Switching from Windows to iPad? used macbook?

Dorico
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my old windows workhorse laptop is apparently too old to reliably run Dorico well. I get audio artifacts and occasional crashes.

I have a fifth generation iPad Pro (12.9 in.) which apparently can run Dorico? Have people had success with that?

Lastly, could a used MacBook Pro m1 from 2020-21 do it? I should maybe start saving for a newer laptop anyway.

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Firstly, what kind of scores do you produce? Lead sheets? Choral works; Orchestral scores?
Bigger scores, with lots of flows and players, need more processing power. If you’re using Condensing on an orchestral score with 40 players, that’s a lot of work.

A 5th gen iPad is c. 2017, with an A9, 2-core CPU. It will run Dorico, but will probably struggle with anything but small, simple scores.

An M1 Mac, on the other hand, will comfortably run Dorico. However, the ‘factory’ model comes with only 8Gb RAM.
That’s enough to run Dorico with the HALion instruments or Noteperformer, but if you want to use bigger sample libraries, then you’d need one with more RAM – and it can’t be upgraded: you have to buy it with the RAM built-in.

If you can find a secondhand M1 MBP with more than the stock 8gb RAM, then I’d recommend getting that; otherwise a new Mac Book Air. (You can still buy the M1 Air from Apple – a 13" M1 Air with 16Gb of RAM would be the cheapest new option.) Alternatively, you can now get the Air with a 15-inch screen, which is a great size for scores. Again, you’d need to customize it with additional RAM.

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thank you so much for the in depth answer!

my iPad is a 5th gen iPad Pro, so it is from a year or two ago, and it has an 8-core CPU, and 16gb of ram. that sounds like it will be very satisfactory for doing some more complicated stuff in Dorico…

…presuming that Dorico runs okay on my iPad. So I guess I should just give it a shot. I’m a little anxious about investing time in a poor solution if the iPad version of Dorico will be glitchy, as well as having it’s own learning curve.

So that is where my concern lies!

Thanks again for the support!

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Oh, sorry – my mistake. Yes, that has an M1, so it will be absolutely fine!

Dorico for iPad has the same code base as Dorico for desktop. It has some differences to accommodate the different interface and file management, but apart from that, it’s more or less identical to Dorico Elements.

You can download it for free, using the basic features; and subscribe for 1 month to try out the full feature set. There may even be a free month when you first get it. Not sure.

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Grand! I just tried it briefly with low success, but I’ll try again later. Might need to hook a keyboard and mouse up to it, huh. lol

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It’s certainly easier with a keyboard, at least. Otherwise you’ll need to read up how the different interface works.

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+1 for using an actual keyboard (alphanumeric) for longer editing sessions. The touch interface is more for small “on the fly” edits from my experience.

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It should be, yes. Even better if it’s a first gen M1 Pro. I definitely wouldn’t go older than that. I had a 2017 iPad Pro 10.5 and I just had to replace it because it was becoming sluggish.

Anything m1 and up is quite satisfactory.