Thank you for welcoming me to DORICO. Not convinced DORICO is for me & Let me introduce myself

REASONS WHY I LIKE SIBELIUS

  1. Because I have used Sibelius Since Sibelius 5, still lots I don’t master in Sibelius, but I’ve written a lot of music on it.

2.With DORICO I have to learn everything again from scratch, a bit of a nightmare, especially considering I went through that in Sibelius in 2020. An example. (I understand the little yellow line on the bar one is writing must be of great help when used correctly but to me it is still an annoying little bug that gets in the way)

  1. I suspect I,l stick with Sibelius 7 for the simple reason that I’m comfortable with it. I long ago reached the very satisfying situation of writeing music on Sibelius and starting creating music immediately, the technical aspect hardly ever gets in the way anymore.

  2. For the reasons expressed in Tantacrul’s YouTube VIDEO The good The bad & the Janky

REASONS WHY I LIKE DORICO

  1. Cheaper than upgrading from my own beloved Sibelius 7.3 to Sibelius Ultimate which wouldn’t add much that I need, besides I don’t want to have to pay monthly or yearly, I hate the licensing idea, I like being the owner not the renter of my Software.

  2. I find it is an honour and a privilege to communicate with the DORICO customer service knowing that they are the people who worked on the historical masterpiece that was the original Sibelius. I resent Avid and I suspect that Sibelius will in the near future collapse, I don’t want to go down with the ship.

  3. DORICO PRO is extremely attractive because it combines a Notation Software with an easy to use DAW, I find this really fantastic and logical.

  4. Another very attractive feature of DORICO is easier integration with the best virtual orchestras. I love the sound of Vienna Instruments and the people in Vienna seem to favour DORICO.

  5. I like DORICO’S commitment to improvement and simplification of routine operations.

I have both now, DORICO and SIBELIUS. I just bought DORICO 4 Cross grade.

I wish DORICO would work on combing the best features of Sibelius and DORICO.

It is difficult for me to decide what Software to use for composing.

I’l probably keep both and try to write two different scores simultaneously, one on each software.

I take this opportunity to present myself through my work to the DORICO community, I am not a professional, definitively an amateur, and yet composing music has been for the last 20 years the most important, rewarding and satisfying activity in my life. Judging by the extremely few people who visit my you tube channel I am probably a very poor composer. However, a small group of people whom I respect do like my music, that and the fact that I like composing and listening to my music is more than sufficient for me to continue.

Please subscribe to my YouTube music channel ART ACT SOUND, ART ACT SOUND - YouTube or at least give a thumbs up. Thank you.

A person should use the software that best fills his or her needs (which might be different in different situations). I’m sure the Dorico Team appreciates your giving Dorico a try.

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Forgive me, I haven’t watched the video, how long have you had Dorico for?

That video by Tantacrul has been widely discussed here before. To sum up: half of his complaints have been addressed in version 4; half of his complaints evaporate if he read the instructions to learn how you’re supposed to do it.

(He also does a video on Sibelius, which is more critical, FWIW.)

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The only way you can know for sure is to use dorico for few months before finalizing your thoughts.
For me I can never go back sure there are features that are missing still but I am sure Dorico team will implement this soon.
Dorico is built better from the ground up.
In few years everyone will use dorico and I don’t want to learn it then I want to learn it right now to prepare for the future.

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I rather wish the comments where not concentrated on the video or its author, the video is only 1 out of 9 to me equally important points of views I expose here , it would be helpful and interesting to read comments on other points, specially points here in favour of DORICO . However, since the video is almost 1 hour long and the author notorious I understand.
I have edited the original comment so that the video doesn’t dominate visually anymore.

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I’d use the term notorious. He is the head developer of MuseScore, so I’d hardly consider his opinions to be 100% objective.

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You’ve edited your post now multiple times and have changed your numbering so this may no longer match up, but just a few thoughts on your comments …

Sib

  1. Sib is hard to master, but you’ve used it for a while, that’s why you like it?
  2. Yes, most of us here have come from another program. I used Finale as my primary notation software for 25 years or so, and for years made a large percentage of my income as a copyist. I currently have 14,516 Finale .mus or .musx files in my Finale Documents folder and obviously a bunch more on backup drives. Learning a new program as complicated as Dorico is not easy, but a necessary part of the switching process. Many people will decide their current program is fine and won’t switch.
  3. Same as 2
  4. As @Janus points out, Tantacrul is the lead developer of a competitor. His opinion is not unbiased and he has an agenda, even if some of his criticisms are true. IIRC he also deliberately goes out of his way to use Dorico with mouse input, which no one who has spent any sort of time with the program will do. He also prioritizes immediate usability for a beginner. That is a valid point of discussion, especially in the app-era where people aren’t accustomed to consulting manuals, but many of his complaints are analogous to “Photoshop isn’t as easy to use as Microsoft Paint.” No, it isn’t. There aren’t any professional designers using Paint either. Dorico is a complex program that can accommodate complex notation, and with that comes some degree of interface complexity.

