Dorico 6 review: Proof positive

 

Steinberg has released Dorico 6 today, the seventh major release (including Dorico 3.5) of the scoring program since the software’s debut less than nine years ago. This is a huge update, even by Dorico’s fecund standards, and there is an abundance of new capabilities, improvements to existing functions, interface refinements, and small fixes across the program.

Every major Dorico update affects all areas of the application, but if the Dorico 5 cycle could be characterized as full of audio goodies, Dorico 6 is brimming with delights in the areas of engraving and workflow. Cutaway scores and proofreading are two of the headline features, but there are robust advancements in chord symbols, text, playing techniques, and more — they’re all either new or more robust than ever.

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The Dorico tiers, and this review

Steinberg offers three tiers of Dorico:

• Dorico Pro, the self-explanatory professional tier;
• Dorico Elements, an entry-level version aimed primarily at students and amateurs; and
• Dorico SE, a free version that is limited to eight players.

In addition, there’s Dorico for iPad, which generally mirrors the features of SE when used without subscription or lifetime payment, after which it matches the features of Elements.

Everything in this review refers to Dorico Pro, except where noted, although many of the new features have made their way to Dorico Elements and Dorico SE, too. The official Dorico announcement specifies the availability of each new feature in the various tier(s).

Reading the accompanying version history document is essential to get a complete understanding of every last new detail in Dorico 6 and how it all works, but in this review, we’ve provided an outline to guide you to the items that may matter most in your line of work.

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Contents

Headline features

• Cutaway scores and coordination lines
• Proofreading
• Cycle playback
• Fill View
• Rulers and grids
• Bundled content

Functional improvements

• Chord symbols
• Condensing for additional instruments
• Curved lines
• Tempo marks, system-attached items and large time signatures
• Text, fonts, and lyrics
• Flow heading overrides
• Parenthesized Playing Techniques
• Staff labels outside the frame
• MIDI import/export — Lyrics
• Multi-staff note input with Instrument Filters
• Additional settings in Options, plus tuplets, video and more

Interface improvements

• Working with tokens
• Finding font styles
• Handles and popovers
• Editor improvements
• Properties and selections
• Options from the Jump Bar
• Status bar
• View Options
• Hub — What’s New

Housekeeping and miscellany

• Import/Export User Settings
• Graphic Slice format defaults
• Library Manager improvements
• Other stuff

The rest of the story; closing

• Related links
• Availability, upgrading, trial version, pricing
• Summary

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Headline features

Cutaway scores

Cutaway scores are layouts in which empty bars are entirely removed from the layout; and this capability has been frequently requested by the user base. The Dorico team have responded by providing fully automatic cutaway scores, at the touch of a button!

There is now a checkbox in Layout Options > Staves and Systems > Cutaways, where you can turn Cutaway scores on, or off, for each layout.

You can define how many empty bars trigger a cutaway. There are additional options to allow each staff of a grand stave to be cut-away independently, and whether system-attached items are shown above the hidden staves on which they would normally appear, or just on the visible staves.

You can also create manual Cutaways on a given staff at any point, regardless of the global setting, using the menu commands under Edit > Notations > Staff. (Right-click > Staff.) Select a region, and click on Create Manual Cutaway; or you can set the Start and End positions manually. Pink signposts will mark the positions of manual cutaways.

There is a new Cutaways section of Engraving Options, to define how far staff lines protrude over the barline; the handling of the start of the system (‘preamble’); and clefs.

Dorico shows greyed staff lines on-screen for the automatic cutaway region; and manual cutaways are shown by pink staff lines: there’s an option in the View menu to hide these, if you prefer. Unlike Condensing, you can still edit a Cutaway Score on the page, and the layout will update live to reflect the changes. You can double-click in a cutaway region to initiate Note Entry.

Coordination Lines

A related feature is what Dorico calls ‘Coordination Lines’. These are vertical lines that join one staff to another, so that you can see the alignment more clearly and avoid ‘floating islands’ of unconnected music in the same system. You can add these lines between any two staves, on the barline, time signature (if present) or any rhythmic position. There’s a button in Engrave mode’s left-hand panel, or you can use the right-click contextual menu, under Staff. (Also in Engrave mode.)

There are Engraving Options for the design of the line (in a new Coordination Lines section); and of course these can be overridden individually in the Properties panel.

Proofreading

The right-hand panel in Write mode now contains a section called Proofreading, where Dorico will flag a range of ‘issues’ with the score. The warnings cover a range of color-coded categories: clefs, dynamics, key signatures, repeats, instrument changes, even the playability of the music. For example, repeating an element that is already in force, like the same clef, the same time signature, dynamic, or playing technique, will be flagged. Other issues include insufficient time for instrument changes; difficult or impossible fingering on stringed instruments; dynamics on rests; impossible repeats; and more.

