DORICO!

[Rangi]

Can I switch yet? Sibelius has been driving me nuts for years and I've been waiting for Dorico to evolve - so is V3 good enough yet?

The main things driving me insane (when I write) that I'd love solved are:

1. Aleatoric / Graphical capability.
2. Playback Timing; slurs - dots, there's lots of imprecise things going on between Sibelius and VSL, and the VSL team (who I believe) assure me it's Sibelius at fault.
3. Continuous controllers for dynamics and pitch (this relates to Aleatoric music  -  tone clusters, to and from pitch etc etc etc). 

And..... I'd love  a sound set,  (Solo strings, Dimension strings in particular), but I understand these are still coming. Actually I would be open to learning to work without them if core notation functionality is there, and my file will look better and play back better.

There's probably more - but if those elements were working better I'd switch.

Cheers,

Barton.

[GilP]

https://forum.vsl.co.at/topic/53107/Dorico 3 And VSL/288088

[Rangi]

Thanks Gil!

And what about general functionality of Dorido v3?

Barton

[DrDaveWalker]

I too would love to use my VSL libraries with Dorico 3. VSL is the only thing that keeps me tied at all to Sibelius. I have switched to NotePerformer to use Dorico 3 but I really miss the VSL solo strings for my string quartet! I realize that this is a HUGE project but I believe that Dorico is the future of music notation.

Thank you for considering this request!😊

Dave

[EricNJ]

Dave -

We're in the same boat here.   Dorico is not perfect, but it is so far ahead of Sibelius in usability and reliability that there is no competition.    I do not know how VSL orchestral libraries compare with NotePerformer, but NotePerformer sounds pretty darn good to my ears - and is reasonably priced. 

But I do miss the VSL solo strings which are superior to Halion.  As an ex software guy I know that software companies have to juggle priorities.  I could be mistaken (it happens on an all too regular basis) but from where I'm sitting it looks like VSL is making the wrong choice in not prioritizing Dorico development.

Eric

[Dewdman42]

Dorico is the way to go.  But there isn't really a good way to have one ExpressionMap for either Cubase or Dorico that will work for everyone.  Nearly everyone sets up their VSL libraries with different keyswitch matrix per their own specific situation.  So really you have to make an ExpressionMap from scratch depending on how you setup your VSL keyswitch matrix.

ViPro and Synchron player are both extremely flexible and powerful...so that is a great thing, but it also means that its just very unlikely that you will find one expressionMap that will work for everybody.

If you want you can look into the VSL articulate product line, they have created some standarded VSL instrument presets, that following a smilar matrix in all instruments in a way they think is standardized and better, as well as including corresponding Cubase ExpressionMaps.  But then I guess you'll have to convert those to Dorico anyway after that.

[lunar_28664]

@EricNJ said:

Dave -

We're in the same boat here.   Dorico is not perfect, but it is so far ahead of Sibelius in usability and reliability that there is no competition.    I do not know how VSL orchestral libraries compare with NotePerformer, but NotePerformer sounds pretty darn good to my ears - and is reasonably priced. 

But I do miss the VSL solo strings which are superior to Halion.  As an ex software guy I know that software companies have to juggle priorities.  I could be mistaken (it happens on an all too regular basis) but from where I'm sitting it looks like VSL is making the wrong choice in not prioritizing Dorico development.

Eric

Actually NotePerformer and VSL I find to be chalk and cheese. The musical intelligence built into NP can make for a naturally expressive and exciting performance of symphonic music with very little user input. The more important actual tone quality becomes, the more likely VSL would be the tool of choice. Chamber music in general is still too crude with NP.  You may be right that VSL is prioritising Sibelius development which would be a shame as I've switched entirely to Dorico for new compositions. For the VSL Special Editions, it's really not too hard to make your own Expression Maps according to your needs --even I have managed it -- but for full string libraries (I use the solo strings) in particular, VSL would please many by producing EM's just as fast as they can manage.