Version History

October 2024

Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Contents
Dorico 5.1.60 ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 4
Improvements .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Issues resolved ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 7
Dorico 5.1.51 ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 11
Improvements ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 11
Issues resolved ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12
Dorico 5.1.50 ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 13
Improvements ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 13
Issues resolved ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 16
Dorico 5.1.40 ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20
New features .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 20
Contextual help .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20
Improvements ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 20
Issues resolved .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 23
Dorico 5.1.32...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 25
Improvements ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 25
Issues resolved .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 25
Dorico 5.1.30 ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 26
Improvements ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 26
Issues resolved .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 30
Dorico 5.1.20 ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 34
Improvements ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 34
Issues resolved .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 39
Dorico 5.1.10 ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 42
Improvements ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 42
Issues resolved .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 45
Dorico 5.1 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 49
New features .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 49
Iconica Sketch ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 49
Instrument families editor ............................................................................................................................................................................ 50
Instrument score order editor...................................................................................................................................................................... 51
Polyphonic voice balancing........................................................................................................................................................................... 52
Text export ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 53
Project statistics .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 54
History dialog........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 55
Improvements ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 56

Dorico 5 Version History 2 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Issues resolved ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................75
Dorico 5.0.20 .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 87
Improvements ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 87
Issues resolved ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 91
Dorico 5.0.10 ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 96
Improvements ........................................................................................................................................................................................................... 96
Issues resolved .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 97
Dorico 5.0 .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................100
New features ............................................................................................................................................................................................................100
Space and Stage templates..........................................................................................................................................................................100
Pitch contour emphasis ................................................................................................................................................................................ 108
Groove Agent SE.................................................................................................................................................................................................110
MIDI trigger regions ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 113
Scrub playback .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 115
Instrument editor .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 116
Live note editing ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 120
Multiple item creation..................................................................................................................................................................................... 121
Improvements ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 124
Issues resolved ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 147

Dorico 5 Version History 3 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Dorico 5.1.60
8 October 2024

Improvements
Chord diagrams
Non-played strings in barre chords. It is now possible to indicate that a string in the
middle of a barre chord is not played when editing a chord diagram. To achieve this,
after creating the barre, click above the top of the chord diagram at the nut end of
the displayed portion of the fretboard: the dot indicating the fingering on that string
will be removed, but the barre will remain.

Engrave mode
Drag threshold. A new Drag threshold slider has been added to the Editing section of the
Note Input and Editing page of Preferences. By default, when you drag an item with
the mouse, you need to move the mouse a small distance before the item will start
to move; this helps to prevent accidental moves. The threshold is scaled
proportional to the zoom level, so the threshold feels larger at lower zoom levels.
You can now reduce (or indeed increase) this threshold to change the distance you
need to move the mouse before the item will begin to move.

Lyrics
Pasting lyrics. It is now possible to paste lyrics in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean one
ideograph at a time. Copy the lyrics to the clipboard using a text editor, then select
the note where the first lyric should appear, type Shift+L to open the lyrics popover,
and then paste. Dorico takes the first character from the clipboard and pastes it into
the popover, automatically advancing to the next note, so that you can paste again.

MusicXML import
Page formatting. Dorico now imports system and frame breaks from MusicXML files by
default. If you want to disable this behavior, deactivate Import system and frame
breaks on the MusicXML Import page of Preferences before importing your
MusicXML file. Dorico does not yet import information about whether a staff is
hidden in a specific system, so it is still possible for the resulting layout not to match
the original file exactly.

Note input
Pitch before duration input. Pitch before duration input feels quite similar to Speedy
Entry in Finale, especially if you are using a MIDI keyboard for note input. You can
play notes and chords freely on your keyboard and Dorico will not input anything

Dorico 5 Version History 4 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 until you then specify the duration of the note or chord to be input by typing the
appropriate number key for the chosen duration.

When using the computer keyboard, however, some long-term Finale users have
become accustomed to moving the input pitch with the up/down arrow keys. In
Dorico, these keys move the caret, rather than adjusting the pitch of the shadow
note that specifies the pitch to be input.

To make it possible to match this Finale workflow, four new commands have been
added to the Note Input category in the Key Commands page of Preferences: map
Raise Shadow Note Pitch by Step to ↑, and map Lower Shadow Note Pitch by
Step to ↓. We also recommend you map Move Up and Move Down (also in the Note
Input category) to Alt+↑ and Alt+↓respectively, so that it is still possible to move
the caret to different staves. You may also wish to map Raise Shadow Note Pitch by
Octave and Lower Shadow Note Pitch by Octave.

Having made these changes, after activating note input with pitch before duration,
you can use the up/down arrow keys to adjust the pitch of the shadow note.

Furthermore, a new option Play changes of shadow note pitch in pitch before
duration input has been added to the Note Input and Editing page of Preferences.
If you prefer only to hear the pitch of the note when you commit it to the score by
hitting a duration key, deactivate this option.

Auditioning in mouse input. A new Play shadow note pitch option has been added to the
Mouse Input section of the Note Input and Editing page of Preferences. When this
option is enabled, Dorico will audition the pitch of the shadow note as you move
your mouse pointer over the staff.

Changing the inversion of chords. If you want to change the inversion of an existing chord
– for example to make a root position triad into a second inversion triad by
transposing the top note down an octave, or to make a triad in first inversion into a
second inversion triad by transposing the bottom note up an octave – this can now
be done via the Shift+I note tools popover. Type t top -8 to transpose the top notes of
the selected chords down by an octave, or type t bottom 8 to transpose the bottom
notes of the selected chords up by an octave.

Hiding noteheads. A new Toggle Hide Notehead command has been added. You can
trigger this via the jump bar, or assign a custom key command in Preferences.

Percussion
Open hi-hat. When using Shift+Alt+↑/↓arrow to cycle through playing techniques for
the selected note on a hi-hat instrument in a percussion kit, the open playing
technique is now included.

Dorico 5 Version History 5 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Platform support
macOS 15 Sequoia. Dorico 5.1.60 is now officially supported on macOS 15 Sequoia, and
introduces updated Quick Look and Finder thumbnail app extensions that work on
macOS 12 and later.

If you find that Quick Look is not operable on your Mac, in System Settings, go to the
Login Items & Extensions pane, and in the Extensions list, find Quick Look. Click
the i button at the right-hand side to see which applications on your Mac have
registered Quick Look extensions. You should see Dorico 5 listed there, with
DoricoQuickLookExtensionMac and DoricoThumbnailExtensionMac both enabled;
if either is disabled, activate the switch to enable them.

Dorico for iPad. A few minor improvements have been made to Dorico for iPad:

§ Propagate Properties now appears in the contextual menu in the

secondary toolbar.
§ The Delete button in the secondary toolbar is now enabled when a note
spacing or staff spacing handle is selected in Engrave mode, allowing you to
remove a spacing override.
§ The Save Endpoint Configuration button no longer incorrectly appears in
the Endpoint Setup dialog.

Properties
Properties scope. When changing the Set local properties option, either directly in the
Properties panel toolbar in the lower zone, or using the command Toggle Set
Properties Scope, the scope is now updated in all project windows belonging to the
active project.

Repeat markers
Repeat markers. When the caret is visible, repeat markers (such as segno and coda)
created using the Shift+R popover will appear at the caret’s position, not the
position of any music that may be selected.

User interface
Checking for updates. Help ▶ Check For Updates now shows a dialog that informs you
directly whether an update is available for Dorico, instead of directing you to the
Steinberg web site. This requires an active Internet connection.

Moving between layouts. The default shortcuts for Window ▶ Previous/Next Layout have
been changed to Shift+Alt+,/. when using a German keyboard.

Dorico 5 Version History 6 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Issues resolved
Component Issue

Audio engine On some systems with Chinese characters in file paths, the audio engine could crash when
scanning VST plug-ins; this has now been fixed.

Audio engine The audio engine no longer crashes when encountering old versions of HALion Sonic SE
installed on the system.

Clefs If you override the color of a clef in Library ▶ Music Symbols, that color override is now
preserved when printing or exporting graphics.

Condensing Editing towards the end of long flows where condensing is enabled is now considerably faster.

Condensing Under some circumstances, staff labels for condensed instruments would not be grouped
correctly; this has now been fixed.

Diagnostics In rare circumstances, Dorico could crash when attempting to collect crash dumps when
building the diagnostic report; this has now been fixed (Windows only).

Divisi Divisi labels are now updated immediately if the Player labels paragraph style is edited.

Engrave mode Dorico now always correctly applies the expected Fit two pages zoom level when entering the
page template editor.

Galley view The guide bar numbers drawn in galley view now correctly follow the properties of the Galley
View Margin Labels paragraph style.

Graphic slices Dorico now maintains the default path for a new graphic slice independently for each project
you open in a single application session.

Guitar tablature When showing half notes and whole notes with enclosures in tablature, stems are now
correctly drawn in multiple voice cases.

Harp pedaling Dorico now considers notes across the entire playable range of the harp when determining
which pedal settings are required; previously the uppermost octave of the instrument was
incorrectly excluded.

Help When choosing Help ▶ User Manual to go to the online Operation Manual, you are now taken
to the language that matches Dorico’s user interface, if available.

Instrument types The transposition of the pedal steel guitar has been fixed.

Instrument types Alto trombone now comes before tenor trombone in the default instrument score orders, as it
should.

Dorico 5 Version History 7 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Key Editor Clicking in the ruler either in the piano roll or the track overview in Play mode now correctly
moves the playhead in Dorico Elements, Dorico SE, and Dorico for iPad.

Key Editor Lock Key Editor to Selection once again works correctly for instruments that do not use
independent voice playback.

Library Manager When choosing Layout Options in the left-hand list, the Layout menu for the destination
project is now always correctly updated.

MIDI import Importing a MIDI file with a SMPTE offset no longer unexpectedly causes playback options to
be reset to factory values.

Miscellaneous Several crashes that have been reported through automated crash log collection have been
fixed.

Multi-bar rests Edits that split a multi-bar rest no longer sometimes cause erroneous splits at chord symbol
positions.

Music fonts When creating a new project by opening a MIDI or MusicXML file, Dorico now applies the
correct font-specific metadata for the chosen default music font, if it has been overridden
from Bravura.

MusicXML export Under rare circumstances, Dorico could export invalid MusicXML for segno repeat markers;
this has now been fixed.

MusicXML import The mapping of page dimensions in MusicXML files onto Dorico's preset page sizes has been
improved.

Note input Edit ▶ Paste Special ▶ Paste Into Voice is now correctly enabled in Dorico Elements.

Note input Making a selection in a project with a very large number of flows is now faster.

Note input Entering a fraction with a denominator of zero into the Shift+B popover no longer causes a
crash.

Note input When dragging notes to edit their pitch, Dorico now correctly handles transposing
instruments that show different clefs in concert and transposed pitch.

Note input When inputting music at high speed, if you hit a duration key followed by a note followed by
the same duration key in very quick succession, Dorico will no longer interpret the second hit
of the duration key as activating the rhythm dot for that note value, provided a note has been
input between the two duration keypresses.

Performance Editing long flows where divisi labels are snapped to the position of the first note after the
start of the divisi section is now considerably faster.

Dorico 5 Version History 8 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Play mode The drop-down menus for expression and percussion maps in the Routing section of the
Track Inspector in Play mode are now correctly updated after applying a playback template.

Playback Under some circumstances, Dorico could fail to load additional instances of NotePerformer
when required; this has now been fixed.

Playback When determining the best matching expression map switch for a combination of playback
techniques that is not defined by the expression map, Dorico now chooses the switch with the
highest number of matching playback techniques, rather than the first switch that matches
any one of the requested playback techniques.

Playback Under some circumstances, fermatas in repeated passages would not include the expected
gap before the following note; this has now been fixed.

Playback Agogos, congas, and bongos have been added to the factory General MIDI percussion map.

Playing techniques Editing a glyph-type playing technique containing multiple components now works reliably
once more.

Project files Starting a new project via File ▶ New after saving a music font other than Bravura as your
default once again correctly ensures that font-specific metadata for Engraving Options and
graphical adjustments like stem offsets are applied.

Project files Closing a project window with an item in the score selected no longer results in a crash.

Setup mode Triggering the Rename Player command via the jump bar in Setup mode now works as
expected.

Text Under some circumstances, system text could move unexpectedly in galley view when editing
other nearby items; this has now been fixed.

Text Under some circumstances, multi-line text items could be positioned too close to the staff;
this has now been fixed.

Time signatures Time signatures created from the Create Time Signature section of the Time Signatures panel
in Write mode now correctly follow the flow's prevailing note and rest grouping options.

Time signatures It is once again possible to hide time signatures when creating or editing them via the Shift+M
popover by enclosing the input string with parentheses, e.g. (4/4).

Time signatures Under some circumstances, Dorico could crash when interacting with the Create Time
Signature section of the Time Signatures panel after changing application preferences; this
has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 9 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

User interface If a page or category name in one of Dorico’s options dialogs is too wide for the panel in which
the list appears, the complete name now appears in a tool tip.

User interface Under some circumstances, Dorico could crash when redrawing the ensemble builder
popover; this has now been fixed.

User interface Hitting Esc to cancel the dialog used to define which instrument should be used for the
selected track in the MIDI Import Options dialog now works correctly.

User interface Hold on to your bald eagles, folks! The colonial, tea-sipping limey spelling of “minimise” has
been corrected to the true, freedom-loving, stars-and-stripes-approved “minimize.”

User interface Under some circumstances, tool tips for certain controls in the project window could remain
visible after the window loses focus; this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 10 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Dorico 5.1.51
6 August 2024

Improvements
Audio export
Bit depth. It is now possible to export audio in 32-bit and 64-bit float bit depth, in
addition to 16-bit, 24-bit and 32-bit integer bit depth.

Lyrics
Lyric extenders. In Japanese lyrics, it is conventional for melismas – where a syllable is
sung across multiple notes – to be indicated with a hyphen character shown under
each note, rather than the extender line aligned with the text baseline used in most
other languages.

Dorico also showed these Japanese hyphens for lyrics written in Chinese and
Korean, which is unconventional; lyrics in these languages more conventionally
use the same extender line as most other languages.

For new projects, Dorico now correctly creates extender lines for lyrics in Chinese
and Korean. Existing projects will be unaffected by this change: if you have projects
that use Chinese or Korean lyrics and want to replace Japanese hyphens with
extender lines, you should delete the Japanese hyphens individually, then edit the
lyric that begins the melisma and hit Space as required to recreate the extender
line.

Playback
Starting playback. The delay when starting playback has been reduced from around one
second to around 50 milliseconds.

User interface
Preferences dialog. The Preferences dialog no longer shows the name of the current
project in its title bar; unlike the other similar-looking options dialogs, there is only
ever a single Preferences dialog that applies to the application as a whole, not an
individual project.

Dorico 5 Version History 11 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Issues resolved
Component Issue

Barlines It is once again possible to create a start repeat barline on a single staff in a passage with a
local time signature.

Key Editor The commands to decrease or increase playback start and end offsets now always
immediately update the display in the piano roll in the Key Editor.

Multi-bar rests When opening projects created prior to Dorico 5.1.50, the new Spacing approach for single
bar rests option is now correctly disabled in projects that were set not to show a bar count on
a single bar rest.

Note input Notes written for solo strings played back by HALion Symphonic Orchestra now once again
audition at the correct dynamic.

Note input Hitting Tab to cycle the selection between notes and dynamics at the same position now
works correctly once more.

Note input Under some circumstances, lengthening or shortening a selected item could cause the item’s
duration to change by twice as much as expected; this could happen if either of its circular
handles is selected along with its body. This has now been fixed.

Page numbers When View ▶ Page Numbers is activated, page numbers are correctly shown even when the
layout is set to show no page numbers.

Pedal lines Under rare circumstances, dragging a pedal line continuation at the beginning of a system
could crash; this has now been fixed.

Playback An a tempo marking following a Tempo I marking will now correctly return to the initial tempo
as indicated by Tempo I rather than to whatever explicit tempo marking precedes Tempo I.

Playback Under some circumstances, Dorico would play back gradual tempo markings from the wrong
initial tempo; this has now been fixed.

Playing techniques Changing the Text edit control in Library ▶ Preferences and clicking OK without first moving
the focus to another control in the dialog now correctly updates all relevant playing
techniques immediately.

User interface The Preset selectors in the Background Colors section of the Colors page of Preferences now
update correctly when choosing a gradient preset.

User interface Clicking Reset to Factory in Preferences now immediately updates the Write and Engrave
mode background gradients, if necessary.

Dorico 5 Version History 12 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Dorico 5.1.50
26 July 2024

Improvements
Barlines
Double thick barline. A new double thick barline has been added to the Barlines panel in
Write mode. It can be created via the Shift+B popover by typing either doublethick
or thickdouble.

Bar numbers
Placement relative to dynamics. A new option Placement relative to dynamics has been
added to the Bar Numbers page of Layout Options, allowing you to specify whether
bar numbers centered on or left-aligned with barlines should be placed Inside
dynamics or Outside dynamics.

In previous versions of Dorico, bar numbers at barlines positioned below the staff
would automatically be placed inside dynamics, while those above the staff would
be automatically placed outside dynamics. This new option allows you to control
this decision.

Dynamics
Short hairpins. Dorico enforces a minimum length for hairpins and messa di voce
gradual dynamics, using the Minimum length values found in the Advanced
Options section of the Gradual Dynamics section of the Dynamics page of
Engraving Options.

When an immediate dynamic at the end of a hairpin is attached to the start of the
following bar, and that bar is the start of a multi-bar rest, Dorico is unable to
correctly account for the width of the immediate dynamic, which is moved
leftwards to the end of the previous bar. In these circumstances, the minimum
length for hairpins cannot be enforced.

In previous versions, any hairpin that would be drawn shorter than the minimum
length was hidden; however, this created problems for proofreading, as it is much
more difficult to spot that a hairpin is missing completely than that it looks too
short. Consequently, in new projects, short hairpins are now always drawn, even if
they would be shorter than the defined minimum length.

If you want to enable this in existing projects, deactivate the new Hide hairpins
shorter than minimum length option in the Advanced Options section of the
Gradual Dynamics section of the Dynamics page of Engraving Options.

Dorico 5 Version History 13 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Instrument changes
Label and warning positions. Two new options, Instrument change warning position
and Instrument change label position, have been added to the Instrument
Changes section of the Players page of Layout Options. These options controls
whether, for example, an instrument change label appears at the start of the bar in
which the first note is played by the new instrument (Snap to nearest barlines), or
whether it appears at the rhythmic position of the first note (Snap to notes).

In new projects, instrument change warnings are set to Snap to notes so they
appear immediately after the last note in the old instrument, while instrument
change labels are set to Snap to nearest barlines. Existing projects have both
options set to Snap to nearest barlines to maintain their appearance.

Instrument transition positions. When there is only a short time between the last note of
the original instrument and the first note of the new instrument, Dorico will
typically hide the boxed instrument change label, and show the instrument change
warning, because that is the first indication that the player will see. However, you
might prefer to hide the warning and show the more prominent boxed label
instead.

This can now be achieved by setting the new When instrument transitions are
close option to Hide instrument change warning. In new projects, this option is set
to Hide instrument change warning, but in existing projects it is set to Hide
instrument change label to retain their existing appearance.

Markers
Keyboard navigation. It is now possible to navigate in Write mode from one selected
marker to the next or previous marker using the arrow keys.

MIDI import
Articulations. A new option Add articulations to notes has been added to the Notations
section of the Import Options section of the MIDI Import Options dialog. Deactivate
this option if you do not want Dorico to add staccatos, accents, and tenutos to notes
when importing MIDI files.

Multi-bar rests
Spacing of single bar rests. In new projects, Dorico now spaces single bar rests as regular
bar rests instead of as multi-bar rests, regardless of whether the option is set to
show 1 over single bar rests. Previously, any single bar rest that shows its 1 bar count
would be spaced like a multi-bar rest.

In existing projects, Dorico continues to space such bar rests as multi-bar rests to
preserve their appearance; you can enable the improved behavior by setting the

Dorico 5 Version History 14 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 new Spacing approach for single bar rests option (in the Advanced Options
section of the Rests page of Engraving Options) to Do not scale.

Note input
Editing multiple selected items. It is now possible to edit the position or duration of
multiple selected items at once; for example, you can now select several unlinked
gradual dynamics and shorten or lengthen them with Shift+Alt+←/→. Previously
this was only possible for a single selected item.

Play mode
Chords track. When you activate playback of chord symbols via the Chords track in Play
mode, Dorico now automatically loads an additional piano sound, so that the
endpoint used for chord symbol playback is not also used by another instrument in
your project by default. To change the sound, select the Chords track and then make
changes in the Routing section of the Track Inspector panel.

This also allows chord symbols to be played back in Dorico for iPad for the first time.

Playback
Grace notes. The Default grace note length option on the Timing page of Playback
Options now allows values down to 1/64 of a quarter note (crotchet) at 120bpm.

Slurs
Slurs and accidentals. A new option When slur curvature passes close to the stem of a
sharp has been added to the Avoiding Collisions section of the Slurs page of
Engraving Options, allowing you to specify whether and by how much a slur should
be allowed to skim the stems on either side of sharp accidentals.

Time signatures
Grouping in 5/4. A new Note grouping approach for 5/4 option has been added to the
Time Signatures With Irregular Meter section of the Note Grouping page of
Notation Options. This allows you to specify whether 5/4 time signatures should by
default be grouped as irregular compound meter (3+2/4) or as irregular simple
meter (1+1+1+1+1/4).

User interface
Signposts. Two new commands have been added to the View ▶ Signposts submenu. Set
All Signposts Shown and Set All Signposts Hidden check or uncheck the menu
items for all the signposts types listed in the submenu, which makes it more
efficient to show only one or two signpost types (first, choose Set All Signposts
Hidden, then choose the one or two individual signpost types you want to be
shown), or conversely to hide only one or two signpost types (first, choose Set All

Dorico 5 Version History 15 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Signposts Shown, then choose the one or two individual types you want to be
hidden).

MIDI trigger regions. A new button to show the popover for MIDI trigger regions has been
added to the popovers toolbox in Write mode.

Key commands. It is now possible to set shortcuts for the commands to toggle voice
direction (Edit ▶ Notations ▶ Voices ▶ Default Stems Up/Down) in the Key
Commands page of Preferences.

Default path for scripts. When choosing Script ▶ Run Script, the default path in the
chooser is now the Script Plug-ins folder inside the user application data folder.

Issues resolved
Component Issue

Audio engine In rare circumstances, Dorico could sometimes fail to list VST plug-ins that were previously
correctly recognized; this has now been fixed (macOS only).

Bar numbers Bar numbers centered on the bar and placed above the staff did not correctly avoid collisions
with items on adjacent staves; this has been fixed.

Brackets and The new option When only one staff of section player with divisi is shown on the Brackets
braces and Braces page of Layout Options is now saved and loaded correctly.

Comments When comments were listed in order of their comment text, the sort order could be incorrect;
this has now been fixed.

Cues In rare circumstances, Dorico could crash when attempting to cue hidden notes into another
instrument; this has now been fixed.

Dynamics When adding an immediate dynamic at the same position as a gradual dynamic, it is now
prepended rather than appended.

Dynamics Creating a gradual dynamic at a grace note position with an immediate dynamic selected now
works as expected.

Engrave mode Switching to the graphical editing tool in Engrave mode now correctly clears selected handles
in the note spacing and staff spacing tools if necessary.

Fingering Nudging and flipping fingerings belonging to cross-staff notes but displayed on the original
staff now works reliably.

Flows Split Flow could fail in rare circumstances where cues are present in the project but not in the
affected flow; this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 16 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Graphics export If you somehow contrive to have an empty graphics export destination path, Dorico will no
longer crash when attempting to export SVG graphics.

Graphics export When building up the filename recipe from the ingredients specified in the Filename Options
dialog, Dorico now correctly obtains the flow names and numbers of the flows shown in the
pages being exported, rather than always using the flow names and numbers specified in the
options, which might not be included in the pages being exported.

Graphics export Further protections have been added to try to ensure that the filenames of exported graphics
do not become excessively long.

Guitar techniques When pasting material from a fretted instrument to a non-fretted instrument, all properties
that are specific to fretted instruments – including those that specify pre-bends, post-bends,
etc. – are now correctly and automatically removed.

Instrument When switching between instruments with different numbers of staff lines within a system,
changes some system-attached items, including time signatures shown above the staff, tempos, repeat
endings, and system-attached horizontal lines, could be drawn twice at each position; this has
now been fixed.

Instruments Under some circumstances, creating a percussion kit instrument could fail, resulting in the
individual percussion instruments being assigned to the player without the containing kit; this
has now been fixed.

Key Editor Lock Key Editor to Selection now handles selected instruments that use independent voice
playback more intelligently, selecting each of the subsidiary voices but not selecting the
primary entry for the instrument; this allows you to edit the selected notes right away without
having to further adjust the selection.

Layouts When deleting a layout, any items that are associated only with that layout – such as breaks
and note spacing changes – are now removed; this ensures that future edits such as trimming
the flow always work as expected.

Markers Markers now draw correctly if the Marker Text Font font style is set to have an Absolute size.

MIDI import Tracks with “basses” in their names are now more likely to be interpreted by default as double
bass instruments, rather than as singers.

MIDI import When importing a MIDI file, Dorico no longer applies a default instrument score order, which
would otherwise cause the created instruments to be shown in a different order than the
tracks in the original MIDI file.

Mixer The single output channel in the Mixer shown by default when applying the NotePerformer
playback template is now automatically labelled NotePerformer rather than using the name
of the first instrument assigned to that instance of NotePerformer.

Dorico 5 Version History 17 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Music fonts If a specific glyph is not included in the chosen music font, the substitution of the equivalent
glyph from the fallback font defined in the font style now works more reliably.

Navigation Navigating in Write mode between notes that have been crossed to another staff using the
arrow keys is now more reliable.

Note input Moving dynamics and playing techniques with Alt+←/→ now once again correctly snaps them
to the previous or next note position.

Note input Entering note input in Write mode in one window no longer causes other windows on the
same project to switch to Write mode if mouse input is enabled.

Note input Creating a chord symbol region, slash region, or bar repeat region with a rehearsal mark
selected no longer incorrectly causes the region to begin at the start of the flow.

Note input Under some circumstances, when repitching several notes, Dorico could unexpectedly
audition a later note than the first selected note; this has now been fixed.

Page layout In systems with multi-bar rests, using Lock Format or creating a break with the Wait for next
break property enabled could unexpectedly cause the spacing of material on the system to
change; this has now been fixed.

Performance Selecting music in Write mode is no longer unexpectedly slow when a percussion kit is
expanded in Play mode to show all its component instruments.

Performance The speed of input and editing in projects using extremely large expression maps (for
example, the Articulate Maps from Symphonic Riot) has been substantially improved.

Performance The speed of input and editing in large projects that show player group labels has been
improved.

Playback In music with repeated sections, the restoration of the original tempo after a fermata could be
incorrect; this has now been fixed.

Playback In rare circumstances, Dorico could fail to load existing projects because it was unable to
correctly calculate the played duration of notes in tremolos; this has now been fixed.

Playback If you had the chord track set to use the same endpoint as another instrument, edits to a
different instrument could cause the music belonging to the instrument sharing an endpoint
with the chord track not to play back; this has now been fixed.

Project files If you rename a project or a folder in its parent path in the very first session after the project is
created, Dorico no longer loses track of the project location, which could lead to Dorico being
unable to correctly save the project.

Dorico 5 Version History 18 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Repeat endings When creating a repeat ending, Dorico now correctly considers the selected portions of bar
repeat and slash regions when determining the lengths of the initial segments.

Scrub playback Hitting Esc now once again stops scrub playback.

Setup mode When a project has more than 100 flows, it is now possible to reliably select all flows in the
Flows panel in Setup mode without the panel jumping back to an earlier position in the list.

Setup mode Dorico no longer incorrectly sorts the list of layouts when adding a player if no instrument
score order is chosen.

Text When using the {@staffLabelsShort@} or {@staffLabelsFull@} tokens, Dorico now always
follows the transposition visibility settings for the instrument, including instruments in C.

Text Dorico now more reliably shows a signpost for text items that consist entirely of whitespace
characters.

Text export Dorico now correctly exports the visible text of tempo items that show their abbreviated
versions.

User interface Under some circumstances, the menu in the status bar showing the current instrument score
order could disappear when switching to Setup mode; this has now been fixed.

User interface Under rare circumstances, moving tabs between windows, combining tab groups into a single
group, or hiding or showing the tab bar could cause a crash; this has now been fixed.

User interface Typing with a drop-down menu open in the Hub window to choose items from the list no
longer unexpectedly tries to trigger commands.

User interface In some dialogs (for example, the Playback Technique Combinations dialog opened from the
Expression Maps dialog) the list of items was sorted alphabetically, but case sensitively; now,
such lists are sorted case insensitively.

User interface The preview button in the Tempo Equations section of the Tempo panel in Write mode now
updates correctly when the selection changes.

Dorico 5 Version History 19 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Dorico 5.1.40
23 May 2024

New features
Contextual help
You can now obtain contextual help in the main project window and some dialogs.
Choose Help ▶ Show Help, use the shortcut F1 (Windows) or Command-/ (macOS),
or click the new ? button at the right-hand end of the toolbar to show a new help
overlay on the project window.

The window is dimmed, and areas where contextual help is available remain
illuminated, with a blue help button in the center. Click any of these buttons to be
taken to the relevant page in the online Operation Manual. You can navigate
through the areas of the window for which help is available by pressing Tab, and
then open the relevant page by hitting Return. To exit the help overlay, hit Esc.
Alternatively, wait a few seconds, and Dorico will automatically close the overlay
when you click a help button, or after a few seconds of inactivity.

Help buttons can also appear in dialogs. In particular, many dialogs now show help
buttons near to specific options or controls, providing targeted support for those
settings. Options dialogs now show help buttons for whole sections or pages of
options by embedding help buttons in headings at the top of the page or above
particular sections of options. Finally, many dialogs also show help buttons in the
bottom right corner, next to the OK or Apply buttons, as appropriate.

Dorico now includes more than 150 links to relevant pages in the Operation Manual.

Improvements
Audio export
ID3 tags. Dorico now uses the project title and flow name (if appropriate) as the value for
the ID3 Title tag when exporting MP3 audio, rather than the default filename of the
exported file.

Beams
Beams starting or ending with rests. A new option Beams starting or ending with rests
has been added to the Advanced Options section of the Slants section of the Beams
page of Engraving Options, allowing you to specify whether beams that start or end
with rests should always be forced horizontal.

Dorico 5 Version History 20 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Brackets and braces
Sub-brackets for divisi. A new option When only one staff of section player with divisi
is shown has been added to the Brackets and Braces page of Layout Options,
allowing you to specify whether a single staff belonging to a section player that has
divisi passages elsewhere in the flow should show a sub-bracket.

Bracket protrusion. When a bracket starts or ends on a staff that has fewer than five
lines, the bracket no longer always protrudes as far as it would for a five-line staff.

Layouts
Blank staves after flows. It is now possible to show blank staves after every flow in a
layout, not only the final flow. This is controlled by the updated option Fill frames
with blank staves on the Page Setup page of Layout Options.

Note input
MIDI input for transposing instruments. A new option When inputting notes in an
atonal passage, prefer to see optimal spellings in has been added to the MIDI
Input page of Library ▶ Note Input Options, allowing you to specify whether you
want Dorico to prioritize the note spelling for concert pitch, or for the transposition
used by the current layout. When inputting in a transposed layout onto a
transposing instrument in a passage with an open or atonal key signature, Dorico
would previously always have prioritized the spelling in concert pitch, which could
result in some remote spellings in transposed pitch. You can now specify that
Dorico should prioritize the transposition of the current layout.