The side-panel icon will show a small number count of the warnings, circled in red. Click an entry in the panel, and the display will move to the relevant point, with an animated arrow or rectangle highlighting the exact position of the issue. You can then see if it’s something that needs fixing, or not.

It should be remembered that many of these are warnings of potential problems, not absolute errors; and even a perfect score may still flag warnings.

You can choose which categories you want to proof, as well as which flows you want to check; or you can turn the whole thing off if you’re sufficiently confident in your own abilities.

It’s worth noting here that the proofreading feature is fully enabled across all Dorico tiers, reflecting its particular potential to help less experienced users create more accurate scores.

Cycle playback

Looping a section of playback has been another frequent user request. Dorico now provides ‘Cycle Locators’ (as they are called in Cubase), which are markers for the start and end of a loop.

The Play menu now has a Locators submenu. With some notes or rests selected, click on Play > Locators > Set Cycle Locators From Selection.

You can also define the Start and End point individually, or you can drag the locators, though this can be a bit fiddly when they are at the same position. Note that the triangles point inward into the cycle area. Dorico makes sure that you can’t move the left-hand locator past the right-hand one.

A new button in the transport controls turns looping on and off (matching the design of Cubase). When looping is on, the locators will be colored purple. The View menu has an option to show or hide the locators. (They will always show during playback.) You can also see and move the locators in the Key Editor and in Play mode.

NB: Recording MIDI input while looping doesn’t work correctly in this version: it is planned for a future release.

Fill View

Dorico 6 introduces a new View style. In addition to Page View and Galley View, there is now Fill View. This is something of a halfway house between Galley and Page View, and accessed from the View menu or with Command/Ctrl+Opt/Alt+3 in Write mode.

The music is laid out to … fill (geddit?) … the width of the document window, however wide that may be. Changing the size of the window, or zooming in and out, will therefore affect the number of bars on a system. You can’t scroll horizontally, so each system is placed beneath the previous one. There’s a setting in Layout Options for the gap to the next system in Fill View.

Unlike Galley View, vertical spacing is applied to the system; so objects won’t collide between staves, and Staff Hiding will be applied, if used. System dividers are shown, if on. Condensing and Cutaway are not applied. Instrument Filters aren’t available.

The Release Notes suggest that Fill View is best suited to small ensembles. Because it always fills the window, your use may depend on the size and quality of your screen. On a 27” display, I can get between 12 and 20 bars across, and 12 to 18 staves down at a comfortable zoom size, with the panels all closed. Your mileage may, as they say, vary.

There are also commands to toggle the views between Page View and Galley View or between Page View and Fill View; and to cycle between all three views. You’ll need to assign your own shortcuts to these.

Rulers and grids

Dorico’s Engrave mode now has Rulers and a Grid, similar to those used in graphics programs.

The Engrave menu now has commands to turn on the Rulers and the Grid. When Rulers are active, the position of the mouse pointer is reflected in the rulers, showing the exact coordinate value.

The dimensions of the grid (including thicker lines every N lines) can be set in View > Grid Options, which comes with several styles of grid.

Bundled content

Dorico 6 comes with a new set of Marching Percussion samples, from Tapspace’s Virtual Drumline. There are four instruments: Basses, Cymbals, Snares and Tenors.

There are built-in percussion maps and Playback Templates for these. There are also updated versions of several of the bundled fonts: Academico, Sebastian, Nepomuk, and Golden Age. A new text font family is included, called Splentino, which is an open source version of Plantin.

(Editor’s note: Ben Byram-Wigfield, the author of this article, created Splentino — and he’s done a terrific job. It more closely resembles the metrics of the original metal Plantin typeface than the digital version that is released as “Plantin MT”, which is wider.)

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Functional improvements

There are a host of changes to existing notation features, which add flexibility and remove limitations in these areas.

Chord symbols

Leo Nicholson contributed to this section.

Chord symbols were introduced way back in Dorico 1.1, along with an extensive set of Engraving Options to govern their display. Early on we saw the introduction of the Chord Symbol Editor, allowing for manual adjustments to be made to individual chord symbols, and over the years Dorico has introduced functionality for Guitar Chord Diagrams, Capo chords, the ability to generate notes from chord symbols and chord symbols from notes; the list goes on.

All that said, Dorico’s handling of chord symbols has sometimes been looked upon as a little inflexible, and Dorico 6 changes this (for which cordial congratulations are in order).

