Steinberg Dorico Pro 5 User manual

Operation Manual

Steinberg Documentation Team: Cristina Bachmann, Martina Becker, Heiko Bischoff, Lillie Harris, Christina

Kaboth, Insa Mingers, Matthias Obrecht, Sabine Pfeifer

Translation: Ability InterBusiness Solutions (AIBS), Moon Chen, Jérémie Dal Santo, Rosa Freitag, GiEmme

Solutions, Josep Llodra Grimalt, Vadim Kupriianov, Roland Münchow, Boris Rogowski, Sergey Tamarovsky

This document provides improved access for people who are blind or have low vision. Please note that due to the

complexity and number of images in this document, it is not possible to include text descriptions of images.

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on

the part of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License

Agreement and may not be copied to other media except as specically allowed in the License Agreement.

No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose,

without prior written permission by Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Registered licensees of the product

described herein may print one copy of this document for their personal use.

All product and company names are ™ or ® trademarks of their respective owners. For more information, please

visit www.steinberg.net/trademarks.

Dorico Pro_5.0.10_en-US_2023-06-06

Table of Contents

10 New features

12 Introduction

12 Platform-independent documentation

12 Usage of musical terms

13 Documentation structure

14 Typographical conventions

15 Key commands

15 How you can reach us

16 Dorico concepts

16 Design philosophy and higher-level concepts

17 Projects in Dorico

17 Modes in Dorico

18 Flows in Dorico

19 Players in Dorico

19 Instruments in Dorico

20 Popovers

21 Notes and rests in Dorico

22 Rhythmic position

22 Layouts in Dorico

23 Page templates in Dorico

24 Key commands in Dorico

25 Options dialogs in Dorico Pro

27 User interface

27 Project window

40 Workspace setup

49 Color setup

54 Language setup

56 Preferences dialog

58 Key Commands page in the Preferences dialog

63 Jump bar

67 Project and le handling

67 Hub

69 Starting new projects

70 Opening projects/les

71 Projects from different versions of Dorico

71 Missing Fonts dialog

73 Project Info dialog

75 Project templates

77 File import and export

101 Auto-save

103 Project backups

105 Setup mode

105 Project window in Setup mode

117 Players, layouts, and ows

119 Players

125 Ensembles

127 Instruments

158 Player groups

162 Flows

165 Layouts

177 Player, layout, and instrument names

184 Flow names and ow titles

186 Videos

192 Write mode

192 Project window in Write mode

208 Inputting vs.editing

212 Rhythmic grid

213 Caret

219 Note input

255 Note durations

260 MIDI recording

268 Notations input

423 Selecting notes/items

433 Editing items

441 Hiding non-printing elements

442 Navigation

446 Instrument lters

451 Signposts

452 Insert mode

456 Arranging tools

477 Transposing tools

486 Musical transformations

504 Splitting ows

504 Comments

511 Engrave mode

511 Project window in Engrave mode

525 Page templates

552 Flow headings

558 Frames

592 Graphic slices

600 Note spacing

609 Moving items graphically

614 Play mode

614 Project window in Play mode

623 Tracks

630 Playhead

633 Playing back music

637 Enabling independent voice playback

639 Muting/Soloing tracks

641 Repeats in playback

644 Swing playback

650 Transport window

653 Playback templates

660 Endpoints

668 Print mode

668 Project window in Print mode

673 Printing layouts

677 Exporting layouts as graphics les

681 Printers

682 Page arrangements for printing/exporting

684 Duplex printing

685 Page vs.paper size

687 Graphics le formats

689 Annotations

691 Page formatting

693 Changing the page size and/or orientation

694 Changing page margins

694 Applying page template sets to layouts

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Dorico Pro 5.0.10

695 Changing the default staff size

696 Changing the default staff/system spacing

697 Changing the vertical justication of staves/

systems

698 Hiding/Showing empty staves

701 Hiding/Showing blank staves after nal ows

704 Inserting pages

706 Deleting pages

707 Starting layouts on left-hand pages

708 Allowing/Disallowing multiple ows on the

same page

708 Changing when the First page template is used

709 Hiding/Showing ow headings

710 Hiding/Showing information in running

headers above ow headings

711 Changing the horizontal justication of nal

systems

712 Enabling/Disabling condensing

714 Margins

718 Staff size

722 Staff spacing

730 Casting off

735 System breaks

738 Frame breaks

741 Tacets

745 Condensing

767 Part formatting propagation

771 Properties

771 Properties panel

772 Local vs.global properties

773 Changing the property scope

774 Changing values in numeric value elds

775 Key Editor

775 Key Editor panel

786 Notes in the Key Editor

795 Played vs.notated note durations

797 Playing Techniques editor

798 Velocity editor

801 Dynamics editor

807 MIDI Pitch Bend editor

808 MIDI CC editor

813 Tempo editor

817 Histogram tool

820 Transform tool

822 Key Editor congurations

824 Mixer

824 Mixer panel

824 Mixer window

826 Mixer toolbar

827 Mixer channels

830 Hiding/Showing channels

830 Scrolling through channels

830 Changing the height of channels

831 Changing the volume of channels

832 Panning channels

832 Adding FX channels

833 Renaming channels

833 Loading inserts into channels

835 Changing the reverb plug-in

836 Library

836 Library Manager

839 Layout Options dialog

842 Notation Options dialog

844 Note Input Options dialog

845 Engraving Options dialog

847 Playback Options dialog

849 Music fonts

851 Text formatting

860 Edit Chord Diagrams dialog

863 Custom chord symbols

871 Music symbols

874 Custom notehead sets

882 Custom playing techniques

890 Custom lines

908 Custom tonality systems

918 Expression maps

936 Percussion maps

942 Playback techniques

946 Notation reference

947 Introduction

948 Accidentals

948 Project-wide engraving options for accidentals

949 Deleting accidentals

949 Hiding/Showing or parenthesizing accidentals

951 Changing the size of accidentals

951 Stacking of accidentals

954 Altered unisons

956 Microtonal accidentals

957 Accidental duration rules

960 Articulations

961 Project-wide engraving options for

articulations

961 Copying and pasting articulations

961 Deleting articulations

962 Positions of articulations

967 Articulations in playback

968 Bars

968 Bar length

968 Deleting bars/beats

971 Changing the width of empty bars

972 Splits in bars

973 Barlines

973 Project-wide engraving options for barlines

974 Per-ow notation options for barlines

974 Types of barlines

979 Hiding/Showing systemic barlines on single-

staff systems

980 Hiding/Showing wings on repeat barlines

980 Changing the length of tick barlines

981 Moving barlines graphically

982 Barlines across staff groups

987 Bar numbers

987 Project-wide engraving options for bar

numbers

988 Hiding/Showing bar numbers

989 Hiding/Showing bar number enclosures

990 Hiding/Showing bar number ranges on multi-

bar rests

990 Hiding/Showing guide bar numbers

991 Bar number paragraph styles

992 Positions of bar numbers

996 Bar number changes

998 Subordinate bar numbers

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1000 Bar numbers and repeats

