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Major new version for iPad - Dorico 5
Before you think I've lost my sanity (at least when it comes to numeracy), last week when the DAW world had its gaze firmly fixed in the direction of Logic Pro, the Dorico team launched a major new edition of Dorico upon the world, that being - Dorico 5.
Dorico was launched on the iPad in July 2021, so a shade under two years ago. And until last Tuesday, the version number stood at 2.5.3 - however, with Dorico 5, the team has decided to unify the versioning across desktop and iPadOS, which, I believe, is far less confusing.
Daniel Spreadbury, the Product Manager/Owner would usually announce such things here on the Audiobus forum, but last week required a Herculean effort from Daniel and his team to manage the launch of Dorico 5 for desktop alone. Plus, as some of you are aware, Dorico uses the audio engine from Cubasis, so with Cubasis due a new major version release in the near future, certain aspects of Dorico may change when Cubasis 4 is launched (I'm guessing this, going by the historic links between the two Steinberg iPad products).
The Dorico 5 Version History alert on the App Store simply states:
This update contains fixes and features designed to improve your experience working with Dorico for iPad.
Which must go down as the most understated major new version release notes, even for an awfully polite Englishman. 
I haven't alerted Daniel to this post (but will), so some of what I state may not be as factual as I'd ideally hope, but I'll say very little to minimise that risk.
Whilst most of the Audiobus community have more of an affinity with the world of DAWs, there is a smaller segment that use Notation Apps. Until the launch of Dorico and Sibelius on Apple devices, I'd position the two main App choices to be StaffPad at the pro end of the spectrum, with Notion being the accessible, affordable option. And they're both great apps (I know first-hand with StaffPad, and Notion by reputation). But over the last two years, both Dorico and Sibelius have gained a significant and loyal base of regular users. And let's not forget that forScore is year-on-year the biggest seller within the iOS Music category, so there's definitely a market for sheet music related Apps.
To cut to the chase, why do I feel Dorico 5 for iPad is worthy of your attention if you happen to be a user of Notation apps, it's simple? With Dorico 5, the iPad finally includes the critical desktop playback options that power less regimented, human playback, and this is so much more than swing/groove quantise.
With the free desktop option, MuseScore, having such a stellar v4 release, including its lush sound library that's developed in tandem with stable-mates StaffPad (even as a Dorico user I have MuseScore installed on multiple desktop OS's). Dorico has upped the anti considerably with regard to the number of players you get with the free versions of Dorico on the desktop and iPad. It now starts at 8 players without a free Steinberg account login, and goes up to 12 should you take advantage of using a Steinberg login. If you subscribe (starting at £3.49 a month on the UK App Store), you get unlimited players.
There are a couple of minor personal disappointments with Dorico 5 for iPad, and that's that the Dorico team haven't as yet done a deal with the developer of NotePerformer to provide an iPad exclusive AI orchestration engine (or something similar). And there's still no simple looped playback (which is surprising, as it's been a constant feature request, and was included with Sibelius for a good number of years before the same team created Dorico). I don't class either of these as major bugbears as 1.) looping can be achieved via various score markings, and 2.) Dorico for iPad is significantly easier to use in a free-form manner with AU instruments/FX than Dorico desktop.
At the very least, it's worth installing Dorico simply to use the (time unlimited) free player options. You'll, of course, not get all the features that a subscription or lifetime licence provides, but unless notation workflows are central to your musical universe, you'll probably not miss the pro features. I would have thought that the humanised playback won't be part of the free version, but you can certainly test the feature during a trial period. I think that alone is worth £3.49 per month, but you'll decide that for yourself.
Check out the links below for the full details. The first link is particularly useful, as it details all the new features mapped to each Dorico version. I'm sure there will be more announcements specific to the iPad version of Dorico in the near future. If past behaviour is anything to go by, this is usually 6 to12 weeks after the desktop launch.
Please don't hesitate to post any questions here, and I'll do my best to answer, but failing that, the post launch craziness has settled down over on the main Dorico forum - and Daniel/team are always super responsive. The last link is the forum, which uses your Steinberg login should you wish to post questions.
https://www.steinberg.net/dorico/new-features/
https://blog.dorico.com/2023/05/dorico-5-create-music-that-moves/
Comments
Nice, I look forward to trying it out. I never quite got my Dorico set up in a way that made it more efficient than using the MTS note input, but it certainly offered more features. Any news on whether the lifetime unlock will apply to v5, or whether articulations are going to be more functional?
Edit: silly me, I hadn’t clicked that it already upgraded to v5. As you say, an understated release note!