Playback
Per-switch delay. When the current switch defines a Delay value, Dorico now offsets both
the starts and ends of notes in the affected region; previously, only the start of the
note was offset. In addition, changes of dynamic played using MIDI CCs are now also
offset by the appropriate amount to coincide with the start of the note.

Trills on unpitched percussion. Trills are sometimes used on unpitched percussion

instrument to indicate rolls. Dorico now always assumes that a trill on unpitched
percussion should trigger the Trill (half-step) playback technique, regardless of the
written pitch, staff position, or interval specified for the trill.

Playback templates
Default playback template. If you delete the playback template that is currently specified
as the Default playback template on the Play page of Preferences, Dorico will now
automatically choose the best available factory playback template to ensure that
new projects have an appropriate playback template chosen by default.

Dorico 5 Version History 21 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Slurs
Collision avoidance. A new Avoid collisions under slur arcs option has been added to the
Avoiding Collisions section of the Slurs page of Engraving Options, allowing you to
specify whether slurs should avoid collisions under their arcs by default. This option
applies to slurs that start and end on the same staff; the existing Collision
avoidance for cross-staff slurs option continues to govern the default collision
avoidance behavior for slurs that start and end on different staves.

Flat slurs. The Avoid collisions property now applies to flat slurs as well as normal slurs.

Staff labels
Player names. If a player name contains a token for flat, natural, or sharp accidentals,
those tokens are now correctly substituted when player names are used for staff
labels.

Text
Style inheritance. In both Library ▶ Paragraph Styles and Library ▶ Font Styles, Dorico
now prevents you from creating a circular dependency between a parent style and
its child. It used to be possible to define two styles to each have the other as its
parent, which would prevent Dorico from correctly resolving the appearance of
both styles, and could lead to crashes. Now, any style that cannot be set as the
parent for the style being edited is automatically removed from the Parent list.

User interface
Project Info. After clicking the delete button in the action bar in File ▶ Project Info to
delete a flow, Dorico now shows a warning when you click Apply or Close to ensure
you understand that the flow will be deleted from the project, removing all of its
music. In Dorico for iPad, the delete button has been removed from the action bar.

Flows panel. A new button to show the context menu for the selected flow has been
added to the Flows panel in Setup mode.

Color picker. The color picker for the Color property in the Common group of Properties
now draws with an outline, to make it easier to see in both the dark and light
themes.

Video
Project activation. Dorico now correctly enforces that the project should be activated for
playback before allowing you to attach or detach a video, or show the Video window.

Dorico 5 Version History 22 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Issues resolved
Component Issue

Brackets and Under some circumstances, Dorico could sometimes join two adjacent instruments of the
braces same type with a single sub-bracket when the two instruments are in different player groups;
this has now been fixed.

Chord diagrams It is once again possible to cycle through alternative chord diagrams (Dorico Elements and
Dorico SE only).

Guitar tablature When changing tablature to hide rhythms, tuplets are now immediately hidden in the
tablature.

Guitar tablature It is now possible to define a capo in the Edit Strings and Tuning dialog in Dorico for iPad.

Instruments When changing a multi-staff instrument to another multi-staff instrument, Dorico no longer
incorrectly removes clef changes from staves other than the first if they appear at the same
rhythmic position.

Key Editor Tempo items that are suppressed in playback no longer unexpectedly reappear in the Tempo
editor in the Key Editor after reopening a project.

Music fonts Dorico now only shows music fonts – for example, on the Create New page of the Hub, or in
Library ▶ Music Fonts – that are actually installed; previously, it would list fonts for which
SMuFL metadata was present, even if the referenced font itself is not installed.

Note input Edit ▶ Paste Special ▶ Reduce no longer maps voices incorrectly in the presence of dynamics.

Note spacing Under rare circumstances, undoing an edit that causes empty staves to hide or appear could
cause instability in casting off; this has now been fixed.

Percussion Under some circumstances, the creation of a custom percussion kit could fail; this has now
been fixed.

Playback Under some circumstances, playback of identical key switches in abutting technique regions
could be unreliable; this has now been fixed.

Playback Dorico now disallows the use of the plus sign (+) in the names of playback techniques, as this
techniques can cause problems elsewhere; any existing playback techniques with illegal names are
automatically corrected when loading projects or applying playback templates.

Repeat endings It is no longer incorrectly possible to unset the No. segments property for a selected repeat
ending.

Setup mode The Import Kit button in the instrument picker now works correctly in Dorico Elements.

Dorico 5 Version History 23 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Staff labels Dorico now always uses the language specified for instrument names on the Language page
of Engraving Options when adding new instruments or resetting instrument names; under
some circumstances, it was possible for newly created instruments to use a previously chosen
language.

Text When making changes in the Missing Fonts dialog, shown during project opening to allow you
to specify which fonts should be substituted, Dorico will now always ensure that an
appropriate style is chosen for each substitute font.

Text Certain text-like items, including cue labels, percussion legends, and gradual tempos, were
always being drawn twice and superimposed; this is now fixed.

User interface The Choose Chord Diagram dialog now appears in the center of the display in Dorico for iPad.

User interface The Change Divisi menu item no longer appears in Dorico SE, because this feature cannot be
enabled by upgrading to Dorico Elements; this feature is only available in Dorico Pro.

User interface After applying changes in Layout Options, which may cause the music formatting and casting
off to change, Dorico now brings the selection, if any, into view.

User interface The preview in Library ▶ Paragraph Styles now more accurately reflects the current settings
for the edited paragraph style.

User interface When reopening the Write ▶ Transpose dialog, the Diatonic quality is now restored if possible.

User interface The list of slices in the Graphic Slices panel in Engrave mode now keeps the selected slice in
view.

Dorico 5 Version History 24 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Dorico 5.1.32
18 April 2024

Improvements
Dorico Elements
Upgrade reminders. “Locked” menu items for advanced commands or features that are
unavailable in Dorico Elements have been removed, in response to user feedback.

Issues resolved
Component Issue

Chord diagrams It is once again possible to specify the tuning to be used for chord diagrams in the context
menu in the Players panel (Dorico Elements/SE only).

Engrave mode It is once again possible to make staff spacing adjustments (Dorico Elements only).

Lyrics Full-width and half-width punctuation, commonly used when setting lyrics in Chinese,
Japanese, and Korean, are now ignored if Punctuation at the start or end of individual lyrics
is set to Ignore when positioning.

Note input When inputting notes using a MIDI keyboard, if you respell a note Dorico will no longer
incorrectly go back and respell that note based on the spelling of later notes you input.

Note input Edit ▶ Paste Special ▶ Reduce no longer incorrectly combines voices with independent
rhythms into a single voice when explicit rests are present in one or more of the source voices.

Note input Edit ▶ Requantize now works correctly on percussion kits.

Setup mode It is once again possible to edit instrument names via the Edit Instrument Names dialog
(Dorico Elements/SE only.)

Setup mode It is once again possible to add players to a new group via the context menu in the Players
panel (Dorico Elements/SE only).

Text When using the {@staffLabelsFull@} token, Dorico no longer sometimes incorrectly includes
spurious additional accidentals for transposing instruments (German language only).

User interface When using the light theme, on some systems the same color could be used both for selected
text and the selection region in text edit controls (for example, in the Hub); this has now been
fixed.

User interface Starting note input from a selected rest or other non-note item now correctly enables the
articulation buttons in the Keyboard panel toolbar.

Dorico 5 Version History 25 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Dorico 5.1.30
28 March 2024

Improvements
Audio engine
Steinberg Built-in ASIO Driver. The Steinberg Built-in ASIO Driver has been updated to
version 1.0.6 (Windows only).

Barlines
Systemic barlines. In special circumstances it is necessary to hide the systemic barline
and brackets at the start of a system, or at a mid-system gap for a coda. To achieve
this, a new Hide systemic barline property has been added for system and frame
breaks, and for codas (which produce a mid-system gap).

Repeat barlines. When creating a start or end repeat barline, Dorico now considers
whether an end or start repeat barline already exists at that position, and if so,
creates a combined end-start repeat barline, instead of replacing the start repeat
with an end repeat, or vice versa.

Bar repeats
Handle positions. The position of the end handle for bar repeat regions has been
adjusted such that the end handle of one region will not collide with the start handle
for an abutting region. This makes it easier to adjust the end and start handles of
abutting regions. The same improvement has been made to rhythmic slash regions
and chord symbol regions.

Breaks
Changing staff size. When activating the Space size property for a selected system or
frame break, the default value for the property is now set from the prevailing staff
size, making it much easier to determine the desired value relative to the current
size.

Holds and pauses

Fermatas in slash regions. Fermatas now appear in slash regions if required.

Lyrics
Vertical position. It is now possible in Engrave mode to adjust the vertical position of
lines of lyrics on condensed staves, on percussion kits shown using the five-line
staff or grid presentation type, and in material cued from another instrument.

Reset Appearance. The speed of Edit ▶ Reset Appearance on many selected lyrics has
been significantly improved. This also correspondingly improves the speed of

Dorico 5 Version History 26 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 resetting the appearance of chord symbols and text items. Furthermore, after doing
Edit ▶ Reset Appearance, lyrics now remain selected.

Markers and timecode

Timecode components. New options on the Markers page of Engraving Options allow you
to choose whether hours and frames are displayed in the timecode shown for
markers and in timecode at the start of the system or on the timecode staff.

Percussion
Bar rests in percussion kits. A new option Bar rests in additional voices in five-line staff
presentation has been added to the Percussion page of Notation Options. This
allows Dorico to show a bar rest in the up-stem or down-stem voice in bars where
no notes are present in that voice, without having to show additional bar rests in all
instruments (via the existing Bar rests in additional voices option on the Rests
page).

Playback
NotePerformer expression map. At the request of the team at Wallander Instruments, the
playback options overrides for the dynamic delta for accent and marcato in the
NotePerformer expression map have been removed; this change affects only newly
created projects.

Rehearsal marks
Custom infix. In addition to allowing a custom prefix and suffix to specify text that should
appear both before and after the letter or bar number in a rehearsal mark, Dorico
now allows a custom infix, which will be inserted between each character of the
rehearsal mark. Some fonts, such as Finale Jazz and Finale Broadway Copyist, use a
combination of characters to provide handwritten-style borders and brackets. You
can now specify an appropriate prefix, infix, and suffix to automate the production
of such bordered rehearsal marks. The new Custom infix option can be found on
the Rehearsal Marks page of Engraving Options, along with a new option Insert
infix between final pair of characters. Some of these custom fonts expect the infix
to appear between every pair of characters, while others work best if the infix is not
specified between the final two characters. Check the documentation provided with
your custom font to determine whether this option should be activated.

Repeat markers
Coda gaps. The flexibility of gaps before codas has been improved. A new Default gap
before coda section at start of system option has been added to the Repeat
Sections section of the Repeat Markers page of Engraving Options, allowing you to
specify the default gap when a coda falls at the start of a system, rather than in the
middle of the system.

Dorico 5 Version History 27 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 In addition, a new Coda gap width property has been added, allowing you to
override the coda gap for a selected coda item.

Staff labels
Ranges for condensed staves. A new option Consecutive player numbers has been added
to the Condensing page of Engraving Options, allowing you to specify that
consecutively numbered instruments condensed onto the same staff should be
shown as a range: for example, four horns condensed onto the same staff can now
be shown as Horn 1–4 rather than Horn 1.2.3.4.

Instrument changes. When Instrument transition position is set to Before first note in
new instrument on the Players page of Layout Options, Dorico will switch to the
new instrument at the barline immediately prior to the first note in the new
instrument. If this happens in the middle of the system, and the old instrument has
no notes on that system, you might prefer the staff label at the start of the system to
show the instrument that will start playing in the middle of the system, rather than
the instrument that was playing on the previous system. If so, activate the new
Show first sounding instrument on system option on the Staves and Systems
page of Layout Options.

Smart quotes. A new Smarten quotes option has been added to the Case section of the
Staff Labels page of Engraving Options. When activated, any straight quotes or
typewriter apostrophes in staff labels will be replaced with curved versions.

User interface
Status bar. It is possible to choose which elements should appear in the status bar by
right-clicking anywhere on the status bar. A context menu appears, from which you
can choose to show or hide any of the controls shown for the current project
window mode. The choices you make here are saved as application preferences, so
affect all project windows. If you use a display in portrait orientation, or otherwise
need to make the Dorico project window especially narrow, you will find it helpful to
hide some of the items in the status bar, as this allows the project window to have a
narrower minimum width.

Object creation panel. When reopening a project, Dorico now restores the object creation
panel in Write mode that was visible when you were last working on your project.

Key signatures in the Hub. On the Create New page of the Hub, when creating a major
key signature, you will now find G♭ rather than F♯ as one of the available root notes.

Recent files. The File ▶ Open Recent menu no longer shows the names of recent projects
prepended by numbers on macOS, as is conventional for that platform. (The
projects are still prepended by numbers on Windows, as before.)

Dorico 5 Version History 28 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Diagnostic reports. Recent versions of macOS have started to move crash log files into a
new Retired subfolder inside the DiagnosticReports folder. When you choose Help
▶ Create Diagnostic Report, Dorico will now also look for crash logs inside
subfolders of DiagnosticReports. Crash logs up to 96 hours old will now be collected
for the report (previously, the threshold was 48 hours).

Dorico SE and Elements

Upgrade reminders. Dorico SE is available for free download, and allows the creation of
projects with up to eight players. It has many of the powerful, smart features of
Dorico Elements and Dorico Pro. To help Dorico SE users identify where they could
further benefit from the additional functionality of Dorico Elements, the menus in
Dorico SE now contain all the items that are present in Dorico Elements with a
special lock icon, and when clicked, they provide a simple way to buy an upgrade to
Dorico Elements from the Steinberg online shop.

Similarly, in Dorico Elements, some of the advanced customization options of

Dorico Pro are excluded. These items, particularly in the Library menu, are now
shown with a lock icon. When clicked, they too provide a simple way to buy an
upgrade to Dorico Pro from the Steinberg online shop.

Dorico 5 Version History 29 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Issues resolved
Component Issue

Audio engine On some systems, the audio engine could crash on start-up due to a problem with detecting
certain models of CPU; this has now been fixed.

Chord symbols Chord symbols that have been suppressed in playback no longer incorrectly print in gray if
View ▶ Note and Rest Colors ▶ Suppressed Playback is activated.

Chord symbols When editing a chord symbol in Engrave mode with multiple components, Dorico could crash
when returning from a nested editor; this has now been fixed.

Device Setup On some systems, changing settings via Edit ▶ Device Setup after opening a project but before
all sounds have been loaded could cause a crash; now you cannot open Device Setup before
sounds have finished loading.

Divisi Under some circumstances, slurs in a secondary voice in a divisi staff could disappear in
unison ranges; this has now been fixed.

Divisi Under rare circumstances involving condensed divisi sections, music under slurs could
sometimes disappear; this has now been fixed.

Dynamics When duplicating a flow, subito modifiers on dynamics are now correctly reproduced.

Dynamics When the new option Position end of hairpin relative to note or chord is set to Right side of
note on main stem and the hairpin ends at the start of a bar where an immediate dynamic is
present, the hairpin now correctly stops before the barline.

Dynamics When a hyphenated text dynamic begins with an immediate dynamic, the dynamic no longer
overruns the rhythmic position at which it is expected to end.

Dynamics When a hyphenated text dynamic ends with an immediate dynamic, the immediate dynamic
is no longer vertically displaced outside the gradual dynamic.

Dynamics Gradual dynamics drawn as hyphenated text where Final syllable at end of line is active no
longer sometimes overprint following immediate dynamics in the event that the gradual
dynamic is preceded by an immediate dynamic with a long suffix.

Key signatures When specifying the octave at which an accidental should appear in a custom key signature
for a particular clef, those choices now correctly apply to octave clefs based on the same clef
symbol.

Key signatures When a custom key signature appears at a mid-system preamble, for the beginning of an
extra staff or an ossia, accidentals are now correctly positioned at the chosen octave for the
prevailing clef.

Dorico 5 Version History 30 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Library Manager Where available, items in the Library Manager are now shown in the current application
language, instead of always appearing in English.

Library Manager The controls to sync options between the factory or user library did not always work reliably
when the Library Manager was first opened, until a different category was chosen in the left-
hand list; this has now been fixed.

Lines It is now possible to create multiple rhythmic position-attached horizontal lines in succession
from a loaded mouse pointer, if settings dictate.

Live editing Dorico could crash when making a selection with the mouse, or when trying to initiate a live
editing drag; this has now been fixed.

Lyrics The appearance of elision slurs, also used for Japanese and Korean lyrics, have been improved
such that they look more consistent at different combinations of staff and lyric size.

Note input When making a marquee or Shift+click selection across a fretted instrument displaying both
notation and tablature, Dorico now only selects the notation; previously, it would select both
notation and tablature, which could lead to odd problems when, for example, undoing the
selection.

Note input When using extended tonality systems, respelling a note using the note name above or below
could cause the note to become unexpectedly detuned; this has now been fixed.

Note input When creating a region-based item (for example, a bar repeat region or numbered bar
region), if the selection starts or ends with a dynamic that is part of a larger, unselected group,
the created region no longer unexpectedly extends to the end of the dynamic group.

Note input The rhythmic grid selector in the bottom left-hand corner of the project window now correctly
updates on undo and redo.

Octave lines It is now once again possible to create octave lines by clicking and dragging with the mouse.

Page layout In rare circumstances, enlarging the staff size or reducing the height of a music frame such
that only a single system can fit could cause a crash; this has now been fixed.

Playback In very rare circumstances, Dorico could hang when opening a project if the trill or tremolo
duration specified in Playback Options was set to zero; this has now been fixed.

Playback Removing a player from a flow now immediately updates playback, so when you next
playback, you will not continue to hear the removed player’s music.

Playback The randomness of dynamic humanization has been improved.

Playback The default playback sound for instruments in the Sketch family have been improved.

Dorico 5 Version History 31 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Playback Dorico could crash when attempting to calculate playback for trills bounded by grace notes;
this has now been fixed.

Playback Under some circumstances, Dorico could fail to restore the correct tempo at an a tempo
following a fermata; this has now been fixed.

Playback Under some circumstances, a trill that changes speed over its duration could end with the
same pitch as the following note, resulting in the note being restruck; this has now been fixed.

Players Under certain circumstances, player names could change unexpectedly when reopening a
project after having changed options on the Language page of Engraving Options; this has
now been fixed.

Project files Using the Share ▶ Dorico Project option in Dorico for iPad for a project located in iCloud Drive
but not in the Dorico folder within iCloud Drive now works correctly (Dorico for iPad only).

Project Statistics Dorico now calculates statistics based on the full score layout if the project only has a single
full score layout; otherwise, it calculates statistics for the current layout.

Setup mode Choosing Setup ▶ New Player Group from the menu could unexpectedly cause a group to be
created for a player other than the currently selected players; this has now been fixed.

Staff labels The {@staffLabelsFull@} token now respects the options for the appearance of instrument
transpositions on the Language page of Engraving Options.

Text export When exporting dynamics to a CSV file, modifiers such as poco and molto are now correctly
included.

Text export When exporting tempo to a CSV file, tempos are now exported more accurately.

Time signatures Dorico did not correctly account for the size of large time signatures shown for percussion
and keyboard instruments, which could under some circumstances result in notes
overprinting time signatures; this has now been fixed.

Time signatures When different empty staves are hidden on successive systems, the cautionary large time
signature at the end of a system could appear at a different vertical position than earlier time
signatures on the system; this has now been fixed.

Trills In rare circumstances, Dorico could crash when attempting to position a trill; this has now
been fixed.

User interface When creating or removing split views, Dorico now attempts to restore the last view position
for each view.

Dorico 5 Version History 32 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

User interface The width of the column showing the checkbox in the MIDI Input Devices list on the Play page
of Preferences has been increased.

User interface When player names are shown in lists in Layout Options, any tokens for accidentals in their
names are now correctly removed.

User interface Dorico now brings the selection into view if casting off changes as a result of changing Layout
Options.

Dorico 5 Version History 33 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Dorico 5.1.20
14 February 2024

Improvements
Accidentals
Cautionary accidentals. Dorico 5.1.10 included a change in its cautionary accidental
calculation algorithms that resulted in some unnecessary cautionary accidentals
no longer appearing; specifically, a cautionary accidental on the same pitch name
and in the same octave but in another voice on the same instrument (including on
another staff, for grand staff instruments) would previously have appeared, but as
of Dorico 5.1.10 no longer does.

A new option Suppress cautionary accidentals at same pitch and octave in other
voices on the same instrument has been added to the new Advanced Options
section of the Cautionary Accidentals page of Notation Options, allowing you to opt
out of this new behavior. This option is enabled in new projects but disabled in
existing projects to avoid unexpected changes.

Comments
Comments panel. It is now possible to right-click on the list of comments in the
Comments panel in Write mode to show a context menu with two submenus. The
Show submenu allows you to choose which metadata should appear in each card in
the list of comments. If you do not collaborate with other editors, for example, it
may be unnecessary for you to see the name of the author of every comment, or the
date. The choices you make in this menu are stored for the application as a whole
and are automatically applied for each project you open.

The Sort By submenu allows you to choose the order in which the comments are
listed in the panel. By default, comments are listed by flow and bar, but you might
prefer to group comments by instrument, or by the comment text itself. Like the
choices you make in the Show menu, the choices you make here are stored for the
application as a whole and are automatically applied for each project you open.

Export comments. When exporting comments, the exported web page now includes only
those fields that are shown in the Comments panel.

Dynamics
Hairpin end position. A new option Position end of hairpin relative to note or chord has
been added to the Advanced Options section of the Gradual Dynamics section of
the Dynamics page of Engraving Options. This allows you to specify that the right-
hand end of a hairpin that is not followed immediately by another dynamic should

Dorico 5 Version History 34 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 either be aligned with the left-hand side of the notehead at the rhythmic position
where it ends, or should instead be aligned with the right-hand side of the
notehead.

In new projects, this option is set to Right side of note on main stem, but to avoid
unexpected changes, it is set to Left side of note on main stem in existing projects.

Holds and pauses

Caesuras and multi-bar rests. A caesura that appears immediately before the barline
– which is rhythmically positioned at the same position as the barline, and which
shows an attachment line to the start of the following bar – no longer causes the bar
in which it is drawn to be split from an ongoing multi-bar rest.

Fermatas on barlines and multi-bar rests. Previously, a fermata rhythmically positioned

at the start of a bar but set to appear on the following barline by way of the Attach to
barline property would not cause the bar in which it is attached to be split from an
ongoing multi-bar rest, but if it was positioned anywhere else in the bar, the multi-
bar rest would be split. Now, a fermata set to appear on the barline will not cause
the bar in which it is attached to be split from an ongoing multi-bar rest, regardless
of the fermata's actual rhythmic position within the bar.

Note spacing
Minimum length for ties. When spacing music, Dorico enforces a minimum length for
ties between notes (and in some other situations), to ensure that ties are not drawn
so short that they become hard to read. The options in the Length section of the Ties
page of Engraving Options govern this behavior.

Previously, Dorico would always enforce the specified minimum length for ties,
even when the tied note crosses a barline. Typically, the gap between the last note
or chord of the bar and the first note or chord in the following bar is sufficient that
the minimum tie length is easily exceeded. However, the minimum length should
still be applied for a tie immediately before the barline at the end of the system, as
the tie will always stop short of the barline and could therefore appear too short.

In new projects, Dorico no longer enforces the minimum length for a tie at the end
of a bar, except at the end of the system, to reduce the spacing distortion that such
ties can create. In existing projects, this improved behavior is disabled by default, to
avoid unexpectedly changing the rhythmic spacing. To enable the new behavior,
deactivate the new Enforce minimum length for ties before barline option in the
Length section of the Ties page of Engraving Options.

Mixer
Editing values. It is now possible to edit numeric values in the Mixer using the keyboard:
hold Alt and click on the value you want to edit, type the new value, and hit Return

Dorico 5 Version History 35 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 to confirm. When editing gain for an output fader, you can type -inf or -oo to set the
gain to negative infinity (silence). For pan, values can be in the range -100 to 100.

MusicXML export
Chord symbols. When exporting chord symbols, if the root alteration is zero, meaning
that the root is a natural, the alteration is now omitted; this prevents some
applications from showing an explicit natural sign for the root note.

Guitar techniques. The export of hammer-ons, pull-offs and taps on grace notes has
been improved.

Playback
Glissando playback. Dorico can now play continuous (pitch bend) glissandos to and from
notes with microtonal pitches, if required.

Trills and unmeasured tremolos. Since the introduction of playback of holds and pauses
in Dorico 5.1, Dorico has also attempted to play generated trills and unmeasured
tremolos in such a way that the repetition speed of the generated notes remains the
same during the tempo changes used to play holds and pauses.

If you would prefer Dorico to play trills and tremolos as it did previously, you can
now deactivate the new option Play generated trills at constant speed during
tempo changes on the Trills page of Playback Options, and the corresponding
option for tremolos Play tremolos at constant speed during tempo changes on
the Timing page.

When playing back via NotePerformer, the behavior to play trills and tremolos at a
constant speed during tempo changes is now always disabled, to avoid interfering
with NotePerformer's own interpretation.

When the playback options to play trills and unmeasured tremolos at a constant
speed during tempo changes are enabled, the playback is now much improved.

Playing techniques
Bowing marks. A new option Placement of bowing marks relative to text or grouped
playing techniques has been added to the Vertical Position section of the Playing
Techniques page of Engraving Options. This allows you to determine whether
bowing marks should go outside all other playing techniques, or (the default option)
inside text-based and grouped playing techniques.

A new Bowing marks checkbox has been added to Library ▶ Playing Techniques,
allowing you to designate the edited playing technique as a bowing mark. These
playing techniques will either be positioned inside or outside text-based and
grouped playing techniques, according to the above option.

Dorico 5 Version History 36 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Slurs
Flat slurs. The appearance of flat slurs has been improved. Previously, a flat slur would
appear slightly thinner in the middle than at the shoulders; the slight bulge at the
shoulders of the slur has now been removed.

Staff labels
Show staff labels on first flow only. In layouts for one or two instruments, some
publishers like to show staff labels at the start of the first system of the first piece or
movement, but not for any subsequent pieces or movements. Furthermore, they
would want the first system of each subsequent piece or movement to be indented,
in lieu of showing a staff label.

To make this easier, two new options have been introduced, and both are found on
the Staves and Systems page of Layout Options. Firstly, a new Show staff labels
option allows you to choose between On all flows or On first flow only. Secondly, a
new Apply indent when staff labels are shown option has been added below
Indent first system of flow by n spaces, allowing you to specify that the indent for
the first system should not be applied when staff labels are shown on the first
system of the flow.

Staff spacing
Vertical spacing for organ instruments. Organ instruments with three staves show two
braced staves, for the manuals, and a third, unbraced staff, for the pedals. The
distance between all three staves has always been governed by the Braced staff to
braced staff gap value on the Vertical Spacing page of Layout Options. This is
inconvenient, because it makes it impossible to have a different default gap
between the two braced staves and the unbraced pedal staff below them.

In new projects, Dorico now uses a new Braced staff to unbraced staff gap value to
determine the distance between the braced staves for the manuals and the
unbraced staff for the pedals.

In existing projects, the new gap is set to the value of the existing Braced staff to
braced staff option, which avoids any unexpected changes.

Time signatures
Aggregate time signatures. Aggregate time signatures – which display two or more
meters in the same bar, with dashed barlines showing the subdivisions between the
meters – can now be consolidated into a single displayed time signature, if they
share a common denominator.

This can be enabled for all compatible aggregate time signatures in the project by
activating the new option Combine aggregate time signatures with common

Dorico 5 Version History 37 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 denominators in the Design section of the Time Signatures page of Engraving
Options. This option can also be overridden for an individual time signature by
activating the Combine compatible aggregates property in the Time Signatures
group in the Properties panel.

Dorico 5 Version History 38 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Issues resolved
Component Issue

Chord symbols Using Select More to select more chord symbols now works as expected if you have both a
main and capo chord symbol selected.

Chord symbols The horizontal position of a stack of main and capo chord symbols is now correct if set to be
center-aligned.

Engrave mode If you edit a paragraph style while editing a page template, the changes to the paragraph style
are now reflected in the text frames in the template right away.

Engrave mode It is now possible to drag lines with no drawn body in Engrave mode.

Fingering It is now possible to correctly set and unset the Stopped finger position property for grace
notes.

Fingering The Slur-relative position property now appears as expected for fingerings for fretted
instruments positioned outside the staff.

Fingering The thumb indicator for left-hand fingering on fretted instruments is now drawn using the
correct T symbol.

Font styles Using the Move Up/Move Down buttons to re-order fonts in the Substitute fonts list in
Library ▶ Font Styles could lead to corruption; this has now been fixed.

Guitar tablature Changing the number of strings in a fretted instrument could cause the strings in tablature to
become misaligned in galley view during note input and editing; this has now been fixed.

Guitar tablature Under some circumstances, changing the options on the Players page of Layout Options to
hide or show notation and tablature could result in bar rests appearing or disappearing
incorrectly in the tablature; this has now been fixed.

Harp pedals It is now possible to create a harp pedal change using the new Harp Pedals section of the
Playing Techniques panel at the caret position.

Instrument score Although every instrument type is expected to be found in every instrument score order, if for
orders some reason an instrument is not found, it will now be positioned next to its parent, if it is
based on another instrument type, rather than always being positioned at the very end of the
list.

Key Editor Using Increase Dynamic Intensity or Decrease Dynamic Intensity now correctly updates the
display in the velocity editor right away.

Live editing When auditioning dragged notes, any transposition defined in the expression map is now
correctly applied.

Dorico 5 Version History 39 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Localization The default shortcut for creating a MIDI trigger region in French has been corrected.

Lyrics Under some circumstances, a lyric extender line at the start of the system for a lyric on the
previous system could be drawn at the wrong vertical position relative to the staff; this has
now been fixed.

Lyrics The appearance of lyric slurs for East Asian lyrics has been improved, so that they appear
suitably curved at a wider range of staff sizes.

MusicXML export Slashed grace notes are now correctly exported to MusicXML.

MusicXML export The text components of immediate and gradual tempo changes are now correctly exported to
MusicXML once more.

MusicXML export Under some circumstances, Dorico could export invalid MusicXML for lyrics; this has now
been fixed.

Navigation It is now possible to navigate to a hairpin starting at the same position as the selected note or
chord with Tab, and to cycle the selection back to the note or chord by repeatedly pressing
Tab.

Note input If Jump over rests to next note only if closer than n quarters (crotchets) is activated, Dorico
now correctly takes into account the duration of the note at the caret position when
determining whether to leave Lock Duration mode.

Note input Dorico once again shows a warning as expected when trying to create bars without first
creating a time signature.

Page layout Under rare circumstances, an edit to the first bar on the system would not cause Dorico to
reconsider whether that bar could now fit on the previous system, resulting in the casting off
changing unexpectedly later on when further edits have occurred; this has now been fixed.

Percussion If a percussion legend has overridden text that consists only of whitespace, Dorico now
correctly shows a signpost.

Play mode When adding a new VST plug-in, by default its FX sends are now correctly disabled.

Play mode Adding a new voice to a grand staff instrument now causes an extra track to appear right away
in Play mode if independent voice playback is enabled.

Playing techniques Under some circumstances, adjacent playing techniques that partially overlap could have an
unstable vertical order; this has now been fixed.

Project files Project files are no longer marked as dirty as soon as they are opened.

Dorico 5 Version History 40 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Project files Under some circumstances, Dorico could crash when trying to retrieve information about
stem connection points for noteheads; this has now been fixed.

Project files Under some circumstances, Dorico could trigger auto-save in the middle of exporting audio,
MIDI, or MusicXML files, which could result in the application freezing; this has now been
fixed.