Chord symbol rows

It’s now possible to show multiple rows of chord symbols, using functionality that will be familiar to anyone who’s entered multiple lines of lyrics in Dorico previously. From the chord symbol popover, press the up arrow on your keyboard to create a new line of chord symbols, or with a chord symbol selected adjust the Chord symbol line property in the lower zone.

Editing chord symbol appearances

As always, the first port of call for chord symbol customization should be in the Engraving Options dialog. But for anyone with more specific requirements in mind, the Chord Symbol Editor has had quite an overhaul. For a start, customizations to chord symbols can be promoted to all roots at once, dramatically cutting one’s workload.

Custom chord symbols

There’s also now the possibility to add your own chord symbols in Dorico. Type whatever you like into the field at the top left of the dialog, click the plus button, and, if it’s a chord symbol Dorico doesn’t recognize, it’ll prompt you to create a custom chord symbol.

You can start with an existing chord symbol definition (useful here as I’m creating a ø11 chord to break a rule that half diminished chords should be shown as 7(♭5)), or you can specify intervals from the root, click on the onscreen keyboard or play from a MIDI keyboard. The arrow buttons at the bottom transpose the whole chord down and up, and the speaker icon provides an audio preview.

Chord symbol kerning pairs

But if you double click on a chord within Engrave mode, you’ll be greeted with a new dialog rather than the Chord Symbols Editor you’re used to: the Chord Symbol Kerning Pairs dialog, also available from the Library menu.

Dorico has always built chord symbols using a text font combined with a SMuFL music font. Up to now the kerning table, which governs how the music and text components fit together, has been hard coded: it works very well for the default Academico and Bravura Text combo, but not necessarily so well for other font combinations.

The left side of the dialog lists the various default font combinations along with the combination set in the current project, and the plus icon at the bottom left allows you to generate kerning pairs for any other font combination.

The main editor works similarly to the Chord Symbols Editor: individual components can be dragged left and right, or adjusted with Opt/Alt+Left/Right Arrow, or with the numerical spin box in the bottom left corner, and you can jump between pairs of components using the left and right arrow keys or by clicking. Typing I or double clicking will allow adjustments within a stacked component or alteration, for instance altering the gap here between the flat and 9, and O or clicking the breadcrumb at the top will take you back.

The buttons at the top right allow you to methodically work through roots, qualities and intervals. Regardless of the chord symbol you’re editing, edits to a specific pair of components apply to all instances of that specific pair. See for instance how altering the gap between the 7 and ( in a Dm7(♭5) also affects the G7(♭9) above:

Chord symbols also get extender lines to reflect duration. As with Playing Techniques these can be shown by selecting a chord symbol and typing Shift+Opt/Alt+Right Arrow, which will extend by the current rhythmic grid value. The extender line style can be adjusted globally in Engraving Options or locally overridden in the lower zone.

Condensing for additional instruments

Up to now, Condensing would only be available to the first instrument held by a Player. Now, instrument changes can be also condensed. There is an option: Allow instrument changes on condensed staves in Layout Options > Players > Condensing. (Existing documents will stay as they are; new projects will have this on by default.)

Curved lines

Dorico’s Line Editor can now create curved lines; and it comes from the factory with left and right braces, and horizontal bowed arrows.

The Line Bodies editor now has a ‘Tapered Curves’ category, containing additional controls to define curves.

Horizontal Lines outside the staff now have a Property to Avoid Collisions, or not.

Tempo marks

Tempo Marks now use Paragraph Styles, rather than Font Styles. This allows scores and parts to have different sizes, as well as offering a wider range of options, like borders, letter spacing — and several new features (see below!).

There are styles for Immediate and Gradual Tempo Marks, and for the Metronome Mark text; and a new Character Style for Metronome Mark Music Text (e.g. the music symbols). Existing documents will be automatically converted to use the new styles.

This means it’s technically possible to create a tempo mark on two lines: for now, you’ll have to paste in two lines of text from elsewhere and paste it into the popover or Properties panel.

Engraving Options have been added to control whether ‘circa’ in metronome marks is in Roman or Italic style; and whether relative changes (meno mosso, a tempo) use the Immediate or Gradual Paragraph Style.

The popover syntax has been revised. Parentheses are used for metronome marks in parentheses; and square brackets are used to hide either the text or the mark. (This now matches the new syntax for playing techniques.) Editors wanting tempo text in square brackets will need to add those characters in the Properties panel. (Previously, parentheses created hidden marks.)

System-attached items

Some notation, like tempo marks, always appears on the top of a system, and optionally on the top of instrument groups, like Strings, or Brass. Dorico 6 now provides greater flexibility in how and where these items can appear. It is possible to specify exactly which Players have system objects, and which don’t, in Layout Options > Staves and Systems > System-attached items.

