Finale 27.4 released

[David Ward]

Oh, if only I weren't so old! (due to be 83 in February). If I weren't, I'm sure I would be using Dorico by now with (perhaps) something like the same fluency as Michel. However, I still feel reluctant to make the change, to the extent that if Finale becomes unusable on whatever hardware I use in future, I may just go back to doing all my scores in manuscript (with which of course I was fluent for most of my composing career) and hope that others may then be persuaded to get on with all the computer stuff from my MS.

Of course there is the business of making things available as PDFs which can be read on an iPad. Recently I was able to give some singers my latest minor edits in Finale generated PDFs before a performance, while the pianist who was using paper sheet music had to pencil these in.

At a concert in London on 17 November of songs relating to rain, in celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the invention of the Mackintosh raincoat, both of the two singers, and also the actor linking all the items, were reading from iPads, although the pianist preferred paper. This concert included the first performance of a rather bleak ≤9 minute vocal duet with piano by me as well as another premiere by Noah Max and songs by Schubert, Brahms, Debussy et al. A film of the entire concert was made and should be publicly available on-line for two or three weeks (no longer because of fees!) immediately after Christmas. When it is, if I remember I'll post a link here (apart from all else, it shows the convenience of iPads for singers in a full and varied programme).

At another concert I attended in London on my three week November visit, all the members of a piano quartet were using iPads for quartets by Bridge, Fauré and Brahms (the one with the gypsy rondo). However, all the members of an expanded LPO for Mahler 3 in the RFH appeared to be using paper, and I think all the singers for that too.

[MichelRE]

I'd suggest getting the free version of Dorico, or the less-expensive limited version (Dorico SE).
Go through tutorials slowly, and you'll get a grasp of how things work in Dorico.

One thing I really love about Dorico is that you don't have to have a time signature. The cadenzas in my violin concerto are all "un-measured" and were a breeze to enter, and space. I could put the "mid measure system breaks" anywhere, adjust them easily just by dragging back and forth, etc...

[John Ruggero]

For you all from Finale, and now using Dorico, how easy was transition? Do you like the output?

It was not difficult at all, since Dorico is very logical and so much help is available through the documentation and the members of the online forum. The "hardest" part was adapting it to my house style and that was not difficult. The output is beautiful. There is something about Dorico that is very pleasant to use and draws one in, which may explain the very enthusiastic user base. It does more things automatically than Finale, which speeds things up, once one becomes accustomed to it. And if there is something it can't do, a work-around is usually possible. However, I also only use "standard' notation. Not sure how well it would work for extended techniques, although I have seen some very complex notation done in Dorico. Hope that helps, OCTO. I think you should try a demo. I demoed every version as it came out before finally deciding to switch at Dorico 5.

[OCTO]

Many thanks to all, it was interesting to read.

The only thing that has kept me away from Dorico is the "critical mass" of available copyists. Today one can find very talented copyists using Sibelius, competing and so keeping the prices down and availability up. Also, I have been working since 15 years back with a copyist from Argentina that did all the demanding tasks of putting everything into Finale.

As a teacher, I have students that have never seen both Sibelius nor Finale. They went directly into Dorico. Some used MuseScore -> Dorico.

Finally, I am one of the persons that want to have my computer as "clean" as possible. I never download nor install a software just to test it, only when I am 100% sure I will use it. I even uninstall software that comes with the computer, leaning more to the open-source alternatives.
I will propose Dorico to my copyist, and will see what he says. Of course, the more Dorico-copyists that are available, the better.

[NeeraWM]

However I find the output much more pleasant than in Sibelius I have ever managed to make. It might be the fonts, the spacing algorithm or definition of shapes and curves. Perhaps also because many things are edited manually.

Sibelius can achieve a cleaner result than Finale with a lot of manual editing.
I’ve also lost my Finale skills long ago…
Now it’s all Sibelius & Dorico and, if I can choose, I go for Dorico because, there, I feel like I’m creating something, whereas with Sibelius, once you get to your best possible Engraving Rules, you’re fighting the software at every inch.