After purchasing Dorico on day one with realistic expectations that it would be a while before I could consider it as a one-stop for Mock-Ups I thought I’d delve into the possibility again following the recent updates.
I created a template with Spitfire Symphonic Orchestra and a VSL ‘Vienna Imperial’ Piano all hosted in VE Pro in a single instance with MIR Pro as an additional reverb that I could toggle on and off as required. I imported some Music XML from Sibelius, fixed a few articulations. Set up expression maps, tweaked some cc curves and exported some audio. It was by no means an exhaustive test run, but I really believe it will eventually take over as being my workflow of choice.
I had a few crashes during the process. I learned that it doesn’t yet work to copy a cc curve from one lane to another (this caused a crash). Also that I should save even more often than the auto-save.
I know there’s still a way to go but here are a few things that I would really like to see implemented (apologies if they already are and I just didn’t realise):
- A way to save VSTi sections in ‘templates’ for easy recalling, even within the same VE Pro instance.
- Mappable buttons to disable / enable VE Pro hosted instruments through the automation mapping feature of VE Pro.
- The possibility to copy cc curves from one instrument to another (or many).
- A quicker audio export (it’s very slow even on a powerful machine).
- A way to override the MIDI note volume.
- A way to undock a piano roll with cc lanes to make drawing them in easier.
- A send-to-cubase button.
I fully understand that Dorico is primarily an engraving application and it does that amazingly well. I thought I’d just mention how much closer it is to what I was hoping for. Thanks to the whole team for such hard work and intelligent handling of everything so far.