Dorico - Compose Music 4+

Music Notation & Score Creator

Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH

    • 4.2 • 75 Ratings
    • Free
    • Offers In-App Purchases

iPad Screenshots

Description

Compose your own music for free with Dorico. Create beautiful music notation for up to eight instruments quickly and easily with the on-screen keyboard, drum pads and fretboard. Play back instantly with the included sounds and shape the performance with powerful MIDI editing tools. When your piece is finished, share it as PDF, audio or MusicXML, or print directly to your AirPrint-enabled printer. Perform using the built-in read mode, and annotate with your Apple Pencil.

Dorico is the award-winning music notation and composition software from Steinberg for macOS, Windows, and iPadOS. It’s easy enough to learn and use that it is used by students in schools, and deep enough that it satisfies the needs of the most demanding professionals in the worlds of concert music, music for film and TV, and music publishing. Dorico for iPad is fully compatible with Dorico for macOS and Windows, so you can work on your projects on the move on your iPad and in your studio on your desktop or laptop computer, or share projects with musicians using Dorico on any platform.

Dorico’s interface is split into four modes. In Setup mode, you can add and change instruments, create and reorder sections of music (called “flows”), and choose how your music will be formatted for your musicians into layouts. In Write mode, you can input and edit music and other notations using simple, well-organized toolboxes and panels. In Engrave mode (included if you buy a paid subscription to Dorico’s advanced features), you can make graphical tweaks to every item in your project. Finally, in Play mode, you have access to powerful sequencer-style MIDI editing tools, including piano roll and velocity editors.

Dorico includes built-in virtual instruments and effects to allow you to play back your compositions, and you can also easily use any compatible Audio Unit plug-in or external MIDI device (with optional subscription or Lifetime Unlock in-app purchase), and tweak playback using the on-screen Mixer.

Input music using an on-screen piano keyboard, or by connecting a MIDI keyboard to your iPad directly via USB or using a compatible USB-to-Lightning adaptor. If you have a Magic Keyboard or other external keyboard, you can make use of extensive keyboard shortcuts to work quickly and efficiently.

Dorico is free to use, allowing you to write for ensembles of up to four players. Register with your free Steinberg ID to increase the player limit to eight, allowing you to write for ensembles like string or wind quartet, or SATB choir. If you want to take your composition and arranging to the next level, you can buy an optional subscription or Lifetime Unlock in-app purchase to access more features and power: write for ensembles of any number of players, and gain access to Engrave mode, allowing you to make graphical tweaks to individual items anywhere in your project.

HIGHLIGHTS
• Best automatic engraving of any software
• Easy note input using on-screen keyboard, MIDI keyboard, or external keyboard
• Intelligently adjusts notation as you write
• Any number of movements or pieces in a single project
• Automatic layout of instrumental parts
• Expressive playback using included sounds and effects
• Supports Audio Unit virtual instruments and effects processors
• Sequencer-style piano roll MIDI editor
• Sophisticated chord symbols, unpitched percussion and drum set notation
• Unbarred music, tuplets across barlines, etc. all handled correctly — no workarounds
• Transfer to and from other apps via MusicXML, MIDI, PDF, etc.

For support, please visit www.dorico.com/forum

If you like Dorico, please support us by rating this app in the App Store. Thank you!

What’s New

Version 5.1.32

This update includes minor fixes and improvements designed to improve your experience of working with Dorico.

Ratings and Reviews

4.2 out of 5
75 Ratings

75 Ratings

vinja666 ,

Great free version

The free features are quite generous, especially compared to other apps, and is more than capable for my hobbyist piano transcription and arrangement use.

However using files from cloud locations other than iCloud seems to result in an error every time, and only iCloud works for me

Dragging and moving the score around is also a little laggy and glitchy, and sometimes skips around erratically in my experience so far

Developer Response ,

Thanks for your positive feedback, vinja666. We know that panning the score around can be a little jumpy and this is something we are planning to improve in future. If you are using another cloud-enabled location for your projects, please make sure the projects are fully downloaded to your iPad via the Files app before you try to open them in Dorico itself. That should hopefully take care of the error when trying to open the files.

MT19Feedback ,

Somewhat Satisfied

I love Dorico however there are some things that are more annoy than joy. For instance, having to purchase this on ipad again when I already own a copy on PC. The biggest annoy with the ipad version is that chord symbols won’t play back! The whole reason I got this on ipad too was so I could sit at the piano, plug in a melody line for guide tones on dorico and then sing them back to the chord playback. Not impressed. It can be improved for sure and is totally better than any other music writing software generally speaking.

Developer Response ,

Thanks very much for your feedback. We know that many users are waiting for the ability to play back chord symbols in the iPad version. This is something we will address in a future update. I hope you will find other functionality in Dorico for iPad to enjoy in the meantime. All the best, Daniel

seanudal ,

Works Well - looking forward to new feature

I have an iPad Pro M1 which is better than my brand new HP ProBook laptop. Dorico works very well and so it will be fantastic when features found on the Windows version are available on the iPad. Especially score layout and Apple Pencil support. The ability to use 3rd Party samples is wonderful and the engraving features are good.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for your review, Sean. We know that you have had issues with the Korg AUv3 instrument, and we have reached out to Korg for their help. We certainly have not lost interest in Dorico for iPad and continue to release updates in line with our desktop version, and are planning some exciting iPad-specific functionality as well.

In-App Purchases

Dorico Lifetime Unlock
Dorico Lifetime Unlock
Permanently unlocks all premium features
$199.99

App Privacy

The developer, Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer's privacy policy.

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

  • Contact Info
  • Usage Data

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Supports

  • Family Sharing

    Some in‑app purchases, including subscriptions, may be shareable with your family group when Family Sharing is enabled.

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