We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of Dorico 5.1.70, a free update for existing users of Dorico Pro 5, Dorico Elements 5, Dorico SE 5, and Dorico for iPad. This update brings more than 40 bug fixes, and a handful of useful improvements. Read on for more details.
Note input
There are a couple of small but useful improvements to note input in Dorico 5.1.70. First, for those users who like to use the mouse to input notes, it’s now possible to hold Shift while moving the shadow note over the staff to move between chromatic pitches, in a fashion analogous to how you can hold Shift when dragging music to change its pitch. We’ve also improved the consistency between the auditioned pitch and the input pitch if you have the Play shadow note pitch option activated: previously, the auditioned pitch would not always consider the key signature or notes earlier in the bar with accidentals.
Secondly, a new option When inputting written pitches onto octave transposing instruments has been added to the MIDI Input page of Note Input Options. This allows you to determine whether the octave transposition of the instrument should be considered when inputting via your MIDI keyboard when Write > Input Pitch is set to Written Pitch (the octave transposition is always applied when set to Sounding Pitch). This is especially useful when inputting into instruments like piccolo and double bass, as you can now play the written octave on your MIDI keyboard.
Finally, there’s a tiny but useful tweak to the tuplets popover: because you very often want to create a simple triplet, when you hit ; to open the popover during note input, unless Dorico thinks that it should pre-populate a different tuplet ratio (e.g. based on the notes at the caret position), you will find it pre-populated with 3, so to create a simple triplet you can now simply press ; followed immediately by Return, saving a keystroke.
MusicXML import
As more and more Finale users are moving to Dorico, its MusicXML import features are getting a real workout. One long-standing problem that has been corrected in Dorico 5.1.70 concerns tuplets with mixed note values. For example, a triplet with ratio three eighths in the time of two but where some of the notes in the triplet are 16ths rather than eighths would trip Dorico up – it would end up interpreting this figure as a nested tuplet, which could create additional work to unpick. These kinds of tuplets now import correctly in Dorico 5.1.70, which should reduce the work involved in solving these kinds of issues.
Furthermore, we also encountered MusicXML files exported from Finale where system and page breaks were specified at inconsistent positions in different parts, resulting in additional breaks being created in Dorico, and some pages or systems ending up with only one or two beats’ worth of music on them. Dorico 5.1.70 introduces some heuristics to try to work out which of the break positions are likely to be correct, and which should be ignored.
Other changes and improvements
Among the more than 40 bug fixes in this update, there are a few notable ones:
- On Windows, when you reopen a project you have previously been working on, the initial view is now correctly restored, so you are taken directly to where you were last working.
- If you specify a dynamic like f (sempre) in the Shift+D popover, when it appears in the score, the closing parenthesis is no longer unexpectedly removed.
- When dragging and dropping MIDI data onto a custom percussion kit, the imported material is now correctly handled for all instruments in the kit.
- A problem affecting time signatures and special barlines that could cause the following bars not to respond as expected to changes made in Notation Options has been fully resolved.
As always, you can read about all of the changes in this update in the Dorico 5.1.70 Version History PDF.
Installing the update
Dorico 5.1.70 is a free update for existing Dorico Pro 5, Dorico Elements 5 and Dorico SE 5 users. If you are currently running Dorico Pro 4 or Dorico Elements 4 or earlier, you can buy an update to Dorico Pro 5 or Dorico Elements 5 from the Steinberg online shop.
Assuming you already have Dorico 5 installed, you can update to Dorico 5.1.70 free of charge. First, quit Dorico and any other Steinberg application that you are running on your computer. We recommend that you run Steinberg Download Assistant, which will automatically update Steinberg Activation Manager to the latest version, along with any other elements of the Steinberg run-time environment (including eLicenser Control Center, Steinberg Library Manager, and MediaBay) that may be outdated on your computer.
Once Steinberg Download Manager has finished updating any required components, go to My Product Downloads in the left-hand list, where you will find Dorico Pro 5, Dorico Elements 5, or Dorico SE 5, depending on which product you have installed. Select this, and on the right-hand side you will see Dorico 5.1.70 Application Installer. Click the Install button immediately to the right. This will download and run the Dorico 5.1.70 installer.