1004 Beaming

1004 Per-ow notation options for beam grouping

1005 Beam grouping according to meters

1006 Beaming notes together manually

1009 Changing the thickness of beams

1009 Beam placement relative to the staff

1011 Beam slants

1013 Centered beams

1015 Creating cross-staff beams/tremolos

1019 Beam corners

1019 Secondary beams

1022 Tuplets within beams

1022 Rests within beams

1023 Stemlets

1025 Fanned beams

1027 Note and rest grouping

1027 Creating custom beat groupings for meters

1029 Changing the beat grouping for cut common

time signatures

1030 Brackets and braces

1031 Project-wide engraving options for brackets

and braces

1031 Changing bracket grouping according to

ensemble type

1034 Hiding/Showing braces on single staves

1034 Changing the appearance of bracket ends

1035 Secondary brackets

1037 Sub-sub-brackets

1038 Custom staff grouping

1043 Chord symbols

1044 Chord components

1044 Project-wide engraving options for chord

symbols

1045 Chord symbol appearance presets

1046 Chord symbol font styles

1046 Positions of chord symbols

1051 Chord symbol regions

1052 Transposing chord symbols

1053 Respelling chord symbols

1055 Hiding/Showing the root and quality of chord

symbols

1055 Changing the arrangement of compound

chord symbols

1056 Erasing the background of chord symbols

1058 Parenthesized chord symbols

1062 Chord symbols imported from MusicXML

1063 Chord diagrams

1064 Chord diagram components

1064 Project-wide engraving options for chord

diagrams

1065 Project-wide note input options for chord

diagrams

1065 Hiding/Showing chord diagrams

1067 Hiding/Showing used chord diagrams grids

1069 Hiding/Showing ngerings in chord diagrams

1071 Changing the chord diagram shape

1072 Creating new chord diagram shapes

1075 Chord diagram font styles

1075 Changing the horizontal position of starting

fret numbers

1076 Changing the size of chord diagrams

1076 Changing the orientation of chord diagrams

1077 Clefs

1078 Showing clefs after grace notes

1079 Moving clefs graphically

1080 Changing the default size of mid-system clef

changes

1081 Setting different clefs for concert/transposed

pitch

1082 Hiding/Showing clefs

1084 Changing the octave of clefs

1085 Clefs with octave indicators

1087 Octave lines

1088 Project-wide engraving options for octave lines

1088 Positions of octave lines

1090 Hiding/Showing octave lines

1090 Octave lines in Engrave mode

1091 Tucking index properties

1092 Changing the angles of octave lines

1094 Cues

1095 Project-wide engraving options for cues

1095 Rhythmic cues

1098 Hiding/Showing cues in layouts

1099 Changing the octave of cues

1100 Hiding/Showing octave transpositions in cue

labels

1101 Cue contents

1102 Cue labels

1104 Notations in cues

1105 Stem direction in cues

1106 Ties in cues

1107 Rests in cues

1108 Clef changes in cues

1110 Viewing options for cues

1113 Dynamics

1113 Types of dynamics

1114 Project-wide engraving options for dynamics

1114 Positions of dynamics

1119 Parenthesizing dynamics

1119 Erasing the background of dynamics

1121 Changing dynamic levels

1122 Hiding/Showing immediate dynamics

1123 Hiding/Showing combined dynamic separators

1124 Changing the appearance of sforzando/

rinforzando dynamics

1124 Voice-specic dynamics

1125 Dynamic modiers

1129 Gradual dynamics

1137 Messa di voce hairpins

1139 Niente markings

1142 Groups of dynamics

1143 Linked dynamics

1145 Dynamics font styles

1146 Dynamics in playback

1148 Figured bass

1149 Project-wide engraving options for gured

bass

1149 Project-wide note input options for gured

bass

1150 Hiding/Showing gured bass in layouts

1151 Showing gured bass on rests

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Dorico Pro 5.0.10

1152 Showing single brackets on gured bass

1152 Changing gured bass bracket styles

1153 Figured bass hold lines

1157 Positions of gured bass

1160 Appearance of gured bass

1166 Fingering

1167 General placement conventions for ngering

1167 Project-wide engraving options for ngerings

1168 Changing ngerings to substitution ngerings

1169 Changing existing ngerings

1170 Changing the staff-relative placement of

ngerings

1172 Changing the size of ngerings

1173 Showing enclosures/underlines on ngerings

1174 Hiding/Showing ngering

1174 Deleting ngerings

1175 Fingering font styles

1177 Cautionary ngerings

1178 Fingerings for fretted instruments

1185 Fingering slides

1188 Fingerings for valved brass instruments

1189 Hiding/Showing string ngering shift

indicators

1191 Fingerings imported from MusicXML les

1192 String indicators

1193 Project-wide engraving options for string

indicators

1194 Changing the appearance of open string

indicators

1194 Changing the size of string indicators

1195 Deleting string indicators

1195 Positions of string indicators

1197 Front matter

1197 Adding dedications in page templates

1199 Adding player lists

1199 Editing running headers in page templates

1200 Editing layout transposition text

1201 Hiding/Showing borders on layout names

1202 Grace notes

1203 General placement conventions for grace

notes

