FYI, I just purchased a Stream Deck XL fro Best Buy for $199.00. The price also dropped on Amazon. I’ll be picking up Notation Express shortly.
Regards,
Chris
Leo, has your setup changed in the last year? Are you using the gamepad anymore, or exclusively the stream deck? I’m interested if your work flow (mostly note input) is more efficient?
Cheers
Cheers!
Enjoy, Chris, and thanks to all here who have contributed, especially Leo’s stewardship of the Dorico side and Marc and Tim for the language variants. What a fun trip it’s been!
And, I must say, I am a very active user of Notation Express. We’ve got some short tips in the works for early 2020 to help users get even more out of it. Stay tuned! In the meantime, happy holiday wishes to all.
I still haven’t settled on one workflow, and I don’t think I ever will - there are too many variables.
If I’m home and in “work mode” (in the study, with the big screen and the 88-key stage piano) then it’s a free-for-all. For getting lots of notes in quickly, I will still use the G13 under one hand and the midi keyboard under the other. That said, if I’m tweaking some existing material and realise I need to add a couple of notes, and both hands are already on the computer keyboard, I’ll keep using the computer keyboard. If I’m throwing in dynamics or articulations and one hand is on the Stream Deck (as it often is), that hand will remain on the Stream Deck.
If I’m home but in “slob mode” (I guess the nice term would be “agile” or “multitasking”) and a client asks for a quick fix, I’ll work entirely (but generally briefly) from just the laptop. Unintuitive though they are, I’ve committed some of Notation Express’s underlying keyboard shortcuts to memory so that I can use them without the Stream Deck being there.
If I’m on the move, it really just depends. On Friday I was on planes for 14 hours. I’m away for a week with plenty of time to kill (and a few jobs to do) so I packed a small MIDI keyboard and my Stream Deck XL, while carrying my regular Stream Deck and laptop in hand luggage. A pianist colleague (that doesn’t read chord charts) asked me - on Thursday night - to realise a rather fiddly chart for her by Saturday morning. I wish I’d had a MIDI keyboard in hand luggage in order to speed up that job on the plane, but I made do with just the laptop and quord mode.
One thing that I’ll try to share (probably in late January) is how the folders in Notation Express can be customised to give you a faster workflow. Whether in Dorico’s GUI/menus or Stream Deck’s folders, a potential speedbump is in having to repeatedly drill down through menus or subfolders. For this reason I often adapt Notation Express folders for specific projects or clients, so that the functions I most commonly need are on one screen (folder).
I’ve probably just over shared unnecessarily, but I guess the point I’m trying to make is that my efficiency comes from adapting to the situation and the requirements.
Appreciate your time sharing. Thank you. One more thing, when using the stream deck, are you using it by touch only, like the gamepad? Do you often have to look at it? Just trying to gauge the difference between the stream deck and a touch device (metagrid etc). Touch screen wouldn’t be usable if relying on rote / muscle memory / touch etc. Would it? Dan and anyone else, are you using yours by touch only to aid in workflow?
I’ll jump in and say that touch is key for speed and accuracy. Think about touch-typing a regular keyboard or a calculator (or a piano or MIDI keyboard, for that matter). You can’t achieve that with a screen unless you are always looking at it.
That’s not to say the mobile version is without its advantages; chiefly, you have the device with you all the time. And of course the price of only the app vs. a dedicated Stream Deck. If you only use it for a few buttons at a time, mobile could be the better option.
I think Dan and maybe others have said something similar earlier in this very long but helpful thread 
Just looking at this thread, I’m always looking for ways to speed up the laborious process of composing into notation software, and am wondering whether I should give this a try. In other programs like Cubase, I can create a custom key command for just about anything, including Macros for multi step things, and work fast with a key command based workflow (very little mouse). I have created a lot of custom key commands for things in Dorico and don’t mind doing that.
It seems like the Stream Deck is a bit of a workaround for Dorico not having some features to speed up workflow… like full Macro support (to handle multi step processes with a single command) and the ability to create custom key commands for everything you need to do (including macros). Adding dynamics, bowings etc in Dorico require a lot of steps and haven’t found a way to speed that up, so perhaps this would help.
