It rarely crashes and gives me what I need. I would also say that a lot of the perceived problems Sibelius purportedly has are actually the result of bad musical decisions by composers rather than problems with the actual software. Sibelius 6 was a natural upgrade from the Sibelius 4 I used to use. Historic problems seem never to get resolved. Fine-tuning spacing is problematic.
Program tends to undo adjustments made to spacing. There is no way to lock down final adjustments. Otherwise, I have found the program to be easy and quick to use.
Sufficient options make it practical for most situations. Documentation is sufficient. Help and support from Avid is seriously problematic. Licensing and activation issues are very deeply flawed. As a professional engraver, I feel the program has made little progress since vs. While they keep adding features, the engraving quality in the result is minimal. Sibelius is faster and easier to use than the alternatives. Finale is better in a couple of areas playback, page layout , but Sibelius lets me produce good looking scores faster.
I went to Sibelius at that time it was Sibelius 4 from Finale and at that time is was Finale , so the jump was from a very outdated program to a more recent. The ease of input is what I prefer with Sibelius, especially regarding key shortcut. Slur is S, Time is T, etc. At this stage of my career, it would take a substantial boost in ease of input and extended notation my one problem with Sibelius is the difficulty it can bring to non-traditional notation for me to switch.
I found Sibelius easy to use up to version 5 though less so since then as the update to versions made the interface considerably different. Much of it is intuitive and fairly logical, though this may be because I know the programme well. I have tried Notion and liked the sampled sounds but since upgrading to NotePerformer which has excellent sounds I am hooked on Sibelius playback. I like sibelius. Just moved to from being on 6 for a long time.
The upgrade is nice, but honestly 6 was just fine for me. Sibelius is a very good notation software. Despite the somewhat unrealistic instrument range restrictions i love it. I now only use it as a notation programme rather than a tool for composition. Sibelius works well for me right now. It is not perfect but does what I need. I hope that competition from Dorico will inspire Avid to be more innovative going forward.
Otherwise, they may see customers leaving. I use it daily — just wish it had some kind of free-hand graphics tools for advanced notation. Once you know how to use it, it is very fast and efficient to enter music notation. Very easy to just click and drag, hide, delete, resize, etc. The xml and playback features are my only complaints, but I rarely use them anyway. Lacks what I think are very simple to program features that could be incredibly helpful to composers of atonal music f.
Easier note input, less having to fix major issues when engraving. I have not experienced any Sibelius problems upgrading to High Sierra etc. My only gripe is the playback quality after the huge Sibelius Sounds download. But Sibelius does everything I need in a manner that is easy to use and understand.
I love it — but I do get frustrated with notating extended techniques and creating graphics. Sibelius is good definitely better than Finale but Avid seems to have given up developing the program to its highest potential. You have to use too many workarounds to address problems that have existed in the software for far too long. Sibelius is fantastic for a large variety of repertoire but falls short in its support for extended notation and contemporary music.
Additionally, some aspects of the program are not as intuitive as they could be. Plus, when Sibelius added the ribbon I had to relearn the software. I switched from Finale to Sibelius in The most flexible and the best looking notation software that i have used, and i am increadibly satisfied with it. Sibelius has been my primary notation software since i began composing. It is a tremendous notation software.
In general, very positive things. I know quite a few people were hesitant to upgrade after the company was sold, but those that took the leap are generally just as satisfied as they were before. I have colleagues who use different software for different kinds of charts, but in general they agree that notation software is notation software — the effectiveness of the score has nothing to do with whichever software is was written in.
Same thing as above. There are strong opinions about this, and I really like both major programs, but Sibelius is my go-to software at least for now. Sorry for the casual term. Most are happy with Sibelius but those of us who work at the high end find it restrictive and limited.
Those with modest needs and for whom ease and playback are priorities should be fine. Some love it, some hate it. If you are comfortable and productive with a platform, then it is the right software for you. For me, though the current version of MuseScore appears to be least intrusive to my creative process, I still miss my Atari. I once heard a story about the eminent classical guitarist Julian Bream who had commissioned a new piece from a German composer.
When the composition was finished the composer brought the manuscript to Bream for discussion. Bream pointed to a chord succession in one section and said it was unplayable. The composer said that was no problem, took out his pen and completely rewrote the harmonic basis of the section to make it playable. Chad, on the original question: I think either would be fine.