1204 Turning existing notes into grace notes

1205 Turning grace notes into normal notes

1205 Showing grace notes before/after barlines

1206 Grace note size

1206 Grace note slashes

1209 Grace note stems

1209 Grace note beams

1210 Grace notes in playback

1211 Holds and pauses

1212 Project-wide engraving options for holds and

pauses

1212 Types of fermatas

1213 Types of breath marks

1213 Types of caesuras

1214 Positions of holds and pauses

1219 Key signatures

1220 Project-wide engraving options for key

signatures

1220 Key signature arrangements

1221 Types of key signatures

1222 Hiding/Showing key signatures at the start of

systems

1223 Hiding/Showing cancellation naturals before

key signature changes

1223 Positions of key signatures

1225 Cautionary key signatures

1226 Enharmonic equivalent key signatures

1228 Tonality systems

1228 Equal Division of the Octave (EDO)

1229 Changing the tonality system

1230 Importing tonality systems

1230 Exporting tonality systems

1231 Lyrics

1231 Project-wide engraving options for lyrics

1232 Types of lyrics

1233 Types of syllables in lyrics

1234 Copying and pasting lyrics

1236 Exporting lyrics

1236 Filters for lyrics

1238 Positions of lyrics

1244 Lyrics paragraph styles

1246 Lyric text editing

1249 Lyric hyphens and lyric extender lines

1250 Lyric line numbers

1253 Verse numbers

1254 Elision slurs

1256 Notes

1256 Project-wide engraving options for notes

1256 Notehead sets

1265 Assigning notes to strings

1266 Changing the width of ledger lines

1267 Hiding/Showing noteheads

1268 Rhythm dot consolidation

1271 Viewing options for notes and rests

1273 Bracketed noteheads

1274 Project-wide engraving options for bracketed

noteheads

1275 Showing brackets on noteheads

1276 Showing brackets around one/all noteheads in

tie chains

1278 Splitting brackets on chords

1279 Changing the appearance of round brackets on

single noteheads

1279 Notehead brackets in Engrave mode

1283 Stems

1283 Project-wide engraving options for stems

1284 Stem direction

1289 Stem length

1290 Hiding/Showing stems

1291 Erasing the background of stems

1292 Harmonics

1293 Turning notes into harmonics

1294 Changing the harmonic partial

1295 Hiding/Showing or parenthesizing harmonic

accidentals

1296 Appearances/Styles of harmonics

1301 Ornaments

1301 Project-wide engraving options for ornaments

1302 Changing ornament intervals

1303 Positions of ornaments

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Dorico Pro 5.0.10

1305 Trills

1305 Hiding/Showing trill marks

1306 Changing the speed of trills

1307 Hiding/Showing speed changes in trill

extension lines

1307 Hiding/Showing trill extension lines

1308 Trill intervals

1316 Trills in playback

1320 Arpeggio signs

1320 Project-wide engraving options for arpeggio

signs

1321 Types of arpeggio signs

1323 Length of arpeggio signs

1323 General placement conventions for arpeggio

signs

1324 Arpeggios in playback

1327 Glissando lines

1328 Project-wide engraving options for glissando

lines

1328 Glissando lines across empty bars

1328 Changing the style of glissando lines

1329 Changing glissando line text

1331 Glissando lines in Engrave mode

1332 Glissando lines in playback

1333 Guitar bends

1336 Guitar pre-bends and pre-dives

1337 Guitar post-bends

1338 Vibrato bar dives and returns

1339 Bend intervals

1340 Project-wide engraving options for guitar

bends, pre-bends, post-bends, and vibrato bar

dives and returns

1341 Hiding/Showing guitar bend hold lines

1341 Changing the direction of guitar pre-bends/

pre-dives

1342 Hiding/Showing accidentals on guitar pre-

bends/pre-dives

1343 Deleting guitar pre-bends, pre-dives, and post-

bends

1343 Guitar bends in Engrave mode

1349 Guitar techniques

1349 Vibrato bar techniques

1350 Tapping

1352 Hammer-ons and pull-offs

1353 Project-wide engraving options for guitar

techniques

1354 Showing notes as dead notes

1354 Changing vibrato bar dip intervals

1355 Hiding/Showing guitar techniques on notation

staves and tablature

1356 Changing the staff-relative placement of guitar

techniques

1357 Deleting guitar techniques

1358 Jazz articulations

1359 Jazz ornaments

1360 Project-wide engraving options for jazz

articulations

1360 Positions of jazz articulations

1361 Changing the type/length of existing jazz

articulations

1361 Changing the line style of smooth jazz

articulations

1362 Deleting jazz articulations

1363 Page numbers

1364 Page number paragraph styles

1364 Changing the page number numeral style

1365 Hiding/Showing page numbers

1368 Harp pedaling

1369 Project-wide engraving options for harp

pedaling

1370 Changing the appearance of harp pedal

diagrams

1371 Hiding/Showing harp pedaling in layouts

1372 Hiding/Showing borders on harp pedal

diagrams

1374 Positions of harp pedal diagrams

1375 Partial harp pedaling

1377 Pedal lines

1378 Project-wide engraving options for pedal lines

1378 Sustain pedal retakes and pedal level changes

1384 Positions of pedal lines

1385 Splitting pedal lines

1387 Pedal line start signs, hooks, and continuation

lines

1393 Text pedal line signs

1395 Pedal lines in playback

