Dorico Music Notation Software

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Introduction

In the mid-1990’s I started using Finale (version 3.7) as my music notation software of choice. (Prior to that I used MusicPrinterPlus). When version six of Sibelius came out I tried it out and switched to it because it was far more intuitive than Finale. When Dorico 4 was released in early 2022 I decided to give it a try taking advantage of their 30-day trial offer. I purchased the Pro version and have been using it for nearly 5 months.

I decided to switch to Dorico as my main notation program. Dorico is a notation program from the people at Steinberg, who I believe were the inventers of VST instruments. Orchestra condensing and its powerful engraving options were main features that caught my eye. In using the trial version (fully functional) I found that editing was easier than Sibelius or Finale. Inputting music – via the computer keyboard or a midi controller – was also quite easy, although not perfect. A feature that I could live without in a notation program is enhanced DAW like playback. Dorico offers quasi-DAW playback and its ability to add VST instruments (with all their keyswitching, CC controllers and the like) is easier than other programs although not easy or for the faint at heart (or impatient people).

Dorico 4

There are different versions of Dorico available. As of July, 2022 Dorico was at version 4.2. This post refers to Dorico Pro. There is also a version with less options called Dorico SE and there is a version for the iPad. Unfortunately my iPad is too old to install the iPad version.

Pros

In no particular order, these are features I like

• Easy note input
• Easy note editing
• Grouping dynamics
• Ability to assign key commands to just about anything and in a somewhat easier way.
• Adding accidentals above or after trill symbols
• Easy entry of tuplets (triplets), even across bar lines
• Grace notes at the end of a measure (like after trills leading to the next measure).
• Master page templates for specifying placement of items on L/R pages in a consistent manner.
• While “flows” takes a bit of getting use to, the ability to easily have multiple movements in a piece of music (or sections in an educational project) with different layout options available per flow is a plus.
• The “jump” bar that allows one to carry out a variety of tasks without having to go through menus. Similar to the find box in Sibelius but better implemented and easier to use.
• The various “popovers” for various tasks (eg. dynamic, meter, ornaments, repeats, bars, etc) instead of having to use the side panels and click with a mouse.
• The ability to do most everything from the computer keyboard.
• Player labels (also a con). The various options in player labels is a great step forward, but incomplete.
• Online Dorico forum at the Steinberg website.
• Library manager. Setup a project to have all the settings you need, export as a library. For all future projects of that type, you can load those settings into your project
• Ability to make changes to the various library settings as default for new projects.
• Use of SMufl fonts.
• Powerful text editing capabilities including mixing music glyphs with regular text.
• Frames, music flows and text frames.
• Easy input of graphics

Cons

These ‘cons’ are mostly applicable to someone coming from another notation software program. I think if you were just starting out and never used another notation program many of these would not be an issue.

