Appmuse

This app is incredible honestly, but is super unstable and crashes a lot on my 2018 iPad Pro. All I did were things like selecting bars to add rehearsal letters in, and whenever a notification comes up, it breaks the entire bar interface leading to another crash. The fact that this app auto saves on such an infrequent basis leads me to lose way too much time on it. This app is far superior to Sibelius, but the stability is so garbage that I don’t even know if I can recommend it for just transcribing parts. Show more

Easily the most complete and versatile notation app for iPadOS. I’m very happy that they removed the limit on number of instruments per score. Please add two finger drag support for external trackpads. It’s frustrating having to reach up and touch the screen everytime I’d like to scroll within the app and settings menus. Also please add more features to Engrave mode, notation options would be nice, as well as Master Pages support. I shouldn’t have to use my laptop just to add a subtitle and composer field, or change chord symbol abbrivations from E- to Em. Please add support for folders to better organize files, and also the ability to easily duplicate files. Show more

After decades of the other two major engraving programs we now have a program built to prioritize the compositional process with an uncompromising eye on engraving consistency. Bravo Dorico!

Unlike a lot of iPad versions of desktop pro apps, Dorico on the iPad is the real thing. Dorico for desktops is a mature, professional environment for musicians, composers, arrangers, and educators. Some have complained about the subscription model, but at only $40/year, it’s a bargain. I would like to see them have a “bundle” where the desktop users get the iPad version for free, but I’ve heard that may be coming. Show more

Made by the amazing Steinberg team. This app is almost identical to the Dorico Pro version available on the desktop. A true music engraving piece of software has made it to the iPad. Show more

I was so excited to see that you came out with an iPad app… but I’m never ever going to pay you a subscription price for this after paying so much for the desktop version. Very disappointing. Show more

I really like their desktop app and I am always working on learning more and more of what one can do with it. The iPad app makes music creation a lot more relaxed for me. I can hang out anywhere really and work on a song idea, and then take it back to the desktop version where I have a bigger screen and work on it more. I seriously can’t wait to see how both the iPad and desktop app grow together. Show more

This is a great app and I own cubase 11, Cubasis. Dorico is not recognizing my audio unit but my Cubasis is. Is there a setting I’m not activating or is it an app issues. Is anyone else experiencing this. Show more

I am very impressed with Dorico for iPad! It is basically the same as Dorico on my Mac or PC. Everything is right where it would be on Mac. It is extremely powerful and really well done. Thank you for releasing this! My only concern is the subscription model. I get why you choose that for Dorico for iPad, but please don’t let that make its way into Dorico and Cubase for Mac and PC. Show more

I’m with everyone else here. The application is one of the best music apps, but the “free” version doesn’t start to touch what I’m sure this appplication can and will be. I was a user of Sibelius religiously until they chose to go with a subscription model. I’ve seen all the other canned responses provided to the others so I get it. You want to recoup costs. That’s fine and I don’t think that the $39.99/yr is way out of bounds, but the thought of renting a software just really has never been and will never be appealing to me. Even if it was $1.99/mth. Everything said. If people enjoy it and want to pay for it I hope it works for you, but if you move to subscription on your main program, I will stop using that also. I hope you reconsider but I guess you’ve made up your minds as what’s best for business. Show more

This is an amazing achievement for notating music on iPad, made even better by the recent expansion to unlimited instruments. Very happy to have Dorico on my side!

I use Dorico 3.5 on my Mac. I also use Nuendo and Cubasis. Having this on my iPad is a nice convenience but I hate subscriptions. Renting software and being held hostage to monthly charges does not sit well me. You get 5 stars for great software and 1 star for wanting me to rent it! No way! Show more

I gave up my MacBook and switched to an iPad Pro in a professional environment back in 2015. The experience has been mostly impressive. I spent a couple of years hanging out with the University of Houston Symphony Orchestra and it’s conductor, Maestro Franz Krager. Basically I was studying conducting with the Maestro, but I also stayed for orchestra rehearsal, and during that time I experimented with scoring for full orchestra on an iPad Pro with Notion iOS. I had some other responsibilities but that goes beyond the scope of this review. First, welcome Dorico. The iPad user experience can be excellent once the user takes the time to master the workflow. It’s not that hard, but like everything else associated with music, if you want to be good at it, practice. I’m very happy that serious competition has arrived. I’ve been using Dorico for macOS since the initial release. If you’ve listened to the Scoring Notes Podcast with Daniel Spreadbury, you know about the history and reasoning of the design of the iPad OS app and the reasoning behind the subscription service for Dorico iPad OS. If not, I highly recommend going to scoringnotes.com and searching for “The history and future of Dorico for iPad.” I’ll come back and add to this review with my in-depth thoughts later, but to summarize, I really like Dorico for iPad. Their approach to bringing it to the iPad OS platform was done very smartly, IMO. Basically they took the desktop codebase and worked really hard to adopt it to iPad OS. They had to clean up a few things and it seems like they did a great job. I’m still discovering these things myself. More on that later. I have mixed feelings about the subscription service. I believe a better model is the one that gives the user the choice of choosing between a subscription and a license purchase, regardless of price. StaffPad for iOS is $89 with 3rd party sample libraries $99 each. I happily paid for it. Users need to get accustomed to pro apps on the iPad platform that cost $100 - $250, especially if they expect these developers to offer a purchase license. Stay tuned for a full length review. Regards, Steve Steele Show more

