Hi Daniel and team,
As a trumpet player and composer using Dorico 5 on macOS, I’d love to see a small but meaningful addition to Dorico’s MIDI input preferences.
Currently, when Dorico is in Transposed Pitch view, it also transposes incoming MIDI; pressing a concert C on an untransposed keyboard will sound a concert Bb if you’re working in a Bb trumpet part. That makes sense if Dorico is trying to mimic how a transposing player reads and hears, but it becomes awkward when using external software instruments (like PianoTeq) and handling transposition manually at the keyboard.
If I turn on transposition on my MIDI keyboard (–2 semitones for trumpet), I can play “trumpet D” and hear a concert C from my synth—exactly what I want. In Concert Pitch view, Dorico notates a C and plays a concert C, which matches perfectly. But in Transposed Pitch view, I play the same key and Dorico notates a C in the Bb trumpet part (instead of the expected D) and sounds a concert Bb. My synth still plays a concert C, so Dorico’s playback and notation are both misaligned with the actual input and what a transposing player would expect.
I’m aware of the Write > Input Pitch option, which lets you choose between Written Pitch and Sounding Pitch entry. However, that setting still ties Dorico’s MIDI input behavior to the current score view (Concert vs. Transposed). Even if Input Pitch is set to “Sounding Pitch,” switching from Concert Pitch to Transposed Pitch view changes how Dorico interprets the same MIDI note.
This request is specifically about decoupling those two layers—so “Sounding Pitch” input truly means “always treat MIDI as concert pitch,” no matter which view is active.
To me, this is like the old Apple vs. Microsoft scroll-wheel debate: is the user moving the document, or the viewport? Both models make sense, but users should be able to choose which one fits their workflow.
For those who prefer to use external instruments or manage their own keyboard transposition, Dorico’s current auto-transpose model makes that impossible. If Dorico had an option to respect concert-pitch MIDI input, we could use our preferred synths, keep playback in sync, and still get correct transposed notation.
The solution could be a simple preference checkbox for “Do not auto-transpose MIDI data in transposed views (always interpret MIDI input as concert pitch)” or something like that. That way, performers could keep Dorico’s current behavior, while composers and engravers could maintain a consistent concert-pitch input model that aligns with their own setup.