You can also convert Staff-attached text to System-attached text, using Edit > Notations > Text > Change Text to System Text. (Edit > Text … in right-click context menu.)

Large time signatures

Dorico has been able to create large time signatures for many years, but this version brings further capabilities. You can now choose to show large Time Signatures on the same staves as System-attached items. In Layout Options > Time Signatures, when “Show once per bracket” is selected, there is now a further set of interface controls:

You can show large time signatures once per bracketed group automatically; or you can create your own groups, and define the vertical alignment of the signature. Large Time Signatures now respect cautionary time signature options.

Text and fonts

Paragraph Styles now have controls to set the Case of text (e.g. All Caps, Initial Caps); and to define whether the text should appear above or below the staff by default. The Distance from the staff is now set in the Paragraph Styles dialog, not Engraving Options, as is a Horizontal Offset.

Dorico can now access OpenType Features, such as Small Caps, Old-style Numerals, Discretionary Ligatures, and the like. The available features in the font can be selected from a list, and added to the configuration of the Style. (Different fonts will have different features.) OpenType features can also be added to Font Styles.

You can now filter text by Paragraph style under Edit > Filter > Text Using Paragraph Style, which will bring up a dialog where you can select the style.

Dorico is a cross-platform app, and different OSes have different ways of listing fonts.

On Windows, all fonts are grouped together into ‘families’ that always have only four fixed styles: Regular, Italic, Bold and Bold Italic. Typefaces that have any other styles — e.g. Condensed, SemiBold, Black, Light, Extended — appear as separate families, each with its four styles. Windows will synthesize Bold and Italic styles for which no font file exists. On MacOS (and iOS), all available styles will appear together in one big family, so SemiCondensed Caption Italic and Regular are both styles of the same typeface. Styles for which there are no font files will not be synthesized.

Dorico 6 now follows the Mac scheme on any platform. This means that you can’t select a Bold style for a typeface that has no bold font file, such as Petaluma Script. It also makes moving projects between platforms (including the iPad) more reliable, and Dorico is now better at dealing with missing styles, particularly when the ‘parent’ typeface is changed in a cascading style. However, Windows users may have to redefine some extended styles in the Missing Fonts dialog when they first open a project — though Dorico will then ‘remember’ that choice for other projects with the same fonts.

Lyrics

Previously, if you needed to manually create a lyric extension line on a syllable that didn’t have one (e.g. for a passing note in another voice), it was a bit of a fiddle. Now you can simply ‘extend the duration’ of the syllable, by selecting it and using Shift+Opt/Alt+Right Arrow in Write mode, as you would to make any other object longer (using the current grid duration).

Similarly, if you want to hide an extension line, you can just make it shorter, until there’s nothing left (but the letters!). You can also drag the circular handle on the end in Write mode.

Moving lyric syllables with Opt/Alt+Left/Right arrows will move them to the next note, rather than along the grid. They can also be dragged with the mouse.

Flow heading overrides

Since Dorico 2.2 it has been possible to change the Flow Heading template at any point in a document; but that change would apply to all Flows on the same page. Now, it is possible to set Flow Heading templates per-Flow, for a given a Layout. There is a new Flow Heading Overrides menu command in Setup mode, that applies to a given Layout. (In the same way as Clef and Transposition Overrides does.) Flow Heading Overrides can be transferred to other layouts using Propagate Part Formatting.

Parenthesized Playing Techniques

All Playing Techniques now have a parenthesis property, and you can create parenthesized versions in the popover, such as (pizz.). Hidden techniques can be created with square brackets, e.g. [pizz.]. (This now matches the similar syntax for tempo marks.)

You can add parentheses to any existing technique by setting the switch in the Properties panel. Individual Playing Techniques can now be assigned their own key shortcut, making it quicker to apply your favorite techniques, without going through the popover.

In application Preferences > Key Commands, all Playing Techniques (saved as defaults) are now listed under Note Input > Create Playing Technique. Of course, you can use the search bar to find them.

There is now an Engraving option to show Playing techniques on every notehead in a series of ties, and an option to control the appearance of playing techniques in Slash Regions. This can be overridden in the Properties panel.

Staff Labels outside the frame

It is now possible to set staff labels to be outside the music frame, ensuring that the music systems are always at a consistent position. Layout Options > Staves and Systems has a new option: set Position staff labels to Outside music frame.

You can also double-click on a Staff Label (or Player Label, or Player Group Label), to edit its name in Write mode. Or press Enter when it’s selected.)

There is a new Engraving Option to control the size of Staff Labels on staves that are scaled. (Engraving Options > Staff Labels > Scale.)

