Monitor for Dorico

[jk3horn]

What is the best display set up? 1 or 2 27" displays? or 1 32"? Please share your recommendations. Thanks in advance.

[dan_kreider]

It’s impossible to give one authoritative answer. I prefer one 27-inch 4k monitor with the occasional sidecar for comparing sources. Some folks do 2 27-inch monitors, one of them portrait. Others like ginormous 50+ inch TV screens (yuck). Just depends on your workflow.

[arco]

This has been discussed a few times here, if you search: monitor, screen size, display (or similar) you might find information in those discussions to help you decide.
It depends on the kind of work you do, orchestral scores, lead sheets etc. and as @dan_kreider mentioned, if you do a lot of comparison or copying with another source, you might find two monitors useful (or if you have Mac and a large iPad, this might work for you already.)

If you would like to give us a little more information about what you are doing it would help others here answer more specifically, which might be more useful to you than us guessing purpose

[Andro]

There’s no ‘best’ display. It’s a purely personal matter, of preference and budget. I’d get the widest single monitor you can afford. 34 inch is good for me.

[benwiggy]

Some people like to have two Dorico windows: e.g. one showing Write mode and the other showing Engrave mode; or Full Score and a part layout. Having two separate displays for this is quite useful.

I do all my Dorico work in one display, but have an additional display for ‘reference material’ – PDFs or webpages of manuscripts, etc.

Don’t forget that size isn’t everything. A 1080 display that’s 48" wide will have pixels the size of kitchen tiles. Pixel density is often more important, particularly on macOS.

[judddanby]

If a specific monitor recommendation is helpful, below are some of my thoughts on Apple’s “5K” Studio monitor. I’ve been really happy with the greatly improved clarity over my previous Dell 24”.

Size of screen to see Dorico Full orchestral scores recommendation

(Adding to this ongoing topic in case anyone else finds it helpful.) After considering many options, I decided to pay close attention to @Romanos’s and @benwiggy’s reports of the incredible clarity of Apple’s Studio Monitor (27"). 220 PPI is fantastic! I bought one (Apple refurbished) with a VESA mount adaptor and installed it on an Ergotron display mount with a 13" pole. I love that Mac OS dynamically shifts between landscape and portrait mode (for viewing large scores), and the 13" pole also…

New Mac Studio

I decided to go with the plain glass; $100 cheaper, but also I had had a matte monitor before and didn’t love its effect on “crispness.” I will say that with a window almost directly behind, it does show some glare. I don’t find it at all distracting with lighter-colored windows, but it does show up when the screen background is dark: [Library - 1 of 1] [Library - 1 of 2] In such cases I close the blind and get this: [Library - 2 of 2]

[DanMcL]

For me, one for the main score writing, a second for a window dedicated to the lower zone, and a third for VST windows/mixer/web browser. All approximately square monitors or 5:4, not landscape

[YourMusic.Pro]

@benwiggy

Some people like to have two Dorico windows: e.g. one showing Write mode and the other showing Engrave mode; or Full Score and a part layout. Having two separate displays for this is quite useful

I do this. Works great. Even better would be one superwide, curved display, as it is more flexible, workflow wise.

[Romanos]

Whatever you get, make sure it is at least 4k so you have adequate resolution.

I have two of the LG “dual-up” monitors, and I love them. I can have a score open 1:1 (or even larger than life) and the panels open around it. It’s great. Pictured below is a US-letter sized page true-to-life and you can see how much additional space I have for the various panels / dialogues, etc. The key here is the unusual, nearly-square aspect ratio.

[FredGUnn]

@benwiggy

Some people like to have two Dorico windows: e.g. one showing Write mode and the other showing Engrave mode; or Full Score and a part layout. Having two separate displays for this is quite useful.

That’s how I have my setup configured too with 32" landscape Write mode and 27" portrait Engrave.

[benwiggy]

Here’s a pixel-for-pixel screenshot of my 5K 27" Studio Display. You can exactly fit an A4 spread at actual size within Dorico’s windows, with plenty more to spare at the sides.

[derAbgang]

@dan_kreider

Others like ginormous 50+ inch TV screens (yuck).

I fall into that camp with a 65" flat screen hanging on the wall in front of my desk.

[judddanby]

@derAbgang

I fall into that camp with a 65" flat screen hanging on the wall in front of my desk.

Interesting way to clear up desk “real estate!” I’m curious: what’s your viewing distance to the Tv on the wall?

[derAbgang]

@judddanby

viewing distance to the Tv

About 4’-5’ (don’t have a tape measure nearby). It takes getting used to having to move your head ever-so slightly for the extreme corners. I also had to speed up mouse movement or I’d need 3-4 actual moves to get from one side to the other.

Otherwise, tons of real estate, both screen and desk.

EDIT: And one should definitely take the time to trace the TV on the wall beforehand so you get the height right. Too high and you have to actually “look up”, too low and the bottom is obscured by the desk.

[jk3horn]

FredGUnn,

Thanks for your reply and photo. That’s quite a nice setup. I didn’t know Dorico allows both Write and Engrave open at the same time. How does one do that with the separate tabs for each of those?

Also, I curious: what brand monitor for the portrait? What brand desk? Is the rhythm deck from Steinberg?

[FredGUnn]

Thanks! Yep, in Dorico just select Window / New Window and then send one of them over to the other monitor to have two open at once. They do not have to be in the same mode so it’s simple to have one in Write and one in Engrave. The monitors in that pic are Benq MA320U and MA270U, both on Benq Ergo Arms which I highly recommend. The desk I designed and built myself out of cherry and zebrawood back in the summer of 2020 when I had no gigs due to COVID. The Stream Deck is using my own custom macros and icons.

[kasky1]

For me, I’ve tried various monitors and LED TVs no longer in use as my display. Right now I use a 30" 10 year old Sharp LED TV at 1920x1080 resolution with a MacStudio M2Max and I am very satisfied. As I get older, I like the larger screen real estate.

I was lucky to be given this old Sharp from a family member. One thing that I have found is that not all LED monitors or LED TVs of same or similar size produce similar visual results. Some have much lower maximum resolutions that one might expect.

One caveat of old LED TVs, however, is that their brightness fades over time producing a very finite lifespan for my purposes. I would like to have dual monitors but I don’t particularly care for having two of different proportions and I’m not quite willing to spend the cash at the moment for a pair of potential monitors…

My advice: find the size you like, do the research on various products to identify maximum resolution and choose what makes your eyes happy!