We are delighted to introduce a brand new member of the Dorico product family today: Dorico SE is a completely free version of Dorico, available for Windows and macOS, which anybody can download and use with no time limits. Create beautiful sheet music for one or two players, produce great-sounding MP3 files, print, or export PDFs. It’s easy to learn and fast to use, with many of the unique features of its bigger siblings, Dorico Elements and Dorico Pro. Read on for more information about this powerful, free software.
Dorico SE is the ideal starting point for young composers and arrangers who are looking to take their first steps into producing music notation. Other free and low-cost packages are of course already available, but Dorico SE brings a number of unique capabilties to the world of free music notation software for the first time.
In particular, Dorico SE includes all of the features of Dorico Pro’s powerful Play mode. Instead of viewing and editing your music as regular staff notation or tablature, in Play mode you can view your music in a piano roll, which will be familiar to anybody who has worked in a sequencer or digital audio workstation like Cubase. There are dedicated editors for velocity, MIDI controllers, and, new in Dorico 3.1 and included in Dorico SE, dynamics. It also comes with HALion Sonic SE 3, the high-performance sample player VST instrument, and its library of more than 1000 production-ready sounds, plus a suite of 30 VST effects, including convolution reverb, parametric EQ, guitar amp simulation, and more. No other free music notation software includes these kinds of powerful tools for tweaking playback – and Dorico SE makes it easy to export WAV or MP3 files of your compositions, which are easy to share or post online.
Dorico SE also includes all of the powerful and flexible note input and editing tools of its bigger siblings. Dorico SE allows you to write in open meter, write a different time signature in each player, lengthen and shorten notes, convert to and from tuplets, make use of Dorico’s unique Insert mode, and more. You’ll find that Dorico is an ideal environment for experimenting with and developing musical ideas – more like a musical word processor than the musical typewriter of other, less flexible scoring software.
If you eventually outgrow the capabilities of Dorico SE, you can upgrade to Dorico Elements at a special price: simply click the Upgrade button in the Steinberg Hub to be taken to the Steinberg Online Shop, where you will see the latest price in your currency. Dorico Elements allows you to write for ensembles of up to 12 players, and includes the fantastic Soundiron Olympus Choir Micro sounds. You can even move all the way up to Dorico Pro if you want to experience everything the world of Dorico has to offer.
If you’re already a Dorico user, it’s worth knowing that Dorico SE can open projects created in Dorico Elements and Dorico Pro. If a project is written for more than two players, it will still open in Dorico SE, but read-only, allowing you to play it back, print it, or export graphics from it. So it can be a useful Dorico viewer for anybody you’re working with who hasn’t yet taken the plunge and added Dorico to their toolbox.
You can download Dorico SE free today. Simply visit the web site and click the Download button. You’ll be prompted to sign in with or create your Steinberg ID, and you’ll then receive the activation code you require by email. We can’t wait to see what you create with Dorico SE!
This is a great idea but the download link doesn’t work. We get Dorico Pro instead of Dorico SE and the license we have is for SE and of course will not activate.
@Peter: The license you’ve got is definitely for Dorico SE, but if you have an ‘All applications’ time-limited license on your USB-eLicenser, you’ll be running the clock down on that, and Dorico will start up in Pro mode because it can. Try removing your USB-eLicenser so that Dorico runs using the SE license on your Soft-eLicenser (assuming you put the license on your Soft-eLicenser).
I agree that this is a great idea and I am having the same problem. Will Dorico SE start activating once the clock runs down on Dorico Pro 3? Is there a way to move the Dorico SE license to the USB-eLicenser?
@Gene: Yes, don’t worry: as soon as your time-limited license expires, Dorico will automatically run as Dorico SE. You can force it to run as SE by holding down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) when you start the application in the meantime.
Does Dorico have a feature that can show you the letter notes identification below each note example abcdefg.
@Diogo: No, I’m afraid not. Dorico Pro does allow you to show the note names within the noteheads themselves, but this is not included in Dorico Elements or Dorico SE.
Having the same problem and going round in circles with Steinberg support team………
thanks for posting and hope they attend to it sooner rather than later.
@John: Sorry to hear you’re having problems. If you’re still having issues, please email me at d dot spreadbury at steinberg dot de and I’ll be happy to send you an activation code.
Hello
I have problem with code.I never get an email with it.It tried it with two different mails and accounts.With dorico SE 3.5 AND SE 3 and it didnt work 🙁 Can sombody help and send me the code,please?