1396 Pedal lines imported from MusicXML les

1397 Playing techniques

1398 Project-wide engraving options for playing

techniques

1398 Adding text to playing techniques

1399 Erasing the background of text playing

techniques

1401 Hiding/Showing playing techniques

1402 Positions of playing techniques

1403 Playing technique continuation lines

1409 Groups of playing techniques

1412 Lines

1414 Line components

1415 Project-wide engraving options for lines

1415 Positions of lines

1420 Length of lines

1423 Changing the body style of lines

1424 Changing the caps of lines

1425 Changing the direction of lines

1425 Adding text to lines

1433 Lines in Engrave mode

1434 Rehearsal marks

1434 Project-wide engraving options for rehearsal

marks

1435 Changing the rehearsal mark enclosure type

1435 Positions of rehearsal marks

1436 Changing the index of rehearsal marks

1437 Changing the rehearsal mark sequence type

1438 Adding prexes/suxes to rehearsal marks

1439 Editing the rehearsal mark paragraph style

1440 Markers

1440 Project-wide engraving options for markers

1441 Hiding/Showing markers

1441 Changing the vertical position of markers

1442 Editing marker text

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Dorico Pro 5.0.10

1443 Editing the marker/timecode font styles

1443 Changing the timecodes of markers

1444 Dening markers as important

1445 Timecodes

1446 Changing the initial timecode value

1446 Changing the vertical position of timecodes

1447 Hiding/Showing timecodes in markers

1448 Changing the timecode frequency

1450 Repeat endings

1450 Project-wide engraving options for repeat

endings

1451 Changing the total number of playthroughs in

repeat endings

1452 Lengthening/Shortening segments in repeat

endings

1453 Positions of repeat endings

1454 Editing repeat ending text

1454 Changing the appearance of individual nal

repeat ending segments

1455 Lengthening/Shortening repeat ending hooks

1456 Repeat endings in MusicXML les

1457 Repeat markers

1458 Project-wide engraving options for repeat

markers

1458 Repeat marker paragraph styles

1459 Changing the size of coda/segno symbols

1459 Hiding/Showing symbols in repeat markers

1460 Changing the index for repeat markers

1461 Editing repeat marker text

1463 Hiding/Showing repeat markers

1463 Changing the barline shown before codas

1464 Positions of repeat markers

1466 Repeat counts

1469 Bar repeats

1470 Project-wide engraving options for bar repeats

1470 Changing the length of the repeated phrase in

bar repeat regions

1471 Hiding/Showing region highlights

1471 Bar repeat counts

1475 Bar repeat grouping

1477 Numbered bar regions

1478 Project-wide engraving options for numbered

bar regions

1478 Hiding/Showing numbered bar regions

1478 Numbered bar region counts

1483 Rhythm slashes

1483 Project-wide engraving options for rhythm

slashes

1484 Slash regions

1485 Slashes in multiple-voice contexts

1489 Splitting slash regions

1489 Hiding/Showing stems in slash regions

1490 Slash region counts

1493 Slash voices

1497 Rests

1497 General placement conventions for rests

1498 Implicit vs.explicit rests

1500 Per-ow notation options for rests

1501 Project-wide engraving options for rests

1501 Hiding/Showing rest colors

1502 Moving rests vertically

1503 Deleting rests

1504 Hiding/Showing bar rests in empty bars

1506 Multi-bar rests

1512 Slurs

1513 Project-wide engraving options for slurs

1513 General placement conventions for slurs

1520 Slur styles

1524 Slur curvature direction

1526 Cross-staff and cross-voice slurs

1527 Nested slurs

1529 Linked slurs

1530 Slur segments

1532 Slurs in Engrave mode

1537 Slur height

1538 Slur shoulder offset

1540 Slurs in playback

1541 Staff labels

1542 Project-wide engraving options for staff labels

1542 Hiding/Showing staff labels

1544 Hiding/Showing staff labels at system/frame

breaks

1545 Staff label contents

1547 Instrument transpositions in staff labels

1549 Hiding/Showing instrument change labels at

the start of ows

1550 Grouping the staff labels of adjacent identical

instruments

1551 Changing the staff label numbering style

1551 Showing vocal staff labels in uppercase/title

case

1552 Player group labels

1554 Staff label paragraph styles

1555 Staff labels for percussion kits

1556 Staff labels on condensed staves

1559 Staves

1560 Per-layout options for staves

1560 Changing the thickness of staff lines

1561 Deleting staves

1562 Deleting extra/ossia staves

1562 Extra staves

1566 Ossia staves

1572 System dividers

1573 System objects

1575 System indents

1577 Divisi

1578 Change Divisi dialog

1580 Inputting divisi changes

1581 Editing existing divisi changes

1582 Ending divisi passages

1582 Unison ranges

1584 Divisi on vocal staves

1584 Divisi staff labels

1587 Divisi change labels

1589 Divisi in playback

1590 Tablature

1591 Project-wide engraving options for tablature

1591 Rhythms on tablature

1592 Hiding/Showing notation staves and tablature

1593 Changing the allocated string for notes on

tablature

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1594 Hiding/Showing enclosures around notes on

