Steinberg today announced the highly anticipated release of the latest version of its professional scoring software, Dorico 3.
Every feature in the new version is designed to help musicians complete their work faster, so that they can spend less time in front of their computers, and more time making music.
The headline improvement in Dorico Pro 3 is the ability to produce a condensed conductor’s score automatically. In a condensed score, music for multiple players — for example, two flutes or four horns — is written on a smaller number of staves, reducing the number of staves that must be included, allowing each staff to be larger relative to the page, and making the score easier to read. However, in existing music notation software, the process of producing a condensed score is extremely laborious, and always involves maintaining a separate document from which the individual instrumental parts are printed, meaning that editorial changes need to be made in two or more places.
Now users can input the music for each player and click a single button to automatically produce a condensed conductor’s score. Dorico decides how to write the music as clearly as possible, with the flexibility to change the condensation from phrase to phrase and from system to system. The increase in productivity that this represents is comparable to other generational strides made by music notation software, such as dynamically linked instrumental parts and comprehensive collision avoidance.
Dorico 3 also introduces tablature for fretted instruments, and greatly expands its capabilities in guitar notation. Dorico is the only professional music notation software where notation and tablature are dynamically linked, so that edits made in one representation are automatically reflected in the other. You can edit the number of strings, number of frets, and even the fret spacing for any fretted instrument, allowing Dorico to handle writing tab for unusual instruments like banjo and dulcimer with ease. Common guitar notations such as bends, slides, and harmonics are all included and are easy to input and use. Dorico 3 also brings chord diagrams for guitar and other fretted instruments, with a library of common shapes and an editor to quickly and easily define one’s own chords.
For classical guitar, Dorico 3 introduces comprehensive support for left- and right-hand fingering and string indicators. Guitar music is challenging to lay out because of the density of annotations on every side of each note and chord, but Dorico 3 handles all of this automatically, producing layouts that closely match the most refined traditional engraving, and saving an enormous amount of time.
All of these guitar-focused features are included in both Dorico Pro 3 and in the entry-level Dorico Elements 3, putting comprehensive support for tablature and guitar notation into a well-rounded package for the guitarist who also wants to write for other instruments.
Dorico is available from local resellers and through the Steinberg Online Shop. The suggested retail price for the boxed version of Dorico Pro 3 is US $579.99; download only is available for US $559.99. Students and teachers can purchase Dorico Pro 3 at the discounted suggested retail price of US $359.99. Users of Finale and Sibelius can buy a Dorico Pro 3 crossgrade at the special suggested retail price of US $299.99 (box) or US $279.99 (download), and a further educational discount is available for students and teachers, allowing them to buy Dorico Pro 3 for just US $179.99 (box) or US $159.99 (download).