If for any reason you cannot use Steinberg Download Assistant, you can find all the installers you require here.
If you already have Dorico for iPad installed, it will probably update automatically, but if you need to update it manually, you can do so following these steps provided by Apple.
Reminder: eLicenser service ends soon
Before we wrap up this post, a reminder to users who are still on Dorico 3.5 or earlier, which rely on the old eLicenser technology for licensing: the eLicenser servers will be shut down in early 2025. Once the eLicenser server is shut down, you will no longer be able to reactivate your Dorico license on a new computer, and nor will you be able to move your Dorico license from a Soft-eLicenser to a USB-eLicenser.
Furthermore, after the eLicenser server is shut down, you will no longer be able to simply buy an update to the latest version of Dorico in the Steinberg online shop, because the update process requires that the system checks your existing license.
We strongly recommend that you consider updating to the latest version of Dorico before the eLicenser service is shut down. For more information, please visit the Steinberg web site.
What’s next
This has been a banner year for Dorico, with no fewer than seven free updates for Dorico 5, bringing hundreds of improvements and fixes across macOS, Windows, and iPadOS, the introduction of the Dorico-powered Score Editor in Cubase 14, and, of course, the arrival of many thousands of new Dorico users following MakeMusic’s announcement about the end of Finale. We never rest on our laurels, however: following today’s release of Dorico 5.1.70, there will soon be a new Cubase 14 update, bringing some initial improvements to the new Score Editor. And, as always, we continue to work hard behind the scenes on the next major version of Dorico, which you can look forward to arriving in 2025.
In the meantime, we love to hear about what you’re creating with Dorico. If you have been working on an interesting project that you’d like to share with readers around the world, please let us know about it!
Well, since you asked: I just released an album called Table Pieces, containing 8 pieces composed and produced entirely in Dorico. I use third party VST’s and utilize all of Doricos daw-like features too it’s limits. It’s not perfect for this use, but the fact that I can work with VST’s at a high level in a notation software has revolutionized my workflow, and I am super grateful that such a software exist. I’m exited too see how Dorico will evolve in the future, and hope too see some upgrades that makes working with VST’s a bit easier and flexible some day. If you want to read more about my album or listen too it (I would really appreciate it) follow this link: https://magnushexeberg.no/releases/table-pieces/
Thank you for your work! It is reassuring to know that Dorico is constantly evolving. I hope that using Dorico on laptops will become easier and more straightforward in the future. For example, I can’t get Dorico to manage the audio output on speakers and headphones. The speakers do not give sound and the headphones only work after running ‘asiobtinsetup.exe’. On the PC, the audio works perfectly with both speakers and headphones. I hope for future updates!
In the latest iPad version (5.1.70) and the previous version (5.1.60), the pan settings (left/right) on the mixers are not preserved. When a project is re-opened, the pan settings are always “C”, regardless of what they were when the project was last used.
@Peter: Yes, we’re aware of this problem. Apologies for the inconvenience. We will fix this as soon as we can.
As a composer (of contemporary music) forced to switch from Finale to Dorico, I must say one thing. For composers who create contemporary music, there are certain software features needed that Dorico still does not have. Therefore, for hundreds or thousands of the contemporary composers this tool is useless. Let me give you an example. When we create contemporary music, we need a large scope for hiding certain elements of the score in order to obtain the desired graphic effect. Unfortunately, in Dorico there is no possibility, for example, to hide pieces of stave notes or, in general, to freely create the score layout. While other traditional nonotation functions are extensive, in the modern sense the program has serious shortcomings. In Finale you could freely create the layout, but in Dorico you couldn’t. So from the point of view of an experienced composer of contemporary music (my experience with Finale has been since 1998), Dorico is useless. It’s a pity because it contains many interesting predefined solutions
@Richard: Dorico is still a relatively young application, so a little patience is required in waiting for us to address some of these requirements. Our philosophy in general is not to attempt a particular area of functionality until we can fully implement it. But you can be sure that when these features become available, they will go beyond what is available in other applications like Finale and Sibelius. So please keep your eyes peeled for future improvements.
