Cantai has released version 3.0.0. Dorico and Sibelius now share a single installer, Spanish joins the plugin’s supported lyric languages, the choir lineup has been reorganized into new “Ottetto” ensembles alongside six new solo voices, the plugin interface has been refreshed, and pricing has been cut significantly across every platform Cantai supports.
It’s the latest in a fast-moving run of Cantai coverage on this site: Dorico 6.2.20 brought Cantai into Steinberg’s notation software for the first time at the end of April, followed by David MacDonald’s in-depth review of the plugin, Dorico 6.2.30’s independent voice playback for Cantai instances, and — just last week — official Cantai support arriving in Sibelius 2026.6. That’s a lot of momentum for a product that didn’t exist as a notation-software plugin eight months ago, and Cantai’s own release notes bear that out: this is already the thirteenth version bump to the Dorico build alone since its January launch.
Version 3.0.0 is a different kind of release, though. Rather than another point update, it’s a consolidation — literally, in the case of the installer — plus a significant price cut that fulfills a promise Richard deCosta made to us on the Scoring Notes podcast back in May.
One installer for two hosts
Since its earliest Dorico beta, Cantai has shipped as a separate download for each host application — one installer for Dorico, a different (and, until recently, unofficial) build for Sibelius. As of 3.0.0, that’s gone: Cantai now ships as a single installer that works with both Dorico and Sibelius, on both macOS and Windows. It’s the same idea NotePerformer has used for years — one license, one download, works everywhere Wallander Instruments supports — and it’s a welcome simplification for anyone who, like a lot of Scoring Notes readers, moves between Dorico and Sibelius depending on the job.
The unified installer requires Dorico 6.2.20 or later and Sibelius 2026.6 or later. On the Mac side, there’s a real caveat worth flagging: the build is compiled for Apple Silicon only (M1 or later, macOS 14 Sonoma or later) and does not run on Intel Macs. Windows requires Windows 10 version 20H2 (October 2020) or later on x86-64 hardware; Windows on ARM (Snapdragon-based PCs) isn’t supported either. If you’re on older hardware, MuseScore Studio remains your option — more on that below.
Sibelius support, now official
Cantai’s own changelog shows the Sibelius groundwork landing in stages over the past month — a v2.2.5-Sibelius build on June 5 that first made “Sibelius a fully supported host,” followed by refinements on June 11 and June 17 — arriving somewhat later than the May 30 target we’d previously reported. That work became official last week when Sibelius 2026.6 shipped with Cantai support built in, alongside that release’s headlining fix for cross-staff accidentals. With 3.0.0, the Sibelius and Dorico integrations are now developed and released in lockstep under one version number, rather than as parallel tracks.
Spanish arrives — with more languages queued up
David’s review in May flagged Cantai’s language support as one of its clearer limitations: English and Latin only, with occasional stumbles even within English. Richard told us on the podcast in May that the underlying model already understood more than that — it just hadn’t been wired up yet. As he put it, the model “already can sing” English, Latin, Spanish, Japanese, French, and Italian; the work still to do was building a pronunciation dictionary and language detector for each one, then running it through what he calls his “pronunciation torture test,” a multi-page MusicXML file stuffed with the hardest words to pronounce in a given language.
Spanish is the first of those to land, with 3.0.0 adding a language selector directly on the plugin’s main screen. Given Richard’s comments about sequencing — get Sibelius support finished, then start working through the queue — it’s a reasonable bet that Japanese, French, and Italian aren’t far behind, though Cantai hasn’t announced a timeline for those.
Ottetto ensembles and six new solo voices
The choir situation gets a meaningful upgrade too. Where Cantai previously offered only “Female Choir” and “Male Choir” — a labeling choice David specifically wished were organized by voice range rather than gender in his review — 3.0.0 introduces the Ottetto ensembles: Sopranos, Altos, Tenors, Basses, Women’s Voices, Men’s Voices, and Full Ensemble. That’s a more granular set of ready-made choral groupings than before, though Cantai’s release notes don’t go into detail on how they differ sonically from the prior choir voices.
Six new solo voices also join the roster: Eric, Sergey, Aggie, Rachel, Leah, and Jesse. That’s on top of Patrick (Bass/Baritone), James (Tenor), Kim (Alto), and Maxwell, all added in the weeks leading up to 3.0.0. As Richard told us back in May, new voices and ensembles are added to existing licenses at no extra cost — that policy hasn’t changed.
A refreshed interface and a long list of fixes
The plugin’s interface gets a visual refresh to match Cantai’s redesigned website, with Reverb and Voices controls now surfaced directly on the plugin’s main screen instead of buried in a menu. In Sibelius specifically, reverb settings are now remembered per stave, and solo voices use a subtler, warmer hall reverb than before.
