Steinberg Dorico Elements 3.5

General

Session musicians demand the guidance of musical score, while many producers prefer to play with their DAW, virtual instruments, arpeggiators and sequencers. The music software world might make a different approach to composition possible, but it can be far removed from the manuscripts and notation of classical composition. So, when you want living, breathing musicians to inject some life into a project, sitting down and arranging score might lie way outside the comfort zones of even the most experienced producer. Luckily, helpful tools like Steinberg Dorico Elements 3.5 exist. This hunk of software not only generates score but does it with some pretty solid finesse. The Elements edition comes pretty close to the Pro edition, just minus a few of the more high-level functions.

What's New with Dorico 3.5?

In this fresh version, a considerate 'pitch-before-duration' function has been added, so you're free to play in a part on a keyboard without cluttering up the score. Only when a note duration is specified will the note actually appear in the score. 'Figured bass' support has also been included - which you might also know as Basso Continuo - a rapid and useful chord notation method that harks back to the Baroque period. Since virtual instruments get more and more sophisticated and offer more in the way of articulation, VST expression maps have been provided so that those all-important nuances can be drawn in, and the guitar notation (tablature) function has also undergone a welcome improvement, offering just as detailed and accurate notation for the guitarist as the rest of the ensemble. This version of Dorico also allows you to add blank bars to the end of the score, so if your composing for an ever shifting and changing project like a film soundtrack, then last minute details can be filled in with a pen, and even if you don't get on with the Dorico interface itself, you can tweak and personalise it as preferred.