tablature

1596 Changing the placement of rhythm dots on

tablature

1596 Editing the tablature numbers font style

1597 Tempo marks

1598 Project-wide engraving options for tempo

marks

1598 Types of tempo marks

1599 Tempo mark components

1601 Positions of tempo marks

1603 Changing tempo text

1604 Tempo mark font styles

1605 Hiding/Showing tempo marks

1606 Metronome marks

1610 Gradual tempo changes

1614 Tempo equations

1616 Text items

1617 Types of text

1621 Changing the paragraph style of text items

1622 Aligning text items with the start of systems

1623 Enabling/Disabling text collision avoidance

1623 Adding borders to text items

1627 Erasing the background of text items

1628 Hiding/Showing text items

1629 Ties

1630 Project-wide engraving options for ties

1631 Ties vs.slurs

1631 Tie styles

1635 Tie curvature direction

1636 Non-standard ties

1638 Hiding/Showing laissez vibrer ties

1639 Deleting ties

1640 Splitting tie chains

1641 Ties in Engrave mode

1644 Tie height

1646 Tie shoulder offset

1648 Time signatures

1649 Project-wide engraving options for time

signatures

1650 Types of time signatures

1652 Cautionary time signatures

1652 Pick-up bars

1654 Large time signatures

1656 Time signature styles

1661 Positions of time signatures

1664 Hiding/Showing time signatures

1664 Ending interchangeable time signatures

1665 Changing the design of time signatures

1666 Erasing the background of time signatures

1667 Tremolos

1668 Project-wide engraving options for tremolos

1669 General placement conventions for tremolos

1669 Tremolos in tie chains

1671 Changing the speed of tremolos

1672 Changing the appearance of multi-note half

note tremolos

1672 Deleting tremolos

1673 Rhythmic positions of notes with tremolos

1673 Moving tremolo strokes

1675 Tremolos in playback

1677 Tuplets

1677 Project-wide engraving options for tuplets

1678 Nested tuplets

1679 Turning existing notes into tuplets

1680 Turning tuplets into normal notes

1680 Allowing/Disallowing tuplets to span barlines

1681 Tuplet beams

1682 Tuplet brackets

1686 Tuplet numbers/ratios

1690 Unpitched percussion

1690 Playing techniques for unpitched percussion

instruments

1696 Single-line percussion staves

1697 Percussion kits vs.individual percussion

instruments

1698 Per-ow notation options for unpitched

percussion

1698 Percussion kits and drum sets

1701 Notations on notes in percussion kits

1702 Percussion kit presentation types

1704 Percussion legends

1709 Voices in percussion kits

1711 Universal Indian Drum Notation

1712 Voices

1713 Per-ow notation options for voices

1713 Hiding/Showing voice colors

1714 Allowing/Disallowing noteheads in opposing

voices to overlap

1715 Note positions in multiple-voice contexts

1718 Unused voices

1718 Notes crossed to staves with existing notes in

other voices

1720 Glossary

1734 Index

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9

Dorico Pro 5.0.10

New features

NOTE

Documentation for this new version is ongoing and will be updated regularly. We recommend

that you also read the Version History for Dorico 5 for information about other new features not

yet included in this documentation. You can download the Dorico 5 Version History from the

Steinberg Download Assistant.

New Features in Version 5.0.0

User interface improvements

● The status bar has been given additional options, allowing you to switch the current layout

between concert/transposed pitch and galley/page view more easily. See Status bar.

● You can now enable/disable playhead following during playback in each project window

independently. See Enabling/Disabling playhead following.

Instrument numbering

● It is now possible to renumber instruments so their numbering matches their default

player order. See Renumbering instruments.

Staff label improvements

● In simple cases, horizontal alignment and leading set for individual instrument names is

now used in staff labels, overriding the settings from the corresponding paragraph style.

See Edit Instrument Names dialog.

● You can now show player names in staff labels only on the rst system in each ow,

with instrument names shown in staff labels on all other systems. See Showing instrument/

player names in staff labels.

Mouse editing

● It is now possible to transpose, move, and copy notes by clicking and dragging with the

mouse. By default, mouse editing is enabled, but there is a preference to disable it. See

Enabling/Disabling mouse editing.

Multiple item creation

● You can now input notations onto multiple staves simultaneously outside of note input. By

default, Dorico Pro inputs notations at the rst note on each staff, but you can change this

setting to input items always at the earliest selected rhythmic position. See Changing the

item input position setting.

Rhythm dots

● To select dotted note durations, you can now double-press note duration key commands.

See Inputting notes with rhythm dots.

Text improvements

● You can now enter Unicode characters into both text items and text frames more easily.

See Inputting text items and Entering text in text frames.

● You can now adjust leading in individual text items and text frames, independently of the

paragraph style. See Text editor options in Write mode and Text editor options in Engrave

mode.

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Dorico Pro 5.0.10

● You can now change the background and border colors of individual text frames. See

Changing the background color of text frames and Changing the color of text frame

borders.

● You can now change the paragraph style applied to multiple selected text items

simultaneously. See Changing the paragraph style of text items.