I stick to the £3.49 option as you never know what's coming around the corner. But I want to get the skinny on the Lifetime unlock myself as it's unclear if Lifetime means lifetime or life of the current version. The price of the Lifetime unlock is far lower now (but still more than Dorico Elements on the desktop). If logic applies, it should unlock v5 too, but logic doesn't always apply with Steinberg.
One other significant change to Dorico 5 which makes most sense to iPadOS users is that note entry and editing is now free-form with 3rd party stylus, Apple Pencil or finger (very MuseScore, I don't mind saying). Dorico has historically featured very keyboard-centric note entry and editing. This makes total sense on a laptop or desktop but less so with an iPad. Now, you're free to enter notes exactly as you prefer, rather than being directed towards the ordained 'correct way'.. As a StaffPad user, I now prefer Pencil entry in Dorico. StaffPad has a wonderful sound library (for a price) but the note entry reminds me too much of wrestling with Graffiti on PalmPilot's back in the day...
I will be trying out the new pencil input later on this evening. If they have managed to get this to be as good or better than the way MTS does it then I will be very happy and it will make up for Logic iPad not including the Score Editor
The StaffPad entry system is not conducive to getting in the flow, even once you get reasonably proficient with it.
I did grab the lifetime unlock when it last went on sale and can confirm that I have v5, so Lifetime means Lifetime, so far anyway. Enabled pitch contour emphasis and did not get prompted to purchase anything new.
I agree that the new dynamic options look incredible, and worth taking a peek at even if you aren’t working with notation:
I have a piano piece I wrote recently and was dreading adding dynamics to it manually so this might be just the ticket.
As it happens, I find the humanisation features really shine with sparse instrumental arrangements. They obviously work well beyond this type of arrangement, but when things are naked, you get a better feel for what's going on.
Unfortunately, the Dorico iPad docs haven't been updated for v5 yet, so it's best to check out the Dorico Pro docs for the specifics, although I found things pretty intuitive (less is definitely more is the most important thing to remember).
As you're probably aware, you access things a little differently on the iPad, but eventually, it's actually far easier to manage, than the multitude of menus you traverse in the desktop version of Dorico. I'll explain this as if you've never used Dorico as that's easier than guessing what you are and aren't aware of.
You access all the main settings that manage playback "AI" (for want of a better catch-all) via the hamburger menu in the top right.
And the core elements of importance are the Dynamics roll-out (this has the new Humanize settings as featured in the video you've linked to).
But you also want to make use of the Timing roll-out which is where you find Dorico's intelligent Swing features, as well as all manner of other settings for creating subtle performance movement.
All the Playback settings are worth exploring, but the sections I've highlighted are the aspects you should pay most attention too.
Ref the new note entry/edit techniques, it works by locking your Pencil to the initial horizontal or vertical movement. Lift your Pencil to then lock to the alternative direction. It's far more fluid than I make it sound!
In fairness to the Dorico team. If I'm using my iPad as a laptop replacement, with both Bluetooth keyboard and number pad. This IS the fasted note entry/editing methodology, and the command popovers are pure genius, once you learn the vocabulary. But interacting with the staff via the Pencil is somehow more intimate. That sounds completely bogus, I know. However, I definitely create more emotively when mirroring pencil and paper.
I found this video very refreshing as it's posted by a young composer exploring the free features of Dorico 5 for the first time. He's not your typical "vlogger" reviewing software he got for free; he's genuinely on a journey of discovery, trying out the free features one gets access to with Dorico. There's nothing in the video that doesn't apply to Dorico 5 for iPad either (slight differences in the interaction design aside). He's excited, to the point where he mumbles a little through the features that inspire him, but that made his views feel more genuine (IMO).
Anyway, it's a great video to watch if you know very little about Dorico, whilst knowing a little about other Notation packages. His points regarding Dorico compared to MuseScore are bang on the money.
Thanks for the new video, I shall add that to my watchlist.
I had a little play with the expanded note entry functionality last night. I like that Steinberg have started to make some progress in this area, but using only a pencil still feels clunky to me, unless I am missing a few things. The ability to move selected notes is useful, but appears to be locked to the current key. I am used to being able to move notes chromatically in MTS and perhaps there is an option to do this somewhere. I will see if there is an atonal option for the key as that might be the workaround.
Another disappointment was that I could still not find a way of entering notes directly with the pencil. I’m not a fan of using the on screen keyboard to enter notes or having to switch into a note entry mode. With MTS you just tap where you want the note to be and drag down a short distance to paint the note which can then be resized via a draggable handle or split further into n subdivisions using a menu option. Again, I did not have much time to play last night so may have missed a trick in Dorico.