Dynamics: I’m not sure how you could make them faster than the existing popovers.
Bowings: DEFINITELY faster with a Stream Deck.
There are other functions I use regularly, like filters, special characters, etc.
I even have a macro set up to take a selected note and duplicate it in unison in a downstem voice. Seems random, but I’m using it constantly.
Just curious: has anyone been experiencing some ergonomic issue with the Stream Deck? I’ve been using the XL 6-8 hours a day, left hand constantly on it. Wrist position is pretty awkward. I removed the stand, which helped.
Is anyone using some sort of gel wrist-rest? I feel like a wimp, but it does start to hurt.
Switch left and right hands every half hour - good for the brain too!
And left hand on the trackball??
Yes. I was only half joking - I’ve always used both hands equally whether mousing, entering notes on keyboard, or thumping the screen in frustration.
I’m having a problem with my Stream Deck and Dorico. Dorico doesn’t respond to any keystrokes from my Stream Deck profile. I downloaded the Notation Express demo and have the same issue. The Steam Deck works perfectly with other apps and if I use the Dorico profiles with Word, the keystrokes appear as expected. So it seems Dorico is the culprit. Is there anything I’ve missed? I’m hoping I missed something stupid before trying to reinstall Dorico. Specs: Windows 10, Dorico 3, both up to date.
Hmm. There’s nothing in the demo that requires non-standard shortcuts, so it can’t be that you’ve missed a step in the installation process.
I guess the obvious questions are:
- Are you definitely running the Dorico demo profile, not the Sibelius demo profile?
- Is it definitely the correct Mac/Windows flavour of the profile?
- Have you already customised (replaced) key commands within Dorico?
and the less obvious question is:
4. Do the buttons in the View/Mode/Options panel function correctly within Dorico?
Another question: Is both your computer and Dorico set to English language?
pianoleo: I’m certain this isn’t a Notation Express issue. I’m definitely running the Windows Dorico profile. I have not altered/added any default key commands. The View/Mode/Option buttons do not work via my Stream Deck, although the key commands function fine from my keyboard.
Philip R: A good question as I did have an IME installed and it sometimes switches to Japanese unexpectedly. I set the keyboard setting in Dorico to English (was Default) and uninstalled the IME/Japanese language pack (and restarted). Issue still persists.
Other things I’ve tried or noticed:
I uninstalled and reinstalled Dorico 3 Pro. It remembered preferences so this wasn’t entirely a full uninstall. Not sure how to do that. The prior install was an in-place update from Dorico 2. I’m not sure if this is relevant but if I select Help → Check for Updates, I’m taken to the Dorico 2 Updates web page. Help → About shows Dorico Pro 3 version 3.0.0.1038.
I noticed that while most key commands work fine within Dorico when using my keyboard, the Layout Options key command (Ctrl+Shift+L) does not work from my keyboard. Preferences (Ctrl+,) and other assorted options work fine. I have not noticed any other malfunctioning key commands from my keyboard.
The Stream Deck is plugged into a USB port on my keyboard. I tried plugging it into a USB port directly off the motherboard but no change in behavior.
Whatever the issue is, it seems to be in Dorico as the Stream Deck is sending keystrokes. I can see the printable characters in a notepad app. The dynamics key commands show up as Df, D>, etc.
ETA: This might be a Steinberg issue for me. I started making a profile for Cubase and I see the same behavior (I tried both the standard hotkey and the downloaded add-in from trevligaspel). Key commands work from keyboard but not the Stream Deck. Other apps such as Excel work as expected with the Stream Deck.
Help > Check for updates pointing to Dorico 2 is a known bug, and it’s not relevant.
If you set the Notation Express profile as the Default Profile within the Stream Deck software, does that make any difference?
Thanks for you efforts pianoleo, but still no dice. I also tried toggling whether the profile was associated with the application or not, but no difference.
sjanssens, you should update to Dorico 3.0.10. You can find the updater here.
Silly me, I forgot to update after reinstalling, but no difference.