Player Group Labels

Layout Options > Staves and Systems now has a setting to show Player Group Labels “Always, When Staff Labels are shown, or Never”. And you can show or hide Player Group Labels in the Properties of any System or Frame Break. There are also improvements to the positioning of Player Group Labels, so that they can tuck inside long player names that are not in any group.

MIDI import/export – Lyrics

Dorico now imports and exports lyrics in MIDI files. Technically, lyrics in MIDI files are just additional metadata, and there’s no agreed standard for their implementation.

Multi-staff note input with Instrument Filters

Note input on multiple staves now respects Instrument Filters in Galley View: so you can, for example, create a Filter of Woodwind first players, input their notes as chords; and the second desks of each instrument will be unaffected.

Additional settings in Options

In Dorico, the existence of a setting in one of the Options dialogs can avoid a lot of manual work.

• Bar numbers at the start of a system can be centred on the barline. (Layout Options > Barlines.)
• There’s a new Engraving Option for beams to allow extra space for accidentals within the beamed group.
• And a Notation Option for Beaming across beats on tied notes, or not.
• There’s a new Harmonics section in Engraving Options, which has an option for whether harmonics are displayed on every note of a tie, or just the first one.
• The Ornaments section of Engraving Options has a new setting: Horizontal offset for trill mark. This allows those with an exacting eye to align the trill symbol of different fonts just so.
• Harp Pedals has a new option for the order in which left and right pedals are displayed.
• Layout Options > Players > Instrument Changes now has an option to show only the change in transposition for the same type of instrument. E.g. “in A, in Bb”, rather than “Clarinet in A”.

There’s an application preference to suspend MIDI input when Dorico is in the background, so that you can’t do impromptu note entry while switched to another application.

Additional commands

When working with tablature, there are two new commands, Move to String Above and Move to String Below, which can be triggered by assigning key commands or using the Jump Bar. Another new command is Delete Initial Clefs, which deletes manually applied clefs at the start of every flow. Normally, the initial clef is a property of the instrument, and cannot be selected, unless you replace it with a manual clef. XML files from Finale often come in with these additional manual clefs. While they have no effect on the printed page, you may want to tidy things up by removing them. (They can prevent Layout: Clef Overrides.) The command can be accessed from the Jump Bar, or by assigning a key shortcut to it in the Preferences dialog.

Tuplets

Tuplet brackets can now be ‘nudged’ with Opt/Alt+Left/Right Arrows; and the numeral’s position can be adjusted using the X offset Property.

Video

Dorico can now handle 8K video — if your computer can cope with the necessary processing. Color management has been improved on HDR video.

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Interface improvements

Dorico’s whole user interface scheme has been revised and redesigned. Controls showing numbers are wider; lists and grids have had their intensity and prominence reduced.  There are also several changes that make Dorico easier to work with, improve productivity, and help novice users.

Working with tokens

Sometimes, users might try double-clicking on the title, in an attempt to change its text. But double-clicking on a text frame edits the frame itself, rather than changing the value of the token, which is found in Project Info. Now, if you click on a Text Frame that contains a text token, Dorico will ask you if you want to edit the token info (in Project Info), or the frame itself.

As you can see, you can dismiss this warning and never show it again; but it is useful in guiding people to the right parts of the program for what they want to do. (As mentioned earlier, double-clicking on a Staff Label will bring you straight to the editor where you can change its name.)

Token placeholders

Where a token has no value, e.g., an empty copyright field, you can choose to show an on-screen placeholder, to remind you that the token is there. (This will not affect print-out or graphic export.) These can be shown or hidden using the View menu or View Options dialog.

There are some new Instrument List tokens, which will display all the instruments in a layout.

Finding font styles

“Which font style does this object use?” is oft-asked question. If you want to change the font style of an object, select it, and in the right-click contextual menu, click Edit Font…, to be taken directly to the relevant Paragraph or Font Style.

Handles and popovers

Handles — little rectangles and circles used as control points for moving the position of objects in Write and Engrave mode — have been improved. They are now smaller, and stay small at any zoom level, so they don’t completely overwhelm the object at high zoom.

Popover position

Popovers can now be dragged vertically, so that if they obscure some relevant notation, you can adjust their position. The position is saved for the app. There is also an anchor that shows exactly on which beat position the popover applies. There are also relevant controls for assigning lyric voices, staff-side positioning, and local or global notation.

Music Symbols Editor

The interface of the Music Symbols editor has been revised for better ease of use. The same dialog is used in a number of different places – Notehead Sets, Tonality, Playing Techniques, Chord Symbols etc.

There’s an information panel, which shows the SMuFL info for the selected glyph, including the font used.  A more relevant SMuFL range is selected by default, depending on the context. Lengthy drop-down lists can be filter-searched. There is now only one field for scaling elements; though graphics can be scaled independently.

