Hi
I’m about to buy a new iPad and I remember seeing an article that the new Pro model was better. I can’t find it now though! Which iPad for Dorico should I buy?
Like you I suspect, I’ve used Dorico Pro on a computer for several years. I’ve only recently added Dorico on IPad - and though I use it way more than I initially expected, what I tend to forget is that it’s basically Dorico elements. I think that has tended to keep me out of trouble. I haven’t wished for more power or anything on a pretty ordinary iPad, Just fwiw.
For orchestra I’m using what it comes with, and it switches pretty seamlessly with the bigger libraries on my desktop. I have a couple of synths loaded on it, one a big eurorack style modular which it drives fine.
Dorico will work fine on any of the current iPads. However, the ‘normal’ iPad is quite old (October 22), and still uses an A14 CPU, rather than a new M2 (Air) or M4 (Pro).
If you want to use Iconica Sketch for playback, then you need one with more than 4Gb of RAM, which means either the Air or the Pro.
The Air and Pro were both introduced in May this year, so it’s a good time to buy. Personally, if I were buying now, I’d get the Air, as the M4 CPU is massive overkill, considering the limitations of iPadOS.
A 13" Pro with 256 Gb, Wifi only and a pencil is nearly £1,500. An Air with the same specs is £900.
There are some bells and whistles on the Pro. You can compare the specs here:
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Thanks for the advice. I decided to go with the Pro so that hopefully the specs will keep it working well for several years. The last iPad lasted about 5 years before becom8ng sluggish under several iOS upgrades. I’ve downloaded Dorico and enjoying it so far.
That was fast!
Scary fast (cit.)!
Yeah I know. June 30th is the end of financial year here in Australia. I had to move fast to get the 100% tax deduction…
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Reviving this topic to see if there are any changes to the recommendations. Would you still say the Pro is overkill for using Dorico on iPad? Are the current iPad Airs a good choice? How about one of the cheaper ones?
Any iPad with an M-series chip will be powerful enough to run Dorico, and have sufficient memory to allow the use of Iconica Sketch.
The Airs are certainly good enough. Don’t get the standard iPad, which is still on A-series CPU.
Thanks, appreciated!
I have got the newest pro with m4. I bought almost every SWAM instrument to use it with it.
Unfortunately Dorico has a lot of dropouts with only some of the section strings loaded. In Cubasis I can load MUCH more SWAM instruments.
I don’t know if it is Doricos fault or the combination of Dorico and SWAM.
Anyway for using iconica sketch anything with 8 gb ram should work.
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How big are the pieces you’re writing? I write mostly one-ten page long pieces and my 7 year old iPad works ok for that (free version). Sometimes I put pieces I write with Dorico Pro for desktop on it and it displays them ok. I just got the new iPad A16 which runs the small stuff I do ok.
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The sort of things I plan on composing on the iPad would be fairly simple pieces. I also plan on doing simple editing of parts. For more complex work, Dorico on the Mac is great. The iPad would be to do simpler composing and editing tasks tasks in off-hours.
Tx for all your help!