NOOB Question on adding third party effects and using Dorico more as a DAW

Dorico
1

I just got Dorico a few days ago (been a Sibelius user for many years and Finale many years before this) and would like to use my third part vst effect plugins like eq, compressors, limiters, etc instead of the ones that pop-up in the Dorico mixer when you select the inserts or eq tab in the mixer. My third party vst instrument plugins of course show up (because I place them in the selected directory( but I cannot find a directory where I can place third party effect plugins. Are all the effects bundled in Dorico and it is not possible to use my own, just the ones bundled in Dorico?

Bottom line is I would like to do as much composition and sound manipulation as possible in Dorico (I am tired of bouncing between notation because I think in notation first, and then having to spend so much time in the DAW manipulating everything), and use Cubase for perhaps only mastering (not against Cubase - I have used it for ten years, but my heart is using notation and realizing my concept as simply and as beautiful as is possible without intermediate steps). This would require me to be able to use my own third party effect (eq, limiters, compressors, etc.) plugins during the mixing process in Dorico. I would then use my Izotope Ozone plugins for mastering in Cubase. Or could I even potentially master in Dorico?

Is this possible?

Many thanks in advance…

2

If your effects plug-ins are VST 2.x, then I believe you need to whitelist them in the same way you would instruments, so follow the steps here.

3

I’m seeking the same “holy grail” as well :slight_smile: (using Dorico more like a DAW but with excellent notation, so composing more from a notation rather than piano roll perspective), and I HAVE successfully loaded and made potentially available all my third party fx using the method Daniel describes above. However, from what I gather, the present state of things is: you ARE able to individually insert such fx for each individual instrument in the mixer in the “INSERT” slots. However, there is currently no way to set up proper bus “sends” to anything other than the default “FX REVERB” aux track (to the left of the “Output” at right). This means that the best you can do bussing-wise is to put any FX’s you want to bus to on that single FX REVERB aux track (which defaults to “LA STUDIO”, etc., but which can be changed) - with the amount of the FX REVERB signal that is applied to that instrument track affected by the FX REVERB aux track’s volume fader (though please correct me if I’m wrong?)

I know they’re already working on this, but to have proper DAW functionality, to me the ideal would be: having proper bus “sends” available from each individual instruments to potentially multiple aux tracks (in addition to just the default FX REVERB), and then be able to control the level of the bus from the individual instruments (rather than just from the fader on the actual FX REVERB, etc.) (Logic Pro has a circular bus “volume control” for this). This way you could have a bus for just “plate verb”, another for “hall verb”, etc., and control them individually for each instrument track (as one does in a DAW)…Fingers crossed, at any rate (as well as for real-time MIDI recording, as we’ve already discussed ad nauseam :slight_smile:)…

  • D.D.
4

That’s correct - there is a limitation at present that you can only access one aux send (despite the fact that there are 4 apparent send controls in each channel strip). We do intend to fill in this missing logic in due course.

5

Thanks everyone for your help. It looks like in time using Dorico as a DAW with notation will become a reality. I already see tremendous possibilities which is why I switched from Sibelius. It is nice to know that the “missing logic” will be included in due time. I will continue to use Cubase (which is not a hardship, just tired of using multiple programs for composition and productions) until such a time when I can use Dorico only. I have had Dorico less than a week and it is tremendous. I can see my workflow increasing significantly over Sibelius given no more than 2-3 months of hard work. Well worth the effort! Many thanks!!!