Playback improvements

● Notes and items can now be muted in specic playthroughs, allowing you to hear selected

notes only the second time around, for example. See Muting notes/items individually.

● Dorico Pro now supports microtonal playback using MIDI pitch bend. See Expression Maps

dialog.

Key Editor improvements

● There is now a value eld in the Velocity editor header, which displays and allows you to

change velocity values. See Velocity editor.

● You can now make selected dynamic points constant or linear. See Dynamics editor.

Mixer improvements

● It is now possible to add multiple FX channels to the Mixer. See Adding FX channels.

● You can now rename channels in the Mixer. See Renaming channels.

Music fonts

● New music font families are now available by default. See Music fonts.

Note and rest grouping

● You can now group beats in cut common time signatures, such as 2/2, in the same ways

as time signatures with a half-bar, such as 4/4. See Changing the beat grouping for cut

common time signatures.

Bracket improvements

● There are new options for hiding/showing secondary brackets in different contexts. See

Hiding/Showing secondary brackets.

Chord symbol improvements

● You can now change the vertical alignment of multi-line chord symbols relative to single-

line chord symbols. See Changing the vertical alignment of chord symbols.

Hiding items

● You can now hide clefs in layouts of any transposition, independently of other layouts. See

Hiding/Showing clefs.

● You can now hide octave lines in individual layouts. See Hiding/Showing octave lines.

Niente hairpins

●You can now change the size of niente circles, the gap between niente circles and hairpins,

and whether text niente markings appear bold or plain. See Changing the appearance of

niente hairpins.

Lyric improvements

● There is a new option to show lyric extensions with Japanese hyphens at each notehead

instead of extender lines. See Hiding/Showing Japanese hyphens.

Pedal line improvements

● When you merge sustain pedal lines, a retake is now automatically added at the previous

start position of each merged pedal line. See Merging pedal lines.

New features



11

Dorico Pro 5.0.10

Introduction

Thank you very much for purchasing Dorico Pro.

We are delighted that you have chosen Steinberg's scoring application and hope that you will

enjoy using it for years to come.

Dorico is a next-generation application for producing beautiful sheet music, whether you are

a composer, arranger, music engraver, publisher, instrumentalist, teacher, or student. Whether

you want to print your music or share it in a digital format, Dorico is the most sophisticated

program available.

Like all of Steinberg's products, Dorico has been designed from the ground up by a team of

musicians who understand your needs and who are dedicated to producing a tool that is both

easy to learn and use, but also capable of results of the highest quality. Dorico also integrates

with your existing workow and can import and export les in a variety of formats.

Dorico thinks about music the same way a human musician does and has a deeper

understanding of the elements of music and musical performance than other scoring

applications. Its unique design allows an unprecedented degree of exibility, in music input and

editing, in score layout, in rhythmic freedom, and many other areas besides.

Most sincerely yours,

The Steinberg Dorico Team

Platform-independent documentation

This documentation applies to the operating systems Windows and macOS.

Features and settings that are specic to one of these platforms are clearly indicated. In all other

cases, the descriptions and procedures in the documentation are valid for Windows and macOS.

Some points to consider:

● The screenshots are taken from macOS and use the dark theme in Dorico Pro.

● Some functions that are available on the File menu on Windows can be found in the

program name menu on macOS.

Usage of musical terms

This documentation uses American terminology for musical items.

The following table lists all the notes and notations that have different names in American and

British English:

American name British name

Double whole note Breve

Whole note Semibreve

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Dorico Pro 5.0.10

American name British name

Half note Minim

Quarter note Crotchet

Eighth note Quaver

Sixteenth note Semiquaver

Thirty-second note Demisemiquaver

Sixty-fourth note Hemidemisemiquaver

Hundred twenty-eighth note Semihemidemisemiquaver

Two hundred fty-sixth note Demisemihemidemisemiquaver

Half-step Semitone

Whole step Whole tone

Staff Stave

Bar/Measure

NOTE

This documentation only uses “bar”.

Bar

Documentation structure

In our documentation, we divide information into three different types of topics, according to

their content.

Descriptions of the user interface

Topics that describe the functionality of user interface items and list the options and

settings of dialogs, panels, or other items.

Descriptions of basic concepts

Topics that describe concepts and explain the functionality of a specic software

feature.

Descriptions of procedures

Topics that provide step-by-step instructions for how to perform a specic task. These

topics often provide an example for why you might want to follow the steps and a brief

summary of the result, including consequences to be aware of.

Because of this division of information, our documentation structure functions as a reference

you can consult for specic information or instructions as required, rather than a guide you must

read from start to nish.

Introduction

Documentation structure

13

Dorico Pro 5.0.10

TIP

Descriptive topics do not describe how to perform a task, and procedural topics do not explain

what something is. To nd general information about items or concepts, we recommend

searching for them by name, such as “dynamics”. To nd instructions for performing particular

actions, we recommend including a relevant verb in your search, such as “moving”.

Links at the bottom of topics guide you to further relevant content. You can also check the

sidebar for nearby, related topics in the documentation structure.

Typographical conventions

In our documentation, we use structural and markup elements to present information according

to its purpose.

Structural elements

Prerequisite

Describes any actions or conditions you must have fullled before starting a

procedure.

Procedure

Lists the steps that you must take to achieve a specic result.

Important

Informs you about serious issues; for example, issues that affect the system, the

connected hardware, or that risk data loss.

Note

Informs you about issues or other relevant information.

Tip

Adds further information or useful suggestions.

Example

Provides you with an example.

Result

Describes the result of the procedure.