Rehearsal marks Go To Rehearsal Mark and the Go To mode of the jump bar now handle rehearsal mark
sequences where the first rehearsal mark in the flow has an overridden index.

Slurs Slurs with overridden Curvature type properties now use the correct middle thickness value
as specified in Engraving Options.

Text The corner radius for text borders using the Round rectangle border style now appear
consistently at different staff sizes.

User interface The buttons in the Grace Notes section of the Timing page of Playback Options now work as
expected.

User interface It is now possible to add or remove individual items to or from the selection in the instrument
families and instrument score order editors using Ctrl+click (Windows) or Command-click
(macOS).

User interface If the location where Dorico expects to position the popover is out of view – for example, above
the top staff in the system when adding a time signature or barline – the popover is now
moved so that it appears within the current view.

Video Under rare circumstances, Dorico could crash when opening a project with an attached video;
this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 41 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Dorico 5.1.10
14 January 2024

Improvements
Accidentals
New View options. Two new options have been added to the View ▶ Note and Rest Colors
submenu to highlight different kinds of accidentals in the music:

§ Cautionary Accidentals causes accidentals that appear due to the options

set on the Accidentals page of Notation Options to be displayed in pink.
§ Forced Accidentals causes accidentals that appear due to the Accidental
property being used to force the visibility of the accidental to be displayed in
a blue-green color.

You can change the colors using the corresponding new options found in the Other
Colors section of the Colors page of Preferences. These new view options are useful
for proof-reading.

Brackets and braces

Custom instruments. Dorico now allows adjacent players holding custom instruments
that are variants of the same parent instrument, and which have identical full and
short staff labels, and identical transpositions, to show sub-brackets.

Chord diagrams
Fingerings. Fingerings are now always displayed in Library ▶ Chord Diagrams.

Chord symbols
Scaling of parentheses. The Height of parentheses relative to height of chord symbol
option in the Parentheses section of the Chord Symbols page of Engraving Options
is now always applied, not only when Scale parentheses to height of chord symbol
with linear arrangement is activated.

Harp pedals
Harp pedals editor. A new Harp Pedals section has been added to the Playing Techniques
panel in Write mode, containing a simple editor for harp pedal changes. When you
select a harp pedal change in the music area, you can use the new editor to change
the pedals of the selected item. With nothing selected, you can instead set up the
pedals for a new harp pedal change: when you click Create, the harp pedal diagram
will either be created at the selected position, or (if your preferences allow) the
mouse pointer will be loaded, allowing you to click in the music area to place the
new harp pedal change.

Dorico 5 Version History 42 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Instrument editor
Instrument families editor. You can now select and move multiple instruments in or out
of a family at the same time.

Instruments
Default noteheads for crash cymbals. Crash cymbals now show regular noteheads when
added as an individual percussion instrument, but still use cross noteheads as
expected when they appear in a drum set.

Jump bar
Navigation to rehearsal mark in flow. In Go to mode, it is now possible to navigate to a
specific rehearsal mark in a flow using fxry, where x is the flow number and y is the
rehearsal mark letter or number.

Library Manager
Page sizes. Custom page sizes are now shown in the Library Manager, and can be
imported into projects as needed.

MusicXML export
Pick-up bars. Pick-up bars are now exported correctly, with the appropriate prefix for
their bar number.

Bar rests. Bar rests are now more correctly encoded when exporting MusicXML.

System-attached items. System-attached items, for example tempos, now correctly use
the system attribute to differentiate them from staff-attached items.

Slurs and ties. Style information for slurs and ties, in particular whether they are solid or
dashed, is now exported to MusicXML.

Notes. Stem information for notes is now exported more reliably, both for whole notes
(breves) and longer that naturally show no stem, and for notes that normally show a
stem but whose stems have been hidden. In addition, Dorico now exports notes
whose size has been changed using the Scale or Custom scale properties as cue-
sized, grace note-sized, or cue grace note-sized.

Lyric elisions. Lyrics with elisions are now exported correctly to MusicXML.

MusicXML import
Custom paragraph styles. A new Import font style information option has been added to
the Other Notations section of the MusicXML Import page of Preferences, allowing
you to specify whether Dorico should create new paragraph styles for text items it
imports, to retain the specified font family, size, and formatting in the MusicXML
file.

Dorico 5 Version History 43 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Note input
Special barlines. Special barlines are now included when performing marquee
selections, and when repeating selected material with R.

Page sizes
Page size editor. A new Library ▶ Page Sizes dialog has been added, allowing you to edit
the preset page sizes shown in the Page Setup page of Layout Options and define
your own. If you save changes as defaults to your user library, they will appear both
in the Create New page of the Hub window, and in the Page Setup page of Layout
Options for newly created projects.

Playback
Glissando playback. Keyboard and pitched percussion instruments now produce a white
notes glissando by default.

Playback techniques
Used playback techniques. In Library ▶ Playback Techniques, Dorico now only allows
you to delete user-defined playback techniques that are not referenced by playing
techniques in your project.

Staff labels
Grouping for custom instruments. Dorico now allows grouped staff labels for adjacent
players holding custom instruments that are variants of the same parent
instrument, and which have identical full and short staff labels.

Text export
Open after export preference. A new option Open text CSV in default application after
export has been added to the Files section of the General page of Preferences,
allowing you to choose whether the exported CSV file should be opened in the
default application for that file type on your system immediately after export.

User interface
Staff size in Layout Options. The read-out of the staff size in the Page Setup page of
Layout Options is now always shown to a precision of two decimal places.

Dorico 5 Version History 44 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Issues resolved
Component Issue

Accidentals Under rare circumstances, Dorico could show an unnecessary cautionary accidental for a
note in a different octave in the following bar if the note that introduces the accidental at the
original octave was in a different voice; this has now been fixed.

Audio export When using sample rates higher than 88.2kHz, the first notes in an exported audio track
would have incorrect note positions; this has now been fixed.

Bar numbers In some circumstances, irregular bars could be numbered incorrectly, so that the bar count
does not increment correctly; this has now been fixed.

Bar repeats Bar repeat regions appear correctly in condensed staves once more.

Brackets and Under some circumstances, sub-brackets for condensed staves would not always appear in
braces systems where staves are hidden; this has now been fixed.

Chord symbols When activating the Hidden property for chord symbols, any displayed chord diagram is now
correctly and immediately hidden.

Condensing Under certain circumstances, when condensing section players where some but not all divisi
staves can be condensed, Dorico could end up showing a multi-bar rest and hiding music on
one or more of the divisi staves; this has now been fixed.

Condensing Under some circumstances, creating new custom condensing groups would not cause time
signatures to appear on the new condensed staves until the project was reopened; this has
now been fixed.

Cues Highlights to show suggested cue locations now appear on the correct staff in projects with
divisi staves or condensing enabled.

Dynamics Splitting a flow in the middle of a dynamic group now works more reliably, and properties set
on the dynamic group are now retained.

Fingering It is now possible to add left- and right-hand fingering for user-defined fretted instruments,
as it should be.

Instrument editor Instrument families are now listed in the same order as the prevailing instrument score order
in Library ▶ Instrument Families.

Instrument editor Changing the families in which an existing instrument in the project appears now
immediately updates its position in the score order, provided a score order is set for the
project.

Instrument editor If a single variant instrument is shown in an instrument family in the score order editor, it
would sometimes appear without its variant description; this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 45 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Instrument editor Editing an instrument's family now always updates its bracketing in the current project
immediately.

Instrument editor The Jazz instrument score order has been revised to fix some errors that had crept in.

Instrument editor Dorico no longer unnecessarily writes the user library when confirming the Library ▶
Instrument Families dialog if no changes need to be saved.

Instrument editor It is now possible to make a project-local change to an instrument family that is saved in the
user library, without also unexpectedly updating the family in the user library.

Instrument editor Under some circumstances, a custom instrument family could appear in the families list in
Library ▶ Instrument Score Orders, even though no instruments from that family appear
there in the order; now, empty families are correctly filtered out.

Instrument editor Creating a new instrument or variant based on a factory default instrument that has been
moved to another instrument family no longer causes a crash.

Instrument editor Deleting a user-defined instrument now also removes references to it from the instrument
families and instrument score orders in which it appears.

Live editing Under some circumstances, dragging notes from a percussion staff to a pitched staff would be
incorrectly disallowed; this has now been fixed.

Live editing Dragging tuplets containing a mixture of notes and rests now works correctly, regardless of
whether you are dragging a note or a rest.

Live editing Under some circumstances, dragging notes could result in a crash in layouts where multi-bar
rests are shown; this has now been fixed.

Live editing When auditioning dragged notes, instrument transposition is now correctly taken into
account.

Lyrics Under some circumstances, Dorico could show a verse number before a lyric extender line at
the start of the system; this has now been fixed.

Lyrics The positioning of lyrics on percussion kit and grid staves is correct once more.

Lyrics Setting properties on lyrics on percussion kit and grid staves now works more reliably.

Lyrics Pasting East Asian language lyrics into the Shift+L popover no longer causes the lyric to be
pasted twice.

MusicXML export Rehearsal marks are correctly exported to MusicXML once more.

Dorico 5 Version History 46 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Note input The Toggle MIDI Input and Toggle MIDI Thru commands now work reliably in all
circumstances.

Note input The focus is now automatically returned to the music area after creating an item via a
popover, allowing you to navigate with Tab right away.

Note input When setting a flat, natural, or sharp accidental on a selected note when using a custom
tonality system, Dorico would sometimes fail to choose an appropriate accidental if the
default music symbol was not used; now it will choose the first accidental that provides the
required pitch delta.

Percussion The read-out of the percussion instrument and playing technique for selected notes now
appears correctly once more.

Playback When activating an existing project for playback for the first time, the appropriate space
template settings were not correctly applied; this has now been fixed.

Playback Dorico Elements will now correctly show playback templates that use HALion Symphonic
Orchestra if you have a dedicated license for that library.

Playback Fermatas following metric modulations now always play with the correct duration.

Playback Under certain circumstances, gaps following fermatas at fast tempos could result in the
wrong, very fast tempo being used following the fermata; this has now been fixed.

Play mode When changing playback template, the list of presets displayed in the Routing section of the
Track Inspector panel now updates immediately (Dorico for iPad only).

Play mode Applying a playback template now correctly updates the state of the port and channel spin
boxes in the Routing section of the Track Inspector.

Play mode Changing the expression or percussion map in the Routing section of the Track Inspector now
immediately refreshes playback.

Print mode For projects with one or more pages of front matter before the first page of music, Dorico
could crash when attempting to export separate PDFs for each flow; this has now been fixed.

Project files The Dorico Projects folder in the default save location was not always created correctly when
running Dorico for the first time; this has now been fixed (macOS only).

Project files When opening existing projects, Dorico now sets the Default Music Text Font font style to
have no parent if it finds that it has one set.

Project files Under some circumstances, Dorico could crash when opening projects due to a problem with
calculating fermata playback; this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 47 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Scrub playback Dorico now more reliably determines the chosen microtonal playback method from the
current expression map.

Text Paragraph styles that use a Bold Italic weight now appear correctly.

Text When applying Markdown formatting to text tokens, Dorico now more reliably combines
existing formatting in the text item with the Markdown formatting.

Text export When exporting text from the project, multi-line text items are now always exported with
spaces replacing line breaks.

Text export Staff- and system-attached text are now correctly classified when exporting text.

User interface The system track now shows the rhythmic grid for the whole duration of an open meter bar at
the end of a flow in galley view.

User interface The list of music fonts on the Create New page of the Hub is now correctly alphabetically
sorted.

User interface The contrast between the foreground and background of the Follow playhead switch on the
status bar when using the light theme has been improved.

User interface The state of the hand/marquee tools in the status bar now always correctly matches the
corresponding preference when opening an existing project.

User interface The button to show or hide the tab bar is now correctly disabled when the page template or
flow heading editor is open.

User interface Under some circumstances, opening the flow heading editor when the page template editor is
open could cause the page template editor to be unexpectedly reopened when switching to
another layout; this has now been fixed.

User interface The suggested default path provided for exporting expression and percussion maps from their
respective dialogs is now more sensible.

Dorico 5 Version History 48 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Dorico 5.1
13 December 2023

New features
Iconica Sketch
Iconica Sketch is a complete orchestra with 34 different instruments and 140
articulations in an exceptionally intuitive interface — optimized in file size and CPU
performance. The original recordings from Iconica have been carefully selected
and remastered to deliver a well-balanced, high-quality orchestral experience.

The following instruments are included in the library:

§ Woodwinds: Piccolo, Flute 1, Flute 2, Clarinet 1, Clarinet 2, Bass Clarinet,

Oboe 1, Oboe 2, English Horn, Bassoon 1, Bassoon 2, Contra Bassoon
§ Brass: Trumpet (solo), Trumpets (ensemble), Horn (solo), Horns (ensemble),
Euphonium, Trombone (solo), Trombones (ensemble), Tuba
§ Pitched percussion: Harp, Celesta, Timpani, Tubular Bells, Marimba,
Vibraphone, Glockenspiel, Xylophone
§ Unpitched percussion: Percussion Map, including gran cassa, snare, toms,
piatti cymbals, tam tam, tambourine, triangle, cowbells, congas, vibraslap,
bongos, castanets, wood blocks, bell tree, chimes
§ Strings: Violins I, Violins II, Violas, Celli, Basses

Each instrument section provides a consistent set of playing techniques:

§ Woodwinds: legato, staccato, marcato, sustain, sustain vibrato

§ Brass: legato, staccato, marcato, sustain, sustain vibrato
§ Strings: legato, staccato, pizzicato, piccato, sustain, legato, tremolo, sustain
vibrato
§ Unpitched percussion: hit, roll (for most instruments)

To use Iconica Sketch in Dorico 5.1, choose one of the factory playback templates
that include Iconica Sketch in its name.

Default playback template. When Dorico detects that new sound content that is handled
by one of its factory playback templates has been installed, it will now show a simple
dialog when you next start the application, allowing you to update your chosen
default playback template to make use of the new sounds.

For example, when you first run Dorico 5.1 after installing the new Iconica Sketch
sounds, Dorico will show the dialog and offer to set the best available factory
playback template that includes Iconica Sketch. If Groove Agent SE is installed, it

Dorico 5 Version History 49 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 will also allow you to choose whether to use a default playback template that uses
Groove Agent SE for drum set instruments.

The dialog will also appear if Dorico detects that NotePerformer has been installed,
allowing you to easily choose the NotePerformer playback template by default.

You can review and change the default playback template on the Play page of
Preferences at any time.

Changing the default playback template does not affect the choice of playback
template in existing projects: if you want to use, say, Iconica Sketch in an existing
project, open the project, then choose Play ▶ Playback Template, select the
playback template you want to use, then click Apply and Close.

Example projects. Three example projects are included that show off the capabilities of
Iconica Sketch. Find them in /Users/Shared/Dorico Example Projects on macOS
and in %PUBLIC%\Documents\Dorico Example Projects on Windows.

Instrument families editor

Building on the new instrument editor introduced in Dorico 5.0, Dorico 5.1
introduces an editor for instrument families, allowing you to move instruments
between existing families, and create your own, either for the purposes of a single
project or to create new default families for all future projects.

To get started, choose Library ▶ Instrument Families. This dialog appears:

Dorico 5 Version History 50 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 On the left-hand side of the dialog, the instrument families in the current project
are shown. The familiar action bar at the bottom of the list allows you to create a
new empty family, or a new family based on the currently-selected family. From
right to left, the buttons at the right-hand end of the action bar allow you to: delete
the selected family, if it is a user-defined one; revert the selected family back to its
factory state, if it is a default one; and to save the current state of the selected family
to the user library, so that it will be available in other projects. When the star icon is
filled, the selected family is saved in the user library, and when it is an outline, the
selected family is not saved in the user library.

The list in the middle of the dialog shows the instruments in the current family, in
alphabetical order. The order in which instruments appear in the score is defined
separately, since different ensembles and types of music have different
conventions for how instruments should be ordered.

The list on the right-hand side of the dialog shows all of the instruments that are not
in the current family. Instruments can appear in multiple families if necessary. To
add instruments to the current family, select them in the Instruments not in
selected family list and click Add instrument to family in the action bar.

Likewise, to remove one or more instruments from the selected family, select them
in the central list and click Remove instrument from family.

Instrument score order editor

In addition to the new editor for instrument families, Dorico 5.1 also now introduces
an editor for instrument score orders, allowing you both to edit the factory-
supplied score orders, and create your own.

To get started, choose Library ▶ Instrument Score Orders. This dialog appears:

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 The list on the left-hand side shows the instrument score orders in the current
project. You can create a new score order by selecting an existing score order and
clicking the New from Selection button in the action bar.

For each of the Families, Instruments, and Variants columns, you can select an item
and click Move Up or Move Down to move the selection in the overall score order.
Moving, for example, a selected family down in the list will move all of the
instruments in that family below all of the instruments in the family that now
appears above it in the list.

To save a new instrument score order as a default that will be available in new
projects, click the star button. When the star icon is filled, the selected score order is
saved in the user library, and when it is an outline, the selected score order is not
saved in the user library.

Instrument score order selector. A new selector has been added to the status bar in Setup
mode, allowing you to see at a glance which instrument score order is currently in
force. (This does not appear in Dorico for iPad.)

Applying an instrument score order. When you choose an instrument score order, either
via the long-press button in the action bar in the Players panel or via the new
selector in the status bar, Dorico now immediately sorts the players according to
the newly chosen score order.

Manually ordering players. When you manually reorder players in the Players panel,
Dorico now automatically sets the instrument score order to None, so that
subsequent operations in the Players panel, such as adding or deleting players,
don't undo the manual changes by re-applying the current instrument score order.

Jazz instrument score order. A new Jazz instrument score order has been added, with
thanks to Todd Bashore. The order is essentially: woodwind, brass (with trumpets
above horns), vocals, pitched percussion, guitars, keyboard instruments, bass (bass
guitars, upright bass, string bass), drums, other unpitched percussion, harp, strings,
sketch instruments.

Orchestral instrument score order. The orchestral score order has been improved, with
particular attention paid to percussion instruments, which now follow more closely
the recommendations in Kurt Stone’s book Music Notation in the 20th Century.

Polyphonic voice balancing

Building on the pitch contour emphasis algorithm introduced in Dorico 5.0, this
update introduces sophisticated algorithms that aim to improve the relative
balance of voices in music written for polyphonic instruments such as piano, guitar,
harp, and mallet percussion. When performing, human musicians always try to

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 bring out the melody, with the bass being given almost as much emphasis, and
accompaniment textures being given the least emphasis. By contrast, when
software plays back music that was not originally performed by a human musician,
each voice is given equal emphasis, which can sound unmusical.

Dorico 5.1’s new polyphonic voice balancing features produce human-like

interpretation of polyphonic textures. To avoid changing the playback of existing
projects, these features are disabled by default when opening an existing project,
and enabled by default for newly-created projects. To enable them, activate Use
automatic polyphonic voice balancing on the Dynamics page of Playback Options.

Optionally, Dorico can also attempt to identify contrapuntal themes in the music,
and can then emphasize these during playback, regardless of the voice in which
they appear. This is especially useful for fugues, but may also produce pleasing
results in other contrapuntal music with shared thematic material. This option is
disabled both in existing projects and in newly created ones: to enable it, activate
Use rules for contrapuntal music on the Dynamics page of Playback Options.

Example projects. We have included two example projects that show off the polyphonic
voice balancing (Liszt’s Liebesträume) and contrapuntal theme identification (Fugue
16 from the first book of The Well-tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach). Find them in
/Users/Shared/Dorico Example Projects on macOS and
in %PUBLIC%\Documents\Dorico Example Projects on Windows.

Text export
Publishers often need to be able to extract textual information from projects, to
populate catalogue databases or simply to be able to review the text that appears in
the project for the purposes of proof-reading and correction. Dorico can now
generate a comma separated values (CSV) file from the project, extracting all the
visible text, including:

§ Values from File ▶ Project Info, both for the overall project and for each flow
§ Text frames on each page
§ Staff-attached and system-attached text
§ Lyrics
§ Immediate and gradual tempo instructions
§ Playing techniques
§ Dynamics
§ Rehearsal marks
§ Markers
§ Comments

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 To export text from the current project, choose File ▶ Export ▶ Text. You will be
prompted to specify the filename for the resulting CSV file. Once saved, Dorico will
attempt to open the exported file using the default application associated with CSV
files on your system.

Project statistics
Professional music copyists are sometimes required to calculate the number of
frames they have copied to calculate their fee for a job. In this context, a frame is a
bar in a staff, so a short chamber piece of 80 bars for 5 instruments would have 400
frames. It may also be necessary to differentiate between frames with music in, and
empty frames containing only bar rests, as in some union pay scales these can be
charged at different rates.

Dorico now provides an easy way to gather the number of frames in your project,
along with many other handy statistics, via the new File ▶ Project Statistics dialog.

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 The dialog shows a few key statistics about the full score layout in the project, if one
exists; if no full score layout exists, Dorico will calculate statistics based on the
layout you are currently viewing. By default, combined statistics for all flows in the
project are shown, but you can choose any of the flows in the project from the Show
statistics for drop-down menu to view statistics for only one flow.

If you need to work with this information in another application, click Export to
export all the statistics to a plain text file. Each category of data and its
corresponding value is separated with a tab stop, so the resulting file can be easily
imported into a spreadsheet application.

History dialog
A new Edit ▶ History dialog has been added, allowing you to undo or redo to any
point in the history. The edits listed in the History dialog use the same names that
are used directly in the Edit menu for the Undo and Redo menu items.

Depending on the size of your project and the speed of your computer, you may see
the intervening edits carried out when you undo or redo by many steps. Dorico
needs to carry out each edit in turn to ensure that the correct history is always
maintained.

Dorico 5 Version History 55 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Improvements
Accidentals
Accidentals and unshortened ledger lines. By default, Dorico shortens ledger lines on the
left-hand side of notes to allow accidentals to tuck in more closely to the notes
without colliding. If you choose not to shorten ledger lines, Dorico uses the values
defined in the Gaps section of the Accidentals page of Engraving Options to
determine the distance between the rightmost accidental and the ledger line. These
options are used for the staff position at which the accidental appears, and the
adjacent positions directly above and below.

However, a sharp on the top or bottom line of the staff may come too close to the
first ledger line outside the staff, so to allow Dorico to give a sharp a little more
breathing room, a new option Use gap for rightmost sharp if to left of adjacent
unshortened ledger line has been added. This is activated by default in new
projects but deactivated in existing projects to maintain their current appearance.

Audio engine
Error recovery. If Dorico’s audio engine crashes or hangs during start-up, Dorico now
shows a message and quits. It also creates a diagnostic report on your computer's
desktop, suitable for attaching to a ticket to your local support team, or posting on
the Dorico forum.

Similarly, if the audio engine takes an unusually long time to initialize when Dorico
starts up, it will now show a message informing you of that fact, and offering to
terminate the audio engine if necessary. Alternatively, it may be that a VST plug-in
being scanned by the audio engine is showing a message box or dialog that requires
user input. If you choose to terminate the audio engine, Dorico will force it to quit,
then exit, again creating a diagnostic report on the desktop.

Steinberg built-in ASIO Driver. On Windows, Dorico now includes a new default ASIO
driver, the Steinberg built-in ASIO Driver. This new ASIO driver does not try to take
exclusive ownership of the audio device in your computer, so it should always be
possible to both play back in Dorico and hear audio from other applications at the
same time.

Initial time signature. For plug-ins that rely on knowledge of the time signature, Dorico
now transmits the initial time signature to VST instruments as well as the initial
tempo. Only the initial time signature and tempo are transmitted: changes of time
signature and tempo will be supported in a future version.

Bar numbers
Avoiding collisions. In instrumental parts for commercial music and recording sessions,
it’s common to show bar numbers on every bar, and to position bar numbers

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 immediately above or below each barline, typically using a narrow font at a
relatively small staff size. It’s desirable for such bar numbers to tuck in as close as
possible to the barline. By default, Dorico will move bar numbers outside
obstructions coming from the staff, such as ties or slurs that cross above or below
the staff. If you would prefer Dorico never to move bar numbers by default, so that
you can manually adjust the specific bar numbers you think need to be
repositioned, deactivate the new Avoid collisions option on the Bar Numbers page
of Layout Options.

Brackets and braces

Brace position. From the department of vanishingly small minutiae, when determining
the precise position and size of the brace glyph for a grand staff instrument, Dorico
now considers the thickness of the top and bottom staff lines. This makes a small
but perceptible difference to the size and placement of the brace relative to the
staff.

Chord diagrams
Exclude from chords used frame. A new property Exclude from chords used at start of
flow has been added to the Chord Symbols group in the Properties panel; activate
this if you want the chord diagram associated with that chord symbol not to appear
in the grid of chord diagrams shown at the start of the flow, if present.

Clefs
Positioning on irregular staves. Clefs are now correctly positioned on staves with more or
fewer than five staff lines. Pitched staves in Dorico are always built upwards from
the bottom staff line, so if you have a pitched instrument with a 1-line staff, the
single staff line that appears is the bottom line of the staff; i.e. if you have a treble G
clef, the pitch of a note on that single staff line would be E4, or if you have a bass F
clef, the pitch of a note on that single staff line would be G2.

Cues
Clefs for cues starting at barlines. A new option Position of clef at start of cue coincident
with barline has been added to the Clefs section of the Cues page of Engraving
Options. This allows you to specify that a cue starting at a barline position that
requires a clef change should have its clef positioned to the left of the barline rather
than to the right, as some publishers prefer.

Rhythmic cues. It is now possible to use rhythmic slashes instead of regular noteheads in
rhythmic cues. This can be set as a default for the project and overridden for an
individual cue using the Properties panel. A new Use rhythmic slashes option has
been added to the Rhythmic Cues section of the Cues page of Engraving Options,
where you can also choose what type of slashes should be used for rhythmic cues.

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 To override this setting for an individual cue, select the cue label and activate the
Use rhythmic slashes property to specify whether a rhythmic cue should be
displayed using slashes, or set Slash appearance to use a different slash
appearance for that cue.

It is also now possible to move rhythmic cues into the staff if desired, by setting the
Distance property to a negative value.

Divisi
Divisi labels. A new option Snap divisi unison labels to notes option has been added to
the Staff Labels section of the Staves and Systems page of Layout Options. When
activated, Dorico will snap the unis. labels for a return to unison after a divisi
passage to the first note in the unison passage, if the return to unison occurs at a
rest. This option is switched on in new projects but switched off in existing projects
to preserve their appearance.

Horizontal position. A new Default horizontal offset option has been added to the Divisi
Change Labels section of the Divisi page of Engraving Options, allowing divisi labels
to be positioned slightly to the left of the entry to which they apply, if desired.

Erase background. A new Erase background with padding option has been added to the
Divisi Change Labels section of the Divisi page of Engraving Options, allowing you
to specify that Dorico should erase the background behind divisi labels.

Unison ranges. The way that ranges of unison music on systems where staves transition
to or from divisi has been completely reworked, which will allow us to fix a number
of long-standing problems concerning the appearance of music at and around
these transitions, including the appearance (or occasional non-appearance) of time
and key signatures, problems with accidental calculation, and spacing.

Dynamics
Hyphenated text gradual dynamics. A new option Position of final syllable has been
added to the Hyphenated Text section of the Gradual Dynamics section of the
Dynamics page of Engraving Options, allowing you to specify whether a gradual
dynamic shown as hyphenated text, for example cresc-en-do, should end with its
final syllable, or should show a dashed or dotted line after the final syllable.

By default, in new projects, the gradual dynamic now ends with its final syllable.
However, if a gradual dynamic is followed immediately by an immediate dynamic,
you may find it preferable for that gradual dynamic to end with a dashed or dotted
line to provide some separation between the final syllable do and the immediate
dynamic. If so, you can override this engraving option using the new Final syllable
at end of line property in the Dynamics group in the Properties panel.

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 A further new option, Hyphenated line vertical position, can be found in the
Advanced Options section. This allows you to choose whether the line joining the
syllables for this dynamic should be positioned at the text baseline, or at half the
text x-height (where a hyphen would typically appear). By default, in new projects,
this new option is set to Half x-height.

Finally, two new options, Hyphenation for diminuendo and Hyphenation for
decrescendo, have been added to the Advanced Options section, allowing you to
choose between two different ways of hyphenating these words.

Text with lines gradual dynamics. Two new options have been added to the Advanced
Options section of the Text with Lines section of the Gradual Dynamics section of
the Dynamics page of Engraving Options. Abbreviation for diminuendo and
Abbreviation for decrescendo allow you to choose between two alternatives for the
abbreviation for each of these dynamics, which are used when the Abbreviate
property is activated.

Mouse editing. When dragging dynamics in Write mode with the mouse, the positions
that the dynamics will snap to are now consistent with the positions at which the
dynamics can appear when moving them via the Alt+←/→ shortcuts.

Engrave mode
Nudging slurs. In previous versions of Dorico, dragging slurs with the mouse always
constrained their movement to the vertical dimension, and it was necessary to hold
the Alt key to drag them horizontally. This meant that it was not possible to nudge
slurs horizontally using the standard key commands of Alt with the arrow keys.

Now things are different: it is now possible to drag slurs in any direction with the
mouse, though you can hold Shift after you have started dragging to constrain the
movement to either the vertical or horizontal dimension, as with other items. This
also means that it is now possible to nudge a selected slur by holding Alt and using
the arrow keys.

Frame dimensions. When a single frame is selected in Engrave mode, the dimensions of
the frame are now shown in the status bar.

Fingering
Substitution positioning. A new option Alignment of fingering substitution relative to
note has been added to the Position section of the Fingering page of Engraving
Options, allowing you to choose whether immediate substitutions should be left- or
center-aligned with the notehead.

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 Fonts
Nepomuk. The included version of Nepomuk has been updated, with improvements to
the bold weights and the appearance of some eastern European characters.

Graphics export
Transparent background. When exporting graphics in TIFF or PNG format, you can now
choose whether to export with a transparent background (the previous default), or
whether to use a white background. This option can be found both in the Graphic
Slices panel in Engrave mode (Dorico Pro only), and in the right-hand options panel
in Print mode.

Harp pedals
Border and padding. A new option has been added to the Harp Pedals page of Engraving
Options allowing you to choose whether pedal changes shown using note names
should use the border thickness and padding settings from Engraving Options, or
instead from the Harp Pedal Settings paragraph style. The advantage of using the
paragraph style is that it allows you to adjust the border independently on each side,
which may be necessary for some font families.

Instrument editor
Families. A new Edit Families button has been added to the instrument editor, allowing
you to choose to which families the instrument being edited should belong.

Instrument score orders. New instruments created in the instrument editor are now
automatically added to the instrument score orders present in the project.

Percussion playing techniques. It is now possible to edit the percussion playing

techniques of an individual percussion instrument via the instrument editor.

Jump bar
Opening directly in either mode. Two new commands have been added to the UI category
on the Key Commands page of Preferences: Show Jump Bar in Commands Mode
will show the jump bar and ensure it opens in commands mode, while Show Jump
Bar in Goto Mode will show the jump bar and ensure it opens in goto mode. This
allows you to assign a separate key command to open the jump bar in either mode if
you wish.

Key Editor
Lock Played Durations. A new Lock Played Durations button has been added to the Key
Editor toolbar. This button appears only when the piano roll is displaying notated
durations. With this new tool enabled, edits you make to the position or duration of
a note in the piano roll will not affect the played position and duration of that note.
This allows you to manually quantize the displayed notation while retaining the

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 precise nuance of the notes if they were recorded in real time or created via MIDI
import.

Default duration display. A new Default piano roll display option has been added to the
General page of Preferences, allowing you to specify whether the piano roll should
use Played Durations or Notated Durations by default.

Double-clicking in the ruler. If Dorico is playing back, double-clicking in the ruler will now
stop playback.

