My impression of Dorico after a month, from an ex-Finale user

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Being one of the many who came from Finale since it’s end, I thought I would post a list of things I like after almost a month of using Dorico. Granted, my work is fairly basic most of the time (hymns and simple choral stuff), so I may not be a fair judge. Nevertheless, my experience has been overwhelmingly positive, and I’ve never been so excited about typesetting as I’ve been in the last few weeks.

Understandably, it can be rough for long-time Finale users, especially any that aren’t particularly fluent with computers and put in a lot of effort over the years to learn a program, not because they had any interest in software, but because they needed it to support their music interests.

Still, that doesn’t justify some of the nasty posts that have been appearing from frustrated Finale users. A company typically doesn’t make the decision to shut down and send its customers to the competition without a fair bit of thought beforehand, and to write posts implying that Dorico is a hopeless mess that cannot possibly be useful to anyone seems like quite a slam to the Finale team’s reasoning abilities.

I’ve been very impressed with the Dorico community’s generous support as we Finale user’s flood the forum with questions, which obviously are necessary in this transition stage. The Dorico team especially does a great job at staying professional, courteous, and helpful no matter what gets thrown at them.

Once again, I will take the opportunity to highlight the extremely helpful Dorico First Steps tutorial. Please, before posting a rant about how unintuitive and incapable Dorico is, work your way through this exercise and then come here and ask for help with the questions that remain at that point.

So, in an attempt to put some weight on the positive side of the scale, here’s a list of things I like about Dorico. I put them down as I thought of them, so they are not in any particular order, nor am I saying that they are exclusive to Dorico and unavailable or inferior in other typesetting programs. Just a list of things that stand out to me as being very well done in Dorico.

  • The beautiful, modern-looking user interface
  • The ultra-intelligent automatic layout, limiting the need for manual adjustment and overrides.
  • The Layouts feature
  • The extremely well-thought-through assignments of keyboard shortcuts.
  • Particularly, the double tap on numbers for dotted notes. So quick.
  • The popovers concept, with their easy-to-remember shortcuts and very intuitive content entry. (3/4, Eb, q=120, etc. etc.)
  • The hundreds of settings, with clear, well-illustrated explanations. (Ok, I know this is a two-edged sword, as functionality and options can make a program overwhelming. But given a choice, I’d any day rather have options there for every scenario than have the short-lived bliss of being able to master the program in 2 hours.)
  • The workflow separation made with the five modes. (I know not everyone appreciates this, but I have found it very logical and efficient.)
  • The comprehensive options for filtering selections. (The ease of selecting everything on the page, then filtering for lyrics, notes and chords, and even specific verses or specific notes in chords, etc. is something one cannot help appreciating.)
  • And, along with the previous point, the excellent copy and paste functionality. (Pasting lyrics from one staff into another or from a third party text editor, as well as control-clicking, then using the alt shortcut to duplicate it elsewhere, etc.)
  • The ease of working with multiple voices in a staff, and particularly the “Remove rests” feature.
  • The extensive playback options.
  • The ability to easily flip a project between different note styles. (In my work, shaped notes to round and vice versa. You want shaped notes? Ctrl-Shift-E > Notes > click. Here you go!)

Thanks, Dorico!

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Longtime user (from version 1.0). That feeling never really left me. I never cared about the engraving aspect of a score until I started working with Dorico. It really kindled an interest because the output was so gorgeous, I just had to understand why that was.

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@Lavon , thanks for your words, you said beautifully what I planned to write down in a much worse and dodgy English! And yes, your list and so many other things makes Dorico really amazing! I’m an old Finale converter, too, and am in a permanent awe about Dorico!:slight_smile:

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I think it speaks volumes about Dorico that there have been several such unsolicited ‘testimonials’ from new users. Normally, people only post on a forum when something has gone wrong (and that goes for any software).

I’d also suggest that even when people do post here with a problem, their issue is either solved, or at the very least, acknowledged by the developers as something for them to work on. (And Lord knows they do work.)

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May I also be allowed to voice my appreciation of the above post?
I, too, am a long-term Finale user, probably set in my way(s) of working.
Yes, Dorico is different in some ways, and, by necessity, there is a learning curve.
BUT, after only a few weeks, looking at Dorico for a couple of hours some evenings,
I have gained enough of an insight into it’s philosophy to begin to appreciate the enormous capability of Dorico. In my tiny amount of time spent, I have managed to produce a few items for a choir I work with, bringing comments from the choristers on the spacing (automatic), lyric typeface (automatic) and the speed at which I put their request on paper.
I, for one, am thrilled that Finale pointed me in this direction, partly because I always thought Finale provided everything I thought I could have wanted, and now Dorico is showing me how to extend my boundaries, and partly because it has opened my eyes as to things that I considered only possible by publishing houses with huge resources.
Again, thank you to all at Dorico, and another thank you to Finale for around 30 years of service.
Best regards to all, Pete

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well, yes and no, I would say – I certainly post about software when I think something has been particularly well done and I quite often see the same from others but nevertheless I do take your point.

I do actually feel for all these people who have been suddenly ripped away from their beloved Finale (even if I never got on with it when I once tried it) and in this particular scenario, it is somewhat to be expected that there will be more frustrated users than in a situation where people completely voluntarily decide to switch. I have one friend who gave up after a short time with Dorico in disgust and I think even asked for a refund. He then tried Sibelius but finally, after I urged patience, gave Dorico another go and has admitted that the crucial MusicXML import is much better than with Sib. so he’s going to persevere.