After Completing This Task

Informs you about actions or tasks that you can perform after completing the

procedure.

RELATED LINKS

Key commands in Dorico on page 24

Key Commands page in the Preferences dialog on page 58

Changing the keyboard language on page 62

Changing the application language on page 54

How you can reach us

You can access additional information from the Help menu.

The menu contains links to various Steinberg web pages. Selecting one of these menu items

automatically launches your web browser and opens the page. On these pages, you can nd

support and compatibility information, answers to frequently asked questions, information

about updates and other Steinberg products, and so on.

Introduction

Key commands

15

Dorico Pro 5.0.10

Dorico concepts

Dorico is based on a number of key concepts that come from its design philosophy.

We recommend familiarizing yourself with these concepts, as this will greatly enhance your

ability to work eciently with Dorico and to navigate more easily through this documentation.

Design philosophy and higher-level concepts

Deep design considerations are required to create a notation software like Dorico, which might

be of particular interest to users familiar with scoring applications. Dorico has a forward-thinking

design that is led by musical concepts rather than computational convenience, and this provides

many benets.

In most other graphically-orientated scoring applications, the highest-level concept is the staff or

the instrument denition that creates a staff or staves. When setting up your full score in such

programs, you start by adding the correct number of staves, and you are immediately forced

into making decisions about the layout. This means that you must know in advance whether two

utes share a staff or have their own individual staves, or whether there should be two trumpets

or three. Many of these decisions have signicant effects throughout the process of inputting,

editing, and producing individual instrumental parts.

Typically, every system of a score must contain the same number of staves, even if some

are hidden on particular systems. This requires the user to manage common conventions for

themselves, such as multiple players of the same instrument sharing staves. This can be time-

consuming and is naturally error-prone.

By contrast, Dorico is designed to conform more closely to how music is performed in the real

world and to make the score a exible expression of the practical choices that go into a musical

performance, rather than to make the musical performance subservient to the way the score was

initially prepared.

To that end, the highest-level concept of Dorico is the group of human musicians that performs

a score. A score can be written for one or more groups; for example, a double choir, or an

orchestra plus off-stage chamber ensemble, and so on. Each group includes one or more players

which correspond to the humans who play one or more instruments. Players may either be

individuals who play more than one instrument, such as an oboist doubling cor anglais, or

groups in which everyone plays only one instrument, such as eight desks of violinists.

One crucial difference between Dorico and other scoring applications is that the musical content

exists independently of the score layout in which it is viewed.

The actual music played by the group in your score belongs to one or more ows. A ow is

any span of music that stands alone; for example, a whole song, a movement of a sonata or

symphony, a number in a musical show, or even a short scale or exercise. Players might or might

not have any music to play in a given ow. For example, all the brass players might be omitted

from the slow movement of a classical symphony, or certain players might have nothing to play

in some cues in a movie score. This is no problem as you can combine players in ows in any

combination.

Dorico’s design philosophy provides several benets. Chief among them is its ability to produce

multiple layouts that share the same musical content, but each having customized appearances

to suit different requirements. For example, in the same project you can create a conductor’s

16

Dorico Pro 5.0.10

score with as many instruments as possible condensed onto a smaller number of staves, a full

score with each player’s music on separate staves, a custom score layout containing just the

piano and vocal staves for choral rehearsals, and an instrumental part for each player that only

contains the music belonging to them.

This means it is not necessary to extract ows or parts as separate les: all this information can

co-exist in the same Dorico project le.

RELATED LINKS

Condensing on page 745

Assigning players to layouts on page 167

Projects in Dorico

A project is an individual le that you create within Dorico. It can contain multiple separate pieces

of music of any duration, written for any combination of instruments, and use as many layouts as

required.

For example, you can create a single project that contains all the preludes and fugues in Bach’s

“The Well-Tempered Clavier” as separate ows. You could then have one layout that contains only

the ows for Book 1 and another layout that contains the ows for Book 2.

In addition to the notated music, projects save other relevant information, such as the playback

template applied, its page templates, and settings in options dialogs.

Dorico projects are saved as .dorico les.

RELATED LINKS

Flows in Dorico on page 18

Layouts in Dorico on page 22

Options dialogs in Dorico Pro on page 25

Page templates in Dorico on page 23

Playback templates on page 653

Modes in Dorico

Modes in Dorico represent a logical sequence of the workow phases of preparing music, but

you can switch between them at any time as required for your own workow.

Dorico Pro contains the following modes:

Setup

In Setup mode, you can set up the fundamental elements of the project: instruments

and the players that hold them, ows, layouts, and videos. You can also determine how

they interact with each other; for example, by changing the players assigned to layouts.

You can view music in the music area and switch between viewing other tabs and

layouts, but you cannot select or interact with anything in the music area in Setup

mode.

Write

In Write mode, you can input and edit your music, including changing the rhythmic

positions of items, changing the pitch of notes, and deleting notes and items. The

available toolboxes and panels allow you to input all the notes and notation items that

are most commonly used.

Dorico concepts

Projects in Dorico

17

Dorico Pro 5.0.10

By design, you cannot move notes and items graphically on the page in Write mode.

Graphical adjustments are only possible in Engrave mode.

Engrave

In Engrave mode, you can make ne adjustments to the position, size, and appearance

of notes and items, and determine how the pages of your project are laid out, including

editing and creating page templates.

By design, you cannot delete any notes or items, change their rhythmic positions, or

change the pitch of notes in Engrave mode; this prevents mistakes when engraving.