Percussion Maps Editor

The Percussion Maps editor has also been revised for better ease of use. Selected rows in the Drum Kit Note Map can be copied and pasted; and you don’t have to press “Apply” all the time. The Instrument Editor now remembers rich text styling in custom instrument names; and you can save custom tunings for fretted instruments with any name.

Text editors

Dorico’s ‘rich text’ editor dialogs — for example, Edit Instrument Name, Edit Divisi, Edit Single Lyric — now all use the same standard shortcuts that are found when editing text objects and text frames. E.g. Cmd/Ctrl+B for Bold; Cmd/Ctrl+I for Italic; Cmd/Ctrl+U for underline; Cmd/Ctrl+Shift , and . (comma and period) to decrease or increase the font size. Also Opt/Alt+X to insert a music symbol. Font selectors now contain a search filter, so you can type a few letters to home in on your choice, in lengthy lists.

In any dialog where the Return key is used to create a new line within a block of text, the OK button can be triggered by pressing Cmd/Ctrl+Return.

Properties and selections

A personal favorite. Previously, when you selected more than one type of object, you would only see the properties that were common to all of them in the lower panel. This was invariably very few. Now, there’s an application preference to show all the available properties for all the selected objects! (Under Preferences > Note Input and Editing > Properties.)

So, if you select Notes, Slurs and Lyrics, you will see all the properties of all those elements. Essentially, this means you don’t have to filter the selection by type before seeing its properties. Applying a property only affects the elements that have that property, obviously. Even without this setting turned on, selections of notes that include grace notes, tuplets and rests will show all the properties for all of those items, without the need for filtering.

Also, when any selection that contains text objects is copied to the pasteboard, the text will available to be pasted, e.g. into a word processor. If the selection contains lyrics (but no other text items), the lyrics will be available on the pasteboard. (Previously, if you wanted to copy lyrics, you would have to filter the lyrics first.) If the selection contains lyrics and text objects, only the text objects will be copied to the pasteboard.

Options from the Jump Bar

You can now search for options directly in the Jump Bar. So, if you can’t remember where an option is (or even what options are available), you get a list in the Jump Bar; and even change the setting right there.

You need to press Enter after making the change for it to take effect. Opt/Alt+Enter will take you to the relevant Options dialog.

Status bar

The status bar in the bottom frame of the document window now provides more information about selected objects, showing the page or page range, and timecode position or range.

View Options

There is now a View Options dialog in the View menu, where you can set the status of various on-screen ‘invisibles’: note and accidental colors, bar numbers in each View, the system track, cycle locators; and all the other View menu options.

You can also save your choices as defaults. These will apply to new documents: existing documents will stay as they have been set, until you apply the options. Command/Ctrl+Shift+V will open it.

In addition, there’s a View button in the top panel, which allows you to show or hide the Tab bar, Cycle Locators, the System Track, and Signposts. (I suspect this will be very useful on the iPad version.)

The View menu (and the View Options dialog) now has a toggle for ‘Contradictory Accidentals’, which are different accidentals in different octaves. These can be set to appear in a color, to make them stand out while editing. In application Preferences, Dorico can be set to follow the OS’s setting for Light or Dark interface colors, whatever that may be.

Hub — What’s New?

Dorico even removes the drudgery of having to read this review (“Too late”), with a “What’s New” tab in the Hub, which provides links to documentation and videos covering the new features in this release.

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Housekeeping

• The File menu now has commands to import and export all your user settings, so that you can transfer your saved defaults, preferences, templates, scripts and other data to another computer. You can also backup your own settings, in case you spoil them.
• Your choice of options (format, resolution, transparency) for Graphic Slices can be saved as a default. Slices are now sorted in a more natural order.
• The Library Manager can now import Notation Options into all Flows and Layout Options into all Layouts.
• Dorico now waits for the VST Audio Engine process to quit before quitting itself; thus preventing any problems on relaunch.
• Improvements have been made to the data that Dorico exports as MusicXML. There is now a section in application Preferences for MusicXML Export settings. Exporting to different applications may require different settings for best results.

Miscellany

There are all kinds of small improvements that add a bit of polish. Here are but a few:

• When you save a file for the first time, the filename will automatically be set to the Project title, instead of “Untitled”.
• Trills whose symbol and line are both hidden will now show as a Signpost.
• Moving to a new flow using Dorico’s Go To navigation commands will also move the playhead to that flow.
• There’s a new command in the Play menu to Hide All VST Windows.

To top it off, there are a great many bug fixes.

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The rest of the story

Related links

Daniel Spreadbury has written up the news of the Dorico 6 release on the official Dorico blog.

