Hello! Film and theatre composer here. I’ve owned and updated Dorico since v1 but haven’t really kept myself up to date on all the details. I spend 90% of my time in my DAW (Nuendo) and only write scores when I actually have session musicians, and many of my projects regrettably don’t have a budget for that. So my Dorico skills are a bit basic, as I’ve only used it occasionally.
Currently, however, I am composing the score for a new stage adaptation of THE LEGEND OF NARNIA (no pressure!). We will record a 12-piece string ensemble, plus 1 flute, 1 french horn and myself on piano and percussion. After spending the last couple of months composing and doing mockups in Nuendo, I was starting to dread the process of converting everything to «dumb» MIDI files and importing it all to Dorico, which in the past has been doable, but a bit messy in my experience. What I found was the fantastic new MIDI import window, intelligently interpreting my MIDI data, matching the instruments to my existing Dorico players, and creating pretty good looking flows in a few seconds. Wow!!
I will now work on the scores until mid October, and might have a lot of n00b questions for you guys during the coming weeks – please bear with me! I just wanted to say first off: What an absolute joy Dorico is. This incredibly deep and well thought-out masterpiece of an application is already making my life so much easier, on a project that would otherwise be quite stressful. I will sleep better at night knowing that Dorico’s got my back. The scores also look beautiful, and everything about it is just… fun!!! I’m looking forward to deep diving a bit more the coming weeks. I’m ready!
I love your post title! You’ve hit the proverbial nail on the head IMO! In all of the discussions about what features are lacking or different or the struggles with new workflows and concepts, what’s often missing is the very real change Dorico brings to the notational experience itself. It is a delight to work with Dorico!
I too was a long, long time Finale User having switched from MOTU Professional Composer when Finale became available in the 80s. Although I was certainly proficient over the years, working in Finale often felt quite tedious. Thus, several years ago, I decided to try Dorico. I was impressed with the introductory YouTube videos, the fresh and striking user interface, the collegial tone of the Forum, and the incipient trial capabilities. Yes. It was very different from Finale. Definitely–but I persisted and soon discovered that instead of approaching my notation desk with a weighty sense of drudgery, I was excited every time I sat down with Dorico.
Admittedly, I do still struggle on occasion with an unexpected or obscure “feature” (‘delete a page?’), but a solution is eventually found with an understanding of how it fits into the Dorico paradigm, and I’m on my way. Also, that struggle has often been outweighed by my ongoing delight in discovering capabilities of Dorico (‘booklet printing’) of which I was previously unaware.
Granted, my decision to move to Dorico was not “forced” by Finale’s retirement, and I understand that frustration and resentment. However, if you can set that aside and be open to the rationale approach and consistent design that Dorico offers, you will discover—as many of us have already—what an absolute joy Dorico is!
I’ve owned and updated Dorico since v1 but haven’t really kept myself up to date on all the details. I spend 90% of my time in my DAW (Nuendo) and only write scores when I actually have session musicians, and many of my projects regrettably don’t have a budget for that. So my Dorico skills are a bit basic, as I’ve only used it occasionally.
I’m looking forward to deep diving a bit more the coming weeks. I’m ready! 