Key signatures
Cautionary key signatures. A new option Cautionary key signature at end of system has
been added to the Key Signatures page of Notation Options, allowing you to specify
that Dorico should hide the cautionary key signature that appears at the end of the
system for a key change that occurs at a system boundary. This can also be
overridden for a selected key signature via the new Cautionary at end of system
property in the Key Signatures group in the Properties panel.

Appearance on irregular staves. Key signatures will now draw on staves with more or
fewer than five staff lines. There are no options to control at which staff position a
specific accidental will appear if multiple positions within the staff are possible.

Lines
Vertical lines. When placing vertical lines in the staff, for example when using lines with
hooks at the top or bottom to indicate which notes on one staff of a grand staff
instrument that should be played by the other hand, it may sometimes be desirable
for those lines to have no impact on horizontal spacing. It is now possible to specify
that a vertical line should play no part in rhythmic spacing by deactivating Avoid
collisions in Library ▶ Lines. This can also be overridden for an individual line by
setting the new Avoid collisions property in the Lines group in the Properties panel.

Live editing
Chromatic pitch dragging. You can now edit the pitches of selected notes chromatically
by holding down Shift after you begin dragging them vertically.

Dragging rests. When selecting a mixture of notes and rests, you can now drag the
selection vertically or horizontally by dragging one of the selected rests, instead of
only being able to drag notes.

Lyrics
Lyric-hyphen gaps. It is now possible to override the default gap between lyrics and
hyphens, and the gaps between hyphens, using two new Engrave mode properties
in the Lyrics group of the Properties panel. Gap between lyrics and hyphens is an

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 override for the Minimum gap between lyric and hyphen engraving option, while
Gap between hyphens overrides the similarly named engraving option.

Verse numbers. A new option Paragraph style to use for verse number has been added
to the Verse Numbers section of the Lyrics page of Engraving Options, allowing you
to choose whether verse numbers should use their own dedicated paragraph style,
or instead use the same paragraph style as the following lyric.

Smart quotes. Dorico now correctly handles smart quotes in Spanish, where punctuation
such as commas and periods (full stops) are positioned after the closing quotation
marks.

Korean IME support. When entering lyrics using the Korean Input Method Editor (IME)
on macOS, it is now possible to simply press Space to advance the popover to the
next note or chord.

When inputting lyrics in Korean, Dorico now enters Japanese-style lyric hyphens
when you advance the caret with Space during input. These lyric hyphens are also
now center-aligned with the front notehead of the main stem of the note below or
above which they appear.

Mixer
Apply default output level. A new command Play ▶ Apply Default Output Level has been
added, allowing you to reset the faders for plug-in outputs and the master output in
the Mixer to the Default output level value specified on the Play page of
Preferences.

MusicXML export
New additions. MusicXML export has been greatly expanded in Dorico 5.1, with the
following all now included when exporting:

§ Arpeggio signs and non-arpeggio signs

§ Holds and pauses including fermatas, caesuras, and breath marks.
§ Laissez vibrer ties
§ Multi-bar rests
§ Staff- and system-attached text items
§ Trills (including trills over multiple notes, showing different accidentals
along their length) and ornaments
§ Glissando lines and slides
§ Playing techniques (including bowing marks, natural harmonics, double-
and triple-tongue, snap pizzicato, organ heel/toe, fingernails on harp,
mute/half-open/open, brass bends, flips, smears, and more)
§ Guitar techniques (including bends, pre-bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs,
taps, left-hand taps, vibrato bar dips, and vibrato bar scoops)

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 § Page-attached text (title, composer, copyright, etc.)
§ System and staff formatting

Vertical position. Dorico now exports vertical positioning information for a number of
items:

§ Dynamics.
§ Lyrics.
§ Octave lines.

Barlines. If Dorico shows a double barline at a change of key signature, that is now
reflected in MusicXML export.

Tuplets. When exporting tuplets to MusicXML, Dorico now includes information about
whether the bracket/number is visible.

Octave lines. Voice-specific octave lines are now exported via MusicXML.

Slurs. Slurs that start in one voice and end in another (for example, in cross-staff
notation) are now exported to MusicXML. Dorico now also exports the curvature
direction for both slurs and ties.

Chord symbols. The encoding of some chord symbol qualities, for example 7sus4 and
m(b5), has been tweaked to improve interoperability with other applications, for
example, Finale.

Instrument sounds. Dorico now includes the appropriate MusicXML sound ID for each
instrument part when exporting MusicXML.

MusicXML import
Non-arpeggio signs. Non-arpeggio signs are now imported from MusicXML files.

Arpeggio signs. A new option Ambiguous arpeggio signs span all staves has been added
to the MusicXML import page of Preferences, allowing you to specify that Dorico
should create arpeggio lines across all staves of a multi-staff instrument if the
MusicXML file does not correctly specify its extent.

Note input and editing

Select to start of system and flow. Two new commands, Edit ▶ Select to Start of System
and Edit ▶ Select to Start of Flow, have been added.

Toggle MIDI Thru. A new command Toggle MIDI Thru has been added to the Note
Input category in the Key Commands page of Preferences. You can assign a key
command, or use the jump bar, to use this command to toggle the Enable MIDI
thru option on the Play page of Preferences.

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 Octave lines
Dashed line alignment. Two new options have been added to the Advanced Options
section of the Appearance section of the Octave Lines page of Engraving Options,
allowing you to adjust the precise vertical position of the dashed or dotted line that
follows the symbol at the beginning of an octave line, both on the first system and
following a continuation symbol on a subsequent system. In new projects, these
new options have been set to provide a better appearance for octave lines by
default, but they are not set for existing projects to maintain their appearance.

Percussion
Grace notes. Because of the unique way percussion kit notation works in Dorico, with the
notation from individual instruments brought together in the five-line staff
presentation type, it has always been impossible to show a run of grace notes
spanning multiple instruments in the kit: all of the grace notes will appear as a
chord. You can now select a grace note in the five-line staff presentation type and
use Alt+←/→ to move it visually so that you can create the desired run.

Importing and exporting percussion maps. When exporting a percussion map via Library
▶ Percussion Maps, Dorico will now include any user-defined instruments and
playback techniques in the exported library file, so that the percussion map can be
fully usefully employed in another project.

Playback
Holds and pauses. Fermatas, caesuras, and breath marks all now influence playback.
Playback of holds and pauses works by automatically manipulating the tempo
during playback to achieve the required prolongation of the held note, and likewise
manipulates the played lengths of the affected notes to allow a gap, if required,
before the normal tempo resumes.

For fermatas, options to control the default amount by which the written duration
should be extended and the length of the gap for each type of fermata from short to
very long are found on the Timing page of Playback Options, and these can also be
overridden on a per-fermata basis via the new Hold duration and Gap duration
properties in the Holds and Pauses group in the Properties panel.

A new Hold only property has also been added for fermatas, making it easier to
specify that a fermata should only extend the duration of notes, and not create a
silence before the next note.

Caesuras do not extend the duration of the notes at that position: instead, they
simply insert a gap. By default, a caesura produces a gap of 50% the beat duration of
the bar in which it occurs. This can be adjusted by way of the Gap duration property.

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 When editing caesuras in the tempo editor in the Key Editor, note that only the
second point in the region can be edited; dragging this down increases the duration
of the gap, while dragging it up decreases the duration of the gap.

Like caesuras, breath marks do not extend the duration of notes; indeed, breath
marks do not insert any musical time, instead only shortening the durations of the
notes that precede them, by default using a value of 50% of the beat duration. To
edit the effect of an individual breath mark, simply adjust the played duration of the
notes immediately preceding the breath mark in the piano roll.

The playback of holds and pauses can be disabled altogether by deactivating the
Play back pauses option on the Timing page of Playback Options. Individual holds
and pauses also respond to the Suppress playback and Suppress on passes
properties.

Glissandos. Dorico can now use MIDI pitch bend to play back continuous glissandos,
depending on the capabilities of the chosen virtual instrument or playback device.

In earlier versions, glissandos always played back chromatically, except on harp,

where they played back according to the current pedal settings. Dorico now
determines the default approach for glissando playback according to instrument
family: brass, singers, electronics, and strings all play back continuous glissandos
by default; other families play back chromatic glissandos.

A new Playback type property in the Glissando Lines group in the Properties panel
allows you to override the default playback approach, and includes the option White
notes, which can be useful on piano and other keyboard instruments.

The extent to which Dorico can play back continuous glissandos using pitch bend is
contingent on the Pitch bend range value in the relevant expression map. This
setting is found in the Expression Map Data section at the top of Library ▶
Expression Maps, which is closed by default when editing an existing expression
map. The Iconica Sketch and HALion Symphonic Orchestra sounds that ship with
Dorico can only play pitch bend up to a range of +/-2 half-steps (semitones), so any
glissando with a larger span will fall back to chromatic playback. NotePerformer, on
the other hand, can play back pitch bend up to a range of one octave; any glissando
with a larger span will similarly fall back to chromatic playback.

Because MIDI pitch bend applies to the whole channel, Dorico also considers
whether other notes will be played by the same endpoint, and falls back on
chromatic playback if other notes would be affected by the pitch bend.

In new projects, glissandos play back with a delayed start by default; this means that
the glissando fits into the second half of the duration of the note on which the

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 glissando begins. This is controlled by a new Delayed start option on the new
Glissando Lines page of Playback Options, and can be overridden via the Delayed
start property in the Glissando Lines group in the Properties panel. You can also
adjust the delay via the Delay property.

When opening projects last saved in an earlier version of Dorico, the Playback type
property is set to Chromatic (or, for harp, to Auto) to preserve the existing playback
behavior.

Monophonic legato. A new Monophonic checkbox has been added to the Expression
Maps dialog, available when the selected base switch includes the Legato playback
technique. This allows you to specify that the legato provided by this patch can only
be correctly handled if the music is monophonic and that chords cannot be played.
If this checkbox is activated, when playing back your music, Dorico will detect
whether the legato section contains chords or notes in other voices that will be
played by the same endpoint, and remove the legato playback technique; however,
the legato note length as specified in Playback Options will still be used. This is
enabled, for example, for the legato playback techniques in the new Iconica Sketch
library.

All notes off. You can now send MIDI messages to stop all sounding notes, reset MIDI
controllers, and reset pitch bend by clicking the Stop button in the main Transport
window when playback is stopped.

Successive gradual dynamics. By default, when Dorico encounters two or more gradual
dynamics in the same direction (in other words, both crescendo or both diminuendo)
of up to four quarters (crotchets) in length, less than four quarters apart, it treats
them as so-called phrasing dynamics, such that the overall dynamic level does not
change. This is often desirable, but not in every circumstance. To allow you to
disable this behavior, a new option Reset dynamic level for short consecutive
gradual dynamics of same direction has been added to the Humanize section of
the Dynamics page of Playback Options.

Playback of chords with repeated notes on keyboard instruments. A new option

Shortening behavior for other notes belonging to chords with shortened notes
due to repetitions on the Timing page of Playback Options allows you to specify
that when Dorico encounters a chord that abuts a previous note or chord where one
or more of the notes are in common, Dorico should account for the time it would
take for the key to be lifted and pressed again by either shortening only the
common notes, or shortening the whole chord. By default, Dorico shortens the
whole chord, but you can disable this effect altogether if you wish.

Dorico 5 Version History 66 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Players
Instrument changes. A new option Instrument transition position has been added to the
Instrument Changes section of the Players page of Layout Options, allowing you to
specify whether the change from one instrument to another occurs immediately
After last note of old instrument or Before first note in new instrument.

Instrument change warnings. A new Instrument Change Warnings paragraph style has
been added and is now used to label the end of the material in the old instrument,
prior to the entry on the new instrument. This allows the two labels conventionally
used in parts to indicate to players when they should take a new instrument to have
a different appearance if desired.

In new projects, the existing Instrument Change Labels paragraph style now shows
a border, so the label that appears at the entry of the new instrument is now boxed.

Hiding or showing instrument change warnings. A new option Show instrument change
warnings has been added to the Instrument Changes section of the Players page of
Layout Options, allowing you to specify whether instrument change warnings
should be shown in the current layout. In new projects, this option is deactivated in
full score layouts and activated in part layouts, since instrument change warnings
are typically not required in the full score.

Playing techniques
Placement relative to fermatas. Text-based playing techniques – such as pizz., arco, etc.
– and groups of playing techniques joined with arrows or other continuation lines
are now positioned outside fermatas. Individual glyph-based playing techniques –
such as harmonics, upbow, downbow, etc. – are positioned inside fermatas, as they
have always been.

Play mode
Track inspector. The Track Inspector panel in the Routing tab in Play mode now includes
drop-down menus allowing you to see and change the expression map used by the
endpoint playing back the selected track, and, if the track corresponds to a
percussion kit or instrument, the percussion map used. This allows you to see and
change these settings at a glance, without needing to open the Endpoint Setup
dialog. The buttons to the right of each drop-down open Library ▶ Expression Maps
and Library ▶ Percussion Maps respectively, providing a quick way to edit the
currently chosen expression or percussion map.

Playing techniques
Hidden playing techniques. When using the Shift+P popover to create playback
techniques, if you wrap your input in parentheses, e.g. (pizz.), the resulting playing
technique item will be hidden by default.

Dorico 5 Version History 67 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Project Info
Markdown formatting. It is now possible to use simple Markdown formatting for adding
bold, italic, and bold italic formatting to the fields in File ▶ Project Info, which will be
reproduced when these fields are used to substitute text tokens in text frames in
your layouts. To make text italic, add a single asterisk before the first character you
want to be italic and add a single asterisk immediately after the last character; to
make it bold, add two asterisks before and after the text to be emboldened; to make
it bold and italic, add three asterisks before and after the text.

To avoid unexpectedly changing the appearance of existing projects, Markdown

formatting is disabled by default in projects last saved in earlier versions and
enabled in newly created projects. To enable Markdown formatting in an existing
project, activate the Resolve Markdown formatting for text tokens option at the
bottom of the Project page in File ▶ Project Info.

Print mode
PDF export. When Flows is chosen in the Job Type section in the right-hand panel in
Print mode, a new Separate file for each flow checkbox now appears. When this is
activated, Dorico will export a separate PDF file for each flow chosen for export.
Before you use this new capability, click Filename Options to edit the filename
recipe for PDF export to include either or both the flow number and flow name in
the exported filename; otherwise, each flow that is exported will overwrite the
previous one.

Repeat endings
Appearance of repeat ending segments before the final one. A new option Right-hand end
of segments before final segment has been added to the Segments section of the
Repeat Endings page of Engraving Options. This allows you to choose whether the
right-hand end of the repeat ending segments before the final segment should have
a closed end immediately before the start of the next or final segment, or an open
end, either stopping at the next barline, or immediately following the segment
number.

A further option Maximum length for open segment in open meter allows you to
specify the appearance of repeat ending segment with an open right-hand end in a
passage using open meter.

Setup mode
Delete Empty Players. A new Setup ▶ Delete Empty Players dialog has been added,
allowing you to quickly delete players who have no music in any flow in the project.
This can be useful when, for example, importing music into a large existing

Dorico 5 Version History 68 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 template via MusicXML or MIDI, and you then want to remove players with no
music.

When you choose Delete Empty Players, Dorico shows a simple dialog listing the
players in the project with no music: deactivate the checkbox for any players you
want to remain in the project, then click Delete Selected Players to perform the
operation.

Duplicating players. When duplicating a player, Dorico now ensures that the newly-
created player is positioned in the player order after the existing identical player
with the highest player number.

Duplicating flows. When duplicating a flow in the Flows panel, Dorico now immediately
brings the newly created flow into view.

Staff labels
Gap between inner and outer staff labels. A new option Distance between inner and
outer staff labels on same staff has been added to the Horizontal Position section
of the Staff Labels page of Engraving Options, allowing you to specify the distance
between the inner and outer staff labels when both appear on the same staff.
Previously this always used a fixed value of 1 space.

Tempo
Hiding tempos. It is now possible to specify that a tempo item should be hidden when it is
created by wrapping the input for the Shift+T popover in parentheses.

Gradual tempo changes. If you type rit... or accel... into the Shift+T popover, Dorico will
now automatically set the Gradual tempo appearance property such that the
resulting gradual tempo shows a dotted line.

Properties panel. The Barline interaction property for gradual tempo items now appears
in Write mode as well as in Engrave mode, for consistency with the analogous
property for gradual dynamics.

Text
Copying rich text. When you copy one or more selected staff- or system-attached text
items to the clipboard, Dorico now copies a rich text representation of the text to
the clipboard, allowing you to paste the text into another application while
preserving the formatting. By default, Dorico copies the text with HTML formatting,
but you can instead specify that Dorico should use plain text (without any
formatting information) or Markdown by setting Format for text items copied to
clipboard in the Files section of the General page of Preferences.

Paragraph Styles dialog. In the event that a paragraph style uses a font family that is not
installed on your system, that font name is now displayed in the Font family menu,

Dorico 5 Version History 69 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 with its name enclosed in parentheses. This prevents some confusing situations
where the paragraph style appears to use, for example, the first font in the list,
when the preview shows a different family name.

Text editing popover. The maximum point size override allowed for text items is now set
to the uselessly large limit of 999pt.

Select More. The special behavior for Edit ▶ Select More to only select text items that use
the same paragraph style as the first selected text item has now been extended
such that if you select a text item on multiple staves, Dorico will now select only
matching text items on all selected staves.

Ties
Tie direction. Two new options have been added to the Tie Direction section of the Ties
page of Engraving Options.

When a single voice is active, a chord with a mixture of tied and untied notes where
the untied notes are furthest from the end of the stem and have different pitches
(what Gould calls "single-stemmed moving chords" on page 70 of Behind Bars) will
by default produce ties that all curve in the same direction, towards the end of the
stem. This practice is not followed universally by all publishers, and so the new
option Curvature direction for single-voice chords with moving notes allows you
to specify whether ties should follow Gould’s recommendation (Uniform curvature
direction) or should instead use the standard rules for tie direction (Allow natural
curvature).

Relatedly, when a single voice is active, a chord with a mixture of a single tied note
and one or more untied notes where the untied notes are furthest from the end of
the stem and have identical pitches will by default produce ties that curve upwards,
because Dorico applies the standard rules for tie direction in this circumstance, and
a single tie in a chord will, all other things being equal, curve upwards. If you would
prefer Dorico to curve the tie away from the untied notes, set the new option
Curvature direction for ties on innermost notes of single-voice chord to Ties
curve towards stem. This is set by default in new projects but is set to Allow natural
curvature in existing projects to preserve their current appearance.

Time signatures
Cautionary time signatures. A new option Cautionary time signature at end of system
has been added to a new Time Signatures page in Notation Options, allowing you to
specify that Dorico should hide the cautionary time signature that appears at the
end of the system for a change of meter that occurs at a system boundary. This can
also be overridden for a selected time signature via the new Cautionary at end of
system property in the Time Signatures group in the Properties panel.

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 Color. Time signatures now support the Color property in the Common group in the
Properties panel.

User interface
Key commands for zoom. It is now possible to create key commands for custom zoom
levels via the Key Commands page of Preferences. Navigate to View ▶ Zoom in the
tree of commands, enter the desired zoom percentage (without the percentage
sign) into the Parameter 'ZoomPercent' input field, then add the desired key
command.

Zoom level. When switching between page and galley view, Dorico now retains the same
zoom level, rather than reverting to the default zoom level defined in Preferences,
and attempts to restore the last view position.

Show VST plug-in window. A new command Show VST Plug-in Window For Selected
Staff has been added to the Play category in the Key Commands page of
Preferences. You can assign a shortcut to this command to show the window of the
VST plug-in used to play back the first staff in the selection; if the instrument in
question uses independent voice routing, Dorico will show the VST plug-in used to
play the first voice in the selection. In Play mode, the shortcut will open the VST
instrument used to play back the track selected in the track overview.

Minimum project window size. When you reduce the width of the project window, Dorico
now abbreviates the labels on the toggle buttons for switching between page and
galley view, and between concert and transposed pitch, so that the minimum width
of the project window in Write mode can now be smaller.

Letter spacing and baseline shift. The values for letter spacing and baseline shift can now
be set to two decimal places both in the Paragraph Styles dialog and in the text
editing popover.

Insert Music Text dialog. It is now possible to confirm your choice in the Insert Music
Text dialog by double-clicking the desired glyph.

Options dialogs. It is now possible to hit Return when the keyboard focus is in the find
and search controls in Dorico’s five main options dialogs without the dialogs
closing.

Status bar. The informational read-out for the selected item in the status bar has been
expanded as follows:

§ Percussion kits: A selected note in an unpitched percussion instrument or kit

now displays the MIDI pitch that will be played back for that note, taking into
consideration the active percussion map.

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 § Playing techniques: Dorico now shows not only the name of the selected playing
technique, but also the name and internal ID of the playback technique that it
gives rise to in playback.

§ Notes: For notes with microtonal pitches, Dorico now shows the precise MIDI
pitch, expressed as a fraction.

Galley view margin. When a player is set to display its name in staff labels, it will
nevertheless now show the instrument names in the galley view margin.

Create New page of the Hub. A new pair of toggle buttons has been added to the Create
New page of the Hub window, allowing you to toggle the list of project templates
between the familiar grid view and a more compact list view.

Action bars. The appearance of action bars has been unified and improved throughout
the application.

Video and timecode

Updated video engine. The shared video engine has been updated. The new update now
uses Direct2D rather than OpenGL on Windows. You should not notice any practical
difference in using the Video window, but please let us know if you run into any
problems on either platform.

Marker appearance. A new Border style option has been added to the Design section of
the Markers page of Engraving Options, allowing you to choose between the same
border styles used for text items.

View options
Page numbers. By default, pages using the First page template do not show a page
number, so when doing page layout in Engrave mode it can be difficult to match up
pages in the music area with pages in the Pages panel to, say, apply a page template
change. Similarly, when zoomed out to get an overview of the layout, page numbers
may be too small to be read easily. To make identifying pages easier, a new View ▶
Page Numbers option has been added: this shows a large, translucent page in the
upper corner of each page in the layout.

Localization
Importing page template sets. When running Dorico in a language other than English,
the name of an imported page template set based on one of the factory page
template sets will now use the translated name instead of the English name.

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 Dorico for iPad
New General MIDI sounds. Dorico for iPad now uses a new sampler engine based on the
same technology that powers the HALion sampler workstation on desktop, and
includes a new set of General MIDI sounds that are much more expressive than the
Microsonic sounds used by default in previous versions. To use the new sounds in
an existing project, choose Reset Sounds from the application menu, and tap the
Use General MIDI button.

Iconica Sketch. For users with an active subscription or the Lifetime Unlock in-app
purchase, Dorico for iPad now includes the new Iconica Sketch orchestral sound
library. All the instruments and techniques of the full desktop version are included,
and the sounds have been further compressed to take up only 2GB space on your
device.

Before you can use Iconica Sketch, you need to download the new sounds from
within the app. If you have a subscription or Lifetime Unlock, you can download the
sounds either from the General page of Preferences, or from the Reset Sounds
dialog in the application menu.

To use Iconica Sketch with large orchestral projects, your iPad needs to have more
than 4GB RAM. Please check online to find out how much RAM your iPad has. Dorico
for iPad examines the model number information about your iPad to determine
whether it will recommend using Iconica Sketch for playback on your device. You
can still use Iconica Sketch if your iPad has 4GB or less RAM, but we recommend
you use it only with smaller projects of up to around 16 players.

If your iPad has more than 4GB RAM, Dorico will default to using a combination of
the General MIDI and Iconica Sketch sounds for new projects, but for iPads with
4GB RAM or less, Dorico will default to using only the General MIDI sounds. You can
switch between the two different playback templates using the Reset Sounds dialog
in the application menu.

Buffer size. A new option has been added to the Play page of Preferences to allow you to
set the audio buffer size. If you encounter crackles or drop-outs in busy passages
when using Iconica Sketch, try increasing the buffer size.

Toolbar. The responsiveness to display orientation and display size on different models
of iPad has been improved. The application menu should no longer ever be cut off at
the right-hand side of the display, and Dorico now hides parts of the mini transport
if required.

Jump bar. You can now access the jump bar in Dorico for iPad by tapping the new icon on
the toolbar. This allows users without a hardware keyboard attached to access the
jump bar.

Dorico 5 Version History 73 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Read mode. When the project is shown in galley view in Write mode, it was impossible to
make annotations with the Apple Pencil in Read mode. This has now been fixed.
(Apple Pencil annotations in Read mode require an active subscription or the
Lifetime Unlock in-app purchase.)

Dorico 5 Version History 74 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Issues resolved
Component Issue

Bar numbers Under some circumstances, the bar number for an irregular bar at the start of the system
could incorrectly be shown in square brackets, as if it were the second half of a bar that started
on the previous system; this has now been fixed.

Bar numbers When hiding a selected bar number with the Hide/Show Item command, now only the
selected bar number is hidden, rather than all bar numbers until the next time signature.

Bar numbers Inserting a time signature in the middle of a bar and thus creating an irregular pick-up bar
prior to the newly inserted time signature now immediately updates the bar number of the
preceding bar, if shown.

Bar numbers Changing the horizontal position of bar numbers from the center of the bar to the barline or
vice versa could lead to some temporary artifacts where other items could avoid the previous
position of each bar number; this has now been fixed.

Chord diagrams After editing the strings and tuning for a guitar instrument in the project, the edited tuning
now appears right away in the Chord Diagrams submenu of the player context menu in Setup
mode, instead of appearing only after you have reopened the project.

Chord symbols The alignment of parenthesized chord symbols relative to the note or chord with which they
are center- or right-aligned has been improved.

Chord symbols Changing chord symbol visibility for a player in Setup mode is now much quicker than before.

Chord symbols The option to show chord symbols above the top staff in the system is now correctly applied
even if the top instrument in the system is itself set not to show chord symbols.

Comments Comments that are replies to another comment once again appear indented in the Comments
panel, as they should.

Comments If a comment was already selected in the Comments panel and a note selected elsewhere in
the music, double-clicking a comment to edit it would result in the comment being moved to
the position of the selected note when the edit was confirmed; this has now been fixed.

Comments Line breaks are now removed from instrument names shown in comments in the Comments
panel.

Condensing Dorico would not always update the condensed music immediately after making changes in
Layout Options; this is now fixed.

Condensing Under rare circumstances, deleting custom condensing groups in Layout Options could result
in a crash; this is now fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 75 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Condensing When condensing divisi sections, under some circumstances, the divisi label on a system may
sometimes have only accounted for one of the sections condensed into the stem; this has now
been fixed.

Cues It is now possible to create a cue from a selected multi-bar rest in a part layout, if desired.

Cues Rhythmic cues from slash voices on pitched instruments now appear correctly in percussion
kits.

Divisi Adjacent lyrics that are in divisi and unison regions respectively now correctly avoid each
other when calculating rhythmic spacing.

Divisi Cautionary time and key signature are no longer missing when unison is restored at a system
break but with no intervening divisi unison range.

Divisi Cautionary time and key signature are no longer missing when unison is restored at a system
or frame break, but with no intervening divisi unison range.

Divisi Key signature cancellations for divisi staves are now calculated and displayed correctly.

Divisi Slurs that cross between divisi and unison ranges now appear more reliably.

Divisi Slurs that cross transitions between divisi and unison passages now appear correctly in many
more circumstances.

Divisi System-attached items (like tempo markings) that straddle a change from divisi to unison no
longer sometimes incorrectly appear on each divisi staff.

Divisi The calculation of cautionary accidentals when transitioning between different numbers of
divisions or between divided and unison music has been improved.

Divisi The handling of octave lines in divisi sections, in particular where they cross between divisi
and unison passages, has been significantly improved.

Divisi The relative positioning of lines of lyrics and verse numbers in divisi staves is now correct.

Divisi Under some circumstances, accidentals in divisi staves would not always appear correctly for
transposing instruments by default; this has now been fixed.

Divisi Under some circumstances, moving a divisi change past a clef change could result in a key
change drawing twice, once at the staff positions described by one clef, and once at the staff
positions described by the other; this has now been fixed.

Divisi Under some circumstances, the required clefs at transitions between unison and divisi
passages would not be shown; this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 76 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Divisi When returning to unison following a divisi passage in which the divided material has used a
local key signature, accidentals are now displayed correctly in the unison music following the
return of the global key signature.

Divisi Slurs that start in divisi and cross into unison now appear correctly on systems that are
entirely unison.

Divisi Slurs from divisi staves to unison staves now appear correctly across system breaks where
unison is restored.

Divisi Divisi unison ranges with more than a single active voice now prevent condensing, as they
should.

Divisi Horizontal lines now appear correctly in unison passages when they end at the start of a divisi
passage.

Divisi Note-attached lines starting in unison ranges and ending in divisi ranges now appear only on
the destination divisi staff, like glissando lines.

Divisi Slurs between divisi and unison transitions on condensed divisi staves now appear correctly.

Divisi Slurs now appear correctly on condensed staves for adjacent section players.

Divisi When there are no notes in the unison range, the unis. label now always appears at the start of
the unison range.

Divisi Under some circumstances, the endpoints for slurs that cross systems where the system
break also represents a change in divisi or unison might not be positioned correctly; this has
now been fixed.

Dynamics Adding an immediate dynamic at a non-grace note position will no longer incorrectly replace
a dynamic at a grace note position if there is one.

Dynamics If the notation option to show a complete systemic barline at the end of the system is active,
hairpins that cross the system break now stop short of the systemic barline, instead of
abutting it.

Engrave mode Moving a bar to the next or previous system now works as expected when a beam is selected.

Engrave mode Clicking away from the staff gap measurement spin box in Engrave mode without changing
the gap value no longer incorrectly shows the affected staff handle as having a modified value.

Engrave mode It is no longer incorrectly possible to select the circular handles for adjusting voice column
positions when marquee selecting a range of square handles for adjusting global column
positions.

Dorico 5 Version History 77 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Engrave mode Showing the Project Info dialog, then changing settings in the Preferences dialog, then editing
a page template, could cause a crash; this has now been fixed (macOS only).

Ensembles When saving a custom ensemble, Dorico now also saves any user-defined instruments to the
user library.

Flows Under some circumstances, using Split Flow with a note with a negative playback start offset
could crash; this has now been fixed.

Guitar tablature When deactivating Show rhythms in tablature in Layout Options, rhythm dots and rests are
now correctly cleared immediately from the updated tablature.

Harp pedals When editing an existing harp pedal change via the popover, any properties that were set on
the original pedal change are now preserved.

Holds and pauses If a caesura coincides with a mid-bar system break, it now appears correctly.

Holds and pauses The Max. fermatas per staff property no longer appears when Attach to barline is activated.

Instrument Moving music from one staff to another between instruments belonging to the player now
changes immediately and correctly produces the expected instrument transition in page view.

Instrument The appearance of transitions between instruments with different numbers of staff lines has
changes been improved, with the stave lines no longer unexpectedly overlapping.

Instrument editor Editing the Variant name field in the instrument editor is no longer particularly slow.

Instrument editor Saving a percussion kit as default in the instrument editor now correctly includes all kit
component instruments.

Instrument editor Saving a percussion kit as a default now works correctly, including all of the required data for
every component instrument in the kit.

Instrument score Additional instrument score orders are now correctly loaded from library files, if present.
orders

Instrument score The order in which clarinets are listed in the default instrument score orders has been
orders improved.

Instrument types Duplicate domra instruments no longer appear in the Fretted instruments family in the
instrument picker.

Instruments When changing an instrument held by a player to another instrument with fewer staves,
Dorico now correctly resolves clefs on the source staves so that only one clef can be created on
the remaining staff.

Dorico 5 Version History 78 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Key Editor Adding or removing tuplets in the score now correctly immediately updates the display of
tuplets in the piano roll editor.

Key Editor Annotations in the tempo editor at the very start of the flow now appear or disappear correctly
immediately after the corresponding tempo item is created or deleted.