Cantai also fixed a handful of specific pronunciation errors in this release — “into,” “this,” “Mar,” and “the” — the kind of small-bore correction that only shows up after enough people have actually used the thing. Other fixes address voice changes that arrived too early, a newly added track failing to render, and an unresponsive Settings button. On the Sibelius side, voices now load reliably even when you select one before Cantai’s list has finished populating, a crash during automatic rendering has been resolved, and running an outdated version now shows a dismissible warning rather than blocking rendering outright.
It’s also worth understanding how rendering itself works across the three platforms, since it’s changed since our original coverage. Dorico and Sibelius always render locally, using what Cantai calls its Engine running on your own machine — unlimited, with no weekly cap, though an internet connection is still required to validate your license. MuseScore Studio renders locally too when your computer supports it, falling back to cloud rendering — capped at 180 minutes per week — only on unsupported hardware, such as an Intel Mac or Windows-on-ARM device. That’s a meaningful clarification from the cloud-first framing of Cantai’s original MuseScore integration, and it means most users, on most platforms, aren’t going to bump into a rendering quota at all.
In my limited testing, Cantai can take a while to fully render the output. Watch Sibelius’s status bar to see its progress.
Better documentation, too
Easy to miss amid the version-number news: Cantai’s website has had a documentation overhaul as well. Dedicated, illustrated Quick Start Guides now exist for both the Dorico and Sibelius editions, walking through system requirements, installation and activation, setting up a vocal part, choosing a voice, exporting audio, and where to find your log files if something goes wrong. That’s a considerable step up from what David found when he reviewed Cantai in Dorico back in May — at the time, the only voice documentation on the site was a sparse page of “rough descriptions” that didn’t even cover all the voices available.
The FAQ has grown along with it, now organized into a dozen categories covering everything from licensing and educational pricing to specific error messages you might run into — “Cannot reach the local Cantai server,” Dorico’s “No parts found” when picking a voice, a Sibelius voice rendering with a cross (×) instead of a photo — with a fix listed for each.
Cantai’s changelog is the reliable source for what’s actually current.
Pricing, cut significantly
When Cantai launched for Dorico in April, pricing was $299 for a lifetime license (with a $99 educator rate and free access for students), while MuseScore Studio ran $14.99 a month via MuseHub, and the Sibelius beta was taking preorders at a discounted $150 ahead of a planned rise to $299. On the Scoring Notes podcast in May, Richard told us he was hoping to bring the VST monthly rate down to $9.99, pending a conversation with Muse Group about aligning pricing across platforms.
That conversation has evidently happened. As of 3.0.0, pricing is unified across all three platforms: $9.99 per month, or $149 for a lifetime license, whether you’re buying the combined Dorico + Sibelius license or a MuseScore Studio subscription through MuseHub. The Dorico + Sibelius license can also switch between subscription and lifetime billing after purchase. That’s roughly half of the original $299 lifetime price, and two-thirds of the original MuseScore monthly rate — a substantial cut for a product that’s also gotten meaningfully more capable since launch.
Customers who already purchased Cantai at the earlier, higher prices can contact the company directly for an adjustment. Cantai hasn’t published a self-service process for this on its site as of this writing, so reach out through its contact page if this applies to you.
The educational program continues alongside the new pricing: students can get Cantai for free, and educators qualify for a reduced rate, both via an application at cantai.app/scholarships or from your account profile on the Cantai site.
Pricing and availability
Cantai 3.0.0 was released July 1, 2026.
Dorico + Sibelius. A single installer now covers both applications on macOS (Apple Silicon only; M1 or later, macOS 14+) and Windows (10 20H2 or later, x86-64; no ARM support). It requires Dorico 6.2.20 or later, or Sibelius 2026.6 or later. Pricing is $9.99 per month or $149 for a lifetime license — one combined license for both hosts, switchable between subscription and lifetime. A free account lets you render up to 30 seconds of audio with no purchase required. Download from Cantai’s site.
MuseScore Studio. Available via MuseHub, requiring MuseScore Studio 4.6.4 or later. Pricing matches the Dorico + Sibelius license: $9.99 per month or $149 lifetime. Rendering happens locally on supported hardware and falls back to cloud rendering (180 minutes per week) on unsupported machines.
Education. Students can use Cantai for free; educators qualify for a reduced rate. Apply at cantai.app/scholarships or through your Cantai account profile.
Existing customers. Anyone who purchased Cantai at the earlier, higher prices can contact Cantai directly about an adjustment to the new pricing (this isn’t spelled out as a formal policy on Cantai’s site, so confirm the details when you reach out).
For more on how Cantai actually works and where it still falls short, see David MacDonald’s review of Cantai in Dorico, and for the full story behind the product, listen to our podcast conversation with Richard deCosta.
