I used Finale for several years, then in '03 switched to Sibelius. It was, and still is, a fine program. The management of the program by Avid has been a disaster, so I was keen to follow the developments of Dorico. I switched over to it last summer, and I haven’t looked back. Yes, there is a learning curve, and yes there are some things that each one of us would like to see implemented. I would just say this: if Dorico can produce the type of score you need, then it is indeed worth looking at very seriously; if you have the type of score that can’t be done, then wait. There is a lot to learn, but once you get the hang of it, things move right along. I really only open Sibelius to export older scores.
The other advantage to Dorico - I think, but I am not a programmer - is that it is built on a new chassis. Its “ground up” is new, whereas Sibelius and Finale are bolting on new features to a frame that was constructed a long time ago (at least thinking in “software years”). This will allow the program to grow/change/adapt more nimbly than others going forward. For myself, I wanted to hop on the new train before it got too far out of the station…
Dorico’s ability to move and lengthen/shorten notes (combined with not having to enter rests) allows so many timesaving tricks, especially in repetitive rhythms.
Dorico is designed to work the way musicians think. That means following its processes from start to end to get the best results.
I can only say that I found some aspects a little odd at first, having been with Sibelius for as long as I had. But in the end it really does pay off to let Dorico’s sequences and carefully-designed structures do the work for you. IOW, it gets easier to the point that you can’t imagine doing things any other way. Good luck!
I love composing in Dorico. I actually couldn’t fruitfully compose before Dorico, my inner perfectionist wouldn’t allow me to freely compose. Now, I am so confident I’ll be able to easily revise my ideas, I am composing at a rapid rate. As a profound example of this flexibility, I wrote a segment of music in a violin/cello duo that was designed to sound like waves against the shore, so an uneven rhythm that gradually shortens the rest between the motives. At first, because the rhythm is uneven, I scored it in 5/8. Later, when attempting to play it, I discovered that it was completely impossible to count, so I re-scored it in 6/8 - with a single “Shift-M 5/8 enter” key sequence. Boom. done.
There are so many other instances of this kind of simplicity, it’s worth the learning curve. I am now at the point where the bottleneck is me, not Dorico. It is much faster at capturing what I am thinking/hearing than I am at thinking of it!
I find that customizing many of my own KeyCommands via QuicKeys (on Mac that is) helps me quite a lot in overcoming some of Dorico’s in-built hassle.
So I customized many of my favourite and speedy Sibelius user action keycommands to work with Dorico as well. Honestly, I don’t know where I’d be without my good ol’ friend Quickeys…