I see that scrubbing is available on the other platforms. This is another feature I would like to see on iPad as it really helps with the flow by shortening the write->listen->tweak->move on cycle.
From what I can tell, the best experience comes from using the app with the pencil and external keyboard. I will test this combo out at some point but I normally don’t have a keyboard to hand when using my iPad and so I’m reliant on the pencil-only option being optimised.
I haven’t tried the other new features yet.
@MisplacedDevelopment
Definitely useful things for the Dorico team to read (Daniel really does attempt to hoover up us much feedback as possible). v5.02 was released on desktop platforms yesterday. There's usually a delay before bug fix releases make it to the iPad (the usual App Store approval shenanigans), so improvements to scrubbing should make it to iOS too when that drops (it's one of the features that's mentioned directly in the 5.02 release notes).
Ref Pencil entry, they don't specifically use the Pencil API for anything bespoke, which has both an upside and a downside. The upside is that you can use third-party stylus's, touch and Pencil alike, the downside is that you don't as yet get any Pencil-specific trickery. I say as yet, as there have been hints that this situation may change. At a guess, I think that the new version of Cubasis will use the Pencil properly (Logic Pro leaves it in the dust in this regard), and that will have a side benefit for Dorico as the piano roll tech comes directly from Cubasis.
Sibelius, Dorico and Finale have always used a duration/note-value style input pattern, and Dorico allows you to choose which way round you want this to work (to accommodate Finale users that moved to Dorico). I've become accustomed to using my thumb for most touch interactions whilst still holding my Pencil, as I find that provides a good compromise. Computer keyboard with separate number pad is definitely the most efficient way to enter notes in any of the big three Notation packages, but for my money, Dorico is making the best efforts to accommodate "mobile first" interaction design patterns. But it's a moving goal post. e.g. Dorico released new features with v5.02 that weren't in the v5 launch a week ago. I like their development process, it's very non-waterfall, with rapid prototyping, releases, bug fixes, and iterations (all with a rapid feedback loop from the user community). This also has a downside in that you need to keep an eye on the release notes. But I prefer their approach to big monolithic releases every 3-6 months. Just look at how many enhancements came through the 4 series (check the historic release notes).
To all intents and purposes, Dorico is on an 18-month major version upgrade path. If a feature isn't ready for the major release, they park it and wait until it is ready. This can lead to disgruntled users complaining that they only paid for an upgrade 18 months ago, but they forget that they've benefitted from major new enhancements through that 18 month lifecycle. It's the modern software development challenge. Rapidly developing your product whilst maintaining a sense of substantive value from your loyal customers. Develop too quickly and your customers forget what they've been given.
Seeing as you've already paid for your lifetime licence, you're golden. Even if things aren't totally to your liking right now, continue to provide feedback even if you continue to use an alternative notation package. It all helps shape the development feedback loop.
Meanwhile, here's what the NotePerformer developer has brought to the table with version 4. Arnie has decided not to enhance the NotePerformer audio engine as this has always been about providing a stress-free way to make use of all the articulation markings your notation package is capable of without having to go through the headache of creating a bespoke playback template. And it does this with a very lightweight audio engine without the heavy resource requirements of the major sample library options. However, with v4 he's allowing the artist to use NotePerformer to use the same automated playback template to drive the sample library of your choice from a selection including options from Spitfire, Orchestral Tools (Berlin), Cinematic Studio series etc. And the best two options happen to be the cheapest both in price and performance requirements. Check out the 14-minute medley of cinematic/classical numbers where the playback engine is Audio Imperia's Nucleus. There are YouTube demos of the same 14-minute medley of all the playback options, but I think Nucleus is a great example of what's possible.
The other NotePerformer playback engines to check out are Spitfire's BBC Orchestra Core and Vienna Ensembles Synchron Prime. The secondary advantage of Synchron Prime is that it's available with a 30-day demo, which is rare for a sample library. But all three are relatively low cost, and use the least hardware resources. It may seem unexpected that the three cheapest options also sound the best. But I've found that as much as the major libraries from the likes of Spitfire and Orchestral Tools can sound fantastic, they're a real PITA to set up and require multiple workstations, each with 128Gb of RAM if you want glitch free playback. They're complete overkill for typical notation mock-ups.
Much as the NotePerformer dev says he's not going to create an iOS/iPadOS version (he had his fingers burnt with an unprofitable venture in the past). I'm hoping that doesn't disclude him from being involved in a bespoke effort with the Dorico team. What he's doing for desktop OS's is clearly inspired/informed by the success of StaffPad, and something similar within Dorico would be a win for all as Dorico for iPad has a much larger user community than StaffPad.