Some Issues with Dorico 4 SE, and some suggestions

Dorico
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I’ve been a lurker regarding the evolution of Dorico for a few years now, and I’ve finally decided to try the free version 3~4 days , following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kcha7-5cBY.
It was a bit of a trainreck, for example, I didn’t find the link at the main page of dorico, described at 1:39 on the video. I had to type manually in the link. This was just slightly weird. An issue that left me confused was, since I wanted Dorico SE 4, I came across with Dorico SE 4 Update. Do I download the former, and then the latter, or just the latter? I opted for the latter since that made most sense, yet I also downloaded Content Dorico SE, which isn’t included in Dorico SE 4 Update. Furthermore The youtube video only mentions to download Dorico Application installer and Dorico 3 Sounds Installer. There’s no Dorico 4 Sounds Installer, but rather HALion Sonic SE and Content Dorico SE for Dorico SE 4 (Dorico SE 4 Update doesn’t have Content one).
Now the crucial problem that I faced was the ELCC. I had a similar issue as the guy in the main post of this link: https://forums.steinberg.net/t/dorico-4-install-elicenser-issues/759606/3
It always claimed to be an old version, yet when I downloaded the latest one (does it replace the existing one?) I would have the same problem, the activation code didn’t even fit it.
It appeared to be resolved simply by inputing the download code into the Steinberg Download Assistant, however it didn’t appear to be give an activation code that I could put in the elicenser, at least I didn’t see anything. I only see a soft-eLicenser below “my licenses”.

After all that, I got Dorico running, and after playing around with it, I found that pasting articulations seems broken, at least on the free version, which is the one i’m running on. Also I’ve witnessed some redundant clicks, such as, if I click on a switch to enable “Abbreviate” while the type is a crescendo/diminuendo and gradual style is cresc., it is already abbreviated. And to click on the switch to not to abbreviate while it is already greyed out, but it is indeed abbreviated on the score seems counter intuitive. So it should be turned on by default, and to turn it off one just had to do 1 click and more logical sense. Or just do the opposite by changing it to “extension”. Several things should also apply this logic to.

Why is there a diminuendo style option available in the properties panel while I have a crescendo selected? I feel this option should be hidden.

I’d expect to able to specify the range of dynamic of messa di voce, currently I can’t really set the dynamic between the crescendo and diminuendo (vice versa), I have to go create 2 normal hairpins with a dynamic marking between them.

I would like an option in the properties panel to hide the dot from dotted notes. Why? Because it would be useful for passages with open, free, proportional meter.

All complains aside, I know Dorico offers, and will continue to offer great things (condencing, to which I will consider to buy the Pro version soon. Keep up the great work!

PS: A preview option would be great to see how your post looks before actually posting. Correct me if it does exist though, I’m pretty new here.

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Welcome.
You seem to have some very specific questions and an equally specific list of preconceptions. It’s probably best to create separate threads for each and you will get some quick responses.

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Welcome to the forum @Sergei_Mozart !

Paste Articulations is a Pro-only feature – it’s marked as such in the Dorico 4 Version History, which is a very useful document if you haven’t already seen it.

A messa di voce is one single item that doesn’t show a “mid-point dynamic”. If you want e.g. , input that as a dynamic phrase with two gradual dynamics (one cresc and one dim) with an immediate dynamic in the middle. You can enter the whole thing in one go in the dynamics popover.

Would amending the layout’s note spacing settings be sufficient to produce the spacing result you want with non-dotted notes? I.e. just use the base durations you need but let Dorico give them more/less space by default. If you do end up getting Pro, you’ll find other tools to control note spacing at more granular levels, such as here.

For me at least, using the forum on a laptop, I enter text in the box on the left and see a preview of what the post will look like on the right.

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Beyond the call of duty Lillie (I didn’t have the patience)

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Yes, I had considered that option but I was afraid it could be viewed as spam if I created two at once.

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You’re right. I had only checked the Dorico SE 4 manual from the “help” tab in Dorico. Although it’s a bit weird for the feature to be shown in the free version while it is only available for the pro version.

Fair enough.

Absolutely. However the draw back is that the note spacing settings will affect the rest of the score. I would think of combining proportional notation (stemless notes, which the only way to measure duration would be the distance among them, “free notation”) with traditional duration notation. I saw what you meant with note spacing at granular level, it’s pretty good.

This is kind of embarrassing for me, but I only couldn’t see it because there was some sort of “tip” or friendly advice" text wrapped in a blue background blocking it! All I had to do was close it :laughing:

That aside, my utmost concern is that I still don’t know if I actually had to do anything with the ELCC for the free version, since it stated it was an older version when i put my DAC there. In order to make Dorico run, I only had to put my DAC on the download assistant. Is that okay, or is something incomplete?

I might as well do another thread so this doesn’t become a confusing word salad.

Thanks for your reply.

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I’m surprised that if you wanted to try Dorico out (for free) that you went straight to the SE version rather than the Pro Trial version so you could sample the true power of the full program for a month.

I hope you will find the software to your liking in spite of the learning curve.

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Thanks for your feedback, Sérgio. Lillie has already taken care of most of the issues you raised, but I just wanted to add that we do need to replace the first video in the Dorico SE playlist on YouTube now that the process for downloading Dorico SE 4 is quite different to that of Dorico SE 3 and 3.5, because of the introduction of Steinberg Licensing. We are hoping to further simplify the process (so that you don’t even need to enter a Download Access Code into Steinberg Download Assistant), and once that is done, we’ll update that video.

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