I Gotta Say...Lighten Up Guys!

I realize many are disappointed Dorico doesn’t do everything that their previous notation software does/did. I’m just wondering (literally) at the cries of disappointment and calling it “beta” and even “alpha”-ware.

Anyone following the blog posts for the last few years would know this is very much a work-in-progress, initial release version 1.0.0.0.0.0

There’ll be bugs, problems, glitches, and admitted lack of functionality that will be fixed/added as time goes on. No company produces mature, finished software in a 1.0 release - nobody.

Even your beloved Sibelius (of which I am a huge fan) had TONS of glitches and problems, some of which persisted for generations of the software. As in, YEARS!!! Took me so long to get playback to work without glitches I can’t even tell you!!!

And don’t get me started on Finale!!! Wow, it took a science degree and the patience of a saint to get ANYTHING working on it (ask me how I felt about it in 1993!). It took at least a decade before I felt it began to approach usability, and to my taste/workflow it still doesn’t.

So…with all due respect, please lighten up! Give the Dorico team some credit and faith, and don’t expect the world on a platter so early. I get that y’all want your pet features implemented or “it’s totally worthless to me as it is and I want my money back” but maybe you should have verified that the feature you needed so badly was available before purchasing? Read some blog posts? Realize this is a brand newborn baby and don’t expect it to fly just yet. And don’t abandon your existing workflow yet either - learn Dorico alongside. All new sw has a learning curve, and it just might be that your pet feature actually is implemented but you haven’t discovered it yet!

Yes I get you spent your hard-earned money on it yada yada yada, but give the baby some breathing room. Indeed you ARE crowdfunding the development of Dorico, just as you have with every other piece of software you ever used, whether you realize it or not.

Sorry for the rant but I’m a bit shocked at some of the sentiments here. Remember, this team gave us Sibelius! More goodness to come!!!

Mike

+1

I’m an Finale user since 1993. I’m very happy to see what Dorico can do now and how it is build. Giving positive feedback to Daniel and his team and waiting for what is coming in the next updates.

You may be right, but Steinberg shouldn’t have released it at this early stage.
Too many basic functions are missing.And the list is very long.
I am providing music cues to my clients almost every day, and I don’t tell them:“look, this is my piece, normally you should hear an orchestra playing, but at the moment we only have a piano, so please use it in your movie and pay me for it, I will provide the full orchestra later.”

Or the car dealer telling his client:“look, this car is brand new, but at the moment you can’t drive, we are working on that, but hey, the air condition is pretty good already!”

What I mean to say is that Steinberg should sell Dorico at a much lower price, as soon as it is stable and developed you can buy a full license at the full price.

I am with you on this. But still I have to say, at this point I wouldn’t work productive with this software. (There should be an auto-save, so when Dorico crashes not all is lost)
I think, now it is time to make yourself familiar with the software and the workflow and hopefully in a month with the first update it is ready for productive work.

I think it’s a good move to release it now, but maybe it would have been smarter to say that if you preorder and prepay it now, you’ll get access to a pre-release if you want (in which case it should have been called 0.9 instead of 1.0).

Some guys expressed it perfectly. It seems that Steinberg has treated us as crowd-funders :frowning: I feel like a cash cow and its like Steinberg has tricked me.

And again, I’m not blaming the developers, the old Sibelius team. I’m sure that they’re working like beasts, with an incredible pressure. I’m blaming Steinberg and their management team because their willing to make cash before releasing something stable enough and calling it 1.0. Moreover when they say Dorico “redefines the gold standard”. To redefine something Dorico should be able to do, at least, flawlessly the same things that Sibelius does.

I feel like we’re walking backwards.

Hopefully in some months (years?) the software will be ready to use in a professional environment, and hopefully Steinberg decides to make free updates when this happens. But I’m afraid that they’ll charge to their crowd funders, us, again.

I must say I do see your points, all. The note input via keyboard has not been intuitive for me so far. Frustrating, and I’m hoping it gets better.

I appreciated Alroli’s comment about not blaming the Sibelius team, and if it’s supposed to be the “gold standard” then yes it should do what previous attempts at same also do, better. Let’s hope it gets there soon. This team has hearts of gold.

My sentiments (mostly) as well. Most of the problems I have are with relearning key functions and work flow (my SOP with Finale doesn’t quite translate to Dorico); indeed, it’s moving from the old mindset of plugging in music already composed to, as they tout it, the mindset of composing into the program. When I remind myself to think like that, many things click into place much better.

That said, I think it is important for everyone to let the Dorico team know what issues we are having, so they know what to at least consider for future improvements. (Though if I have to see another thing about chord symbols not being available…Gott im Himmel, everyone has known this for months!)

I find some of the negative comments about Dorico extremely depressing and totally unwarranted.

The people complaining seem to be disappointed that it doesn’t do what the program they are familiar with already does. If this is the case, they can carry on using the program that has served them up until now.

The only thing they will have lost is their money, which they shouldn’t have parted with until they knew what they were buying.

Somebody higher up used the analogy of manufacturers producing a car which didn’t have all the bells and whistles expected. All I can say is that when I buy a car I do a LOT of research first.