Although there’s no question in my mind that Dorico is overall clearly the best notation software out there and I do my best (with gradually increasing success) to encourage others to switch, I wouldn’t call myself a cheerleader. I know why some find the UI and design concept perplexing and don’t agree with every decision myself. Doricians need to be careful not to adapt a smug attitude with respect to other software, otherwise it can simply be off-putting – fortunately this happens but infrequently on this forum from what I have read.

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Well said.

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I came from Sibelius not Finale, but I love Dorico. It is so much easier to use and generally friendly interface. Things that were painful in Sibelius are just brain-dead simple in Dorico. But I must admit, the first few weeks were challenging as I tried to learn a new tool and learn how to think in the Dorico way. But I love it. Thank you Steinberg for all of your hard work.

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I’m loving Dorico as well. I had a transcription project drop into my lap right after the announcement. I considered doing it in Finale, but decided to bite the proverbial bullet and jump right into Dorico. I watched most of the videos first. My goal was to do the project the “Dorico Way” so I could learn and compare. Sure, there’s a learning curve, and I’m in my late 50’s and don’t learn as fast as I used to. That said, I’m so glad I jumped. Finished the project on time and learned a whole bunch. Most importantly, I’ve committed to start all new projects in Dorico. Many thanks to this community and Steinberg’s Dorico team for their great support of a great product.

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I resemble that comment, @BartsPlace.

Glad it’s going well for you!

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Totally agree about the typesetting/engraving part. Long time Finale user here, and I was used to all my projects looking “un-beautiful” through most of the conception- and writing-phase, until I’d finally spend the time (a week or so for some orchestral compositions) adjusting collisions, making a condensed score for the conductor, along with all the usual work-arounds, etc.

Dorico has been a HUGE change for me over the past four years (I started at the beginning of the pandemic as I began to see which way things were going for Finale). I seriously underestimated the degree to which the logical, beautiful output of Dorico would change the way I approach composing. I would never conceive of switching back to Finale. My work is much more efficient and streamlined now.

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I echo everything you’ve praised…plus a lot more!

…scripts, tempo track import, un-linking dynamics, Play options, real compatibility with iPad version, etc. etc…

Oh…and starting a fresh project in Dorico is a dream. I spent a lot of my initial work in Dorico by having to import some old Sibelius files in order to make some changes and create better scores and parts. Figuring out how to fix some old Sibelius/MXML oddities was a real head-scratcher, but it made me find out some of the amazing offerings that Dorico has as far as being able to clean up old scores and ‘modernize’ them.

Dorico is like a tennis raquet…it’ll always be better than the player!

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If you are an orchestral composer, the Dorico Condensing and Divisi features are essential. What a difference! I never liked the Finale interface. I thought its original modal design was very flawed. I came to Dorico from Sibelius and it took me quite a while to get used to Dorico just for note entry. You get so used to one why of doing things so it’s very hard to adapt to what is actually a very new concept. Dorico is just better in so many ways but you have to really learn how it works and that can be tough at times. In addition, Dorio has a ‘logic’ to it which the Dorico Team refers to as a ‘semantically’ based interfaced. Argh, what??? What this means is that some features are not where you might originally expect them according to how you used to thinking in the past, however this meaning based musical logic is consistent in Dorico. Take a look at Repeat Structures. Were you expecting to find tremolos there? Maybe not, but when you think about it, there is sense to it. This means you have to use your mind in a somewhat different way. The whole way that the grid works takes getting used to but then you can place notes and move notes around in ways you never did before while entirely ignoring entering rests. I would strongly recommend using Stream Deck and the Dorico profiles provided by Notation Central and NYC Music Services run by Philip Roth. Go to scoringnotes.com to find out more. I find they really help a lot when tasks are repetitive and you need a quick and dirty solution when you think “OMG how do I do that.” The Jump Bar, and right click content menus is good too but I often like the visual graphics and pretty pictures with words icon approach that you get with Steam Deck either on your phone, iPad, or with a Steam Deck device. Really you need multiple ways of getting at a beast of this complexity. It’s far more logical and capable and consistent than either Finale or Sibelius but that does not mean it does not take some real work and thought to even approach competency just as it is with a musical instrument. Being insulting about it is not appropriate. Paul

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This is most curious. ‘Suddenly ripped away’? For one thing, the writing has been on the wall for years: Finale is so full of legacy code and concepts which were thought up for 8-bit machines from the 1980’s that any development past where it is now is thwarted by the law of diminishing returns. For another thing, why all this panic from Finale users, as though Finale will evaporate at any moment before their very eyes? As has been said, Finale will continue to run and remain registrable in perpetuity, as long as the operating systems permit, which could be a matter of years. A dedicated computer running a present operating system is a guarantee for years of Finale use. No need for panic, which is a rather non-productive basis for learning to use a new computer program steadily and systematically.

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“for the foreseeable future”.

Of course, the future is well known for not being foreseeable.

But I agree: things aren’t quite so immediate as they seem; and there’s plenty of time for a ‘phased withdrawal’. A frantic panic will not be the best way to learn Dorico.

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Of course they haven’t literally been ripped away. But judging from the huge number of posts from Finale users who at least feel bereft, I don’t think this is an exaggeration. And not all of those saw the writing on the wall – I agree that Finale’s code is ancient and it was never a programme for me in the first place but that’s not necessarily something its users had in mind at the time of the news. Are you saying that users of the almost equally ancient Sibelius should also be preparing for its demise? None of the many Sibelius users I know are thinking in those terms (although I have managed to convert one or two)