Now using it with third party libraries. . . ahem . . . that maybe another matter. There is nothing intuitive about setting up expression maps, and the documentation is nonexistent. It has promise, but I’m not completely sold yet.
It's fiddly for sure but that's because the DORICO teams Mantra seem to be Flexibility in all things !. I have a bunch of expression maps I have done that I can share for various Library's. It's honestly unsuppressed as a Score input DAW...you can do so much. The people who are down about I suspect just haven't got to grips with it. And yes like many I fell in love with staffpad only to realise the handwriting recognition was very very buggy. Again practice makes perfect but I really can't comprehend why someone is prepared to spent eons learning how to write music on an IPAD but not a few hours to master expresion maps. !!..baffling
Most of the detractors here haven't learned how to use it. And complain about "note entry" !!!! It's a fuck of a lot easier than writing with a plastic pen on an ipad !
Complaints of "robotic".. Seriously ? It's a daw. Does Staffpad play back Like Karajan ?..it's a computer....add expression !!!. To me playback in all three, Staffpad, Sibelius and Dorico sounds identical in terms of feel !. But with Dorico your midi ( the play page ) can be totally different form the score page. Nudge a note, easy. ALL CC is available and the tempo function allowing drawing will return very speedily .
EXPRESSION MAPS:
these are complex...can't deny it. But I disagree that they are impossible . This is the area where I suspect all options were discussed and in keeping with the Flexibility Mantra at the heart of the program there are multiple points where things need to be baked in. Because it's really the heart of having the score talk to your samples it's worth getting right. But once it's done...it's done !
so the first thing to realise is that ALL expresion map DATA needs to be saved in the ENDPOINT configuration and THAT saved in the template to be always recalable in ANY score. Otherwise what you have spent the week making will only apply to the Score you had open when you made them. Again...flexibility ! They where thinking you'd want different sounds for different scores !!!!
Jolly decent of them really:
As to how long it takes ?..How many samples to you want to use in any given situation? I went over the top and now most of my 10 year buying spree of samples is accessible by adding playback instructions in the score. But it's set up. I load VSL ensemble 7 ( takes 5 mins ). Launch DORICO. Pick a score and it's pretty much instant that ALL the samples are now there.
Note entry:
This is so simple I really can't understand anyone moaning !. Hit record, there's a click. And Play !
Quantizing is much improved and there's also Polyphonic transcription:
This is unreal !......so after doing a piano score you can select the various voices and assign them orchestrally !...so quick and easy
As to the various discussions about quality of sound..............well i've been told so I'll say nothing
Finally: There is the Steinburg forum: Pretty much any question is answered very quickly. Daniel seems to be on there continually and I've yet to post a question and NOT get a speedy response.
Best
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