I agree ChrisC, and I do see the other side. There are a lot of “basic functionality” features missing. If it was a car you might have the brakes and gas working. No turn signals. Etc. I might not think to research if the car had turn signals, as it’s an expected basic feature. And the splash screen says “Advanced Notation Software.” Would an advanced car not have turn signals?

However again, this is version 1.00 and we know that going in. It will come up rapidly. I think the hard work poured into the back end of this program will make it mindblowingly powerful in the upcoming months/years.

Another very real point is that the old ways of doing things are passing away. Sibelius feels effectively dead to me. The new “features” they have added in the last 2-3 years have been complete non-starters to me. The “upgrades” not worth even bothering with - very, very lightweight. In fact I’ve been shocked at how few new features they have added, to the point you get the feeling they are babysitting it until it croaks. That’s how it feels to me.

If Sibelius is effectively killed, and Finale has the horrendous workflow that we’ve all come to either love or hate, that leaves us either with stripped down freebie software or non-standard notation programs that may not be up to the job. Aside of Notation, which I could never get into, Dorico fills a much-needed gap.

While I do sympathize with Daniel and the team, and while this program is going in a very promising direction, paying $650 for a practically unusable piece of software is not something to “lighten up” about.

This software is in no way capable dealing with actual delivery of projects.
It responds too slow. Some basic features like piano pedalling, or transposition do not exist. cues can not be created, and the list is very long.

It is a very very promising and cool piece of software, that should cost $30 at its current state, not $650
Wish I could get a refund.

Well not to waffle, but I have to agree with you MichaelSel. It’s a tough situation for many.

It’s been nearly four years of extremely clear and honest communication. I’m sincerely baffled how someone can feel surprised about the way the software shipped.

Agreed LSalgueiro. After attempting to use it for awhile I do see what the naysayers are saying. So far it’s not living up to intuitive or easy to use or even nearly up to the level of my old programs, and that’s with baby tiny scores. And yes 4 years of blogs but that still doesn’t prepare one for the actuality. As I mentioned, you might expect an advanced car to have turn signals. You’d be surprised if it didn’t, right? You might not even research if it had one or not, right?

In any case, really, this is an early early release and this is early days. I respect everyone’s opinion so far, as everyone has a valid viewpoint.

I’m sure it will get much better. There’s a lot of cool stuff here too already.

But, of course, if you buy a driverless car, the controls may be vastly different form what one is used to.

So yes, some essential functions still need to be implemented, but other complaints stem from trying to use a program based on new concepts as if it were an older style program.

I’ll agree that expecting Dorico’s input modes to function in the same way as other (older) software models isn’t practical, and I’m absolutely looking forward to learning a more intuitive or flow-based system… BUT

I really feel that Steinberg (again definitely not laying this on the development team) should have called this a pre-release or beta version for the early birds (as mentioned above), or at the very least been much more explicit on what features/aspects won’t function at this time, and when we can expect them (at least generally). I just shelled out a significant amount of money for a notation program that at the moment cannot even handle my most basic scores…

So instead of enjoying the new (highly anticipated) software, or feeling like I’ve invested in a testing process to help improve the software based on user feedback, I’m trudging back over to Sibelius disappointed and feeling like Steinberg pulled the rug from under me.

Im really kind of surprised and yes, disappointed at much of this thread. Daniel and team have been exemplary in their complete honesty about what Version 1 would, and WOULDNT contain. No hidden secrets–EVERYTHING has been out in the open, frank and honest, repeated MANY times for all to see.

And I feel that to expect the first version of this completely new program, Dorico, (which is roughly only 4 years old, and just released a day ago) to have “a comparable feature set” to either Sib (first released in April 1993, so is 23 yrs old) or Fin (released 1988, which is 28 yrs old) old is really not very realistic.

Or fair.

Those using Sibelius have recently seen what happens when ‘features’ are rushed out half baked and unfinished, whether due to meeting a subscription plan schedule, or otherwise, and it really isn’t pretty.

I for one support Dorico, and the team behind it, and Steinberg for financing it. And I most heartily praise and congratulate them all on Dorico’s release and look very much forward to getting proficient with it, and leaving my present notation software behind. Im awaiting approval of my crossgrade proof, and honestly cant wait to get my hands on it.

Dorico is the way to go :smiley:

Thanks Bob

I’m a little surprised at some of the posts above. Let’s back up for a second.

  1. Daniel has been blogging and posting extensively over the past 3 1/2 years about what they have been doing, and what to expect from the program, and maybe more importantly, what NOT to expect in the first release.

  2. Daniel has been very clear about exactly what features would not be included. Without limitation, I list some of those features here:

a. no first and second endings
b. no chord symbols
c. no import of videos
d. no time code
e. no hit points

and there’s much more.

  1. When you buy a piece of software, unless there is a trial period (which there will be, 30 days from now) it’s always final. So you check out the specs, and FAQs, and make sure it’s working for you.

  2. If in doubt, you just try out the demo.

The product has only been released a few days … it will take time to get used to the new functionality, if you are coming from Sibelius or Finale. Give it some time.