I think there is a cheaper version of finale too Finale notepad? Most of my colleagues and students use Sibelius though, and as someone else mentioned, that may be a draw. I do think sibelius may be more user-friendly still. My recollection is that when it was first introduced it was more graphics-based than finale.
Earlier on, I observed some real drawbacks, but I think those have receded per the years, and I have seen comrades switch from F to S even after many years.
That could be a minor consideration. In other words, as a Finale user, I think Sibelius might be preferable. But just in case. This would minimize the need to mess around with layout and other subtleties every time. Oh, in re: the free- or cheaper-ware: I am curious about that too—since I am already beholden to Finale, have not explored.
But it reminds me to mention one more thing: the issue of longevity, file formats, etc. So if I do not need to transpose etc. I used to see one of the adv of software being the digital copy and backup potential, as opposed to photocopying and filing hard copies of something handwritten, but with a scanner I can get those things without the arid printing. Which you can also change if you want to spend your like copying …. Thanks, everyone, for your comments.
I may just have to put Sibelius on my wish list for now, though. No-one has mentioned Noteworthy Composer which I used some years ago. I use Finale Notepad, which cost me about ten quid and which is great for melody-line only stuff which is all that my musical "skills" can manage! Dunno whether you can still get it. The files you make end in. Doubt it! I have used Finale Printmusic for many years.
March Posts: I've always used finale and see no reason to switch. It's not necessary to upgrade every year. Finale also offers some lighter versions of the program for a lot less money depending on what features you are looking for. I just wish they would offer a Gregorian font for chant.
But in case you were wondering, here was your pricey! I forgot to mention that for engraving music with autographic recognition, InDesign is it. I'm very comfortable with Sibelius, but then again, that's what we were required to use during my music degree in college.
I think it's always been pretty intuitive and has become second nature to me. At GIA, we use Finale for all engraving of music. Editorial at GIA says it is much more customizable than Sibelius. The entire company is a Mac house, if that makes any difference or not. I think everyone for the most part is just comfortable with the program they used first. For me, this is Finale. If you're looking for your first music program, I think it should probably be Finale since I believe Sib is not going to release any new versions of their program Thanks for all your responses.
I have used Finale for 20 some years, but what is frustrating is that they only offer support for the latest version - you can't even ask an online question for any version older than So I have problems with it that I cannot solve. Also there persinickety features which are problematic that they have never fixed. Also, the company forum-'support' site has not worked correctly for two years.
If this is how they treat their customer a 20 year customer at that then maybe it's time to move on. The company that developed Sibelius was acquired a few years ago, and in the original development team was laid off, so product improvements may be slow in coming. If you are comfortable with facebook, both finale and sibelius have active groups where a question is often answered more quickly than on the official fora. I use Finale simply because I'm much more efficient with it and it's working for my computer well.
Maybe it's because I'm running a very low-budget Toshiba, but that's my experience with it. Ben Yanke April Posts: 3, For those who don't use it much, MuseScore has been good to me. I try to use lilypond when I am able, but sometimes I just want a normal scoring program, at which point I use lilypond.
I used Finale before Sibelius was available, and I have a lot of files in it. I am familiar with the routines and except for revisions in a new version that require different commands, it is easy to use. However, I find the note-spacing somewhat awkward and always have to go in and move notes around. The one thing that I find difficult to do is to write Gregorian chant in stemless note heads.
It is easy to eliminate the stems, but you have to specify a measure for each phrase. Very clumsy. Does anyone have an easier solution? Salieri April Posts: 2, I use MuseScore and have the same issue with chant as Dr. Mahrt, it may be a universal 'glitch'. CHGiffen April Posts: 4, Thanked by 2 Richard Mix barreltone. I've used Finale years ago and found it clunky in Windows.
Suspect the current version is much improved. I've been a Sibelius user for over a decade and find it intuitive and easy to use. I have not used it yet for chant notation, but have run into the awkward meters as noted in mahrt's post above when composing organ pieces based on chant. Will have to give CHGiffen's suggestion a try.
If someone has suggested document setting options for that approach specific to Sibelius, I'm interested in learning your techniques. Jeffrey Quick April Posts: 1, I just did a project involving Medicaean chant alternatim with polyphony and rectangular noteheads, but I could only hint at ligature.
Thanked by 1 ronkrisman. Thanked by 1 CHGiffen. Thanks GHGiffen! I'll be trying that too if I need to do any modern notation chant in the future.
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