Pro or Elements?

Dorico
1

What are your thoughts? is elements enough or will I miss anything?

2

Your best bet is to compare them and see whether you know you need the features from Pro! If not, enjoy Elements and upgrade if/when you find you need more features. That said, given the ongoing sale, right now is probably the best possible time to jump into Pro in terms of cost, so if you can afford it, you might just go for it!

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3

Really depends on your goals. If you’re not willing to spend a lot of money at once, the Dorico Elements is 49.99 euros right now with the sale, so I think it’s really worth it. Otherwise, go for the Pro version.

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4

Yeah that’s where I am at right now between the two. I tried MuseScore 4 but that thing can’t even use my sustain pedal on my controller!!

Ive NEVER used a notation app so Im flying blind here. DAWS a plenty and C13 and WaveLab here.

I want to hack away at the notation writing if you will. A comparison shows I would be missing the Halion Symphonic Orchestra library that comes with Pro

Thanks for the help

5

IMO you’d better try your way with Elements: it works exactly the same way with Pro (in terms of “hacking away at the notation writing”), so you can test the water without spending too much.

There will be another sale in the future, so you can still upgrade to Pro with a discount then. Of course, you can also try to sell the Pro, should you dive in right now & then find out that it doesn’t work the way you’d like.

6

Since you own Cubase, Dorico Pro is now around 150€ for you. Best deal ever, and will likely not come back for the foreseeable future.
Maybe for Steinberg’s 50th anniversary… :wink:

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7

Isn’t it the case that for future updates you have to calculate that you will then also have to buy the generally more expensive updates for Dorico Pro? Please correct me if I’m wrong.

8

Updates (so from Dorico Pro 5 to Dorico Pro 6) tend to be 99,99€/$ - but no one forces you to buy the update and you can use the previous version for as long as you want. And since the update doesn’t seem to be imminent, 150€ or thereabouts is an absolute steal for Dorico Pro.

9

You do get Iconica Sketch with Elements, which is a relatively new remix of the massive (and expensive) Iconica library’s orchestral samples.

TBH, the lack of HSO is nothing to shed a tear over.

I’d agree that you should buy Pro now while the sale is on.

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10

I was happy with Elements for a long while, it’s very complete and can do a lot.

For me, the main things that pushed me to upgrade were:

  • Dynamic cues - I write a lot for small ensembles and having cues is really crucial and having this feature saves a lot of time
  • Condensing. In my case, being able to have a choir score with four staves, and a condensed version in the piano part

I might also explore custom expressions when writing for organ, so I can have keyboard and registration changes play back correctly, but this in itself is not a showstopper.

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11

Thank you guys VERY much.

After weighing the options I simply hit buy before my finger could respond so PRO it is. HaHa

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