Play

In Play mode, you can change how your music sounds in playback. You can do this by

changing the playback template and assigning VST instruments, inputting automation,

adjusting the mix, and changing the sounding duration of notes in playback without

affecting their notated duration.

Print

In Print mode, you can print your layouts or export them as graphics les. When

printing layouts, you can specify the paper size and other options, such as duplex or

booklet printing. When exporting layouts, you can specify different graphics le types,

such as PDF or PNG, and the information you want to include in their exported le

names.

RELATED LINKS

Setup mode on page 105

Write mode on page 192

Engrave mode on page 511

Print mode on page 668

Play mode on page 614

Flows in Dorico

Flows are separate spans of music that are completely independent in musical content; for

example, a single song in an album, a movement in a sonata or symphony, a number in a stage

musical, or a short scale or sight-reading exercise of only a few bars in length. A single project

can contain any number of ows.

Each ow can contain music for any combination of players, independently of other ows. For

example, brass players are often tacet in the second movements of Classical-period symphonies,

so you can remove brass players from the ow for the second movement but leave them in the

ows for other movements. In a set of cues for a movie, for example, specic players might not

be required in some cues, so the corresponding ows can contain only those players who have

anything to play.

The correct assignment of players to ows allows Dorico, for example, to generate tacet sheets

automatically for individual instrumental parts.

RELATED LINKS

Players, layouts, and ows on page 117

Flows on page 162

Tacets on page 741

Flow headings on page 552

Dorico concepts

Flows in Dorico

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Dorico Pro 5.0.10

Players in Dorico

In Dorico, a player can represent an individual musician or multiple musicians in the same

section. Players hold instruments, so you must add at least one player to your project before you

can add instruments.

● A single player represents one person who can play one or more instruments. For example,

a clarinettist who doubles on alto saxophone or a percussionist who plays bass drum, clash

cymbals, and triangle.

● A section player represents multiple people who all play the same instrument. For example,

a violin section player might represent all eight desks of the Violin I section in an orchestra,

or a soprano section player might represent the whole soprano section in a mixed voice

choir.

NOTE

Section players can only hold one instrument, but they can play divisi. This means that they

can be divided into smaller units, which is commonly required for strings.

By using the concept of players, Dorico makes it much easier to handle, for example, instrument

changes, divisi, and condensing music for multiple players onto a smaller number of staves.

You can also group players together; for example, to separate off-stage players from on-stage

players in a large-scale work. Grouping players together means they are positioned together in

the score, numbered independently of players outside the group, and are bracketed together

according to the ensemble type set for each layout.

Players can be assigned to any combination of layouts and ows.

RELATED LINKS

Players, layouts, and ows on page 117

Players on page 119

Player groups on page 158

Divisi on page 1577

Condensing on page 745

Brackets according to ensemble type on page 1032

Instruments in Dorico

In Dorico, an instrument is an individual musical instrument, such as a piano, a ute, or a violin.

Human voices, such as soprano or tenor, are also considered instruments.

In Dorico, instruments are held by players, just as real instruments are held by human players.

Section players can only hold one instrument but single players can hold multiple instruments.

This allows you to handle instrument changes easily, such as when an oboist doubling the cor

anglais switches from one instrument to the other.

Each instrument automatically gets its own staff, but when instrument changes are allowed, the

music for multiple instruments held by the same single player can appear on the same staff as

long as no notes overlap.

Dorico has a database of information about the properties of each instrument. These include

the playable range, common and uncommon playing techniques, notational conventions,

transposition properties, tunings, clef, number of staves, type of staff, and so on. Having these

properties predetermined makes it easier and quicker to set up projects correctly. For example,

Dorico concepts

Players in Dorico

19

Dorico Pro 5.0.10

there is a Horn in F instrument that automatically shows treble clefs in transposed pitch layouts.

Similarly, there is a timpani instrument that automatically hides all key signatures.

RELATED LINKS

Instruments on page 127

Instrument changes on page 129

Transposing instruments on page 133

Popovers

Popovers allow you to input different notations and perform tasks, such as transposing a

selection of notes, using only your computer keyboard. They are temporary value elds that use

text entries for different items and tasks, and there are specic popovers for different purposes.

The dynamics popover with an example entry

One of the key benets of popovers is that you can use them as you input notes: for example,

once you reach the position where you want to input a new time signature, you can open the

time signatures popover, input the time signature you want, and then continue inputting notes.

Although specic entries are required for many notations, the correct entries for different

notations are consistently and logically structured. For example, tuplets are always expressed as

a ratio, such as 3:2 or 5:4. Key signatures are expressed using capital letters for major keys and

lowercase letters for minor keys. Time signatures are expressed as a pair of separated numbers;

common time signatures use a slash, such as 3/4 or 6/8.

During note input, and depending on the notation you are inputting with the respective popover,

notations are input either on the currently selected note, which is usually the last note you input,

or at the current rhythmic position, indicated by the caret.

You can always identify popovers by the icon on their left-hand side, which are the same icons

used in the Notations toolbox on the right of the window. The Notations toolbox allows you to

hide/show the corresponding notation’s panel, which is another way you can input notations.

You can only use popovers in Write mode, as that is the only mode where you can input notes

and items together and change the pitch of notes. Popovers open above the top staff on which

the caret is active or an item is selected, and at the caret position or the rhythmic position of the

earliest selected item.

RELATED LINKS

Caret on page 213

Note input on page 219

Notations input on page 268

Notations toolbox on page 198

Right zone (Write mode) on page 201

Dorico concepts

Popovers

20

Dorico Pro 5.0.10

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Steinberg Dorico Pro 5 User manual

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