Steinberg Dorico remains the commercial scoring tool to beat. Dorico 6 adds a bunch of new features, but I’m particularly excited to see features like Lutosławski-style cutaways, system-attached items, and full OpenType glyph positioning and glyph substitution features. For advanced contemporary music, this is exactly the flexibility we were waiting for across the evolution of Sibelius and then Dorico – and it’ll be welcome news to those arriving from the now-discontinued Finale.
Cutaways even get their own video here:
New in 6, in that vein:
- Cutaways – see visualization, but this is one-click access to cutaway scores. That’s doubly worth recommending on CDM as it’s huge for working with electro-acoustic music and experimental electronic – instrumental combinations, generally. (Pro)
- System-attached items for control over tempos, rehearsal marks, repeats, and large time signatures, etc. – been waiting for this.
- OpenType features: glyph positioning and substitution in OpenType, which also has a bunch of experimental and electronic applications, and helps adapt this largely western common practice-oriented tool to other scenarios. (below)
The system item positioning is a big deal:
I’m really excited by these custom grids/rulers for positioning – again, very important with advanced and experimental scores:
Plus:
Cycled playback:
Flow heading overrides for automatic titles in new songs, movements, and pieces in bigger projects. (Pro)
- A new Proofreading panel automatically highlights issues – in Elements and SE, too, not just Pro
- Multiple chord symbols, custom chord symbols, chord symbol overrides (Pro, some in Elements)
- Fill view (for easier zoom)
- Import/export user settings between computers.
- Marching Percussion Basics (via Tapspace who make Drumline)
- Condense all instruments (for folks doubling, etc.)
- Improved MusicXML import/export, more flexible staff labels, easier editing for instrument names and front matter, and more.
Let’s look. The automatic proofreading is really cool; I’ve not seen anything like this before. It’s like a grammar/spell checker for your score:
And more:
More, and a more detailed breakdown of what’s in each version:
Dorico overview