Thank you
Thank you Daniel & the team!
The shift+d improvement is a very good one.
Are there any “export audio” improvements in sight? This would be personally a major thing for me. The chance to be able to name the file and to save it whereever I want would save so much time! Now I have to drag the file(s) from the folder I didn’t want in the first place, delete the folder and remove the flow name from the file(s). Which takes unnecessarily much time, when working on bigger projects. This would be the best Christmas present😌
Or is there a workaround?
Keep up the good work!
@Jarkko: We are planning an overhaul of the way file management for export works in future. Hang in there, we know improvements in this area are wanted.
Oh that is fantastic news!
I got Dorico when the Finale crossover promotion went on…. but I had ditched Finale long ago for Sibelius.
I find that Dorico handles many things better than Sibelius, but 99% of my work is with handbells.
I have been able to set up a template with all the markings I need and put them on a StreamDeck XL and holy cow, my workflow is much faster now than it ever was with Sibelius.
Until I get to the bells used chart. Dorico doesn’t have any method for finding the bells needed to play a piece and displaying them in a separate flow. All the time I saved during note input is sucked up (and then some) by having to comb through the score and find whether or not this bell or that one is used in the piece.
At least formatting the chart isn’t that heinous once you’ve got your list of bells.
Hello, greetings from Colombia. I don’t know if I’m the only one, or maybe I don’t know how to do it (because I’m a user that comes from Finale). But I miss a section or popover section that allows you to enter interpretation indications without having to use the shift+D (which corresponds to the dynamic ones). It would be amazing to be able to add indications like espressivo, among many others (and suddenly NotePerformer can read them). Thank you very much.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
I’ve tried to install the new upgrade to Dorico (Dorico 5.1.70). I was prompted to download the upgraded “Download Assistant”. I did, and it installed, but would not open. The error message told me that my macOS need to be higher.
I called Steinberg and was told that my download system should be fine. Well. . .after days of trying, I’m lock out of Download Assistant. Fortunately, Dorico 5.1.60 still boots up. My computer is a 2012 iMac. It’s running macOS Catalina, version 10.15.7
I can’t upgrade the software, but I can’t. I can’t even deactivate it so I can put it on another computer. Please Advise. Tech support thinks it might be a Firewall or Anti-Virus software blocking it. I had no problem until I downloaded the new “Download Assistant”. Help!!!
I downloaded and installed the update, and I don’t know if it’s the application or some other reason, but now I can’t print a piece that looks great in Write and Engrave modes. In Print it runs off the bottom of the page.
Ignore my previous post. I had made the layout adjustments in the part and tried printing the full score. Using the same layout for editing and printing solved he problem.
Thank you for your hard work. I sincerely hope that your User Interface team will consider making Dorico more intuitive and less dependent on doing a web search or asking the forum to figure out how to accomplish many simple tasks. A 1000 page manual, and people who now call themselves Dorico Experts, are indications that this tool is not particularly user friendly. More drag and drop and fewer secret key combinations, please! I’d also love to be able to insert rests as needed, rather than having the s/w tell me where there should be rests. You have employed terminology that is unfamiliar to many users. I’m not sure why that is, and there may be good reasons, but , e.g., Movements could be called that, rather than “flows”. Speaking of flows, PLEASE allow users to name audio export files!
Since the last updates of Dorico for Ipad, I can’t open several files (not all) anymore (error opening file) and the button for printing and sending files has disappeared from the screen so those action are now impossible.
With a new major version arriving “in 2025” and e-licencer servers for older versions shutting down “in early 2025,” it’d be really nice if we could do a one-off upgrade to the incoming version. What’s the chance of the new version coming out while the e-licencer servers are still alive? Or, if that’s not going to happen, at least some kind of pre-order system?
It’d be pretty annoying for those of us jumping on the last boat out of e-licencer land to find that, right after paying for an upgrade, we’re back behind the times again almost straight away.