Sibelius anyone?
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    I am so out of the music notation loop. Can anyone tell me if Sibelius is still the program of choice when it comes to modern music notation? Is it worth purchasing?
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    yes

    or finale which is robust for the most serious of publishers, but I am a publisher and sib does a great job. have used it for years and years. Intuitive, simple, drag and drop.
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  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    I've never been a fan of Sibelius. I much prefer Finale.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    My sense of things is that Finale is more popular with serious publishers and engravers, and that Sibelius is more popular with studios, producers, film scorers, etc.

    However, plenty of people in each category use the other one.

    For church music stuff, I can tell you specifically that WLP uses Finale for everything.

    One thing to note --- there's only so many good ways of dealing with music, and the feature set and interface of both products have largely converged. So -- unless you are specifically trying to collaborate with other people who happen to use one or the other, the choice is likely irrelevant to anyone but you.

    I think both Finale and Sibelius have trials available. If I were trying to decide between them, I would just see which one I liked using better.
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  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    I think both Finale and Sibelius have trials available. If I were trying to decide between them, I would just see which one I liked using better.


    I have Finale, but don't use it often. Consequently, I almost have to relearn parts of it if enough time has passed since I last used it. Having used both, I think Sibelius is easier to learn.
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  • Marc Cerisier
    Posts: 537
    Having, and using, Finale, Sibelius, Score, WinScore, Graphire Music Press, and Berlioz, I would vote for Finale. Score/WinScore is truly my favorite, but it isn't available anymore,sadly. I'm anxiously awaiting the new notation product coming from Steinberg (developed by the London Sibelius team that was laid off by Avid).

    Right now, the biggest commercial users of Sibelius are in England (Oxford, RSCM) and the output is excellent. Here in the US, Finale has a larger professional market share, and the output is also excellent. At the end of the day, it's not the program that controls the quality of the output, it's the user. Both excellent and cringe-worthy output can be created from any of the main programs. I second the suggestion to try both trials to see which one best fits your workflow.
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