Hey Matthew,
What a brilliant post.
Just an insight as to how I use technology these days. I often find that inspiration can sometimes come when I’m at an instrument and sometimes not. In order to keep in the zone, if I’m playing an acoustic instrument (guitar, piano,sax or singing ) I will just record what I’m playing on a handheld recorder (Roland R-1). If I’m playing a midi keyboard I will record midi into either Propellerhead’s Reason or the keyboard’s in-built sequencer if it has one. Both these methods only involve checking you’ve got signal /data going into the recorder without getting bogged down in any sort of ‘left brain’ traffic jam.
What I then do is archive the idea into folders within my main ‘COMPOSITION’ folder for listening back to at a later date.
I’ve done this type of thing for the last ten years and it works really well for me.
Whatever the idea is, it usually then ends up in Reason where I can sequence the idea into a production. During the eighties I worked in advertising writing jingles and as such never needed notation…we just worked out parts and either recorded them to tape or sequenced them. It was only when I returned to education (doing an MA in composition at Salford Uni) that I had to submit scores and bought Sibelius 4. I’ve always thought the ‘score-writing’ bit is the chore bit of the work…because the playback was never as good as writing within a sequencer package. If the Dorico team can crack this one (and it looks like ‘from the ground-up’ type of planning the software has emerged from may well be able to do so), then the future looks bright for Dorico and composers around the world.
I’m sure the team is well aware of what is needed to make this happen (tap-tempo, expression maps, locking to other programs, I’m thinking here of vocal recordings primarily) and probably tons more. After reading your post though, it did occur to me that instead of going back to square one when I ‘transcribe’ my Reason sequences, I should try midi exporting each part separately and seeing how they import into Dorico. I have found in the past when trying this in Sibelius, it was horrible. Maybe in Dorico it would be better.
I’m often amazed when I hear some of the demos at East / West (Antongiulio Frulio’s work is amazing) and wonder if they’re doing them purely from Logic or another sequencer or from a score-writing package. I have found with technology though, no one piece does everything. That’s why I have a Fostex G24S 1" tape recorder sat inches away from my RME UFX interface and as I said an R-1 recorder for when the muse strikes.
If I ever have time in this lifetime, I do want to do what I think previous composers did when starting out and that is to copy some scores into Dorico…I’ve got Sondheim’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ sat on my shelf (surely the greatest musical of all time?) and also ‘Peter Grimes’. I think much would be gained by inputting them along with other classics.