Key Editor Clicking the Delete button in the Key Editor toolbar now causes the calculated data in the MIDI
CC and other editors to be updated immediately as necessary.

Key Editor Cutting notes with U, joining them with T, splitting them into multiple notes with Alt+U, or
changing the duration of the selected note all now cause the calculated data in the MIDI CC
and other editors to be updated immediately as necessary.

Key Editor Under some circumstances, the ruler and background for the piano roll could appear the
wrong length for certain irregular bar lengths; this has now been fixed.

Key Editor When dragging points in the automation editor that cannot be dragged beyond the next or
previous point in the editor, Dorico now ensures that the point cannot be dragged to the exact
position of the next or previous point, which could otherwise disturb the region at that
position.

Key Editor When the tempo editor takes up the whole of the lower zone, because you have selected a
tempo in the music area, the annotations that show which tempo item corresponds to each
region now appear correctly.

Key Editor The value read-out at the left-hand side is now constrained vertically so that it no longer
disappears off the top of the editor when the mouse pointer is near the top.

Key Editor The value readout which appears along with the mouse whilst using the pencil tool in the MIDI
CC editor is no longer often out of view when the left-hand side of the view is beyond the start
of the flow.

Key Editor The annotations at the bottom of the dynamics editor now update immediately after editing a
dynamic in the score.

Key Editor The initial tempo value for a gradual tempo following a tempo primo instruction is now shown
correctly in the tempo editor.

Key Editor Percussion instruments that do not define a 'Natural' playing technique would previously not
appear correctly in the percussion editor in the Key Editor; this has now been fixed.

Key Editor The spin box showing the velocity of the first selected note now always updates when the
selected note is repitched or has its duration edited.

Lines When a vertical line or arpeggio crosses from one staff into another staff of a different size (for
example, an ossia), the vertical position of each end of the line is now correct.

Dorico 5 Version History 79 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Live editing Dragging combinations of notes and rests in tuplets now works more reliably.

Live editing Dragging music in divisi staves now works correctly.

Live editing The appearance of the live editing overlay when dragging grace notes has been improved.

Lyrics Select More no longer sometimes incorrectly selects lyrics in multiple lines rather than
selecting more lyrics in a single line if the bar starts with a rest.

Lyrics When the option to show verse numbers only on the first system on which lyrics appear is set,
Dorico would sometimes not immediately clear a verse number on a later system when
adding a lyric on an earlier one; this is now fixed.

Lyrics When the Paragraph style property is set, the vertical position of the extender line now
correctly considers the overridden paragraph style.

Lyrics The verse number for the first lyric on a system could be positioned at the wrong vertical
position if a lyric extender line belonging to another line of lyrics crosses the start of the
system.

MIDI export The Transpose value specified in expression map switches is now correctly applied during
MIDI export.

MIDI export Under some circumstances, Dorico could export the wrong base MIDI pitch for certain
microtonal pitches when using pitch bend for microtonal playback; this has now been fixed.

Mixer Renaming a channel in the Mixer now takes effect immediately.

Music symbols Scaling the number shown above a bar repeat no longer results in the area for background
erasure, if set, being much larger than expected.

MusicXML export When exporting gradual tempos that span multiple bars, the position of the end of the tempo
indication is now more reliably exported.

MusicXML import If you import a MusicXML file into an existing project, then rename or move the MusicXML
file, Dorico no longer incorrectly starts saving to the MusicXML file’s new location when you
choose File ▶ Save.

Note input Edit ▶ Notations ▶ Voices ▶ Swap Voice Contents is now only operable when the selection
consists of material in exactly two voices.

Note input In some situations involving notes spanning tuplets, Dorico would not always correctly extend
selected notes when using Extend to Next Note; this has now been fixed.

Note input The speed of note editing operations such as pasting and doubling/halving note values has
been increased, so that these operations are comparable in speed to previous versions.

Dorico 5 Version History 80 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Note input Under certain circumstances, inputting notes or bars at the end of the flow in galley view
would result in it being impossible to scroll to the end of the flow unless you change the zoom
level; this has now been fixed.

Note input When selecting a passage using the system track, notes in percussion kits now correctly show
selected in orange, rather than incorrectly in the dark blue linked selection color.

Note input When inputting a gradual dynamic during step-time input, Edit ▶ Undo now correctly
shortens the gradual dynamic as you undo your input.

Note input Saving the project no longer results in the instrument being used for MIDI monitoring being
reset to the first instrument in the score.

Note input The commands to double or halve note values now work correctly when explicit bar rests are
present.

Note input When multiple windows are open on the same project, the state of the caret and grid is now
updated in all windows reliably.

Note input Starting note input in one window when another window in the same project is in Engrave
mode no longer sometimes causes Dorico to freeze.

Note input Redoing to the point where all edits have been redone, then subsequently performing further
edits, then redoing and undoing them, no longer sometimes causes two of those edits to be
redone in a single step.

Note spacing Grace notes positioned before the final barline on a system that coincide with a caesura before
the final note of the system are now always spaced correctly.

Note spacing Copying and pasting note spacing changes from one flow to another now correctly retains its
settings.

Note spacing Adding a natural harmonic using the Type property in the Harmonics group no longer causes
spacing problems with, for example, lyrics at the same rhythmic positions.

Noteheads Under some circumstances, the precise horizontal position of a parenthesis or bracket on the
stem side of a notehead can be slightly wrong until after the music is edited; this has now been
fixed.

Notes When notes are selected in both staff notation and tablature for the same instrument, Reset
Forced Stem now correctly resets stem directions in both representations.

Octave lines It is once again possible to create a voice-specific octave line by holding Alt when confirming
the popover or clicking the octave line in the notations panel.

Dorico 5 Version History 81 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Ornaments It is no longer possible to create a guitar bend between two notes of the same pitch.

Ornaments The Notehead submenu now once again appears in the right-click context menu when a trill
is selected, allowing you to override the notehead used for the trill's auxiliary note.

Page layout Move Bar to Previous System now works correctly when selecting a bar repeat, a notehead in
a tie chain, or a dynamic in a dynamic group.

Percussion Moving a note on a percussion kit to the adjacent instrument using Alt+↑/↓ no longer
sometimes results in Dorico hanging.

Percussion The Clear Row button in the action bar in Library ▶ Percussion Maps now works as expected
for percussion maps that feature user-defined instruments.

Percussion Custom percussion instruments added to the project by importing percussion maps are now
added to the appropriate family.

Play mode When splitting an existing flow in which players use independent voice routing, when
switching to Play mode, all independent voices now immediately show the correct tracks.

Play mode When expanding a percussion kit in Play mode, the component instruments now once again
appear directly below the main kit instrument, instead of incorrectly being added at the end of
the list.

Play mode Double-clicking the track overview in new flow with newly created notes now always correctly
opens or closes the lower zone.

Playback Dorico now treats the case of the Muted playback technique followed by Open as a special
case, such that Open removes Muted but does not add Open.

Playback If a requested playing technique is not specified in the expression map, Dorico now more
reliably chooses the expression map switch that matches the note length condition, if any,
before it returns another fallback switch that does not match the note length condition.

Playback MIDI trigger regions now produce the expected pitch when playing back on individual
unpitched percussion instruments.

Playback The Humanize the start positions of notes by option on the Timing page of Playback Options
now works as expected once more.

Playback Under rare circumstances, Dorico could crash when preparing for playback; this has now
been fixed.

Playback When adding or removing players from a layout, playback now immediately reflects the new
subset of players in the layout.

Dorico 5 Version History 82 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Playback When Dorico loads patches for percussion kits, it now much less often loads an unnecessary
General MIDI kit patch and will more often route multiple instruments to the same patch if
possible.

Playback Dorico now correctly chooses orchestral percussion instead of the drum set patch in
NotePerformer for kits.

Playback Endpoint configurations with family overrides in the playback template no longer incorrectly
get chosen for percussion kits.

Playback Under some circumstances, successive notes of the same pitch under a slur could result in the
second note being cut very short; this has now been fixed.

Playback Dorico no longer allows the start position of a note that abuts a preceding note of the same
pitch to be humanized, as this can result in the note on message for the second note to come
before the note off of the first note, resulting in the second note being cut off unexpectedly.

Playback Dorico could crash if you try to start playback by typing **P** when the sounds have not yet
loaded; this has now been fixed.

Playback When multiple instruments are played by the same endpoint, for example in the case of
component instruments in a percussion kit, the playing techniques from the instrument with
the largest number of playing technique regions will be played back, rather than the regions
from the first instrument processed.

Playback Deleting or adding bars via the system track now updates playback immediately, so that any
change in, for example, repeats playback is reflected right away.

Playback Appoggiatura chords now play back correctly.

Playback Grace notes tied to rhythmic notes now play back correctly in more circumstances.

Playing techniques When editing an existing playing technique via the popover, if the original playing technique
was part of a group, the group is now retained.

Playing techniques Playing techniques with continuation lines now draw at the correct size on grace notes.

Play mode The Channel section of the Track Inspector panel now updates immediately after changing
the output device in the Routing section.

Print mode If you had Print mode open in one project window and then edited the project in a different
window, Dorico could hang; this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 83 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Print mode On some Windows computers, switching to Print mode and then closing the project could
result in a crash due to problems with certain printer drivers being slow to respond when the
printer is disconnected or offline; this has now been fixed. If your printer has an affected
driver, you will now experience a delay when switching to Print mode the first time after
starting Dorico.

Print mode The toggle buttons for printing all pages, a page range, or a selection of flows now work
correctly when dealing with a selection of layouts with conflicting settings.

Printing Under some circumstances, Dorico could crash if, after having visited Print mode, you close
the project or quit the application before Dorico has been able to initialize your printer driver;
this has now been fixed.

Project files Under very rare circumstances, Dorico could crash when inputting notes; this has now been
fixed.

Project files Under some circumstances, Dorico could crash when opening projects with multiple flows;
this has now been fixed.

Properties Where properties are shown in pairs, e.g. X and Y, Dorico will now only show the labels in bold
(meaning that the value applies globally) if both properties are set globally.

Properties The speed of unsetting properties on many selected dynamics, lyrics, or slurs has been
significantly improved.

Read mode Annotations with the Apple Pencil now work correctly if the layout is shown in galley view in
Write mode (Dorico for iPad only).

Setup mode Under rare circumstances, players could end up missing from the Players panel in Setup
mode if they are not present in any player group; Dorico now automatically returns any such
players to the default player group when loading projects.

Setup mode After deleting a player, hitting Delete again will no longer incorrectly prompt you about the
deletion of the selected player.

Staff labels The layout option Minimum indent for systems with staff labels is no longer incorrectly
applied on systems with no staff labels.

Tablature When calculating the string for each note in a chord for tablature, Dorico now allows a partial
barre on the lowest two strings of the instrument if required.

Tempo Some subtle problems involving relative, gradual and reset tempo items in repeat structures
have been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 84 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Text In the unlikely event that text items in the project refer to a paragraph style that has been
deleted, Dorico will now repair these text items when the project is next loaded, resetting
them to use the default paragraph style.

Text It was not previously possible to edit an existing text item on a percussion instrument in a kit
using the single-line presentation type; this has now been fixed.

Text When editing text near to the edge of the viewport, the text editing controls no longer
unexpectedly move left or right after typing the first character.

Text Dorico’s handling for font families with no “Regular” style is improved.

Text If a paragraph style specifies a border width of 0, Dorico no longer draws a cosmetic single
pixel border around the text.

Text The Default Music Text Font font style no longer incorrectly specifies the Default Text Font
font style as its parent.

Text Changing the line spacing (leading) value in a paragraph style now correctly automatically
updates existing text items.

Ties The option Gap between ends of ties that start and end on the same note now applies to
the first tie in a tie chain as well as every subsequent one.

Time signatures Dorico no longer crashes if you accidentally enter a decimal point with no numeric value as a
pick-up duration in the Shift+M popover.

Time signatures When copying and pasting a single time signature, Dorico will now ensure the destination bar
contains the expected number of beats if Insert mode is active.

Tuplets Under some circumstances, nudging a tuplet vertically could cause the vertical position of an
adjacent tuplet to move vertically unexpectedly; this has now been fixed.

User interface Dorico could sometimes crash when quitting the application if the Preferences dialog was left
open; this has now been fixed.

User interface If you switch away from Play mode having opened the VST instrument menu in the Routing
section of the Track Inspector panel, the menu is now correctly closed.

User interface Tool tips have now been added to the buttons in the notes toolbox that pop out when long-
pressed or right-clicked.

User interface Trying to add a pitch to be filtered to the Filter Notes by Pitch dialog in a project using a
custom tonality system could crash; this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 85 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

User interface Under some circumstances, Dorico could crash when clicking buttons in the Notations panel
after having changed some aspect of the visual theme; this has now been fixed.

User interface When multiple tabs on the same layout are open, some in galley view and others in page view,
Dorico will now attempt to keep the same tab active when switching to and from Engrave
mode.

User interface Choosing Play ▶ Fixed Tempo Mode now correctly updates the tempo display in the toolbar.

User interface Dorico no longer crashes on start-up if the recentFiles.xml data file has been unwisely
tampered with outside of the program.

User interface The Explode and Reduce menu items now appear correctly in Dorico Elements once more.

User interface Dorico no longer crashes if you quit the application while the Edit Percussion Kit dialog is
open.

User interface Key commands you assign in Preferences now work correctly in an existing project window as
soon as they have been added.

User interface Dorico no longer crashes after closing the last open project when it is set in Preferences to
open a new empty project window rather than return to the Hub.

User interface The appearance of checkboxes in an indeterminate state in the light theme has been
improved.

User interface The correct level of opacity has been applied to the Chords track in Play mode once more.

User interface When Use custom player order is first activated on the Players page of Layout Options, the
initial order of players now matches the current score order.

User interface The appearance of long project names in the Open Recent page of the Hub has been
improved.

User interface Hiding or showing the tab bar while the text editor is open no longer results in some
commands and menu items being incorrectly disabled.

Video On some Mac systems, Dorico could crash on exit due to a problem in the shared video engine;
this has now been fixed.

Video Dorico no longer crashes if it is unable to extract the soundtrack from an attached video.

Views Dorico no longer prevents you from scrolling all the way to the end of the layout in page view
at zoom levels between 113% and 118%.

Views Under rare circumstances, Dorico could crash when closing a project; this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 86 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Dorico 5.0.20
3 July 2023

Improvements
Groove Agent SE
Jazz Essentials. The Groove Agent Jazz Essentials content set, which includes 10 styles
performed by professional jazz drummers, is now included with Dorico 5. You can
download this new content set via Steinberg Download Assistant: choose Dorico
Pro 5 or Dorico Elements 5 on the left-hand side and install the Jazz Essentials
download choice.

To ensure you can use the content correctly in Dorico 5, please also run Steinberg
Activation Manager and click the Refresh button in the top right corner. This will
update your Dorico 5 license.

Instrument editor
Chord symbols. A new Rhythm section instrument checkbox has been added to the
instrument editor. This allows you to specify whether the instrument should be
considered a rhythm section instrument for the purposes of displaying chord
symbols.

Percussion kits. It is now possible to change via the instrument editor the number of staff
lines displayed when the 5-line staff presentation type is used. This allows the
creation of percussion kits containing two instruments that are shown respectively
on the space above and below a single staff line.

Key Editor
Note editing in the piano roll. The editing of notes in the piano roll has been greatly
improved. In previous versions, when dragging a note whose position or duration
was not aligned to the Key Editor rhythmic grid, its position or duration would be
incremented by the current grid value, rather than first snapping to the nearest grid
position, as you might expect. This has now been changed such that moving or
changing the duration of a note will snap it to the grid, and then increment it by the
grid resolution.

Mouse tracking is now improved as well. For example, when dragging the right-
hand end of a short note to make it longer, its duration no longer changes as soon as
you start to drag to the right: instead, the note’s duration is only changed once the
mouse pointer passes the right-hand end of the note.

Dorico also constrains notes to the start of the flow when moving them
rhythmically in the piano roll, rather than making it appear that you can drag notes

Dorico 5 Version History 87 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 beyond the start of the flow. Similarly, when dragging notes vertically to change
their pitch, they are now constrained to the lowest and highest pitches of the piano
roll.

When editing played durations, Dorico now allows notes to have a much shorter
minimum duration (64th note, or hemidemisemiquaver).

MIDI import
Importing into an existing project. The performance of importing a MIDI file into an
existing project has been greatly improved.

Mixer
Lower zone Mixer. When the lower zone is increased in height sufficiently, the upper
section of the Mixer containing inserts and sends now appears in the lower zone.

Note input
Flip. Using Edit ▶ Flip for a tied note or chord in Write mode now flips the stem direction
of all noteheads in the tie chain, rather than only the first.

Playback
Microtonal playback. When Microtonality playback is set to Auto in the expression map,
Dorico will now automatically use VST3 note expression for all of Steinberg's VST3
instrument plug-ins, so in addition to HALion family products, it will now also play
back microtonal pitches correctly in instruments like Retrologue and Padshop.

In addition, Dorico will now use VST2 detune messages to play microtonal pitches
in Modartt Pianoteq 8 if the Microtonality playback option is set to Auto. You need
to manually activate the MIDI Tuning option in Pianoteq 8 itself to hear microtonal
pitches.

Properties
Properties for tied notes in Write mode. Many properties can have different values for
different noteheads within a single tied note or chord in Engrave mode; for
example, the Accidental property can be set on any notehead in a tie-chain to show
or hide the accidental at that point in the note; similarly, the Direction property can
be set on any tie to override its direction. However, in Write mode, setting these
properties would only set the chosen value for the first notehead in a tie-chain,
which is rarely the desired result.

Now in Write mode Dorico will set properties like Direction or Design for ties for all
notes in a tie-chain. Accidental is still treated specially, since you typically only
want to show, hide or bracket the accidental at the start of the note, rather than on
every notehead in the tie-chain; similarly, the properties in the Beaming group
apply only to the first notehead in the tie-chain.

Dorico 5 Version History 88 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Space and stage templates
Overwrite warnings. When clicking Save as Space Template from the Live Stage or Save
as Space Template from the Live Space, Dorico now warns you if you are going to
overwrite an existing stage or space template, rather than silently overwriting the
existing one.

Tempo
Popover input. If you specify a metronome mark in the Shift+T popover, Dorico will now
always create an immediate tempo, even if the text specified would otherwise
create a relative tempo change. This allows you to type, for example, meno mosso
q=96 and create an immediate tempo, rather than a relative one.

Furthermore, Dorico no longer shows the percentage change for relative tempos as
if they were metronome marks in the popover. Instead, relative tempos now have
(relative) appended, so you can easily tell the difference between creating, for
example, Lento as an immediate tempo or a relative tempo.

Approximate tempos. It is now possible to specify whether the abbreviation for circa
should be ca. with a terminating period (full stop) or ca without.

Text
Border color. If a paragraph style defines an overridden Foreground color, if you activate
the Border property, the border will now be drawn in the chosen foreground color,
rather than in black.

User interface
Playback techniques dialog. The Playback Technique Combinations dialog that is used
when specifying playing techniques in expression and percussion maps now
contains an auto-complete search field at the top of the dialog: this allows you to
type part of the name of the desired playback technique. Confirming the auto-
completion by hitting Return adds the selected playback technique to the current
combination.

Project Info dialog. Invoking the Project Info dialog via the context menu for a specific
flow in the Flows panel now always selects the chosen flow in the dialog when it
opens.

Platform support
On macOS, Dorico 5 now requires Metal for parts of its user interface by default.
Certain MacBook Air and Mac mini computers from 2014 and 2015 use Intel Iris Pro
and Intel Graphics 5000 adaptors that have a bug in their Metal graphics drivers for
hardware-accelerated graphics that cause them to crash when Dorico 5 starts. To
work around this problem, Dorico now detects the problematic graphics adaptors

Dorico 5 Version History 89 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 and, if found, automatically applies a workaround for the problem on those
computers.

Since these computers are now quite old and cannot run later operating systems
than macOS 11 Big Sur, we recommend considering upgrading to a more recent
model of Mac if possible.

Dorico for iPad

§ It is once again possible to double-tap the score to start note input or edit an
existing item.
§ Dorico for iPad no longer crashes when you hit Esc on the hardware
keyboard to cancel certain dialogs.
§ Under some circumstances, closing a read-only project with more than
eight (or 12) players could cause players beyond the player limit to be
removed from the project; this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 90 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Issues resolved
Component Issue

Audio engine Playback to external MIDI devices now works correctly once more.

Audio engine On some systems, the audio engine would often crash unexpectedly; this has now been fixed
(macOS only).

Audio engine Device names with multi-byte or special characters are now handled correctly; this resolves
issues with device names including “smart” apostrophes, e.g. Valerio’s AirPods.

Comments Shortening a note in Insert mode no longer unexpectedly deletes comments at the same
position as the note.

Condensing Under some circumstances, when instrument changes are disabled, some condensed music
belonging to players holding multiple instruments could fail to appear in some systems; this
has now been fixed.

Condensing When you create a condensing change, Dorico no longer incorrectly shows the settings for a
condensing change in another layout at the same rhythmic position.

Dynamics Text-based gradual dynamics with dotted or dashed lines terminated with an immediate
dynamic could start too far to the right; this has now been fixed.

Key Editor The Make Constant/Linear buttons in the dynamics editor now work as expected, and only
convert the final point in a region if that region is being merged with an adjacent one.

Instrument editor Under some circumstances, editing a percussion kit in the instrument editor could result in
the kit instruments being unexpectedly removed from the kit; this has now been fixed.

Instrument editor Under rare circumstances, editing an instrument or using Change Instrument could cause
Dorico to crash; this has now been fixed.

Instrument editor The Instrument picker name shown in the instrument editor now uses the language of
Dorico’s user interface, rather than the current project language.

Instrument editor Under some circumstances, the instrument editor did not allow a custom instrument to be
deleted when it should; this has now been fixed.

Instrument editor Editing the clefs used for an existing instrument in the project now always works correctly;
previously it was possible for some chosen clefs not to appear in the score immediately.

Instrument filters When editing an instrument with the instrument editor, or using Change Instrument in Setup
mode, any instrument filters that reference that instrument are now correctly updated.

Jazz articulations The Jazz Articulations section of the Ornaments panel now works as expected with grace
notes.

Dorico 5 Version History 91 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Key Editor The piano roll and editors in the Key Editor now update correctly after notes have been
created by holding Alt while using live note editing, when cutting material to the clipboard,
and when deleting in the MIDI CC editor.

Key Editor Playing techniques for percussion instruments in the percussion editor are always now
correctly listed under the appropriate instrument rather than in a single, mingled list.

Key Editor When using per-switch delays in expression maps, it was possible for the tool tip giving
detailed information about the playing technique region in the Key Editor to refer to the
wrong region; this has now been fixed.

Key Editor Copying and pasting material from multiple staves in the same instrument now correctly
handles accompanying MIDI CC data, so that the MIDI data is pasted to the right staff.

Key Editor It is no longer incorrectly possible to change the linear/constant type of the final data points in
a user-created region in the dynamics and MIDI CC editors.

Lines Dorico no longer incorrectly creates two identical note-attached lines between two selected
notes.

Live note editing The position of the live note editing overlay when the selected notes span multiple systems
has been improved.

Live note editing It is no longer possible to attempt to drag material off the start of the flow.

Live Stage The performance of using the expand/contract buttons in the Live Stage in large ensembles
has been significantly improved.

MIDI export When exporting MIDI files using MIDI pitch bend for microtonal pitches, the underlying pitch
of the note could be exported incorrectly, resulting in the wrong played pitch in the exported
MIDI file; this has now been fixed.

MIDI import Dorico no longer attempts to detect slurs for unpitched percussion material when importing
MIDI data.

MIDI import When dragging and dropping MIDI data into the percussion editor in the Key Editor, Dorico
now uses the percussion map assigned to the appropriate endpoint, resulting in the same
mapping onto instruments and playing techniques that are produced when importing the
data via File ▶ Import ▶ MIDI.

Navigation Under some circumstances, navigating to the staff above or below from a bar rest after the last
note in a staff could fail; this has been fixed.

Note input MIDI CC data is now always excluded when using Edit ▶ Paste Special ▶ Reduce.

Dorico 5 Version History 92 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Note input If MIDI CC data is included when copying and pasting music, it is now correctly copied or
moved to the adjacent staff when using Move/Duplicate to Staff Above/Below.

Note input When creating an item with duration, such as a slur, with the mouse, it is now once again
possible to create and extend the duration of the item in a single motion.

Note input When recording into the first bar of a flow other than the first in the project, Dorico no longer
incorrectly resets the sound used for auditioning to the first instrument in the ensemble.

Ornaments Trills can once again be created using the mouse when there is no selection in the score.

Page layout Selecting a barline and clicking Move to Previous System no longer incorrectly moves the bar
following the barline to the previous system.

Page layout Move Bar to Previous System no longer sometimes causes an extra bar to be moved back to
the previous system.

Playback Under rare circumstances, Dorico could crash when preparing for playback in some projects,
which would manifest as apparently random crashes after making an edit; this has now been
fixed.

Playback Dorico now correctly takes repeat structures into account when evaluating the note length
conditions to determine the correct expression map switch.

Playback When using per-switch delay values for different switches in an expression map, notes at the
end of a slur could be incorrectly truncated to a very short duration; this has now been fixed.

Playback Suppressing the playback of a tempo item could incorrectly cause some bars to be skipped in
playback; this has now been fixed.

Playback A gradual tempo in a second ending now correctly takes its starting tempo from the last
tempo before the first ending, rather than a tempo found in the first ending, if present.

Play mode Some editing operations that involve the creation of a new voice could cause the per-voice
tracks for instruments using independent voice playback to appear in the wrong vertical
position in the track overview; this has now been fixed.

Play mode Changing the port and channel for the current endpoint in the Routing section of the track
inspector now works more reliably.

Play mode Selecting a track corresponding to an independent voice now correctly updates the sound
used for MIDI monitoring to the appropriate voice.

Print mode When selecting multiple layouts and clicking Flows in the right-hand panel to specify a
selection of flows to be printed, this choice is now correctly applied to all selected layouts.

Dorico 5 Version History 93 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Project files In rare circumstances, a project created in an earlier version could cause Dorico 5 to crash
when opening it; this has now been fixed.

Scrub playback The ←/→ shortcuts for advancing scrub playback now work correctly on both macOS and
Windows with English and German keyboard layouts.

Setup mode Some instruments were missing from the instrument picker; this has now been fixed.

Setup mode When running Dorico in languages other than English, it was possible for the display of
transpositions in the third column of the instrument picker to change unexpectedly when
invoking the picker repeatedly; this has now been fixed.

Setup mode Using Change Instrument no longer causes ties from grace notes to rhythmic notes to be lost.

Stage templates If the Near send and Far send channels have gain set to -infinity or describe a range of zero,
the behavior of instruments in the Live Stage has been improved.

Tempo Under some circumstances, the vertical position of a tempo mark overlapping a multi-bar rest
might not be stable as edits are made in the bars following the multi-bar rest; this has now
been fixed.

Tempo Relative tempo markings no longer show a numeric value in the auto-complete suggestions in
the popover.

Text Under some circumstances, the wrong style name could be chosen in the text editor popover
when editing text; this has now been fixed (macOS only).

Text When running Dorico in languages other than English, re-selecting a paragraph style in the
Library ▶ Paragraph Styles dialog could cause the wrong style name to be shown in the Style
name menu; this has now been fixed (Windows only).

Text Under some circumstances, non-transposing instruments could incorrectly be appended

with the word “in” when displayed via the {@staffLabelsFull@} token; this has now been fixed.

Timecode Some projects created in earlier versions of Dorico that show a timecode staff could cause
Dorico 5 to crash; this has now been fixed.

Timecode Layouts with multiple instruments that show timecode and multi-bar rests now correctly only
show timecode at the start of each multi-bar rest.

User interface Clicking in any of the panels in Setup mode now closes the instrument picker, if it is open.

User interface The Scrub Playback button in the mini transport on the toolbar and in the Transport window
is no longer incorrectly enabled when the project is not activated for playback.

Dorico 5 Version History 94 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

User interface Tokens for accidentals are now correctly substituted with the appropriate plain text
representation in the list of layouts shown in the Layout Options dialog.

User interface Under some circumstances it was possible to get the gradient display in the Colors page of
Preferences into a muddle; this has now been fixed.

User interface On some computers, the release of the mouse button when clicking on buttons or using the
pencil tool in the Key Editor would be lost; this has now been fixed (macOS only).

User interface Groups of buttons that are supposed to allow only one choice to be selected now work
correctly once more.

User interface It is once again possible to drag drum pads in the lower zone to change their displayed order.

User interface The Show system track in new projects option in Preferences now once again works more
reliably.

User interface Under rare circumstances, Dorico could crash when attempting to add a player after having
changed the application language during that session; this has now been fixed.

User interface The button to hide and show the Video window on the toolbar now works as expected.

Dorico 5 Version History 95 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Dorico 5.0.10
30 May 2023

Improvements
Live note editing
Dragging by octaves. You can now hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (macOS) after
beginning to drag notes to edit their pitch to snap to octaves.

MIDI trigger regions

Suppress playback. It is now possible to use the Suppress playback property with MIDI
trigger regions.

Default key command. The default key command Shift+0 (zero) has now been added to
the default shortcuts sets for languages other than English.

Scrub playback
Instrument filters. In galley view, scrub playback now respects the active instrument
filter, if any. Only instruments included in the instrument filter will be played back.

Scrub only selected staves. Dorico now considers the selection when you activate scrub
playback: if you have selected items from more than one staff, Dorico will include
only those instruments when scrubbing; you can still hold Shift to solo the
instrument under the mouse pointer.

Toggle Scrub Playback command. It is now possible to use the Toggle Scrub Playback
command from Write mode, so it is practical to define a custom shortcut to this
command if desired.

Key commands. It is now possible to step forwards and backwards through the score
when scrub playback is active using the left and right arrow keys. The playhead now
appears while scrub playback is active, helping you to orientate yourself in the
music when scrubbing with the arrow keys.

Dorico 5 Version History 96 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Issues resolved
Component Issue

Audio engine On some Windows computers, the VST audio engine was slow to start up; this has now been
fixed.

Instrument editor Setting an octave transposition in the instrument editor no longer sometimes triggers a crash.

Instrument editor User-defined instruments and variants are now always correctly bracketed with other
instruments in the same family.

Instrument editor Under some circumstances, the star icon in the instrument editor would not be lit up for an
instrument saved in the user library; this is now fixed.

Instrument editor Toggling the filter to show only instruments in the project no longer incorrectly causes copies
or variants of instruments you have created during that dialog session to disappear from the
list of instruments.

Instrument editor Adding both a copy and a variant of an instrument to the project library no longer incorrectly
causes the first of those added instruments to lose its family associations.

Instrument editor Creating a new variant of a factory instrument no longer prevents the creation of the original
instrument in the project.

Instrument editor Under some circumstances it was impossible to delete the copy of a factory instrument in the
instrument editor; this has now been fixed.

Instrument editor It is now possible to reset user-defined instruments back to their saved state in the user
library.

Instrument editor Controls related to pitched instruments are now correctly disabled for unpitched percussion
instruments.

Instrument editor Under some circumstances, selecting an instrument in the instrument editor that is one of
several held by the same player could cause a crash; this is now fixed.

Key Editor The piano roll and other editors in the Key Editor now correctly update immediately after
editing grace notes in played durations mode.

Key Editor The piano roll and other editors in the Key Editor now correctly update immediately after
editing articulations, slurs, glissando lines and octave lines in the music area.

Key Editor The piano roll and other editors in the Key Editor now correctly update immediately after
notes are input via MIDI keyboard.

Key Editor Further improvements to the reliability of the vertical crosshair in the Key Editor, including
ensuring that it immediately follows the mouse pointer when the zoom level changes.