Longtime Finale user just getting into Dorico. On first look it seems simple and intuitive. Looking forward to exploring more. I don’t mind the subscription - it’s reasonably priced and not so different from many other apps. The desktop version is no subscription and that’s great. Show more

When Dorico 1.0 first came out for the desktop, its first year showed amazing growth which continued in subsequent years. Considering where Dorico for the iPad has begun, it is clear amazing things are in store. The free app reflects the Dorico SE capabilities, and for c. $4 a month or $40 a year, the app expands to resemble Dorico Elements, but in both cases the iPad version shows hints of capabilities like the on-screen keyboard, fretboard, and drum pads still to appear on the desktop versions. I can only imagine where this app will go in the coming year(s). I am not a fan of subscription payment models, but Dorico could hardly offer a one-time app purchase for anything like the $4/month or $40/year subscription rate to account for the Apple Store’s lack of an upgrade path. If one wants to rely on the app while away from one’s desktop, the cost hardly seems prohibitive. Given digital music’s sometime disagreement whether middle C is C3 if C4, I’d like to see a different color key for middle C on the on-screen keyboard so I could easily spot it when sliding the keyboard around to reach various notes, and tool-tips on the various buttons would help those new to the app; but this is an app worth owning and one worth supporting for the kind of further development the Dorico Team has shown with their desktop program. Show more

As a long-time Dorico power user, I admit I was skeptical when I heard about this. But I’m really, really pleased at how it turned out. Note entry, editing, play mode.... It’s... Dorico, just on iPad. It doesn’t feel like a compromise at all. Bravo to the team. Show more

If you use Dorico on a laptop or desktop computer, you will be amazed at how well Steinberg has brought the desktop experience to the iPad. And if you haven’t used Dorico before, the iPad app is a fully featured, powerful composing tool - score, parts, beautiful layout, the works. You can write for 2-4 players for free, and the subscription model (the Apple store makes it impossible to pay for updates, so subscription is the only possibility for Steinberg) lets you write for 12 players (this number may increase in the future). Totally worth it in my opinion, and of course you can unsubscribe at any time. Show more

Because it’s the most closest to the desktop version. Photoshop, Lightroom, Numbers and many other apps for doing work are either stripped down, or have greatly different interfaces that frankly are too hard to work with for any serious business. The Steinberg team did an amazing thing here in that the app is just like the desktop version, minus features which were pulled for the first release (mainly Engrave mode). I’m completely impressed with how much they managed to do on an iPad, it’s finally (with Dorico) fulfilling it’s promise that you can do work on the device. In my experience, other than word processing, the iPad is only good for content consumption. Since there’s a subscription model, I wouldn’t be surprised if it more or less gets parity with Dorico pro, minus the sample library handling of course being we’re on iOS. But meanwhile it’s allowing me to ditch the paper and pencil finally for initial sketching out. So pull out a MIDI keyboard and computer keyboard paired with your iPad and you’ll forget you’re not using Dorico on the desktop. Show more

The Dorico interface is certainly my favorite, and I work most efficiently using this app, but I will be forgoing the subscription. ### New users beware: After spending the time required to become quick with Dorico, you will not enjoy other engraving applications. Do not get hooked on this software until they release a proper buy-it-for-life option. In the long run, this vote withholding our dollar will save us in the long run. ### To the porting team: A magnificent job. I cannot wait to properly sing your praises when I can pay for the full-version with a single-purchase. ### Rambling I have already read the response to the other reviews, so I would like to clarify the frustrations that many experienced users are likely feeling. If you would like to have a free version for trial, that is possible without the implementation of a subscription. If mobile-only customers want to opt for subscriptions, let them, but I have already paid around one thousand dollars for single-device licenses to desktop applications. This long wait has resolved about as bitter-sweetly as I could have imagined. Show more

Please Steinberg. I’ve used Cubase Pro for 30 years. I have Cubasis, Dorico Pro, Halion 6 and spent a lot of money on your products. All of your other products have a flat price model. Even Cubasis for iPad which is a deeper app has a flat price for full feature use. This subscription model has been abused by developers for products that do not merit a continued payment for a product. Dorico Pro for Mac is not a subscription model, why is this? Just charge a reasonable flat fee for all features and proportional to Cubasis and you will have better revenue and user feedback. Meanwhile, I will not be using this app at all if I cannot get into the details of how my parts and scores will look without being on the hook for an annual fee. *Update per developer’s response: I read your response and am sorry to say that I remain unconvinced by your pricing model. First of all, a notation app that would be used to prepare professional-looking sheet music or parts requires detailed control of notation elements and layout. A free version is useless without these features (and please don’t go to the “pro” argument - there is very little money to be made in music prep - which I’ve done - except for a handful of folks in the industry). If you really think a basic feature-set for an iPad app is worth $99, and you don’t have any luck with subscription sales, feel free to try that price point. I won’t pay it but maybe you’ll get a few sales. Lastly, nobody I know will “hop on and off” with an app like this. Good luck with your strategy. It doesn’t seem to be getting much of a reception so far. Show more