect my expertise in them to be relevant for a while. Meanwhile, I can start to get acquainted with Dorico and it’s new approach. The features will come, and I’ll be ready for them, at my crossgrade price thank you very much!
I also have to say that Daniel is AMAZING. I have never once seen this level of community interaction from anyone outside of independent developers. He responds to forum posts, he responds to emails, and he is the guy in CHARGE of the product, not someone from PR or way down the food chain.
I just read over this post and I don’t think I said anything profound or earth-shattering, but I really want to say publicly that I hardly think the work the Steinberg team has done is a “waste of time and energy.” On the contrary, it is very much appreciated, and I intend to show my appreciation the old-fashioned way: With my wallet.
I just finished reading Philip Rothman’s excellent article on Dorico over at productablog.com, which I think is actually a more comprehensive look at the interface than Daniel’s posts. This passage stood out to me as relevant to this post, though:
As Daniel told the attendees at Sunday’s presentation, every line of Dorico’s code originated from the brains of its developers. Making professional-level music notation software is unquestionably a difficult task, and for all of Dorico’s appeal, it can’t possibly have every feature that its chief competitors have with their decades-long head start. Notable omissions from Dorico’s initial release are chord symbols and guitar tablature, which will surely be deal-breakers for a number of potential users at the outset.
The upside, of course, is a complete lack of the burden of technical debt and thus, the opportunity for a fresh approach. Marry that with the tremendous skill and experience that is the brains behind Dorico, along with the deep pockets and long-term vision of Steinberg, and the potential is indeed great for the software to become significant, if not pre-eminent in its space, in time.
For me to use it I need the chord symbols and the ability to use it on my laptop. The chord symbols will come but if I can’t have it o my desktop and laptop I can’t get my work done.
We all want our piece of the action. I’m interested in some more advanced notation techniques and refined engraving plus a workflow that allows me to compose with many sketches in the same document. That’s why Dorico’s for me because it looks as if it’s going to deliver me most of this whilst promising the rest.
I’m willing to wait for my needs; I just wish some of those shouting the loudest would just listen and wait a bit too. They’re not the only ones here.
Lovely to be back in the fray. I’ve missed all this!
Yup got to agree with this. Of course there are going to be features missing initially that we all want, which is why I’ll still be upgrading to Sibelius 8 from 7.5 before the end of June to cover myself professionally in the meantime.
That said I fully intend to lay down the money (at that nice introductory crossgrade price! ) when Dorico lands, it’'ll be a great opportunity to get to grips with the basics of the program while the team catch up and add those features we all crave so much (and in my case much more than just chord symbols!). One thing I do intend to test is just how good at importing and interpreting MusicXML files Dorico is, it’s a good excuse to just keep doing my main work in Sibelius for the meantime whilst testing out Dorico on the side.
Personally I’m in this for long haul. Sibelius took many years to get to the level it is now and I’m quite sure Dorico will blow it out of the water eventually as long as we’re all patient and let the team do what they are best at. I fully expect I’ll dump Sibelius completely perhaps two or three years down the line from now.
It was already very exciting to to follow the progress on Daniel’s blog; and now the newborn baby has a name.
I’m sure Daniel and his team will do a wonderful job raising Dorico to become great star.
) when Dorico lands, it’'ll be a great opportunity to get to grips with the basics of the program while the team catch up and add those features we all crave so much (and in my case much more than just chord symbols!). One thing I do intend to test is just how good at importing and interpreting MusicXML files Dorico is, it’s a good excuse to just keep doing my main work in Sibelius for the meantime whilst testing out Dorico on the side.