Hello, dear community,
I’m writing to ask for some advice.
I’ve been using Dorico for a few months now, after working with Finale for over 25 years, and I must say I’m very pleased with it. However, I would like to upgrade the sounds I’m using.
So far, I’ve relied on the sounds included in the Dorico 5 Pro package, but I’m looking for something a bit more advanced. My hardware setup includes 16 GB of RAM and a Ryzen 7 5000 series processor.
What would you recommend I purchase to enhance my sounds without spending too much?
I truly value your input, and thank you in advance for your help!
You might do a search here looking for similar questions people have asked and the answers they have gotten. Your goals and the kind of writing you want to do, as well as your tolerance for vst tweaking (or not) would change the responses . So if you don’t find what you need answered already, would you mind telling us a bit more about your writing and such?
Are you familiar with NotePerformer? You will find a few threads and many posts on it if you search the forum here, including comparisons and renderings of various pieces. (And it has a free trial.)
(It did/does work with Finale also, so you might have some Finale friends who are still using it or presumably it will still install into Finale if you still have it running.)
The reason why I mention it is, if you start looking at orchestral sample libraries (if that is what you are interested in) you might find they do not work so well with your 16 GB RAM. Someone will hopefully confirm as I cannot remember, but NotePerformer should work with your RAM amount and running the trial version will tell you anyway.)
For Piano, many seem to like Pianoteq, a modeled piano, but not using much RAM.
Also many Garritan libraries can be used in Dorico if you are familiar with them from your Finale days here is one thread search for others.
Otherwise as @gdball said, letting us know more about your music goals would help us answer more specifically.
because NotePerformer has a very small sample base, it loads almost immediately and takes little memory. That’s one advantage of being modelled rather than than sampled (actual recordings of people playing) and the same applies to the Pianoteq piano. The disadvantage is that the actual sound is not quite (or in the case of NotePerformer strings nowhere near to be honest) as realistic as the best sampled libraries. The problem there is, as @arco just said, they can require considerably more than 16Gb RAM though some light orchestral versions such as VSL Prime will work comfortably within this limit. And programming is not always the easiest though in many cases Expression Maps are available either from us users or the vendors.
If you find a library that fits the bill, another alternative is in some cases to get NotePerformer and add the NotePerformer playback extension for that library. Quite a few of us do that where appropriate and it takes most of the hard work out of programming as well as often giving impressive results.
Which library obviously depends on what you write. Chamber music? Choral music? Full orchestra? Commercial/ film scores? Every library has its own character and strengths and weaknesses and very broadly, you get what you pay for. It depends what you mean by “not spending too much”!
If you want to add more realistic orchestral sounds without adding additional RAM, probably the best bet is VSL’s Synchron series. Most orchestral libraries require more RAM and I am guessing it is VSL’s Synchron Player that makes it more efficient. In any case, I use Synchron Prime with 16 GB of RAM and the related NPPE from NotePerformer and it works great for me.
Noteperformer is awesome for balance and blend as well as being microscopic in footprint!! As mentioned above it lacks some of the realism but I find it great!
I thought Iconica Sketch was still free with Dorico? That is a lightweight library that sounds good and the expression maps are already made!
yes, the thing about the VSL Synchron Prime (a full orchestra with fewer articulations than the full instruments) is that the NotePerfomer Performance Engine version also requires relatively little memory. I wouldn’t recommend this library if a warm full romantic orchestral sound is needed (the BBC SO Core is better for that) but for many purposes, it can do quite well.
Thank you all, you are a great community.
Actually, my main obstacle is the lack of RAM, and I can’t upgrade it on my PC.
Since I started using DORICO, I’ve been creating several arrangements for wind bands, small school orchestras, and occasionally pieces for choirs. Dorico automatically assigns instrument sounds using Iconica Sketch, Halion Sonic 7, and the standard Expression Maps.
The results are really poor, and often some instruments are barely audible in the overall sound, even though they are marked as FORTE in the score.
I need to figure out how to properly use Expression Maps, as they are new to me.
Anyway, I think it’s best to tackle one issue at a time. My main priority now is to achieve a decent sound for wind bands, and then I’ll deal with the rest.
Before I go, I wanted to ask for your opinion: has anyone here used the Mac Mini M4? I’ve read that it performs well even with just 16GB of RAM because Macs manage memory more efficiently. Is that true? Would it be better to switch to a Mac or build a more powerful PC?
Thanks for your help, and I apologize for my “poor” English!
Romeo
There are so many circumstances you would not regret using a more powerful machine with Dorico. I personally waited too long. I’m staying out the Mac/windows debate for now, but I will say that if it has to “managed” then you don’t have enough. Seriously, the advantage of memory is that samples are already loaded and ready to playback - not streamed or being moved in and out of memory, so “better” would be an incremental improvement versus just having enough memory not to worry about it. CPU speed, internal ssd (s) … also makes a gigantic difference.