Dorico 5 Version History 97 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Live note editing When dragging notes rhythmically in galley view, notes no longer sometimes seem to bunch
up at barlines.

Live note editing Pitches in arbitrary EDO tonality systems are now correctly transposed when dragged with the
mouse.

Live note editing The durations of tied notes are now considered in the width of the overlay that shows the
duration of the selection being dragged rhythmically.

Live note editing Dragging cross-staff notes now works as expected.

Note input In certain circumstances, Dorico could crash when using Insert mode to extend the duration
of the current bar; this has now been fixed.

Project files Dorico no longer crashes when opening some projects created in earlier versions.

Text Italic, bold, and bold italic font styles now preview correctly in the Paragraph Styles dialog
when running Dorico in languages other than English (Windows only).

Time signatures Interchangeable time signatures are now correctly preserved when opening a saved project.

User interface In some windows and dialogs, spin boxes would require you to move focus from them before
they would register the change in value; now, the value is updated as soon as the contents of
the input field changes.

User interface The MIDI Import Options dialog now shows resize arrows at its edges when opened from the
Hub window.

User interface Under rare circumstances, changing one of the values for the Single Color and Gradient
buttons in the Background Colors section of the Colors page of Preferences could cause the
corresponding buttons for the other window mode to change unexpectedly; this has been
fixed.

User interface Dorico no longer crashes when you attempt to reset background colors when set to use a
Single Color.

User interface The instrument picker no longer lists duplicate instruments when running Dorico in a
language other than English.

User interface The initial state of the Follow playhead switch in the status bar for a newly-created project
now correctly reflects the corresponding preference value.

User interface It is now possible to close the toolbar layout selector by clicking outside its area.

User interface Certain drop-down menus would open in full screen mode if the project window was already
in full screen mode; this has now been fixed (macOS only).

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 Component Issue

Video Attached videos are once again synced correctly during playback; they are not currently
synced correctly during real-time recording, which will be addressed in future.

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Dorico 5.0
23 May 2023

New features
Space and Stage templates
Dorico 5 helps you sculpt the sound of your playback with new tools to help you
create a convincing performance: the players can be positioned on a stage, and that
stage placed in a space with natural reverberation.

Increasingly, orchestral sound libraries are recorded with a variety of microphone

positions and with the musicians seated in the studio or hall in their usual
performance configuration, so that the ensemble has a natural stereo field and a
balanced sound. If you use the tree or hall mics rather than the close mics, you also
get a strong sense of the space in which the library was recorded.

This approach means that it’s easy to get a convincing sound for the ensemble,
because the recording engineers have done all the hard work for you. The downside
of this approach is that if you want something different, it can be harder work to
achieve it.

Some orchestral sound libraries – including HALion Symphonic Orchestra, the

orchestra that ships with Dorico Pro – are recorded in a much more neutral way
with close microphones, and with all the instruments positioned close to the center
of the stereo field.

This approach provides greater flexibility, as it means the sounds can be easily used
at any stereo position, and it’s easy to try different levels of reverberation. But it also
means that some work is required to separate the instruments on the virtual stage,
and to provide appropriate effects to give the sound a particular character.

Things get more complicated still when mixing patches from different libraries,
recorded in different halls or studios and with different mic configurations.

Experienced sound engineers have the skills to meet these challenges – and some
improvements to the flexibility of Dorico’s mixer, including the ability to create up
to eight send channels, are designed to help experienced users achieve their
desired results more efficiently.

But many composers and arrangers have little experience with mixing and shaping
sound in this way. For these users, Dorico’s new space and stage templates will help
them to produce convincing sounding ensembles more quickly and easily.

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 While these new features are no substitute for dedicated software solutions
designed to emulate in precise detail the placement of instruments in a specific
hall, such as Vienna Symphonic Library’s MIR, they provide convenient ways to
make greater use of the high-quality effects plug-ins supplied with Dorico, and the
automatic application of appropriate settings for each type of ensemble make an
immediate and positive impact on the depth of the sound of Dorico’s playback, even
if you are using only the factory-supplied sounds.

Stage templates. Stage templates describe the position of players on a nominal stage.
Imagining that you are looking down on the stage from directly above, the front of
the stage is at the bottom, and the rear of the stage is at the top. Players can be
positioned anywhere within this space. Changes in horizontal position from left to
right are translated into stereo pan values, while changes in vertical position from
near to far are translated into values for send channels: typically, the counterpart
space template will define two send channels, one for near instruments with less
reverb, and one for far instruments with more reverb.

Stage templates can be defined very coarsely, with simple placement of entire
instrument families on the stage, or very finely, with placement not only of
individual instruments, but even multiple players of the same instrument, so that
two violin sections can be differently placed, or four horn players, and so on.

Applying a stage template. When you start a new project from one of the factory
templates, one of the default stage templates is automatically applied. To reapply
the current stage template, which resets any adjustments you have made to the
positions of players in the Live Stage, or to apply a different stage template, choose
Play ▶ Stage Template.

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 Choose the template you want to apply to the project and click Apply and Close.

Factory templates are indicated in the dialog with a factory icon, and factory
templates cannot be edited. However, you can create a new stage template based on
a factory template by clicking Duplicate Stage Template.

Live Stage. To see the effect of the current stage template, open the Live Stage window by
clicking in the Mixer toolbar, either in the lower zone or the separate Mixer
window.

Typically, every instrument in the project will appear on the Live Stage. However, an
instrument will not appear if:

§ the expression map or percussion map used for this instrument specifies
that space templates should not be used, because the sound source is pre-
positioned; or
§ the instrument is played by a MIDI device rather than a virtual instrument.

To move an instrument in the stereo field, click and drag it to the desired position.
When you release the mouse button, the new position will be applied to the pan and
send amounts for that instrument’s output or outputs in the Mixer.

You can expand or contract the overall stereo field for all instruments at once by
clicking the Expand ( ) or Contract ( ) buttons.

Creating a stage template from the Live Stage. A natural way to build your own stage
template is to start from an existing project, where you can hear for yourself the
effect of positioning each instrument on the stage. If you want to save the current

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 Live Stage setup as a stage template for future use, click Save as new Stage
Template, which opens the Edit Stage Template dialog – see below.

Editing a stage template. To edit a stage template, choose Play ▶ Stage Template, choose
the stage template you want to edit, and click Edit. If the stage template you want to
edit is a factory default, click Duplicate Stage Template first.

Edit Stage Template is like the Live Stage, except that it allows you to define the
positions for instruments, and entire instrument families, regardless of whether
they are present in the current project.

Instrument families are shown on the stage in a larger size than specific
instruments. Each family is color-coded, so both the family itself and the
instruments in the family are shown in the same color.

To add an instrument family to the stage template, simply click and drag the top-
level item from the tree view on the left of the dialog onto the stage. To add an
individual instrument, expand the tree view to find the specific instrument you’re
looking for (or type its name in the search box to filter the list), then drag it onto the
stage. Alternatively, simply select the family or instrument in the tree view and click
the Add button in the action bar, which will place the instrument in the center of the
stage.

Reposition any family or instrument simply by dragging it on the stage, or remove it

from the stage by clicking the Delete button in the action bar.

As the stage becomes fuller, you might find it helpful to toggle whether the names
for instruments and families appear; the switches above the stage make this

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 possible. You cannot select or drag items on the stage to reposition them if their
names are not shown.

As you add more instruments of the same kind to the stage, they will each be
numbered. You can also click the Soloist button in the action bar to specify where
an instrument of that kind that is set to be a soloist should be placed on the stage.

You can also create groups of instruments, so that you can position those groups
independently. For example, in a piece for double choir, you may want to position
one choir on the left of the stage and the other on the right. The groups you define in
the stage template will be used when you group players in Setup mode, as
appropriate.

When Dorico is positioning an instrument added to your project according to the

current stage template, it uses the following order of precedence:

§ First, it will use the corresponding numbered instrument, if any;

§ Second, it will use the unnumbered instrument in the group, if any;
§ Third, it will use the appropriate instrument family in the group, if any.

Each of these rules is applied first to groups of instruments, if defined, and then to
ungrouped instruments. If an instrument is designated as a soloist in Setup mode,
then it will first prefer the corresponding soloist instrument on the stage, if any,
before falling back using the order of precedence described above.

Space templates. Space templates describe a nominal room into which any stage can be
placed. In simple terms, a space template defines one or more preset send channels
in the Mixer, and a set of minimum and maximum values for pan and for the send
amounts to be used for each instrument on the stage. You can define different send
channels for instruments towards the front of the stage (Near Send) and towards
the rear (Far Send), or use the same channel for both. (Dorico’s default space
templates use a single send channel with a single reverb plug-in to conserve system
resources.)

As you move instruments around the Live Stage, Dorico uses the values defined in
the space template to adjust the Mixer settings for that instrument’s output or
outputs. Lateral movement left or right adjusts the pan for that output, and the
space template specifies the maximum left and right pan values that Dorico is
permitted to use.

Vertical movement from near to far adjusts the send values for that output: if you
have the same send channel configured for both Near Send and Far Send, Dorico
simply scales the send amount between the Near Send and Far Send values as you
move the instrument between the front and rear of the stage. If you have different

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 send channels configured for Near Send and Far Send, Dorico scales between the
specified value and zero, effectively cross fading the send amount between the two
sends.

Factory stage templates. A set of factory stage templates (Barbershop Quartet, Big Band,
Brass Band, Chamber Brass, Chamber Strings, Chamber Woodwinds, Choir,
Concert Band, Orchestra, Piano Trio, Saxophone Quartet, Small Jazz) is now
included with Dorico 5. Projects created via the Create New page of the Hub now
choose an appropriate stage template by default. Any of these stage templates can
be applied to your own project via Play ▶ Stage Template.

Dorico includes the REVerence convolution reverb plug-in, which includes more
than 90 impulse responses, providing realistic representations of concert halls,
churches, cathedrals, ballrooms, and recording studios. Using REVerence, or your
own preferred reverb, you can create a space with exactly the kind of sound you
want to hear.

Applying a space template. When you start a new project from one of the factory
templates, one of the default space templates is automatically applied. To reapply
the current space template, which resets any adjustments you have made to the
positions of players in the Live Stage, or to apply a different space template, choose
Play ▶ Space Template.

Choose the template you want to apply to the project and click Apply and Close.

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 Factory templates are indicated in the dialog with a factory icon, and factory
templates cannot be edited. However, you can create a new space template based
on a factory template by clicking Duplicate Space Template.

Live Space. The Live Space window allows you to adjust the maximum pan and send
values for the current project. open the Live Stage window by clicking in the
Mixer toolbar, either in the lower zone or the separate Mixer window.

Configuring the Live Space is simple: the Left Pan and Right Pan values define the
maximum pan value for instruments positioned at the extreme left and right of the
Live Stage, and the Near Send and Far Send values define the named send channel
and the amount of signal to be routed to that channel for instruments positioned at
the extreme front or rear of the Live Stage. The pan and send values for instruments
positioned anywhere in the two-dimensional space of the stage are determined by
interpolating between these values.

Fallback Y Position specifies the default near-far position for an instrument that is
not defined in the stage template, expressed as a value between zero (meaning the
front of the stage) and one (meaning the rear).

Click Reverb specifies which send channel should be used for the metronome click
output in the Mixer: you may want to use the same reverb you use for other
instruments, a different send channel, or none.

Although you can choose which send channel in the Mixer is used for Near Send
and Far Send, you cannot directly configure these channels via the Live Space
window: instead, you do so in the Mixer window.

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 When you want to create your own space template, this is how you begin: set up the
send channels in the Mixer with the plug-ins you want to use, configure the settings
in the Live Space window, then click Save as Space Template to open the Edit
Space Template dialog.

Editing a space template. Whether you choose to save a space template from the Live
Space window, or you duplicate a factory space template via the Play ▶ Space
Template dialog, you will see the Edit Space Template dialog. This dialog is
identical in operation to the Live Space window, with the addition of an input field at
the top of the dialog to allow you to specify the name of the space template.

Multiple send channels. You can now add FX send channels to the Mixer, up to a
maximum of eight channels. Click FX+ in the Mixer window toolbar to add a new
send channel. Only the rightmost send channel can be deleted, so the FX- button is
only enabled when selecting the rightmost send channel. You will also notice that
faders for send channels in the Mixer now have a different colored background.

Renaming Mixer channels. It is now possible to rename channels in the Mixer. Simply
double-click the channel label at the bottom of the fader, either in the lower zone
Mixer or the separate window, type the new name, and hit Return. To reset the
name back to its default, simply clear the contents of the editor and hit Return.

Factory space templates. A set of factory space templates (Ballroom, Church, Concert
Hall, Recording Studio, Scoring Stage) is now included with Dorico 5. Projects
created via the Create New page of the Hub now choose an appropriate space
template by default. Any of these space templates can be applied to your own
project via Play ▶ Space Template.

Playback templates. When exporting a playback template, if a space template is

specified, it will be exported as part of the exported playback template.
Subsequently importing that playback template will also import the space template,
and it will appear in Play ▶ Space Template.

Multiple send channels. You can now add FX send channels to the Mixer, up to a
maximum of eight channels. Click FX+ in the Mixer window toolbar to add a new
send channel. Only the rightmost send channel can be deleted, so the FX- button is
only enabled when selecting the rightmost send channel. You will also notice that
faders for send channels in the Mixer now have a different colored background.

Renaming Mixer channels. It is now possible to rename channels in the Mixer. Simply
double-click the channel label at the bottom of the fader, either in the lower zone
Mixer or the separate window, type the new name, and hit Return. To reset the
name back to its default, simply clear the contents of the editor and hit Return.

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 Default stage and space templates for new projects. When you start a new project, the
stage template defined in the project template will be used, if present; otherwise,
the stage template specified in Default stage template on the Play page of
Preferences will be used.

The choice of space template for a new project is governed by one of three things:
the playback template, the choice of space template defined in the project template,
or the space template override in Preferences.

If Space template override is set on the Play page of Preferences, Dorico will always
use that space template when starting a new project and when applying or re-
applying a playback template. If it is not set, Dorico will use the space template
specified in the project template when starting a new project, or in the current
playback template when it is applied.

If you have your own preferred reverb, compressor, or other settings that you
always want to be applied to every project, define that setup as a space template and
then choose it under Space template override in Preferences.

Expression and percussion maps. You can specify in an expression map or a percussion
map whether Dorico should apply the settings of the current stage and space
templates to the endpoints using these maps.

If the instrument or library you are using was recorded in situ, you probably don’t
want to apply the stage template, and if the library has its own recorded
reverberation, you likewise probably don't want to apply the space template. For
example, NotePerformer, which handles stereo position and reverb on its own, is
set by default not to apply either a space or a stage template.

Pitch contour emphasis

In Dorico 5, melodies play back more expressively and with a human touch, thanks
to its new pitch contour emphasis algorithms. Previous versions of Dorico already
include features to prevent playback sounding mechanical, including
“humanization” which involves adding tiny amounts of randomness in timing and
dynamics. Pitch contour emphasis augments these existing features with
something more nuanced.

Human musicians naturally make higher notes in phrases slightly louder than
lower ones. However, it is insufficient to simply make all notes progressively a little
louder as their pitch rises: human musicians are much more subtle, and the frame
of reference for changes of dynamic tends to be a time window of a few seconds.

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 Dorico emulates the subtle changes in dynamic in musical phrases produced by
human musicians, making the performance more expressive but without
exaggerating the rise and fall of the melody.

The identification of pitch contour within a melody is based on a several heuristics

including relative and absolute pitch, relative note timing and absolute note
duration. The effect acts each staff individually, so notes on different staves – even
different staves belonging to the same instrument – will not be treated as part of
the same melodic line, except for notes that have been crossed from one staff to
another. For polyphonic instruments, the top note of each staff is what will be
considered when identifying melodic direction.

Pitch contour emphasis is enabled by default in new projects, but is disabled in

existing projects to avoid any unexpected changes in dynamics when playing back
in Dorico 5.

The options for pitch contour emphasis are found on the Dynamics page of
Playback Options, in the Humanize section:

§ Use pitch contour emphasis controls whether the effect is on at all.

§ Scale effect by allows the effect to be turned up or down relative to the
default level.
§ Maximum change to written dynamic specifies the maximum change in
dynamic level that Dorico can make in either direction. However high you
turn up Scale effect by, the change in dynamic level will never be allowed to
exceed this value. The default limit is 1.5 dynamic levels, although when
Scale effect by is 100%, the maximum effect will be closer to 1.25 levels in
any case.

These values can also be overridden within an individual expression map.

Be aware that pitch contour emphasis can cause the dynamic level to go below as
well as above the default dynamic level - this is necessary to produce smooth
transitions between ascending and descending melodic lines. However, any
decrease caused by a descending line will be much smaller than an increase caused
by a rising line.

Beat stress. Because pitch contour emphasis produces a similar amount of dynamic
change to beat stress and dynamic humanization, the existing defaults for those
features have been adjusted for new projects. If you have your own custom settings,
you may wish to change them.

Because pitch contour emphasis does not affect unpitched percussion, the existing
beat stress options can usefully be set to a higher value for percussion than for

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 pitched material. As such, the Beat stress options in the Note Dynamics section of
the Dynamics page of Playback Options now provide separate values for pitched
and unpitched instruments.

Similarly, the Humanize written dynamic by n% option in the Humanize section

also now provides separate values for pitched and unpitched instruments.

Groove Agent SE
Groove Agent SE is the entry-level version of Steinberg’s creative drum software
and is now included with Dorico 5. It includes a version of The Kit, an acoustic drum
kit recorded in Berlin’s Teldex Studios, including its classic reverb chamber, and
provides a choice of two mic positions.

Not only can Groove Agent SE be used as a high-quality drum kit playback device
for your Dorico projects, but it also includes more than 400 MIDI drum patterns,
performed by top studio drummers, and mixed by Steinberg’s expert engineers.
You can trigger these in Dorico using the new MIDI trigger region or drag and drop
any pattern onto the track overview in Play mode to import that pattern.

Installing Groove Agent SE is optional but recommended.

Factory playback templates. If Groove Agent SE is installed, Dorico will show two
additional playback templates: HSSE+HSO+GASE (Pro) (Dorico Pro only) and
HSSE+GASE (Elements) (Dorico Pro and Dorico Elements only). These playback
templates will automatically load Groove Agent SE when you add a drum set to your
project and use the sounds of the included Studio Kit for playback; these sounds are
of superior quality, with greater variety, than the standard drum set in the HALion
Sonic factory content.

When Groove Agent SE is loaded, Dorico automatically loads the Studio Kit and a
patch containing rock/country patterns. It is also configured such that patterns only
respond to notes on MIDI channel 2, to avoid interference between the pitches used
to trigger patterns and some of the extended techniques supported by the Studio
Kit. When you use a MIDI trigger region to play patterns in Groove Agent SE, Dorico
automatically directs the MIDI notes to channel 2 as required.

None of the kits included with Groove Agent SE include woodblocks, so if you add a
full drum set instrument to your project, or configure the drum set to have
additional instruments, Dorico will load the standard HALion Sonic drum set or
other unpitched percussion sounds as available to play back those instruments.

When you first run Dorico 5, if Groove Agent SE is installed, Dorico will choose the
appropriate Groove Agent-enabled playback template as your default playback
template. If you are updating from Dorico 4 or earlier, Dorico will only choose the

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 Groove Agent-enabled playback template if the equivalent default playback
template was chosen as the default in your previous version. You can adjust this at
any time on the Play page of Preferences.

Setting up Groove Agent SE manually. If you are not using a playback template that
includes Groove Agent SE, you will need to set it up manually in your project. The
first step is to add Groove Agent SE to the rack:

§ Switch to Play mode.

§ In the left zone, choose the VST and MIDI panel.
§ Click in the action bar at the bottom of the VST Instruments section to
add an empty entry to the rack.
§ Using the menu in the empty rack entry, choose Steinberg ▶ Drum ▶
Groove Agent SE to load the plug-in.

The Groove Agent SE window is split into four main areas:

§ Kit slot: located in the top left of the window, this shows the name of the
loaded kit, allows you to load a different kit, and change some settings,
including whether any associated MIDI patterns should be loaded when the
kit is loaded ( ).
§ Kit rack: located in the top right of the window, this shows the loaded kit. (In
the full Groove Agent plug-in, you can load up to four kits here, but Groove
Agent SE allows only one.)
§ Pad section: located in the bottom left of the window, this section contains
transport controls, group buttons, and drum pads. When the pad section is
in Instrument mode, each pad corresponds to a single instrument in the kit;
when in Pattern mode, each pad corresponds to a different pattern.
§ Edit display: located in the bottom right of the window, the edit display
contains the Edit, Mixer, and Options pages.

At the top right-hand corner of the edit display, you will find two other useful
buttons: expands the window downwards to show a piano keyboard; and
expands the window rightwards to show the MediaBay panel, allowing you another
way to browse and load kits.

To load a kit, either click the name of the kit in the kit slot, or the label below the
empty slot in the kit rack. The small MediaBay panel appears:

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 Click the menu at the top of the panel to choose between the available kits, or click
All to populate the panel with patches from all the kits. If you want to use Groove
Agent SE’s MIDI patterns, make sure the Load Kit with Pattern button ( ) is
activated in the top right-hand corner. Double-click the kit to load it.

Once a kit is loaded, you need to connect the plug-in to a drum set in your project:

§ Switch to Play mode.

§ In the left zone, choose the Track Inspector panel.
§ Select the drum set track in the track overview.
§ In the Routing section of the track inspector, choose Groove Agent SE from
the plug-in menu.
§ Open the Endpoint Setup dialog by clicking .
§ In Endpoint Setup, choose Groove Agent SE Studio Kit under the
Percussion Map column for channel 1, and click OK.

Now when you write music in your drum set staff, it will be played back by Groove
Agent SE instead of the default drum kit in your chosen playback template.

For more information on how to use Groove Agent SE, please refer to its dedicated
Operation Manual.

Using MIDI patterns. If the kit you have loaded into Groove Agent SE includes MIDI
patterns, the Pattern button in the pad section shows a small orange activation
indicator directly above it: click this, and the pad section will display a grid of
patterns:

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 Patterns are color-coded: regular (or “main”) patterns are yellow; fills are blue;
intros are green, and endings are red.

In the top right-hand corner of each pad, the MIDI pitch required to trigger this
pattern is displayed. These MIDI pitches are displayed according to the convention
that middle C (MIDI note 60) is C3. You may find it useful to set Dorico to use the
same middle C convention, which you can do on the General page of Preferences:
set Middle C (note 60) to C3.

You can drag and drop a pattern into the track overview in Play mode or into the
percussion editor in the Key Editor to import that pattern into your score: a red
insertion point shows where the pattern will begin.

The other way to use patterns is to trigger them using Dorico 5’s new MIDI trigger
regions – see below.

MIDI trigger regions

The Key Editor allows you to output MIDI continuous controller values, pitch bend,
tempo changes, and so on, all without affecting the printed score, but one thing it
cannot do is output notes that are not printed in the score.

This is what Dorico’s new MIDI trigger regions are designed to do: play a note or
chord that doesn’t appear in the score for a period determined by you.

This is especially useful for triggering MIDI patterns in plug-ins like Groove Agent
SE, or other pattern-based instruments such as TGuitar. If you’re writing for a real
drummer or guitarist, you don’t need to write out their part in full: give them the
structure of the piece, a few rhythmic cues, and chord symbols, and they’ll take care
of the rest. But if you want to have some realistic playback without spending a lot of
time and effort writing out music that won’t ultimately be played by your human
musicians, pattern-based plug-ins can save a lot of time.

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 Creating a MIDI trigger region. You can create a MIDI trigger region as follows:

§ Select the region over which you want the note or notes to be played.
§ Choose Write ▶ Create MIDI Trigger Region, or use the shortcut Shift+0
(zero), to open the MIDI trigger region popover.
§ Either type the names of the notes you want to be played, or play them on
your MIDI keyboard, and hit Return.

The MIDI trigger region is created in the score, with a light blue bar below the staff
showing the names of the pitch or pitches that will be played for the duration of the
region.

When the popover is open, you can repeatedly play single notes or chords on your
MIDI keyboard, allowing you to audition different patterns in Groove Agent SE or
another pattern-based plug-in. Each separate note or chord you play while the
popover is open replaces the previous note or chord, so you can try out as many
different notes as you want before you hit Return.

Specifying velocity. If you use a MIDI keyboard, you will also see the velocity of the note or
chord you just played, appended to the list of pitches in parentheses. Dorico will
play the notes defined in the MIDI trigger region at this velocity; if no velocity is
specified, Dorico will use a default value, roughly equivalent to a dynamic of .

You can also type a velocity value when typing into the popover: simply specify the
velocity as a value between 0 and 127 in parentheses following the last pitch.

Editing MIDI trigger regions. To change the note or chord played by an existing MIDI
trigger region, select it and hit Return to reopen the popover: type or play the new
note or chord to be played by the region, and hit Return to confirm the changes.

MIDI trigger regions work the same way as other regions, such as bar repeat,
rhythmic slash or chord symbol visibility regions: they can be moved, lengthened
and shortened using the circular handles that appear when the region is selected,
or you can use the standard Alt+←/→ shortcuts to move the region, and
Shift+Alt+←/→ to shorten and lengthen the region.

Viewing MIDI trigger regions. MIDI trigger regions won’t print (unless the View options
checkbox is activated in the Annotations section of the right zone in Print mode).
They appear on-screen by default, but you can hide or show them by toggling View
▶ Highlight MIDI Trigger Regions.

Middle C convention. The note names displayed in MIDI trigger regions follow the Middle
C (note 60) option on the General page of Preferences. If you are using a plug-in
that numbers middle C as C3, like Groove Agent SE, you may find it useful to set this

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 option to C3 so that the octave numbers shown in the MIDI trigger region match the
octave numbers shown in the trigger pads in Groove Agent SE.

Scrub playback
Scrubbing is a term that dates from the days of editing audio tape, where the tape
was manually dragged across the replay head by rotating the reels to locate an edit
point, using an action like the cleaning action of scrubbing. In modern software,
scrubbing has come to mean the process of playing the audio at variable speeds,
either forwards or backwards, as the user drags with the mouse or uses a jog wheel
to locate an edit point.

In music notation and composition software, scrubbing can also be useful, even
though the kinds of editing performed on music notation differs significantly from
digital audio editing. As such, Dorico 5 introduces a new scrub playback feature that
makes it easy to audition the whole ensemble or a single instrument at any point
and move forwards or backwards through the playback at any speed.

Enabling scrub playback. You can enable scrub playback in Write mode in any of the
following ways:

§ Choose Play ▶ Scrub Playback; or

§ Activate the scrub playback button on the toolbar, found between the tempo
read-out and the button to open the Transport window; or
§ Hold down Ctrl+Space (Windows) or Alt+Space (macOS).

When scrub playback is activated via the Play menu or the toolbar button, it
remains active until you explicitly deactivate it, either by hitting Esc, choosing the
Scrub Playback menu item again, or deactivating the toolbar button once more.
However, when scrub playback is activated via the keyboard shortcut, it remains
active only as long as the keys are held down.

Using the keyboard shortcut is very convenient, as it allows you to quickly activate
scrub playback for just a moment. (In this way, it’s like the instant print preview that
can be activated by holding down the ~ key, and which temporarily hides all non-
printing items while you keep the key held down.)

When scrub playback is active, as you move the mouse cursor over the music area,
the cursor is shown as a speaker, and the notes that are sounding at the rhythmic
position under the mouse cursor play continuously, allowing you to control when
you move to the next or previous chord simply by moving the mouse cursor.

Soloing an instrument. By default, Dorico plays all the notes at the rhythmic position
under the mouse cursor; to solo the instrument directly under the mouse cursor,
hold Shift. If you are holding down the Ctrl+Space (Windows) or Alt+Space (macOS)

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 shortcut to activate scrub playback, you must additionally hold down Shift to solo
the instrument under the mouse cursor.

Grace notes. Non-rhythmic notes like grace notes are not played during scrub playback.

Repeats. When scrubbing through music with repeats, Dorico always plays the music as
if for the first pass through the repeated section.

Instrument editor
Dorico has a database of more than 600 instrument types, which define the
attributes that determine how the instrument appears, is labeled, and plays back in
your project. This includes staff labels, transpositions, standard and advanced
ranges, number of staves, number of staff lines, default clefs, and more besides.

Dorico 5 introduces a new Library ▶ Instruments dialog that allows you to edit these
definitions and define new instruments. You can save your changes and new
instruments for use in future projects.

Opening the instrument editor. There are two routes to open the instrument editor:

§ In Setup mode, expand the card for the player holding the instrument you
want to edit, open the instrument’s context menu by clicking … and choose
Edit Instrument Definition. The instrument editor opens with the chosen
instrument selected, ready for editing.
§ Choose Library ▶ Instruments. The instrument corresponding to the first
staff in which you have something selected in the score is selected, ready
for editing.

Project instruments and library instruments. The instrument editor lists each instrument
type only once. If a particular instrument type is in use in your project, it appears in
the left-hand list with (in score) appended to its name. Any edits you make to that
instrument definition will be applied to all the instruments of that type in the
project.

For example, in the common case that you have two violins in your project, in the
instrument editor you will see a single entry in the left-hand list, Violin (in score),
and any changes you make will be applied to both violins in the project.

If you have identical instruments in your project and you want to make changes to
each of them individually, first use the instrument editor to create a new variant of
the instrument definition, and then use Change Instrument in Setup mode to use
the new variant for the relevant instrument.

For any instrument that is not yet in your project, and changes you make in the
instrument editor will be saved to the project’s library. When you subsequently

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 create an instrument that uses this edited instrument definition, it will reflect the
edits you made earlier on.

If you want to make edits to instrument definitions, or new instrument definitions,

available in future projects, click Save as Default ( ) in the action bar: when the
star icon is filled, the selected instrument definition matches the definition saved in
your user library, thereafter available in all new projects.

Click the Show only project instruments button ( ) at the top of the instrument list
to quickly filter the list of instrument types such that only the project instruments
are shown.

You can otherwise filter the list of instruments by family using the Filter by family
menu, or by typing all or part of the instrument’s name in the Search instruments
input field at the top of the list of instruments.

Edit Instruments dialog. The dialog looks like this, and is split into sections, as follows:

Instrument section:

§ Name in instrument picker is the name used in the middle column of the
instrument picker.
§ Variant name is the name used in the rightmost column of the instrument
picker, if there are multiple variants for the parent instrument. Click the
Reset variant description button to reset this to its default value.

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 § Families is a read-out showing which families an instrument belongs to.
You cannot yet edit this, but this is planned for a future release.
§ If the instrument is a fretted instrument, the Edit Strings and Tunings
button will appear; when clicked, this opens the usual editor for fretted
instrument strings.
§ If the instrument is a percussion kit, the Edit Percussion Kit button will
appear; when clicked, this opens the usual editor for percussion kits and
instruments.

In the Staff Labels section, the current values for each of the names used in staff
labels appears; to edit any of them, click Edit Instrument Names.

Staves and Clefs section:

§ Number of staves determines how many staves the instrument should

have by default.
§ Number of staff lines determines the number of staff lines shown in each
staff belonging to the instrument. Even if you change the number of staff
lines, Dorico will still treat the instrument as a pitched instrument. Dorico
does not properly support pitched instruments with staves with more or
fewer than five lines, so be prepared for some interesting results if you stray
too far here.
§ If the instrument has more than one staff, Span of barline allows you to
specify which staves (from top to bottom) should be joined by a barline.
§ Similarly, Span of bracket allows you to specify which staves should be
joined by a bracket or brace, and the choice of what kind of primary bracket
should be used can be specified by choosing either Bracket or Brace.
§ Activating Vocal staff means that dynamics will go above the staff by
default, and that barlines that would otherwise be joined to adjacent staves
in the same primary bracket group should be broken, in service of making
lyrics more legible.
§ For each default staff defined for the instrument, you can specify the Clef
for transposing layouts, and optionally a different Clef for non-transposing
layout as well.

