I’ve been fooling around with Dorico since the summer and have this month made the leap in earnest. Now that I have deadlines I’m experiencing all the woes any new user to complex applications must slug through. This is compounded by inevitable “new program” bugs and the light documentation. When I began delving into this forum in search of answers, a couple of things have struck me:
If I were the developer, one glance at the seemingly endless parade of tough questions from picky users might make getting up in the morning rather tough.
The army of experienced users helping other users and the generous time Daniel spends giving helpful and thorough answers tells me I’m in the right camp. Despite incredible obstacles, Dorico is tirelessly growing into the engraving and creative tool we’ve all wished we had. Brought to life by developers who have devoted a substantial part of their lives making this dream into reality, ultimately helping composers bring music to a world that desperately needs it.
Well, enough of the sentimental catharsis, now it’s nose back to the grindstone.
Thanks, kt-va, for taking the time to write this! We know Dorico is not perfect and we are working hard every day to make it better. It’s very satisfying for us to see the program inch forward day by day, and I hope you will get a nice surprise when you see everything we’ve been working on for the past few months in the new update. Not too much longer to wait now…
This might sound silly - we users have gotten used to ranting about software when it’s not perfect. At one level there is the current narcissistic mentality that we deserve perfection, and music engravers by definition must be perfectionist personalities, yet there are also moments when in the middle of meeting a deadline one gets stumped by what seems a simple thing which actually may be quite complex under the hood - and a momentary frustration births snarky comments to the forum.
Daniel, your presence in these forums, for me at least has changed my perspective overnight. It’s rather easy to rant at “them” when I am frustrated, much harder to rant at an acquaintance who I know is working hard to improve the situation for everyone. Especially given the development team backstory. Dorico is going to win a substantial share of the market in time, and Dorico will deserve it.
We live in a world where respectful discussion is harder and harder to find. Flaming arguments proliferate while framing arguments dwindle. Sad but true.
One of the reasons I was willing to try Dorico was the fact that the team was taking its time to get things right, and the track record that Daniel Spreadbury had established. Over the years on the Sibelius board, his responses were clear, honest (“yes, this can be done; no it can’t; we’ll consider this for the future”), and always helpful. Any program willing to incorporate that same kind of care and customer-based ethic was one I would consider exploring. And, the community is great - very helpful. True, the same can be said for other programs, as well - users tend to be very generous with their time and knowledge.
I am very glad I made the change - getting more fluent with Dorico as the weeks go by. Very excited to see what comes next.
I recently had an issue where I was not getting any sound from Dorico, either with note input or playback. Although Ulf suspected that the problem was probably on my end, and not with Dorico, he tirelessly persisted over a period of DAYS to solve my problem. He ultimately hit on the solution (a mismatch in the latency of one of my output devices) and - voila! - perfect sound.
I’m on the 30-day trial, and that single experience with Ulf made me decide to make a full commitment to Dorico, warts and all. I figure that if the support team is that dedicated, then the minor deficiencies of Dorico will very soon be a thing of the past.