There is a series of new video tutorials about Dorico 6 created by Steinberg’s Anthony Hughes, available on the official Dorico YouTube channel, which demonstrate many of the features and improvements you’ve read about in this review.

If you’re reading this post first thing on April 30 and want to catch the official live-stream announcement from Steinberg, it will be broadcast at 1 pm BST / 2 pm CET / 8 am EDT / 5 am PDT, and available later on-demand. The German-language live-stream announcement will also occur at that time.

Here’s the official product page, summarizing what’s new in Dorico 6.

The Dorico version history meticulously details the changes in Dorico 6.

Availability, upgrading, trial version, pricing

You can purchase Dorico from the official Dorico web site, or from an authorized reseller.

Upgrading to Dorico 6

Dorico 6 will not overwrite Dorico 5 or any other version of Dorico, and the two versions mostly coexist peacefully on the same machine. However, you shouldn’t have both versions open at the same time.

The Dorico 5 installer will copy over your settings in your Dorico 5 user application folder. For instance, any custom shortcuts you’ve created from Dorico 5 will transfer over seamlessly to Dorico 6.

You can open Dorico 6 files in earlier Dorico versions, although any unsupported feature will be removed.

Dorico 6 system requirements

Apple silicon native

Dorico supports Apple silicon Macs. If you have an Apple silicon Mac, Dorico will run as a native application by default. However, if you use VST plug-ins, Dorico can only load VST plug-ins that can run natively on Apple silicon as well, and these must be VST 3 (there is no support for VST 2 plug-ins on Apple silicon). It is possible to force Dorico 6 to run under Rosetta 2 on Apple Silicon, which will allow VST 2 and Intel-native plug-ins to be loaded, though at the expense of slower overall performance.

Mac:

• Mac OS X 12 Monterey and higher
• Multi-core Intel or Apple silicon 64-bit CPU (quad-core CPU or better recommended)
• 8GB RAM (16GB RAM or better recommended)
• 12GB hard disk space (SSD recommended)

Windows:

• 64-bit Windows 10 update 21H2 or later, 64-bit Windows 11 update 21H2 or better
• Multi-core Intel or AMD 64-bit CPU (quad-core CPU or better recommended)
• 8GB RAM (16GB RAM or better recommended)
• 12GB hard disk space (SSD recommended)

iPad:

• iPadOS 16.0 or later

An Internet connection is required both to download and activate the software. Documentation is also online, but you can download a PDF for offline viewing from steinberg.help. No Internet connection is required after initial activation to use the software.

Trial availability

The 60-day unrestricted trial version of Dorico 6 is available now.

Dorico SE 6 is available now, and any existing Dorico SE users can just go and request a new download of Dorico SE 6 to get the new version, which is possible to activate on up to three computers.

Suggested retail pricing in USD and Euros

All US prices are exclusive of state sales tax; Euro prices are inclusive of German VAT at 19%; actual prices vary per country, and you should check the Steinberg online shop or your local reseller for the price you will pay.

New licenses

• Dorico Pro 6 – $579.99 / €579
• Dorico Pro 6 Educational – $359.99 / €359 (you need to qualify for Steinberg’s educational pricing: teachers, educators, currently enrolled full-time students of universities; currently enrolled full-time students and teachers at public and private music schools and the SAE Institutes)
• Dorico Pro 6 Crossgrade from Sibelius or Capella  – $299.99 / €299 (Proof of ownership of Sibelius or Capella required)
• Dorico Pro 6 Crossgrade from Finale – $149.00, directly from MakeMusic
• Dorico Pro 6 Educational Crossgrade from Sibelius or Capella – $179.99 / €179; (Proof of ownership of Sibelius or Capella required as well as qualifying for Steinberg’s educational pricing)
• Dorico Elements 6 – $99.99 / €99.99
• Dorico Elements 6 Educational – $66.99 / €66.99
• Dorico SE 6 – free

Updates

An “update”, in Steinberg-speak, is when you get the most recent version of the same product tier that you currently have (i.e., an update from Dorico Pro 5 to Dorico 6).

• Dorico Pro 6 from Dorico Pro 5 – $99.99 / €99.99
• Dorico Pro 6 from Dorico Pro 4 – $199.99 / €199.99
• Dorico Pro 6 from Dorico Pro 3.5 or earlier – $249.99 / €249.99
• Dorico Elements 6 from Dorico Elements 5 – $29.99 / €29.99
• Dorico Elements 6 from Dorico Elements 4 or earlier – $39.99 / €39.99

Grace period

If you first activated your existing Dorico Pro 5 or Dorico Elements 5 license on or after March 27, 2025, you are entitled to a free grace period update to Dorico Pro 6 or Dorico Elements 6. If you think this applies to you, sign in to Steinberg’s self-service portal using your Steinberg ID and click Vouchers. If you are eligible for a grace period update to Dorico 6, you will find it listed there: click Redeem to activate the license in your account.