In the Transposition section, you can specify the transposition interval for the
instrument:

§ Written middle C (note 60) sounds as specifies an octave transposition in

concert pitch layouts: for example, assuming you are using the C4 middle C
convention, for a guitar (which sounds one octave lower than written), this
would be set to C3; for a piccolo (which sounds one octave higher than
written), this would be set to C5.

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 § In a transposing score, written middle C (note 60) sounds as specifies the
transposition in a transposing layout: for example, again assuming C4 as
middle C, an alto saxophone (which sounds a major sixth lower than
written) would be set to Eb3, while a contrabass clarinet (which sounds two
octaves and one whole step lower than written) would be set to Bb1.
§ Uses key signature determines whether the instrument shows key
signatures, or instead shows accidentals as required for every note.

Finally, the Range section allows you to specify the standard and advanced ranges
for the instrument, which are used when View ▶ Note and Rest Colors ▶ Notes Out
of Range is activated. The pitches between the End values of Standard range and
Advanced range are shown in dark red, while any pitch higher than the End value
for Advanced range is shown in bright red. Likewise, the pitches between the Start
values of Advanced range and Standard range are shown in dark red, while any
pitch lower than the Start value for Advanced range is shown in bright red.

Change instrument. In previous versions, the Change Instrument command in the

instrument’s context menu in the Players panel in Setup mode was unavailable if
the instrument had any additional staves, for example ossias, divisi staves, or extra
staves added after the instrument was first created. These limitations have now
been removed, though there are some caveats to be aware of:

§ When reducing the number of staves in an instrument, any ossia staves

associated with a staff that is removed will themselves be removed.
§ When reducing the number of staves in an instrument, any extra staves
beyond the new number of staves will be added as extra staves below the
new lowest staff in the instrument.

It is still not possible to use Change Instrument with percussion kits, but we plan to
address this in a future release.

Percussion kits. It is not currently possible to edit percussion kit instruments that exist in
the current project via the Library ▶ Instruments dialog. As such, any percussion
kits that are held by players in your project will not appear in the list on the left-
hand side of the Instruments dialog, and you cannot choose Edit Instrument
Definition from the context menu for the instrument in the Players panel in Setup
mode. We plan to relax this restriction in a future release.

Instrument families and score orders. You cannot yet edit instrument families or the
ordering used by Dorico when adding players and instruments to your project, but
we plan to introduce editors for these in a future release.

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 Live note editing
Dorico has historically never allowed the editing of the pitches or positions of notes
using the mouse, with the justification that in other software this can be one of the
most likely causes of inadvertent edits: you might be clicking and dragging to move
the score in the view, accidentally click a note or, worse, a whole bar full of notes,
and have edited the pitch before you really know what’s happened.

However, we know that making these kinds of edits directly with the mouse can be
very helpful, especially if you are already using the mouse when you spot the edit
that you want to make. Furthermore, with the recent introduction of the Key Editor
in Write mode, it became possible to edit the pitch and duration of notes in the
piano roll editor using the mouse.

Dorico 5, then, extends mouse editing in Write mode from the piano roll to the main
music area, allowing you to edit the pitch or duration of selected notes by clicking
and dragging. We have added constraints so that you can be sure you are editing
either the pitch or the duration, but never both, and there is strong visual feedback
in the score to ensure that you are always aware when you are editing the music.

If you hold to Dorico’s original philosophy that it should be impossible to

inadvertently edit the music with the mouse, you can also of course completely
disable mouse-based editing of notes in Write mode if you prefer.

Pitch edits. You can now repitch notes by dragging them vertically in Write mode. Hold
Alt to copy them (so you can select a note or series of notes, hold Alt and drag up or
down to build a chord). Dorico auditions each target pitch as you drag.

In general, dragging notes up and down transposes the notes in the same way as
transposing them stepwise with Alt+↑/↓.

Rhythmic position edits. You can also move or copy notes to a new rhythmic position by
dragging horizontally. Again, hold Alt to copy the music to the new position. The
rhythmic grid appears as you drag to help you orientate the position at which the
music will be dropped. The translucent rectangle showing the rhythmic extent of
the passage being moved extends back to the start of any selected rests at the start
of the selection, and to the end of the final note in the selection, to show you which
music will be overwritten or displaced.

This works as you would expect with Insert mode and chord input, allowing you to,
for example, swap the material in two bars by engaging Insert mode and dragging
the contents of one bar to the start of the next.

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 Visual feedback. During the drag, you will see ghost noteheads that correspond to the
onset position for each note, and the region that will be affected is shown by a
translucent rectangle that follows the ghost notes as they move.

If you want to cancel your edit, simply hit Esc before you release the mouse pointer.

Disabling mouse editing. If you want to disable this feature, deactivate the new Enable
note pitch and rhythmic position editing using the mouse option on the Note
Input and Editing page of Preferences.

You can also toggle this mode of editing by assigning a custom key command to the
Toggle Mouse Note Editing command in the Note Input category in the Key
Commands page of Preferences or invoke this command using the jump bar.

Multiple item creation

Dorico 5 overhauls item creation from a selection: you can now create multiple
items at the same time, on multiple instruments, and even at different positions on
each instrument.

In previous versions, selecting music across multiple staves and then creating an
item via one of Dorico’s popovers or Write mode panels would create a single item
at the earliest selected rhythmic position on the first selected instrument. There
were a couple of notable exceptions to this rule: you can create slurs and dynamics
on multiple instruments at the same time, and items that modify existing notes
rather than creating new items (for example, articulations and jazz articulations)
can be applied to all selected notes at the same time. Additionally, during note
input, when the caret is extended across multiple staves, any item you create (for
example, via a popover) will be created on all staves.

Now, Dorico will create the specified item on each of the selected instruments: by
default, it will do this at the rhythmic position of the first note in the selection on
each instrument, which may be different, though you can specify that Dorico should
instead create the item at the same rhythmic position (the earliest selected
position) on each instrument if you prefer.

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 The items created on each instrument will also adapt to the selection on each staff.
For example, when you select music across multiple instruments in which notes
not only start at different positions, but the notes are of different durations or have
rests at different positions, the item created on each instrument will have an
appropriate duration.

Some items have further special behaviors: for example, you can now select
multiple chords and create arpeggio signs on each of them at the same time; and
you can create multiple glissandos at the same time, including between chords with
different numbers of notes or on different staves.

Playing techniques. When creating playing techniques across a selection that spans
multiple rhythmic positions on one or more instruments, Dorico now considers
whether the underlying playback technique produced by the playing technique is a
Direction or an Attribute. Direction playback techniques are sticky and last until
they are countermanded by another playback technique, or are reset via naturale:
for example, a pizzicato instruction. Attribute playback techniques, on the other
hand, only last for the duration of the note on which they are written, automatically
resetting at the next note; for example, an upbow or downbow instruction.

Consequently, when you create a playing technique that maps to a Direction

playback technique, Dorico creates a single playing technique with an appropriate
duration, and draws either a continuation line or repeats the symbol according to
the playing technique’s definition.

When you create a playing technique that maps to an Attribute playback technique,
by contrast, Dorico creates a separate playing technique on each selected note. This
makes it very quick and easy to add bowing marks: select multiple notes, for
example, with Ctrl+click (Windows) or Command-click (macOS), type Shift+P for
the playing technique popover, type upbow, and hit Return. Each selected note will
have an upbow playing technique added.

Glissandos. In previous versions, to create a glissando you could either select both the
starting and ending notes, or select the starting note and Dorico would
automatically find the ending note when you create the glissando; in either case,
Dorico could only create a single glissando line.

Now, Dorico will automatically create as many glissando lines as possible within the
selection: if you select a series of individual notes, Dorico will create a glissando
between each pair of notes; if you select a series of chords, Dorico will create as
many glissandos as it can between each chord, joining the highest notes of each
chord, then the next highest, and so on, until it runs out of notes in either chord; this

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 even works across multiple staves belonging to the same instrument, making it
very quick to create sweeping arpeggios for harp.

Arpeggio signs. To create arpeggio signs on multiple chords at the same time, simply
select each chord on which you want an arpeggio sign to appear, type Shift+O to
open the ornaments popover, then type arp and hit Return.

Ornaments and trills. Dorico now creates an ornament at each note position in the
selection.

A new option Create separate trills for each selected note has been added to the
Note Input and Editing page of Preferences. When activated, Dorico will create a
trill at each note position in the selection; when the option is deactivated, Dorico
will instead create a single trill on each staff in the selection, starting at the first
selected position and ending after the last selected position.

Region-based items. Rhythmic slash regions, repeat bar regions, numbered bar regions,
chord symbol visibility regions, and MIDI trigger regions can all be created across
multiple selected instruments. The position and duration of each created region
will be the same on every instrument.

Position of first created item. By default, the position of the first created item will be
determined by the position of the first note on each staff. This means you can
quickly make, for example, a block selection by selecting a note or rest in one staff,
then Shift+click in another staff, selecting notes and rests across multiple staves,
then open the Shift+D popover and add a hairpin: the hairpin will be created on
each staff, starting at the position of the first selected note on each staff.

If you would prefer Dorico to create the chosen item at the start of the selection,
regardless of whether there is a note at that position on every staff, deactivate
Create items at position of first selected note in the Editing section of the Note
Input and Editing page of Preferences.

In Behind Bars, Gould recommends that clef changes should change at barline
positions if possible, instead of immediately before the note. As such, a separate
Create clefs at position of first selected note option allows you to specify whether
clefs should be created at the start of the selection, even if you in general want
items to be created immediately before the first note.

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 Improvements
Accidentals
Improved choice of accidentals when repitching. When using extended tonality systems,
such as either of the default 24-EDO tonality systems, it is common to arrive at the
desired microtonal accidental by inputting the nearest 12-EDO pitch, for example
using a MIDI keyboard, and then repitch the note with Shift+Alt+↑/↓.

However, in previous versions of Dorico, the order in which Dorico would choose
the next accidental was not always easy to predict, and nor was it guaranteed that
Dorico would show all the possibilities.

Now, when repitching upwards and arriving at a new pitch class, Dorico will choose
the “most flat” accidental; conversely, when repitching downwards, Dorico will
choose the “most sharp” accidental. As you continue to repitch upwards or
downwards, Dorico will continue to move sharper or flatter in a consistent fashion.

Audio export
Project activation warning. When you try to export audio (or MIDI) from a project that is
not active for playback, Dorico now shows a warning that you need to activate the
project for playback and try again.

Bar numbers
Bar numbers coinciding with start of multi-bar rest. If bar numbers are set to show at the
start of every system, but a multi-bar rest falls at the start of the system and the
option Show ranges of bar numbers under multi-bar rests and consolidated bar
repeats is active, by default Dorico will not show a bar number at the start of that
system.

However, you might prefer the single bar number to appear in its normal position at
the start of the system in addition to the range shown below the multi-bar rest, in
which case activate the new option Show normal bar number if coincident with
start of multi-bar rest showing range on the Bar Numbers page of Layout Options.

Horizontal alignment. It is now possible to specify that bar numbers should be left-
aligned with barlines if desired.

Hiding bar number changes. Bar numbers that arise from bar number changes can now
be hidden via the Hide/Show Item command, accessed via the jump bar or a custom
key command.

Brackets and braces

Sub-brackets for violins. New Sub-brackets for adjacent violin players option on the
Brackets and Braces page of Layout Options, allowing you to specify that adjacent

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 violin players, for example Violin 1 and Violin 2 section players, should use separate
sub-brackets. This is especially useful if divisi is employed, making it immediately
clear which staves belong to which player. There are three choices:

§ Single will join Violin 1 and Violin 2 with a single sub-bracket regardless of
the number of staves each shows on the system.
§ Separate will always give separate sub-brackets for Violin 1 and Violin 2,
even if each only shows a single staff on the system.
§ Separate for multiple staves will join Violin 1 and Violin 2 with a single sub-
bracket if each only shows a single staff on the system, but will otherwise
only show a sub-bracket for either instrument if it shows multiple staves on
the system.

Sub-brackets matching primary brackets. New When sub-bracket matches primary

bracket option on the Brackets and Braces page of Layout Options, allowing you to
specify whether Dorico should draw a secondary bracket if the bracket will
encompass the same staves as the primary bracket.

Chord diagrams
Used chord diagrams at start of flow. As part of a broader set of improvements to the
alignment and positioning of chord symbols and diagrams, the chord diagrams
shown before the first system of the flow when Show chord diagrams used at start
of flow is activated are now properly measured, considering the geometry of the
drawn chord symbols into account as well as the chord diagrams, and ensuring that
they are all contained within the bounds of the automatic frame.

Chord symbols
Chord symbol alignment. A new Alignment of multi-line chord symbols relative to
single-line chord symbols option has been added to the Position section of the
Chord Symbols page of Engraving Options.

When some chord symbols across the width of a system have altered bass notes (or
are polychords) and others do not, this option determines whether the “single-
level” chord symbols should be aligned with the top, middle, or bottom of the
“double-level” chord symbols.

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 Capo chord symbol horizontal alignment. A new Horizontal alignment of transposed
chord symbol relative to main chord symbol option has been added to the
Position section of the Chord Symbols page of Engraving Options.

In existing projects, the upper chord symbol will continue to be left-aligned with the
lower chord symbol, but in new projects the upper chord symbol will be center-
aligned.

Position of root accidentals and stacked alterations. New options for the fine positioning
and alignment of chord symbol root accidentals and the horizontal positioning of
stacked alterations have been added to the Chord Symbols page of Engraving
Options:

§ In a new Advanced Options section under Vertical Position in the Position

section, new Vertical offset for baseline root accidentals values allow you
to adjust the vertical position of the accidental shown as part of the chord
symbol root.
§ A new Vertical offset for parentheses around stacked alterations option
has also been added here, which controls the precise vertical placement of
the full-height parentheses around stacked alterations.
§ In the Alterations section, Position of stacked alterations relative to root
determines whether vertically stacked alterations should be aligned with
the chord symbol baseline (Align bottom with root) or center-aligned
against the root (Center align on root).
§ Also in the Alterations section, Horizontal alignment of stacked
alterations allows you to choose between stacked alterations being Left
aligned or Center aligned relative to each other.

Height of parentheses. A new Scale parentheses to height of chord symbol with linear
arrangement option has been added to the Parentheses section of the Chord
Symbols page of Engraving Options.

If a chord symbol has a linear arrangement, the parentheses can still be scaled to
consider the height of, for example, the slash before an altered bass note. If you

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 prefer chord symbols without stacked alterations to use parentheses that match
the root note height, deactivate this option. The effect is subtle, but is illustrated as
follows, affecting only the first of the three chord symbols shown:

(E G ) (E) Em7 511 (E G ) (E) Em7 511

Deactivated Activated

6/9 chord symbol appearance. A new Use 6/9 appearance for chords with a sixth and
ninth and additional alterations checkbox has been added to the Appearance of
6/9 chords option in the Intervals section of the Chord Symbols page of Engraving
Options. When this is activated, and when 6/9 chord symbols are set to display
using some form of “6/9” rather than “6(add9)”, 6/9 chords with additional
alterations will appear as, for example, “C6/9(#11)” instead of “C6(add 9, #11)”.

Chord symbol regions. Copying and pasting a chord symbol region to a staff belonging to
an instrument that does not show chord symbols, or using duplicate/move to staff
above or below to copy or move a chord symbol region, will now automatically
update the chord symbol visibility settings for that player as appropriate.

Clefs and octave lines

Hiding clefs and octave lines. Dorico has always provided a means of hiding clefs in a
particular layout transposition, on the grounds that you may well want to omit clef
changes if, say, the initial clef in the instrument is different; but it’s also the case
that you may want some clefs to appear in the score to avoid ledger lines for the
conductor, but the individual performer would be happy to read the ledger lines.
Similar considerations apply to octave lines, which are in musical terms
functionally the same.

As such, a new Hide property has been added to both the Clefs and Octave Lines
groups in the Properties panel, allowing clefs and octave lines to be hidden in the
current layout.

You can also use the Hide/Show Item command, either by assigning a custom key
command or via the jump bar, to toggle the Hide property for clefs and octave lines.

Condensing
Condensing changes. When you choose Engrave ▶ Condensing Change with an item
other than an existing condensing change signpost selected, Dorico will now look
for an existing condensing change at the position of the earliest selected item, and
if it finds one, it will edit that condensing change rather than creating a new one.

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 Dynamics
Niente circle size and gap. The default size of the niente circle that appears at the start or
end of a hairpin denoting a gradual dynamic that either rises from or falls to silence
is larger in new projects, and a new Scale factor for niente circle option can be
found in the Advanced Options section of the Gradual Dynamics section of the
Dynamics page of Engraving Options, allowing you to further adjust this to your
taste.

Furthermore, some publishers prefer the niente circle to be positioned either

slightly before or after the hairpin, rather than abutting it; a new Gap between end
of hairpin and niente circle option allows you to change this as you see fit. By
default, in new projects, there is now a quarter space gap between the end of the
hairpin and the niente circle.

Niente appearance. A new Style for niente 'n' option has been added to the Gradual
Dynamics section of the Dynamics page of Engraving Options, allowing you to
choose between using a bold or plain italic n for a niente marking at the start or end
of a hairpin.

Text on hairpins. A new Vertical position of modifier text inside center of hairpin
option has been added to the Gradual Dynamics section of the Dynamics page of
Engraving Options, allowing you to specify the default vertical offset for poco and
molto text when drawn in the center of a hairpin.

Gradual dynamic appearance. Entering cresc... or dim... in the Shift+D popover will now
automatically set the Gradual style property such that the text-based gradual
dynamic will show a continuation line.

Expression maps
Per-switch delay. Sounds with a slow attack or rise time can sometimes sound a little late
if their notes are played exactly where written. It’s common therefore to adjust the
start positions of notes using these sounds to compensate for their slow attack.

You can now specify a delay in milliseconds for each switch in an expression map to
accomplish this automatically: set Delay n milliseconds to the appropriate value. To
make the notes sound earlier than written, specify a negative number; to make the
notes sound later than written, specify a positive number.

If you have abutting notes whose playback techniques require different switches
with different delay values, you may encounter some overlaps.

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 Key Editor
Velocity editor. A spin box showing the value of the first selected note’s velocity has been
added to the editor header at the left-hand side. Changing the value shown here
updates the velocity of all selected notes.

Furthermore, the velocity value corresponding to the vertical position of the mouse
pointer within the editor is now always displayed.

Dynamics editor. The buttons to specify whether the selected point should be linear or
constant have been added to the editor header at the left-hand side. Only points in
blue regions created via the pencil or line tools can be edited in this way, so for
green regions corresponding to dynamics in the score, these buttons are disabled.

MIDI CC editor. If Include MIDI CC, pitch bend and dynamics from Key Editor when
copying music is activated on the Note Input and Editing page of Preferences,
when pasting MIDI CC data, existing regions will be retained, rather than all pasted
MIDI CC data being merged into a single new destination region.

Ruler. Double-clicking in the ruler in the Key Editor or in the track overview in Play mode
now starts playback from that position.

Layouts
Propagate Part Formatting. It is now possible to invoke the Propagate Part Formatting
command from any mode via the jump bar or a key command.

Library Manager
Support for more library files. The Library Manager is now able to correctly handle Dorico
library files exported from other parts of the program, for example percussion kits
exported from the Edit Percussion Kit dialog.

Lyrics
Japanese lyrics. A new option Use Japanese hyphens instead of extender line has been
added to the Lyric Extenders section of the Lyrics page of Engraving Options,
switched off by default both in new and existing projects. When this option is
activated, instead of showing a lyric extender line for syllables that should be sung
over multiple notes, or for a single note written with ties, Dorico instead shows a
Japanese hyphen character at each notehead position.

Lyric extender position. The right-hand end of the lyric extender line is now
automatically aligned with the right-hand side of the notehead at the position of the
end of the extender line.

Lyric hyphens. By default, lyric hyphens are drawn using the default paragraph style for
the current line of lyrics. If the lyric syllable immediately to the left of the hyphens

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 uses a different paragraph style (for example, by way of the Paragraph style
property), the hyphen now uses the same, overridden paragraph style.

Non-breaking spaces in Edit Line of Lyrics. In the Edit Line of Lyrics dialog, non-breaking
spaces in lyrics appear as mid-dot characters, like this: · . If you need to add or move
a non-breaking space while editing your lyrics, you can now type Shift+Alt+Space to
add a mid-dot that will be replaced with a non-breaking space when you confirm
the dialog.

Music fonts
New music font families. Thanks to the growing adoption of the Standard Music Font
Layout (SMuFL), there are several music font families released under the same SIL
Open Font License as Dorico’s default music fonts, Bravura and Petaluma. However,
installing these fonts is typically tricky, and can require either manual installation
or the installation of other applications. Dorico 5 therefore now installs eight new
music font families:

§ Finale Ash: a handwritten-style font, a modern recreation of the famous

AshMusic font, based on the hand of copyist Ashley Wells.
§ Finale Broadway: a handwritten-style font, designed to emulate a thin nib
ink pen.
§ Finale Jazz: a handwritten-style font, originally created by trumpeter Rich
Sigler to emulate the hand copying of Clinton Roemer, using an oblique nib
ink pen.
§ Finale Maestro: an engraved-style font, drawing on similar source material
to Bravura, but with overall a less bold look.
§ Golden Age: a handwritten-style font, a modern recreation of Don Rice’s
original Golden Age font, based on his own hand. The weight of the font is
somewhere between the thinner appearance of Finale Broadway and the
very bold appearance of Finale Jazz.
§ Leipzig: an engraved-style font, initially developed by Etienne Darbellay and
Jean-François Marti as part of the Wolfgang music notation software and
today most associated with the Verovio project. It has greater stroke
contrast than either Bravura or Finale Maestro.
§ Leland: an engraved-style font, developed by Simon Smith and Martin
Keary for MuseScore. It is designed to emulate the look of the venerable
SCORE music notation software by the late Leland Smith.
§ Sebastian: an engraved-style font, developed by Florian Kretlow and Ben
Byram-Wigfield. Like Bravura, the overall look of Sebastian is quite bold.

In addition, several of these music fonts are paired with text font families to provide
a harmonious overall look to your scores.

Dorico 5 Version History 130 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 To try out a different music font in your project at any time, choose one from
Library ▶ Music Fonts.

Text font family. If the font-specific metadata file does not specify a preferred text font
family, Dorico no longer resets the font used for the default font and paragraph
styles to Academico.

MusicXML export
System formatting. MusicXML files exported from Dorico now specify system and frame
(or, in MusicXML terms, page) breaks such that the system formatting of the layout
being exported is encoded.

Page size, staff size, and margins. The page size and staff size specified on the Page Setup
page of Layout Options are now encoded when exporting MusicXML. Basic page
margins are also specified, though only a single set of margins is exported, so if your
layout uses mirrored or different margins on facing pages, these will not be
completely encoded.

Music and text fonts. Dorico now exports the names of the music font and main text font
used in the project when exporting MusicXML.

File extension. Uncompressed MusicXML files exported by Dorico now have the
correct .musicxml file extension, and report themselves as MusicXML 4.0 files.

Noteheads. Dorico’s built-in X and Diamond, Large X and Diamond, and Large Circled
notehead sets are now correctly exported to MusicXML.

MusicXML import
Holds and pauses. Fermatas, breath marks, and caesuras are now imported from
MusicXML files.

Dorico treats fermatas and caesuras as global items that affect all instruments in
the system, as this reflects common notational practices, but MusicXML does not
enforce this: a MusicXML file can encode a fermata, for example, on just one staff,
but in Dorico, that fermata would appear at the appropriate rhythmic position on
every instrument. As such, when importing these items from MusicXML, Dorico
analyses the fermatas and caesuras in the MusicXML file and groups them such
that it creates only the appropriate global items. This means that it is not
guaranteed that fermatas and caesuras will appear at precisely the same positions
as encoded in the MusicXML file, but the result should always make musical sense.

With both caesuras and breath marks, there is the additional complication that
different applications specify the rhythmic position of caesuras in different ways.
Dorico employs heuristics based on which application exported the MusicXML file
to try to produce the intended result as often as possible.

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 Ornaments. MusicXML specifies a wide range of ornaments that can be encoded, and
Dorico now imports all of these, except for delayed turns, delayed inverted turns,
and shakes.

Harmonics. Dorico now imports natural and artificial harmonics from MusicXML files.

Playing techniques. A wider range of playing techniques is now imported from

MusicXML files, including mute/open/stopped indications for brass instruments,
and bowing marks and snap pizzicato indications for string instruments.

In addition, MusicXML allows the encoding of relatively freeform playing

techniques either as text or glyphs using the other-technical element, and Dorico
will do its best to import these as playing techniques. You may prefer to exclude
these, in which case deactivate Import other-technical playing techniques on the
MusicXML Import page of Preferences.

Staff labels. The handling of instrument transpositions in staff labels has been greatly
improved. The staff label in the MusicXML file itself could be encoded as, for
example, “Clarinet in Bb”, and Dorico would correctly identify this part as belonging
to a Clarinet, but also import the part name from the MusicXML file exactly, then
apply the prevailing layout options for staff labels, resulting in nonsensical names
like “Clarinet in Bb in B♭”.

Dorico now takes a more nuanced approach, attempting to parse the part name in
the MusicXML file to identify the instrument name and the transposition
independently, and adjusting the layout and engraving options such that the
automatic staff labels in Dorico match the appearance specified in the MusicXML
file as closely as is practical.

Voice direction for grand staff instruments. When importing music in multiple voices,
particularly for grand staff instruments like piano, Dorico’s choice of voice
direction, which uses heuristics to determine whether a voice should be nominally
up-stem or down-stem, did not always in previous versions conform to the default
voice directions that are used when inputting notes yourself. This could lead to
unexpected behavior when editing or adding more music later on.

The approach to determining voice directions has been improved such that voices
with ambiguous directions now default to up-stem rather than alternating between
up- and down-stem, and Dorico tries also to make sure that a single voice on a staff
will always be up-stem.

Note grouping
Note grouping in cut time. A new Use common time note grouping for cut common
time signatures option has been added to the Time Signatures With Half-Bars

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 section of the Note Grouping page of Notation Options. When activated, this causes
Dorico to group notes, beamed groups and rests in 2/2 and cut common time using
the rules for 4/4 or common time.

A new property, Use common time note grouping, has been added to the Time
Signatures group, allowing you to selectively apply the new notation option to
group notes and rests in cut common time in the same manner as common time for
an individual time signature if required.

Note input
Double-tap for dotted note values. You can now specify that the next note to be input
should be dotted by tapping the key for the note duration twice in quick succession:
tap 6 once for a quarter note (crotchet), or tap 6 twice for a dotted quarter note
(dotted crotchet).

This works both when note input is active (i.e. the caret is shown), and when editing
the durations of selected notes, but not when pitch before duration input is active.

Add bar at end of flow. A new command Add Bar at End of Flow has been added to the
Note Input category in the Key Commands page of Preferences, allowing you to
assign a custom shortcut to add a bar at the end of the flow. This command can also
be triggered via the jump bar.

Deleting bars. A new command Edit ▶ Delete Bars command, intended to make it easier
to discover how to delete bars. Dorico determines the bars to be deleted by the
positions of the earliest and latest selected items.

Single-stem tremolos. When joining notes in the same voice with ties, Dorico now
preserves any existing single-stem tremolos on all selected staves affected by the
operation, rather than only the first selected one.

Note spacing
Voice column handles. When editing note spacing in Engrave mode, each global spacing
column shows a square handle, and when selected, each square handle shows one
or more circular handles, corresponding to the voice columns for the items in that
global spacing column on that staff.

You can see at a glance when a global column has an adjustment, as the square
handle will be colored red. However, to see whether a voice column has an
adjustment, you had to select the corresponding square handle, as the circular
handles appear only when the square handle is selected.

This has now changed in Dorico 5, such that any adjusted voice column will always
show its circular handle in red. This makes it much easier to locate spacing
adjustments to voice columns.

Dorico 5 Version History 133 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Ornaments
More default ornaments. The Baroque and Classical section of the Ornaments panel in
Write mode now includes a wider range of default ornaments.

Page templates
Importing page templates. When importing page templates from library files in previous
versions, it was common for any custom paragraph styles used in its text frame
definitions to be duplicated, even if the destination project already contains the
same styles.

Dorico is now much more selective about importing paragraph and character styles
when importing page templates. A style will now only be imported if it is user-
defined and does not already exist in the destination project.

Exporting page templates. If a page template uses one or more custom character styles
in its text frame definitions, these styles are now included in the exported library
file.

Pedal lines
Merging pedal lines. When merging multiple selected pedal lines, Dorico now creates a
retake at each position corresponding to the start of each merged pedal line.

Playback
Repeats playback. Sometimes it is necessary to specify that certain notes, dynamics, or
other items should be played back only on a specific pass through the music when
following a repeats structure. To accommodate this, the Suppress playback
property in the Common group of the Properties panel has been extended, and now
allows you to specify whether the selected item should be suppressed in playback
Always (on every repeat), or On Passes (on one or more specific repeats).

When you choose On Passes, by default the item will play back on every repeat. To
specify on which passes the item should not play back, activate the new Suppress
on passes property, found immediately below Suppress playback, and specify the
passes on which the item should not play back.

The first time something is played is considered pass 1, the first repeat is considered
pass 2, and so on. Specify the passes on which the item should not play back using a
comma-separated list of passes, or specify a range of passes by separating the first
and last pass with a hyphen. For example: 1,3,5-7.

Be aware that suppressing playback for tempo items can have unexpected effects.
Specifically, if you suppress the immediate tempo change preceding a gradual
tempo change on only some passes, the gradual tempo will play back as if the

Dorico 5 Version History 134 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 immediate tempo change were not suppressed: it will start from the suppressed
tempo.

Suppress playback. A new Toggle Suppress Playback command has been added to the
Edit category in the Key Commands page of Preferences, allowing you to toggle the
Suppress playback property for the selected items using a custom keyboard
shortcut, or via the jump bar.

Pedal lines. Pedal lines that cross repeat barlines and endings now play back correctly,
considering the multiple passes through the music.

Tremolos. Articulations of attack (such as accents) now only affect the first played note of
the tremolo, rather than being repeated on every note. By contrast, articulations of
duration (such as staccato) are now applied to all the notes of the tremolo.

Measured tremolos now play back using the appropriate note length condition for
the played durations of the notes in the tremolo, rather than the original written
duration of the notes on which the tremolo strokes appear.

Note length conditions. When Dorico is determining which switch to use in the
expression map, it has a system of fallbacks that it uses if the specific combination
of playing techniques used in the score does not map directly onto either a single
base switch, or a combination of a base switch and one or more add-on switches. If
the switches in the expression map define note length conditions, Dorico will now
prefer to fall back to a switch that matches, say, only one of the desired playback
techniques, and additionally satisfies the note length condition.

Dynamic power curve. Two new options, Minimum dynamic level and Maximum
dynamic level, have been added to the Dynamic Curve section of the Dynamics
page of Playback Options. As their names suggest, they specify the dynamic levels at
either end of the dynamic power curve, allowing you to compress the overall
dynamic range.

By default, these are set to -6 and 6 respectively, corresponding to and .

If your music typically doesn’t use dynamics beyond and , try setting these
values to -3 and 3. This will allow a greater difference between these dynamic levels;
any written dynamics softer or louder than the minimum and maximum defined
here will play back with the minimum or maximum value as appropriate.

Used in conjunction with the existing Dynamic curve power option, this allows
greater control over the dynamic response during playback. The new options can
also be overridden in any expression map in the Playback Options Overrides
section of Library ▶ Expression Maps.