All the best
Bart
Hello Daniel,
Could you please tell me how to change the language in French for all the instruments in the configuration mode of
Dorico Pro3.1 ?
For example, Hautbois instead of Oboe or Contrebasse instead of Contrabass…
I know it’s possible but I don’t remember how to do it…
Thanks a lot for your answer!
@Franck: Yes, you do this on the Language page of Engraving Options. Note that this affects instruments you create after you change the option: it doesn’t retrospectively go back and change the names of existing instruments in the project.
Hello,
Just started learning Dorico SE. Thanks for making this SE version free. Its opened a whole new world of possibilities…That said, I have been watching your Videos on Specific Topics which are very helpful. Three areas that I am still unclear on is Time Signatures (pick up bars, short bars on different endings etc. I consulted the section in your SE online manual, but still unclear how this is to be done. For example, I now have different time sigs for each change, but this amounts to quite a few changes…In piano you can have quite a lot of partial bars, beginning, middle with different ends and at the ending of a piece. I am also, curious about the treatment of accidentals. Normally, they remain for the duration of the bar. But I cannot find a setting in Dorico SE for this. Seems like you have address subsequent bar accidentals (which is alright) but what is the convention? Is there a setting to turn this on or off at the flow and or project level? A third question concerns slurs. I can get them to work and look fine in certain situations. For example. on a straightforward 2 to 2 everything works. You can get adjust above and below etc. What what about in the case of a 3 to 2? I cannot get a middle slur to appear.
It would be great if you could address this topics in a future video.
@Marc: Thanks for getting in touch, and for trying Dorico SE. To create a time signature with a pick-up bar, please refer to the Operation Manual (this is a page from the Pro manual, but it’s the same in all three flavours of Dorico). Accidentals in Dorico SE follow the common practice rule, described here; in Dorico Pro, you have more control over accidental duration rules, but in Dorico SE only the common practice rule is included. I’m not sure what you mean concerning slurs, however: it might be easiest if you send me an example or a picture, which you can do by emailing d dot spreadbury at steinberg dot de.
I used Finale for years, then Sibelius for more years. I’ve been interested in Dorico from the first time I read about it. I am a retired piano teacher on a limited income, and although I do a lot of composing, I resisted Dorico because of the cost, and because I am 74 years old and wondering about the wisdom of trying to learn a new system. However all that changed when I read about Elements and SE. I have downloaded SE and I am anxious to avoid the mistake I made when switching from Finale to Sibelius, where I tried to look at Sibelius as though it were a different form of Finale. Is there a simple introductory video where I can get oriented to the very first steps in Dorico SE, namely, how to set up a project, how to enter notes from a digital piano, and the basics of layout. I value your advice Daniel as I have found your approach very helpful over the years with Sibelius. I should add that I am extremely pleased that Dorico includes piano roll technology, as I invested in a DAW recently and love to use midi and piano roll when making recordings.
@Kevin: Yes, there’s an eminently suitable video series specifically for just this: start here.
Hi Daniel, love the program. Just a quick comment, as I arrived at this page trying to find out why I couldn’t get rid of cautionary accidentals in 3.5 Events. You said above :” please refer to the Operation Manual (this is a page from the Pro manual, but it’s the same in all three flavours of Dorico). Accidentals in Dorico SE follow the common practice rule, described here; in Dorico Pro, you have more control over accidental duration rules, but in Dorico SE only the common practice rule is included”. The problem is, it doesn’t explictly state when there is a difference between the versions. If it’s a pro only option, then state it and it’ll save a lot of search time. Love the program though.
@Marc: Thanks for the feedback. The intention is that there should be a separate version of the Operation Manual for each flavour of Dorico. You can find the Dorico Elements Operation Manual here.
Can I ask a question?
Does Dorico SE allow you to put images in your score?
@Maximus: Thanks for your enquiry. Dorico SE doesn’t allow you to add pictures to your score, I’m afraid: for that you would need Dorico Pro.
Has Dorico SE been discontinued? I’m clicking on a link in the website (where it says to download it), but I only get a message to check my email for the activation code and the download link, however I get neither of them.
This is too difficult for nothing. it stops me from purching the software.
@Joseph: Sorry to hear you’ve had problems getting up and running with Dorico SE. If you’d like any further assistance, please feel free to contact me directly at d dot spreadbury at steinberg dot de and I’ll be pleased to help you out.