Upgrades

An “upgrade”, in Steinberg-speak, is when you upgrade to a higher product tier than the one that you currently have (i.e., an upgrade from Dorico Elements 6 to Dorico Pro 6). An upgrade might also encompass an update (i.e, from Dorico Elements 5 to Dorico Pro 6).

• Dorico Pro 6 from Dorico Elements 6 or 6 – $479.99 / €479
• Dorico Pro 6 from Dorico Elements 4 or earlier – $499.99 / €499
• Dorico Elements 6 from Dorico SE – $74.99 / €74.99

Multi-user licenses

Multi-user pricing for educational institutions is also available; schools, colleges and universities can buy multi-user licenses directly from the Steinberg online shop if they can pay with a credit card; otherwise, they can take advantage of Steinberg’s network of authorized resellers.

• Dorico Pro 6 multi-user license: $139.99 / €139.99 per seat, minimum order quantity of 5 seats
• Dorico Pro 6 crossgrade multi-user license: $69.99 / €69.99 per seat, minimum order quantity of 5 seats

Notation Express for Dorico

If you use Notation Express for Dorico 5, you should be able to use it just the same in Dorico 6, although you may need to update your Stream Deck’s preferences to switch to the Notation Express for Dorico profile when you bring Dorico 6 to the foreground instead of Dorico 5; you can do this in your Stream Deck Preferences > Profiles > Notation Express (or Notation Express XL) for Dorico 5; select Dorico 6 (it may just be called Dorico).

In time we will issue an update to Notation Express to take advantage of additional features in Dorico 6.

You may also need to re-authorize the connection between the Notation Express Stream Deck plug-in and Dorico, by clicking OK on the pop-up that appears once, when asked: “Allow remote connection for remote control from ‘Notation Express Stream Deck Plugin for Dorico’?”

Scoring Express for Dorico

If you already use the latest versions of the Scoring Express templates for Dorico 5, you should be able to use them just the same in Dorico Pro 6. Upon installing Dorico Pro 6, the Dorico installer will copy over all of the templates into the Dorico 6 application support folder, so that they appear in the Hub and when starting a new document from File > New From Project Template….

New installations of Scoring Express and Dorico Pro 6 will find that the templates don’t yet appear in the Dorico 6 Hub or in File > New From Project Template…. However, you can still find them in your computer user folder, Documents/Scores/Scoring Express Dorico.

In the near future we will update Scoring Express so that the templates appear in the Dorico Pro 6 Hub and in the File menu, as well as to take advantage of additional features in Dorico 6.

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Summary

Dorico’s stated intention has always been to reduce the manual work — which computers ought to be doing — so that users can concentrate on the music itself. In its eight-and-a-half years, Dorico has produced several ground-breaking and innovative features which automate processes that would otherwise be tedious or prone to error. This continues with Dorico 6.

Fully automatic cutaway scores is a first in any notation app; and Dorico’s implementation has uses in all kinds of scenarios beyond Penderecki and friends. Some may remember a blog post by Daniel Spreadbury in 2017, showing off the page layout capabilities of Dorico version 1.0 with frames and flows, to create a set of Anglican Choral Responses. It was an impressive demonstration, but it required a lot of manual labor.

By comparison, I can now produce a similarly designed score in a single flow, just by turning on Cutaway (and the judicious use of some Codas and Breaks).

Although many notation apps have had the ability to make a few checks on the score (like bars with an incorrect duration), the scale and scope of Dorico’s Proofreading is unrivaled. If it needs saying, this is not ‘AI’ – it is simply a benefit of Dorico’s semantic approach to notation data. It doesn’t get in your way, like some modern-day Clippy; and I’m sure that many people will find it a massive help.

Beyond the headline features, there’s almost certainly something in version 6 that every Dorico user can check off their wish list. Every area of notation has had limitations removed and new functions added. Plus, there’s some nice ‘quality of life’ interface refinements that make workflows faster and easier.

Dorico has been chock-full of regular updates out of the gate. On average, the “major” paid updates have come every two years, with smaller but still meaningful releases coming every few months in between, free of charge to users running the latest version. Although past isn’t always prologue, it’s reasonable to assume that Dorico 6.0 will have similar successors as we hurtle towards Dorico’s tenth year in existence. For this reason, regardless of the timing of when one purchases a Dorico license or update, it always represents an excellent value.

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Learn more

For the latest information about compatibility for Sibelius, Dorico, and MuseScore, as well as links to the latest news and reviews about product releases, please see the Scoring Notes Product Guide.