• The program knows best. There are many standard or at least commonly used notation conventions that Dorico deliberately does not do because it does not consider it to be “standard” notation. (Albeit, some situation are a result of the developers not having implemented it). My biggest gripe in this area is gradual tempo markings in keyboard music – arguably the most common format in published music when PVG books are considered. The terms “rit” “accel” “a tempo” and the like are ALWAYS presented in a relatively small italics font and placed between the two staves of the keyboard instrument. There is no such option in Dorico. All such terms are put in non-italic, large bold font above the staff (as is common in orchestra, non-keyboard music). One can use “system text” to create the standard keyboard way of doing things, but it doesn’t affect playback and it requires considerable positioning in Engraving mode. I understand the developers want to make it easy to enter what they consider to be standard music notation but the truth is, not everything they think is standard is standard to me and things that are standard (or at least very common) are not allowed, at least not with lots of unnecessary work arounds.
• Courtesy accidentals. In piano music if the left hand has a sharped note and later in the measure the right hand has a natural I don’t want a courtesy accidental on that note. There is no way in the settings to change that as a default. I can change on a case by case basis, but that can take forever. I only want courtesy accidentals to apply to the first note in the measure. If way back on the first beat of the previous measure a note was flat, I don’t need a courtesy accidental on the last beat of the current measure. Some people may, but at least give me the opportunity to change the default settings to suit my needs. These two examples have been complained about more than a few times on the forum.
• There are some situations where it would be nice to be able to move or nudge items just a bit while in Write mode and not have to switch to Engrave mode.
• Terminology. If you notice I’ve used the word “measure” throughout this post. If you search for “measure” in the manual or the various settings you won’t find it in Dorico. They use the term “bars” for everything related to measures. Also don’t bother looking for “time signatures” you want “meter” instead. If you don’t know the *exact* word that Dorico uses for something, good luck finding it in the documentation or program menus. I find quite a bit of the terminology used is not what I was taught as a musician.
• Documentation. Related to terminology. It isn’t bad, but is hard to find things quickly if you don’t know what to search for. In one spot in the documentation it says “remove tremolo” and another spot it says “delete tremolo.” When I’m searching do I search for “remove” or “delete?” Another example: if I’m looking to “create” a new flow from an existing flow, searching the help for “create” finds one nothing helpful. You have to search for “splitting an existing flow” to find anything useful. The lack of a “how to” section is a bit embarrassing as far as I’m concerned. At the minimum a ‘graphic’ guide like in the Sibelius and Finale documentation would be helpful. There is a lot of repetition in the documentation. Following the “related links” in the help will take you down a rabbit hole that you may end up spending all day in. At one spot in the documentation it says “You can change the positions of articulations relative to tie chains project-wide and for individual tie chains.” But, on that page it doesn’t say how it can be done or give a link to how to do it.
• Flows. Both a pro and con. I think the term ‘flows’ is confusing. Having used the program I think I understand why they use ‘flows’ instead of ‘movements’ but for most people, at least based on posts in the Dorico forum, the concept and application of flows is, to start with at least, confusing.
• Player labels. While the ability to do the various things one can do with player labels is better than other programs, there are simply things one cannot do. For example, if you want “2 clarinets” as the label, at last check that couldn’t be done. You have to settle for what the program thinks is best “Clarinet 1 & 2” (with various ways to position and label the numbers.) If one has two clarinets – separate staves – the program will always label one as “1” and the other as “2.” What if I just want it to say Clarinet for both of them? When every page has the same number of staves it is pretty obvious which is the first and which is the 2nd without having to include the numbers. Perhaps a client requests that or you want to do that as a teaching exercise, you can’t.
• Myriad of settings. I count at least 22 different menus in which various settings can be changed. Until one has learned where everything is and the logic why a particular item is in a particular menu, it can take a long time to find that one item one wants to change. For example, if you want to change the MIDI input quantization, where does one go? I would think to look under “note input,” but which note input? There is an entire menu under the “library” tab called “Note input options.” Don’t waste your time there, there is nothing about MIDI note input there even though that seems to be the most logical place to look. How about the Program preferences? There is a “note input” section there – the only other menu with a ‘note input’ section. Don’t waste your time there. But you are getting close. Take a look at the “PLAY” options in the program preferences. Even though Playing notes has nothing to do, in my opinion, with inputting notes, even via MIDI, it is in the Play options that one will find MIDI quantization. With all library settings dialogs one can search (in the upper left) for content. However, if you search for “quantization” in the preferences, you won’t find anything. In short, you may end up spending more time finding an option than you spend working on a project.
• Illogical way of doing things (at least in my opinion). To delete blank measures I would highlight the measures and press delete. Seems logical. In Dorico one has to select a blank measure, go to the bars popover – remember it’s bars, not measures in Dorico – and type the word ‘trim.’ If there isn’t anything in those blank measures they will be deleted. Rather than enter plain repeat signs via the repeat popover, you have to use the Bar popover. Want to enter an 8va, I’d go to player techniques but Dorico requires you to use the Clef popover. I could go on.
• Ties. While it is true that a tied note is one value, the fact is that in the notation there are two (or more) notes on the staff. One should be able to edit those notes individually. In Dorico, even though one sees two (or more) notes, an edit or selection of either one selects both and any changes attempted affects both notes. Based on the comments in the forum, I’d say this is the biggest issue people have problems with.
• Properties panel. Far too many things that one should be able to change by default in a library option can only be changed in the properties panel.
• Lack of plugins or ability to create them.
• Lack of filtering capabilities as complex as Sibelius has.
• Can’t put key changes at the D.S. al Coda sign that refers to the Segno without it changing the key signature of the Coda which itself might be in a completely different key.
• Inability to Hide items. Sometimes it is necessary to hide things. Dorico, according to posts in the forum, made a decision not to allow one to hide all but a few items. If I could hide things I could do a work around to the key change at D.S. mentioned above.

Conclusion

I think my “con” list seems larger than the “pro” but it is probably only because I went into more detail explaining the negatives and very little on explaining the positives.

I recommend Dorico to anyone starting out in music notation software. Learn the logic and terminology they use and I think you’ll be fine. It is a fine program and the developers have done an excellent job with it.

If you are coming from something like MuseScore, yes Dorico costs money, but if you are serious about notation and have any hopes to be a professional composer, arranger or typesetter, you need to move on from MuseScore.

If you are coming from Finale or Sibelius and don’t have a lot of projects that you might need to edit in the future, I say switch.

However, if you have a massive amount of finished projects in Sibelius or Finale that you may one day need to edit, update or revise you may want to think twice about abandoning that software. If you are willing to keep those old programs around then I highly recommend adding Dorico to your notation arsenal. You might also consider waiting until it reaches version 5 or 6 before switching. Maybe by then it will have the features you are use to in Finale or Sibelius that are not currently in Dorico.

Dorico is a well written piece of software even if it isn’t as fully mature and flexible as other music notation software programs are.