Dorico 5 Version History 135 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Microtonal playback. Dorico can now play back microtonal pitches using MIDI pitch bend
if required.

Using MIDI pitch bend rather than VST Note Expression (as used by e.g. HALion
Sonic and Pianoteq) or VST detune (as used by NotePerformer) has a couple of
notable disadvantages: because MIDI pitch bend is a channel-wide message, you
cannot play chords that require different pitch bend values to produce the required
pitches; and Dorico cannot determine automatically what pitch bend range is
supported by a plug-in or MIDI device (it will typically be either a whole step or an
octave).

Nevertheless, for certain applications using monophonic instruments, using MIDI

pitch bend for microtonal playback can have advantages, too: it allows you to
produce microtonal playback for plug-ins that don't support either of the other,
better methods (for example, Kontakt); and MIDI pitch bend messages are included
when exporting MIDI, which allows microtonal pitches to be taken into your DAW
or other application. Using MIDI pitch bend for microtonal playback is opt-in, and
must be activated for your plug-in via the new Microtonality playback menu in
Library ▶ Expression Maps.

Playback templates
Overwrite warning. When you export a playback template via Play ▶ Playback Template,
Dorico will now warn you if the template you’re exporting will overwrite an existing
file.

Play mode
Routing for percussion kit components. Each individual unpitched percussion
instrument included in a percussion kit now appears as a separate track in the track
overview in Play mode, making it possible to select each instrument and change the
settings in the Routing section of the track inspector panel independently.

This restores functionality that was present in versions of Dorico up to 3.5 that was
temporarily removed as a consequence of the rebuilding of Play mode in Dorico 4,
allowing each instrument in a percussion kit to be routed to a different endpoint if
necessary.

Reset Playback Overrides. Using Play ▶ Reset Playback Overrides to remove playback
overrides from a large selection is now considerably faster than in earlier versions.

Project files
Creating new projects via the Hub. The last value entered for Number of bars on the
Create New page of the Hub is now remembered not only during the current Dorico
session, but also between sessions.

Dorico 5 Version History 136 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Rehearsal marks
Horizontal alignment. When Position of rehearsal mark at start of system is set to Left-
aligned with systemic barline on the Rehearsal Marks page of Engraving Options,
the horizontal position of the rehearsal mark is now adjusted to consider whether
the systemic barline appears, so that it is always perfectly aligned with the start of
the system.

Repeat endings
Creating repeat endings from the selection. When Dorico uses the extent of the current
selection to determine the position and duration of the first segment in a newly-
created repeat ending, it now considers items including multi-bar rests.

Rests
Rest positioning. Dorico has always provided the option to align rests within a beat group
at the same vertical position, but not rests in different beat groups. This can lead to
successive rests within a bar being assigned different vertical positions, and you
might prefer them to be assigned the same position.

A new Align rests in the same voice vertically option has been added to the Rest
Positioning section of the Rests page of Notation Options. Set this to When in the
same bar to ensure that all rests in a voice are assigned the same vertical position.

Scripting
Script Console. Script ▶ Console allows you to run Lua commands in an interactive
fashion. The console has been given some significant quality of life improvements
in this release:

§ The Script ▶ Hide Console menu item has been removed; instead, Script ▶
Console is now a toggle, so you can toggle the visibility of the console with a
single key command or via the jump bar.
§ A new Always on top checkbox has been added to the console, allowing you
to specify that the console should always float on top of other windows.
Dorico will remember the state of this checkbox not only during the current
session, but between sessions.
§ The size and position of the console is now preserved between sessions.
§ You can resize the upper log view and lower command entry panes in the
console by dragging the splitter between them. The relative size of these
panes is also preserved between sessions.
§ A monospaced font, Source Code Pro, is used for the console output.
§ When the console opens, the focus is put into the command entry pane by
default. The command entry pane now has a distinctive appearance, with a
white background and line numbers shown in the left margin, so it is now

Dorico 5 Version History 137 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 much clearer which pane you can type into, and which shows the
interpreter’s output.
§ The command entry pane now accepts multi-line input: simply hit Return
to add a new line. To execute the script, either click the Execute button, or
use the shortcut Ctrl+Return (Windows) or Command-Return (macOS).

Recording a macro. When you choose Script ▶ End Recording Macro to complete a
macro recording, Dorico now prompts you to specify the name of the script, and
automatically presents a file chooser dialog defaulting to the appropriate location
in your user application data folder to save the script such that it will appear in the
Script menu.

Submenus for scripts. If you create subfolders inside the Script Plug-ins folder in your
user application data folder, Dorico uses the names of these subfolders to create
submenus in the Script menu, making it easier to categorize your script plug-ins.
Dorico also loads scripts from the global application data folder, if any are found
there.

Jump bar. Scripts that appear in the Script menu can now be triggered via the jump bar:
simply type the beginning of the script name, and it will appear in the list of
commands that can be executed. If the script appears in a submenu of the Script
menu, the submenu name is appended to the name of the script in parentheses.

Scripts that sequence multiple commands. In earlier versions, scripts that execute
multiple commands in sequence would not always work as expected: for example, a
script that attempts to set two different properties in succession on a single
selected note would often fail, because Dorico would not notify about each edit
before attempting to perform the next one. Dorico now takes a different approach
to running scripts, such that each edit can notify, and as a result, scripts now run
more reliably. This also means that all the edits performed by a script can now be
undone in a single step.

Setup mode
Renumber instruments. A new Setup ▶ Renumber Instruments command has been
added, which renumbers the instruments in the project according to the order in
which the players are listed in the Players panel in Setup mode.

This is useful if you have, say, four horns in your project, and after having written
music for them, you want to change the order of the players: simply dragging the
players into a new order in the Players panel won’t renumber the instruments, but
now you can do this with one click.

Instrument transpositions. Dorico now only appends a text description of an

instrument’s transposition to its name as it appears in the Players panel if the

Dorico 5 Version History 138 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 instrument has variants that define different transpositions; hitherto Dorico has
appended the transposition for instruments that have variants of any kind. For
example, baritone saxophone provides variants with different clefs for concert and
transposed pitch, but the actual transposition of the instrument is the same in all
cases. As such, baritone saxophone used to appear in the Players panel as Baritone
Saxophone (E flat), which is redundant: now, it appears simply as Baritone
Saxophone.

Relatedly, this instrument name is also used to create the default name for each
part layout. This would result in the boxed text in the top left corner of the first page
of each layout showing the transposition in words, for example, “Clarinet (B flat)”.
Dorico now automatically uses the appropriate accidental symbol, so the boxed text
instead shows, for example, “Clarinet (B♭)”.

Staff labels
Player names as staff labels. A new option Show player names has been added to the
Staves and Systems page of Layout Options allowing you to specify whether staff
labels should use player names rather than instrument names On all systems or
On first system only.

Leading for editing staff labels. In simple cases, overrides made to the horizontal
alignment and leading of staff labels in the Edit Instrument Names dialog are now
carried through to the resulting staff labels.

Staff spacing
Frame fullness indicator. The frame fullness indicator now appears in the left page
margin rather than in the right margin, to make the difference between the
indicators for vertical and horizontal fullness clearer.

Steinberg Licensing
Latest version of Steinberg Activation Manager required. Dorico 5 requires Steinberg
Activation Manager version 1.4.30 or later. If you are running an earlier version of
SAM, please ensure you update it. The easiest way to update SAM is by running
Steinberg Download Assistant.

Text
Text frame background and border color. Two new properties, Background color and
Border color, have been added to the Text group in Properties, allowing you to
modify the appearance of text frames. To use these properties, activate frame
editing in the Engrave mode toolbox, then select the text frame whose border or
background color you want to override.

Dorico 5 Version History 139 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Select More. A new special behavior has been added to Edit ▶ Select More: if you select a
single staff- or system-attached text item and invoke Select More, Dorico will select
only other text items that use the same paragraph style.

Change Paragraph Style. New Edit ▶ Notations ▶ Text ▶ Change Paragraph Style dialog,
allowing you to change the paragraph style used for selected staff- or system-
attached text items. This is handy when used in conjunction with the new ability to
use Select More to select more text items that use the same paragraph style as the
first selected text item.

Unicode text input. If you want to input a music symbol in a text item in Dorico, the
easiest way is to right-click and choose Insert Music Text from the context menu,
which opens a dialog showing all the music symbols in SMuFL; any symbol you
insert is automatically set to use the Music text character style.

Until now, however, it has been awkward to input other arbitrary Unicode symbols,
but Dorico 5 introduces a new way to do this: when editing text, either for a staff- or
system-attached text item or in a text frame, type the four-character hexadecimal
number that represents the code point of the character you want to insert, then
type Alt+X. Dorico converts the four characters to the left of the insertion point into
the appropriate Unicode character.

For example, the horizontal ellipsis character has the code point U+2026. To insert
this in Dorico, type 2026 into the text editor, then type Alt+X.

Hexadecimal numbers use the Arabic digits 0–9 and the Roman letters A–F. For
one more example, the interpunct or middle dot character has the code point
U+00B7. To insert this in Dorico, type 00B7 into the text editor, then type Alt+X. You
do need to include any leading zeroes so that the code point is always expressed as
four characters.

You can also do this in reverse: if the four characters immediately to the left of the
insertion point are not recognized as a hexadecimal number, Dorico will instead
convert the character immediately to the left of the insertion point into its code
point.

Leading control. It is now possible to adjust the leading (line spacing) of an

individual text item via the text editor popover, using the control shown on the
right.

Tokens for project duration. New tokens for the total duration of the project have been
added, and can be used in text frames:

§ {@projectDuration@} uses smart quotes, for example 4’33”.

Dorico 5 Version History 140 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 § {@projectDurationStraightQuotes@} uses straight quotes, for example
4'33".
§ {@projectDurationPrimes@} uses primes, for example 4′33″.

To insert one of these tokens, right-click while editing the text in a text frame, and
choose the appropriate entry from the Project Info submenu.

Font families with extended styles on macOS. One of the troublesome differences
between the way Windows and macOS handles font families concerns extended
styles beyond the four standard style names (Regular, Bold, Italic, and Bold Italic).
Windows only allows these four styles and will automatically synthesize a missing
style – so if a font family does not provide, say, a bold weight, Windows will
dynamically create one. macOS, by contrast, does not have a fixed idea about the
styles that need to exist in a font family.

Take, for example, the Futura family that is included with recent versions of macOS.
Although a much wider range of styles is available in alternative cuts of this
typeface from Linotype and URW Type Foundry, the version that ships with macOS
provides five styles: Medium, Medium Italic, Bold, Condensed Medium and
Condensed ExtraBold.

On Windows, each of these weights would appear as a separate font family with the
four standard styles: Futura Medium Regular, Futura Medium Bold, Futura Medium
Italic, Futura Medium Bold Italic; of these, only Futura Medium Regular is an actual
font file on disk; the other three are synthesized by Windows itself. Futura Medium
Bold, for example, would not use the actual Futura Bold font file, because as far as
Windows is concerned, “Futura” and “Futura Medium” are distinct families.

On macOS, by contrast, styles are never synthesized by the operating system: in

most macOS applications you can only choose the styles that are really installed.

This presents some difficulties for cross-platform applications, since beyond the
fundamental difference in how extended styles are handled, there are other
difficulties, such as font files defining family and style names in multiple ways, and
different operating systems and even applications on those operating systems
electing to use different information to find and name fonts.

Previous versions of Dorico have had an unhappy compromise in trying to handle

these platform differences. On Windows, everything is straightforward: all font
families have four standard styles, and beyond that, any further styles appear as
distinct families, as the operating system intends. But on macOS, Dorico has shown
Windows’s four standard styles in addition to the actual named styles provided by
the font family, and relied on the font substitution behavior of the underlying

Dorico 5 Version History 141 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 application framework to choose an appropriate style if one of the standard styles is
unavailable.

To return to the example of the Futura font family included with macOS, it was
possible in previous versions of Dorico to choose Futura as the font family for a font,
paragraph or character style and leave the style set to Regular, despite this named
style not existing. In practice, for text displayed in your project, Futura Medium
ends up being used.

However, when that project is subsequently reopened, Dorico will warn that Futura
Regular is missing. Because you can see text using Futura in the project, you might
consider the warning spurious, but in fact it is correct: Futura Regular is being
requested, but it is not available.

To address this, Dorico on macOS now only shows the named styles for a font family
that are present on the system. This affects everywhere that font family and style
names are shown in the application, including the Font Styles, Paragraph Styles and
Character Styles dialogs, and the text editor popover.

When you change the font family to one that does not implement the currently
chosen named style, Dorico explicitly chooses the first available named style. If you
choose Futura, for example, Dorico will automatically choose the Medium style,
rather than making it appear that it has chosen the Regular style.

Furthermore, Dorico now also automatically updates all font and paragraph styles
that define the edited style as their parent and which inherit its choice of font
family, to ensure that every dependent style also specifies a named style that exists.

This means that when Dorico will not allow you to choose an unavailable style by
default, and you will not see any warnings about missing fonts when you reopen the
project.

Unfortunately, this does nothing to address the inevitable difficulties that can occur
when moving projects that use these kinds of extended font styles between macOS
and Windows. It is still necessary to carefully remap the fonts via the Missing Fonts
dialog when opening such a project on the other operating system.

Trills
Double sharp accidentals. In previous versions, the size of a double sharp accidental
above a trill marking indicating the trill interval was too small to be read
comfortably; Dorico now enlarges the accidental to make it clearer.

User interface
Follow playhead during playback. A new Follow playhead slide switch has been added to
the status bar. By default, when starting a new project, this follows the Follow

Dorico 5 Version History 142 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 playhead during playback option on the Play page of Preferences. You can
determine whether Dorico should scroll the score, Key Editor and track overview in
Play mode to follow the playhead during playback independently for each project
window. This can be useful if you have multiple windows open on the same project,
and want one to follow the playhead during playback, and another to remain static
unless you explicitly move the view. This setting is preserved between sessions for
each window.

If you prefer to toggle this setting via a custom key command, you can assign a
shortcut to Window ▶ Toggle Follow Playhead in the Key Commands page of
Preferences, or invoke this command using the jump bar.

Layout transposition. The read-out that shows whether the current layout is shown in
Concert Pitch or Transposed Pitch has been replaced with a pair of toggle buttons,
allowing you to change the current transposition directly without using the Edit
menu.

View type. The drop-down menu for choosing between Page View and Galley View has
been replaced with a pair of toggle buttons, saving you a click when changing the
view type with the mouse.

Middle C convention. Different hardware and software manufacturers use different

numbering schemes for octaves, which can lead to confusion when trying to cross-
reference between different devices, software applications, and plug-ins.

Dorico by default numbers middle C (MIDI note 60) as C4, following the widely-used
International Pitch Notation standard, which is also the standard followed by
manufacturers such as Roland for their synthesizer products. However, Steinberg’s
other host applications, including Cubase, and plug-ins, including HALion, by
default number middle C as C3. Yamaha also numbers middle C as C3 in their
synthesizer products. A third scheme, less widely used but popularized by
Cakewalk’s products, numbers middle C as C5, so that MIDI note 0 is numbered as
C0, rather than as either C-1 (when middle C is numbered as C4) or C-2 (when
middle C is numbered as C3).

Dorico now allows you to choose how you want middle

C to be numbered throughout the application. To
change this setting, open the Preferences dialog, and on the General page, set
Middle C (note 60) to C3, C4, or C5, as you prefer.

This setting affects octave numbering throughout the application, including: the
piano roll in the Key Editor; the Keyboard panel; the selected note read-out in the
status bar; MIDI trigger regions; the String property in the Properties panel; the Edit

Dorico 5 Version History 143 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Strings and Tuning, Transpose, Filter Notes by Pitch and Write ▶ Transform
dialogs; and everywhere where you can specify a pitch using a spin box.

One place in the application that has an independent representation of middle C is

Library ▶ Expression Maps: this allows you to match the numbering scheme used in
the documentation of a third-party plug-in or sample library manufacturer without
changing the representation of middle C everywhere else in Dorico.

Instrument transpositions. Instruments that use a different clef depending on whether

the layout uses concert or transposed pitch are now described in the instrument
picker in Setup mode in these terms, instead of misleadingly being described as
using one clef in full score layouts and another in part layouts.

Tool tips. All buttons in the project window now once again show tool tips if appropriate.

Missing fonts. When Dorico shows the Missing Fonts dialog during project opening to
report that text items, font styles, paragraph styles and character styles in the
project use fonts that are not installed on the system, the dialog now additionally
shows the name of each style that specifies the missing font.

Transpose dialog. When returning to the Transpose dialog during the same editing
session, Dorico now remembers the last chosen value for Apply atonal spelling
options.

Audio export dialog. When returning to the Export Audio dialog, Dorico now remembers
the last chosen audio format and (if applicable) bit depth.

Localization. When running Dorico in Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese, some default
translations (for example, for buttons like OK, Cancel, Apply, Close, etc. in dialogs)
were missing; these default translations are all now included.

Background colors. It is now possible to define gradients with any number of stops in the
gradients.xml file in the user-level application data folder. Dorico will display these
gradients as intended in the music area background, though gradients with more
than four stops, or where the distribution of the stops is irregular, will not appear as
intended in the Colors page of Preferences.

Device Setup. If Dorico detects that the current audio device is only presenting a single
output, rather than a stereo pair, a warning now appears in Edit ▶ Device Setup,
together with a link you can follow to a knowledge base article with instructions for
reconfiguring your audio settings in Windows to solve the problem.

Default plug-in output slider. The Default output level slider on the Play page of
Preferences now shows the effective gain level of the current slider value.

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 Missing playback components. During start-up, Dorico checks whether the
recommended VST instruments and sound content are correctly installed. If it
determines that any component or content is missing, the message it shows now
tells you the exact name of the download choice you need to download and install
via Steinberg Download Assistant.

If you prefer not to use the instruments and content included with Dorico and don’t
want to install them, you can activate the Don’t say this again checkbox in the
prompt to suppress the warning in future. However, certain components are
installed by the main Dorico application installer itself, and their absence could
indicate a wider installation issue, so this message cannot be suppressed: to
prevent this message from appearing in future, please reinstall Dorico via its
application installer to repair your installation.

Automatic crash report collection. In the unlikely event that Dorico crashes, the next time
you start the application, you will be shown a prompt to send the crash report to
Steinberg. Crash reports do not contain personally identifiable information and
crash logs are automatically renamed when they are uploaded to our servers so
that even the original filenames are changed.

If you prefer, you can completely opt out of automatic crash report collection, and
in any case Dorico will never send crash reports to Steinberg without first
prompting you: every time it finds a crash report, it will show you a prompt and ask
if you want to send the log to Steinberg.

If you choose to opt out and later want to opt back in, activate Show prompt to send
crash reports to Steinberg on the General page of Preferences.

We encourage you to send crash logs to Steinberg. They allow us to find and fix
problems in our applications and deliver improved software quality to you and all
Dorico users.

Guided tour in multi-user environments. Dorico will now read the finishedTours.xml file
that records the completion state of the guided tour in each of the project window's
modes from the global user data folder, if not found in the user's own data folder.
This is useful in multi-user environments such as schools, colleges, and
universities.

Improvements in Dorico Elements

The capabilities of Dorico Elements have been expanded, as follows:

§ Projects can now have an unlimited number of players (previously limited

to 24 players).
§ Play ▶ Playback Options is now included.

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 § Font Styles, Paragraph Styles and Character Styles are all now included in
the Library menu.
§ Note spacing and staff spacing tools are now included in Engrave mode.

Dorico Elements also gains all the new features added in Dorico 5, except for the
new Library ▶ Instruments dialog.

The above new capabilities are also available in Dorico for iPad, with an active
monthly or annual subscription, or if the Lifetime Unlock in-app purchase has been
purchased. Dorico for iPad with an active subscription or Lifetime Unlock also gains
support for playback through an external MIDI device.

Improvements in Dorico SE
Dorico SE’s capabilities have also been expanded, and you can now work on projects
with up to eight players. (As before, projects with more than eight players will open
read-only, allowing playback and printing.)

Dorico SE also gains many of the new features added in Dorico 5, except for Library
▶ Instruments, stage and space templates, scrub playback, MIDI trigger regions,
and Groove Agent SE.

Dorico for iPad is similarly expanded, with the free version also now able to work on
projects with up to eight players (12 after you sign in with your Steinberg ID).

Dorico 5 Version History 146 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Issues resolved
Component Issue

Accidentals Under some circumstances, changing the accidental of a note would not cause the accidentals
on notes within the same bar to be recalculated right away as required; this has now been
fixed.

Articulations Articulations that consist of multiple symbols would draw incorrectly when positioned on the
stem side of the note; this has now been fixed.

Bar numbers Under some circumstances, bar numbers would not update correctly when undoing changes
to local time signatures; this has now been fixed.

Brackets and Dorico will no longer allow a secondary bracket to join adjacent players with identical
braces instruments that are in different player groups.

Chord diagrams When changing the tuning used for chord diagrams shown for a player, Dorico no longer
unnecessarily resets the choice of shape back to the default one for that tuning.

Chord diagrams Chord diagrams that are created via Generate Chord Symbols from Selection will now show
fingerings if enabled via Layout Options.

Chord symbols When changing the capo transposition for chord symbols, Dorico now automatically resets
the appearance of any chord symbols that have been overridden; this prevents overridden
chord symbols from continuing to draw using the root of the original capo transposition.

Chord symbols Under some circumstances, it was possible for saved chord symbol appearances in Library ▶
Chord Symbols to have a mismatch between their saved transposition and the displayed
chord symbol, resulting in chord symbols showing the wrong root in the score; this has now
been fixed.

Chord symbols Under some circumstances, Dorico could crash when using Edit ▶ Reset Appearance in a
layout showing both chord symbols and chord diagrams; this has now been fixed.

Clefs When Clef at start of systems following first system on the Clefs page of Notation Options is
set to Hide clefs, Dorico now only hides the clef if the system contains a single instrument, and
if that single instrument shows only a single staff.

Comments It is no longer sometimes possible for Dorico to get caught in a loop of selecting and
reselecting the same two comments in the Comments panel when navigating quickly through
the list of comments with the arrow keys.

Dynamics In rare circumstances, grouping dynamics, then undoing, then re-grouping the same
dynamics would fail; this has now been fixed.

Dynamics Deleting individual dynamics from different groups of dynamics now works correctly, instead
of only deleting the selected dynamics from the first group.

Dorico 5 Version History 147 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Grace notes Under rare circumstances, grace notes could unexpectedly not appear at the start of a system
where an explicit system break is present; this has now been fixed.

Guitar notation When the Pre-bend interval property is set to a negative value, the automatic allocation of
notes to strings and the String property could behave incorrectly, causing some valid pitches
to display incorrectly as ?; this has now been fixed.

Holds and pauses When a fermata appears both above and below a rest, the fermata below may have been
incorrectly positioned if the single drawn rest represents multiple voices; this is now fixed.

Jump bar It is now possible to redefine the shortcuts used to switch between Commands and Go To
modes in the jump bar.

Keyboard panel When dragging the range selector above the main keyboard to either extreme of the range,
when the mouse pointer leaves the range selector during the drag, it was possible for the drag
to be unexpectedly re-interpreted as changing the displayed range; this has now been fixed.

Key Editor Dorico could crash when updating the Key Editor when selecting something in the music area
resulted not only in the piano roll being replaced by the percussion editor but also switching to
a different flow; this has now been fixed.

Library Manager Under some circumstances, opening a new project or project window with the Library
Manager visible could cause the Library Manager window to become blank until you start
interacting with it again; this has now been fixed.

Lines Lines drawn with repeatable symbols now print in the correct color if their color has been
overridden via the Color property.

Lines The Start position and End position properties now once again appear correctly in the
Properties panel for rhythmic position-attached lines shown within the staff.

Localization After changing the user interface language via Preferences, all key commands now work as
expected, according to the appropriate keyboard language for the newly-chosen language.

Localization Toggle buttons in some dialogs were not correctly translated into the appropriate language
when running Dorico in a language other than English; this has now been fixed.

Lyrics When multi-pasting music containing lyrics to several instruments, lyrics could be incorrectly
linked across multiple staves; this has now been fixed.

Lyrics Lyrics with formatting changes within them are no longer sometimes incorrectly positioned
as if they had hanging punctuation.

Music fonts If a music font specifies a particular text font in its metadata file, Dorico now correctly applies
the chosen text font to the default font and paragraph styles.

Dorico 5 Version History 148 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

MusicXML export Dorico no longer sometimes incorrectly exports notes that are not visible in the layout (for
example, because they are covered by a rhythmic slash region) without specifying their pitch,
which is invalid MusicXML; instead, such notes are simply omitted.

Note input When determining which endpoint to use for echoing notes played on the MIDI keyboard,
Dorico now considers independent voice playback, and chooses the most appropriate
endpoint based on the selection, rather than simply always choosing the first endpoint for the
instrument.

Note input It is no longer possible to delete all the material in a flow in Insert mode such that the flow
ends up with zero duration.

Note input Input via MIDI keyboard into a percussion kit or an individual unpitched percussion
instrument that has been imported from a library file now works reliably; in previous versions,
Dorico could fail to choose the expected playing technique.

Note input Under certain circumstances, removing material via Insert mode or the Shift+B popover could
fail to remove tuplets correctly, for example when the notes in the tuplet to be removed are
slurred to notes outside the tuplet; this has now been fixed.

Note input It is no longer possible to add a rhythm dot to a selected implicit bar rest.

Note input Under some circumstances in transposed layouts, Dorico could add intervals with the wrong
note spelling when using the Shift+I popover; this has now been fixed.

Note input Under some circumstances, attempting to navigate from the first or last rest in a voice in a
percussion kit could cause a crash; this has now been fixed.

Play mode It is once again possible to duplicate the VST instrument selected in the VST and MIDI panel in
Play mode with a key command or via the jump bar.

Playback The value of Increase written dynamic of other beats in the bar on the Dynamics page of
Playback Options is no longer subtracted from off-beat notes.

Playback When applying the Min./Max. velocity values specified in expression map switches, Dorico
now correctly considers any defined note length conditions.

Playback If you have an immediate dynamic and a gradual dynamic at the same rhythmic position and
they are not in the same group, the immediate dynamic will now be processed for playback
before the gradual dynamic, so the dynamic change will be as expected.

Playback When editing linked slurs or dynamics that are linked to instruments not shown in the current
layout, when you subsequently play back, those instruments not present in the layout no
longer unexpectedly play back.

Dorico 5 Version History 149 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Playback A messa di voce hairpin of the form diminuendo-crescendo no longer plays back in the opposite
direction.

Print mode When toggling between Mono and Color, the Watermark checkbox is now always correctly
enabled or disabled as appropriate.

Project files When starting a project from a user project template, if a new flow needs to be created, it is
now created before playback is set up, thus ensuring that playback will always work as
expected right away.

Project files When starting a new project via the Hub, the Project will use multiple flows setting will now
apply not only to the part layouts that are created when the project is first created, but to all
future part layouts subsequently created in the project.

Project files Under rare circumstances, Dorico could hang during project saving; this has now been fixed
(macOS only).

Project files When exporting flows from a project, Dorico no longer includes a thumbnail preview;
previously, this preview could be for a flow or layout that was not included in the exported
material, which could be confusing.

Project files When saving a project as a template, Dorico now removes all MIDI CC and automation data in
any preserved flows.

Project files Under rare circumstances, an unpitched instrument in a percussion kit could be unexpectedly
silent during playback; this has now been fixed.

Script plug-ins The Lua interpreter on Windows requires filenames for loaded scripts to be encoded using the
appropriate code page for the operating system’s current region and language settings; Dorico
now correctly encodes script filenames in the right code page, but this means that scripts with
names that use characters outside the current code page will not load correctly. You are
advised to stick to characters in the Latin-1 code page if possible (Windows only).

Slurs When multi-pasting material including slurs to a different bar, Dorico no longer incorrectly
links the newly pasted slurs at the new position to the original slur at its position.

Staff labels Instruments that use player names as their staff label are no longer allowed to be grouped.

Tempo When Dorico is set to show metronome marks to a specific level of precision, it could
incorrectly display floating point values with leading zeroes: for example, 152.09 would
display as 152.9; this has now been fixed.

Tempo Under very rare circumstances, setting a sufficiently slow final tempo for a gradual tempo
change could cause Dorico to crash; this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 150 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

Tempo Under certain circumstances, a gradual tempo that coincides with a time signature was no
longer correctly aligned with the time signature in the presence of another tempo marking at
its end; this has now been fixed.

Tempo The abbreviation for circa in metronome marks has been changed to ca instead of ca., i.e. the
period (full stop) indicating the abbreviation has been removed.

Ties Edits to the endpoints and curvature of a segment of a tie at the start of the system where the
tied is between independent notes (for example, in different voices, or non-rhythmically
contiguous notes) now correctly update the display immediately.

Tonality systems Under certain circumstances, custom tonality systems in projects created in Dorico 3.5 or
earlier could be overwritten with a different tonality system in the user library that happens to
have the same internal identifier, causing unexpected effects when opening that project in the
latest version; this has now been fixed.

Tuplets Attempting to create a tuplet where either side of the ratio is zero no longer causes Dorico to
crash.

User interface The preview in Library ▶ Paragraph Styles now correctly displays foreground and background
colors, if specified.

User interface After saving a custom ensemble in the ensemble builder, if you switch to the Choose page
without first closing the ensemble builder, the new custom ensemble now correctly appears
there right away.

User interface The ensemble builder popover now disappears when the application window is deactivated,
such that it now behaves the same as the instrument popover.

User interface The alignment of noteheads and flags to stems when using a standard resolution (i.e. non-
Retina) display has been improved (macOS only).

User interface When closing a project that was previously displayed full screen, an empty Space is no longer
left behind (macOS only).

User interface When opening a new window for an existing project, the Mixer button on the toolbar is now
correctly enabled if appropriate.

User interface If you specify a bar number that cannot be found in Edit ▶ Go To, Dorico will now navigate to
the first system in the relevant flow, rather than doing nothing.

User interface Key commands shown in the hands-on tutorials accessed via the Learn page of the Hub now
show the appropriate shortcut modifier keys for macOS and Windows as appropriate.

Dorico 5 Version History 151 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

 Component Issue

User interface It is no longer possible to incorrectly specify negative durations for grace notes and tremolos
on the Timing page of Playback Options.

User interface The long-lamented disclosure arrow in the tree control in the Key Commands page of
Preferences has returned home after a heart-wrenching absence of nearly 18 months.

User interface If a popover is visible when the application loses focus, when the application regains focus, the
popover itself regains focus, allowing you to continue typing into it without clicking in it again.

User interface The bars in the system track would often not highlight when hovered over with the mouse; this
has now been fixed.

User interface When one of the right-hand panels is shown, it is now correctly updated to match the current
selection state.

User interface The single step size for the spin box paddles in the Zoom dialog is now 1%.

User interface The Follow selection changes on undo and redo option on the Note Input and Editing page
of Preferences now works as expected once more.

User interface Longer instrument names are now elided in the track header in Play mode if necessary.

User interface The layout selector in the toolbar is now correctly disabled both in Print mode and when
editing page templates and flow headings in Engrave mode.

Video Under some circumstances, Dorico could fail to connect the appropriate channel for the video
soundtrack so that it can be heard and balanced via the Mixer when reopening an existing
project; this has now been fixed.

Video When playing back video during real-time recording, the video would jump forwards by 20
seconds compared to normal playback; this has now been fixed.

Dorico 5 Version History 152 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

Credit notice
Steinberg, Dorico, WaveLab, Cubase, Nuendo, ASIO and VST are registered trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. VST Sound is a trademark of
Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. Mac, Mac OS and OS
X are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names are trademarks and registered trademarks of
their respective holders. All specifications are subject to change without notice. Made in Germany.

Copyright © 2024 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. All rights reserved.