Today we are pleased to release Dorico 6.2.30, a further free maintenance update for Dorico 6. This update includes several useful new features and improvements, alongside more than 40 bug fixes and enhancements across many areas of the application.
Improved Cantai support
Following the introduction of support for Cantai in Dorico 6.2.20, this update adds support for independent voice playback. You can now enable independent voice playback for instruments routed to Cantai directly from the Track Inspector in Play mode. When using the Cantai playback template, Dorico automatically loads and assigns the required additional instances of Cantai for each voice; if you’re managing your own playback configuration, you can assign separate Cantai instances manually.
This update also includes a number of fixes and refinements for Cantai playback, including improved handling of lyrics, support for projects with pre-roll enabled, and better treatment of player names.
Glissando lines
Dorico 6.2.30 introduces greater flexibility for wiggly glissando lines. A new option on the Glissando Lines page of Engraving Options allows you to choose whether wiggly glissandi are drawn using the traditional trill wiggle glyph or any line style from your project. In addition, a new Line style property allows the appearance of individual glissando lines to be overridden on a case-by-case basis.
MusicXML export improvements
We’ve continued to improve Dorico’s MusicXML interoperability. This release adds support for exporting sustain and sostenuto pedal lines, improves handling of hidden notes, and ensures that tuplet brackets and numbers hidden by engraving options are exported correctly.
Several MusicXML import and export issues have also been addressed, including a rare problem that could result in exported MusicXML files containing no musical material.
Workflow and usability enhancements
A couple of smaller but welcome quality-of-life improvements are included in this update:
- The Default output level control on the Play page of Preferences now includes a value field, allowing you to enter an exact dB value directly.
- A new engraving option allows you to control the spacing between a circa indication and an approximate metronome mark, accommodating different publisher house styles.
Fixes across the application
Dorico 6.2.30 resolves a wide range of issues reported by users, including improvements in:
- Dynamics editing and messa di voce appearance
- Guitar bends, harmonics, and guitar techniques
- Repeat structures and cautionary items
- Engrave mode workflows in projects with multiple music frame chains
- MIDI export of alternating time signatures
- Mixer synchronisation when muting and soloing tracks
- Percussion kit handling in Play mode
- User interface consistency and sorting behaviour
- Localisation improvements in several languages
For a complete list of fixes and improvements, please refer to the Dorico 6.2.30 Version History PDF.
Installing the update
Dorico 6.2.30 is a free update for existing Dorico Pro 6, Dorico Elements 6 and Dorico SE 6 users. If you are currently running Dorico Pro 5 or Dorico Elements 5 or earlier, you can buy an update to Dorico Pro 6 or Dorico Elements 6 from the Steinberg online shop.
Assuming you already have Dorico 6 installed, you can update to Dorico 6.2.30 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 Steinberg Library Manager, MediaBay, and on Windows the Steinberg Built-in ASIO Driver) 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 6, Dorico Elements 6, or Dorico SE 6, depending on which product you have installed. Select this, and on the right-hand side you will see Dorico 6.2.30 Application Installer. Click the Install button immediately to the right. This will download and run the Dorico 6.2.30 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.
That’s it for now
We would like to thank everybody who has taken the time to report issues and provide feedback since the release of Dorico 6. Your input continues to help us improve the software with every update.
Have Dorico but never have used it. I’m ‘old’ and never really learned to use Finale properly, so how can I learn Dorico? I will update Dorico just in case the brain fog goes away…
Hello,
Worth to try.
I had Finale, unused for years, but this work like…Maestro, (mini tool for mobilephone), but has plentyb more options.
The included tutorials and the materials that pop up on the front page when you open the app are really quite good, I’d start there.
There is never too late. Best option is to get used to total basics by writing something down from paper and using google. You know then what you really need to get used to
Dorico is not Finale and does not require any familiarity with Finale. I used Finale since its beginning and my experience with Finale has not helped me with Dorico. I’ve been using Dorico for about a year and a half and like it very much. Although I’m still in a learning curve, I’ve cranked out many scores and recordings with Dorico. It’s excellent! I’m 81 years old, by the way.
Hi Greg. I suggest starting with the First Steps guide, here: https://blog.dorico.com/resources/
We also ran some specific sessions last fall on switching from Finale, with all the details and links to each session here: https://blog.dorico.com/session-materials/
Please let us know if you get stuck.
Yes try it,especially as you seem to have it already. It takes a bit of getting used to as it operates differntly to other notation products. However if you follow the various videos, read the manual for what you are trying to do and look on the forums you’ll soon start to master it. I’m 78 and have found it good when you stick with it.
We need ties to 2nd ending
Yeah, I really need ties to 2nd ending too. Writing a lot of marchmusic with lots of 2nd endings.
+1
I will eat a broom once this day comes.
Thankfully there are work-arounds. I add a “Laissea vibrer tie” and move it (easiest is to put -1.5 in the X-value of “start offset” and “end offset” under ties – then adjust to your taste). If the lyric going into the ending has a hyphenated word, you may need to add a hard hyphen ([alt]+[-]), and then a few hard spaces ([shift]+[alt]+[space]) in order to add the courtesy hyphen as well.
