There is a book that was rather famous in Silicon Valley during the 90s called “Accidental Empires”. The thesis of the book was that some of the most successful companies actually missed the mark they were really shooting at, but ended up with something better, at least partly by accident. Their instincts put them in the right ballpark, but the real prize was different from what they thought it was. That is not to say that Bill Gates and Andy Grove were bumbling dummies who did everything wrong, yet just happened to stumble into success. Quite the opposite, they were people of great vision and instinct, but just didn’t have their marketing radar fully calibrated. Their instincts got them close enough for the market to bring them the rest of the way.
That is the vibe I get from Dorico. Clearly the core team has been really focused on making a fundamental, generational step forward in how we go about building and expressing the notation. And nobody denies those advances will be most welcome. But it is does seem to be an accident of history that the product will be married to DAW technology, more-or-less from the ground up, like it or not. THIS, I believe, will prove to be the real breakthrough in the end.
Dorico won’t end up there in the first release, but I hope there will be enough in the first release for the whole team to start to realize the power that can come from marrying notation and production much more seamlessly.