Dorico

  1. I hate subscription models too.
  2. The participation of Steinberg employees on this forum is really great! If you think Sib will “collapse” then jumping ship to move to another product is certainly reasonable. Finale has barely had any improvements in a decade or more, so that definitely was a factor in my decision to switch.
  3. Sure, this is a great aspect of the program.
  4. VSL integration is great and I use many of their libraries, but they seem pretty committed to Sib too. The fact that they are actively supporting Dorico is certainly a plus for me anyway.
  5. Dorico rolls out improvements often, many as free updates.

As mentioned above, obviously there is a substantial learning curve as Dorico works differently from other notation programs. Most of us here have also experienced this, so you’ll find lots of help and advice if there are specific issues with things you can do in Sib but can’t figure out in Dorico. Just ask!

Like what? You don’t really list any features of Sibelius other than it’s hard to master and you’re comfortable with it. If you want to make Dorico feature requests, you’ll need to address specific features and functions, not take the “best features of Sibelius.”

Personally, the multi-staff input feature in Dorico means that I’m much faster inputting in Dorico than I ever was in Finale. My arranging and analysis students have always been blown away by that feature when I’ve demonstrated in class. Software shouldn’t be a roadblock to composition though. If you’re more comfortable with another program, fine.

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Thank you for your very thorough response, I hate to refer to the video again, which by the way is not against DORICO at all, but it does mention quite a number of very specific tasks that in version 3 of DORICO where much more cumbersome to do than in Sibelius, that is the reason why I mentioned the video. However, I hope they have been sorted out in DORICO 4. I’l just have to see as I begin to use DORICO regularly. You mention that VSL is as committed to Sibelius as it is to DORICO, In Sibelius one has to manually assign each and every VSL instrument to match . Not so using NOTEPERFORMER in Sibelius which saves time. How is this in DORICO?

Dorico’s integration with NotePerformer is basically seamless. I never have to think about it. It just works.

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The video is over an hour long and refers to an outdated version of Dorico. We’ve all seen it and likely are not watching that whole thing again. Please reference any particular points he makes and at what times in the video, and we can respond as to whether they are current issues or not.

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Thank you yes, exactly like in Sibelius, in fact I’m trying NOTEPERFORMER right now on DORICO, No problem, it is the integration with VSL that I am interested in finding out about. Anyone?

Will do. It might take a little time since I recall many of the examples are very visual, so I would have to make a long description or a video myself to illustrate. I think the next step is just for me to start writing and make my own conclusions. I hope to do a lotof writing in both softwares soon and then get back to you. Sorry for the editing, I guess it’s a habit from writing music. Thank you again.

It works great with any of the libraries they list on their Dorico Integration page. Download the VSL for Dorico installer, then apply the Playback Template that corresponds to what you own. If you are combining instruments from multiple libraries you can combine several Endpoint Setups into your own custom Playback Template too. You can specify a default Playback Template in Edit / Preferences / Play to specify sounds that will load by default.

Provided you use the playback templates that match your VSL libraries, it works quite well. But certainly not the same way NotePerformer does. VSL will need more massaging, because it’s not meant to work like NotePerformer. Which is probably why we’re (almost) all waiting for NP4 :wink:
Nina’d by FredGunn!

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Encouraging.

Just post the time of his criticism along with what he’s referring to. Many of his criticisms have been addressed since then. Many were user error to begin with.

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So grateful for all your help, quite amazing. I must get on with writing music on DORICO now and get back to you all later. By the way most of the music on my YouTube Chanell is on NOTEPERFORMER, I used to live right next to Willander in Stockholm, I’ve corresponded with him in Swedish but I have not met him yet. Certainly, admire him. The rest of my YouTube music is using Vienna Instruments and a little using Garritan Personal Orchestra and World Instruments.

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I only JUST discovered this capability this last week!
And it has been an absolute GOD-send for entering large orchestral scores where some parts may be monophonic.

simply cannot, for the life of me, imagine ever going back to Finale, after using Dorico.

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My suggestion is that you stick with NP while you acclimate yourself to Dorico for any projects with deadlines or the like and experiment with incorporating VSL in short test projects in your spare time. Trying to integrate VSL fully into a major project while still learning how Dorico operates will (IMO) slow you down.

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