I use a Mac. Is there going to be a way for me to update Dorico without the Steinberg Library Manager? How do I update to an Apple Silicon version?
@Andrea: At the moment, Steinberg Download Assistant and Steinberg Library Manager are not available as universal apps that natively support both Intel- and ARM-based Macs. Apple has announced that Rosetta will continue to be supported in both the current macOS 26 and this year’s forthcoming macOS 27, so there is no reason not to install the current versions of SDA and SLM on your computer today. You can get by without SDA, but you do need SLM in order to ensure that the content for Dorico is correctly registered. We will of course release native Apple Silicon versions of these important tools in future, but there is absolutely no problem with using them under Rosetta in the short to medium term.
Thank you for this update!
Overall I am very pleased with Dorico!
There is just one thing I am struggling with and that’s the vertical spacing:
Please, if you may consider for the next update a possibility to fix the vertical spacing in a way that there is an option to activate that vertical spacing doesn’t get lost anymore once it has been adjusted manually.
Sometimes it is necessary to include something new at the very end, after having already done all the manual engraving (for example an additional flow in the middle of a project for a new extended edition of an already existing project) and it is very annoying that you have to do the whole vertical spacing that has been done manually once again.
Many thanks in advance!
Thank you, Dorico Team, thank you, Daniel! One more time I am so happy to have invested in Dorico! You are really superb guys!!!
I’m finally starting to use Dorico, transitioning from Finale but I’m finding the translation of stave groupings is not always accurate when you go from musx -> xml -> Dorico. Dorico seems to interpret some XML differently to Finale (ie it looks OK when FInale reopens the XML file).
But also I seem to be in Licence hell. Constantly having to run activation manager and restart my computer just to get the Halion Sonic player to recognise I’ve bought and paid for it several times over. OR else Dorico itself won’t relaunch. (having to finish this comment then reboot as I type this!)
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE bring back hardware key licensing, which doesn’t rely on constant internet dialogue with your servers. And PLEASE restart your online services for existing keys so licences can be moved from damaged keys, etc. Or give us permanent unlock codes for the software that relies on them.
Getting back into music after a few years break, I have to say the massive changes to everyone’s copyright protection systems is proving to be a nightmare. With little or no support for the complex legacy copyright systems that were imposed on us at the time, both for expensive plugins and the host systems that run them.
Once you have activated Dorico on your computer it no longer needs to connect to our servers. I will email you so we can get more details of the issues you’re experiencing.
still waiting for something very much like Finale staff styles.
We have similar options, depending on how you were using staff styles. In some cases you don’t need them as we have other useful features instead. Please give us some details of what you need on either https://dorico.com/forum or https://www.facebook.com/groups/dorico
Does Dorico offer a library of lead sheets and if so are they transposable??
No, Dorico is useful for creating your own transposable lead sheets, but we don’t provide a library of them – the standards are available as PDF real books in various keys from the publishers who have permission for them.
Still struggling with extra workarounds to get the numbering above repeated bars to act the way I want. I love the automatic numbering every 4 bars, but if the repeated bars don’t end on a multiple of 4, I don’t want a number to show above. At the moment, it looks like the only option is all or nothing. Either there’s never a number at the end even when it IS a multiple of 4 or there’s always a number at the end, even if it’s bar 5 right after the automatic label on the previous bar 4.
You can edit the numbering in the properties panel if you need them to start with a different number, or not show a number.
I received a free copy of Dorico 5.0 during the Finale phase out, after using Finale for 35 years and buying all their upgrades religiously. Due to some health issues, today (June 18, 2026) I had my very first opportunity to sit down and start using Dorico, only to find I now need to pay more money to upgrade to the 6.0 series. I was already very upset when I had to learn new software, but this upgrade before even starting is salt in the wound. Please advise if there is any provision for the avoiding this additional fee. I can provide evidence of the health issues.
Our automatic ‘grace period’ only looks at when Dorico was first activated. If you have further information, please email me (John) on j.barron@steinberg.de and I’ll see what we can do.
Thanks Dorico! When will you add the ability to record audio tracks? It would be a fantastic upgrade to integrate into my composition workflow!
I don’t know about recording audio tracks, that’s more of a DAW workflow such as Cubase (which has the Dorico scoring engine too). We may add audio track support in some form in Dorico though.
Jason Loffredo’s videos are what made it happen for me. 30+ years of Finale. Sigh.
https://forums.steinberg.net/t/jason-loffredo-conquering-videos-from-finale-to-dorico/1008025
I am absolutely delighted with this exceptional program; it provides musicians with incredibly useful tools. Thank you, Dorico, for thinking of musicians and enabling us to create and work faster and with greater confidence. Once again, thank you.
Where update????
You can get the update from the Steinberg Download Assistant on your computer (or from http://www.steinberg.net/go) or from the link mentioned in the article.