Sibelius

Ho MacUpdate - Sibelius is up to Version 8?

8.4 is out

8.0.1 is out :-)

Since Avid has bought Sibelius the product keeps falling apart. Version 8 has been released and they have switched to a monthly renting model which I detest or a yearly usage fee of 90$.

I like to own the products I pay for. There's a trend in software to this odd model (MS, Adobe, Avid) but other companies stick to a better model. It's great to see Affinity Photo wash away Photoshop. It's much cheaper and has great customer support and is not software that the user has to rent.

It seems the old players are out to squeeze as much money out of their products as possible but don't give a damn about user Feedback.

There isn't an option to report a bug in Sibelius to Avid. They have an expensive phone support on a per case basis and an ideas page (http://sibelius.ideascale.com/) but that Feedback page is just ignored.

Sibelius 8 appeared and none of the old long-time standing bugs has been fixed. But new ones have surely been introduced: In Sibelius 8, OS X Quickview isn't even working anymore. (press spacebar when sibelius file is selected in finder)

Avid outsourcing programming to Romania full force or what? All user can now do, is to hope that the new Steinberg notation software, on which part of the old Sibelius crew are now working on, is not too far away.

Notation software is in a really sad state if your main choice is between Sibelius and Finale.

7.5.1 is out: http://www.sibeliusblog.com/news/sibelius-7-5-1-update-released-with-many-improvements/

Actually this is a negative comment about MacUpdate ( which is why I've stopped giving up $20 to them each year ): I've had version 7.5 away back when it first came out and yet MacNEVERuptodate is just telling us about version 7.5 now. What????????????

According to Avid's requirements for Sibelus 7.5 on the Mac, it should now be compatible with OS X 10.6.7 through 10.9. Had to leave a rating for posting this comment (only reviews allowed from here) so deservedly 4,5 stars ;)

Sibelius 7.5 is out: www.avid.com/products/sibelius

Mavericks has been available to developers for many months. It's been officially out and released since a month tomorrow. Avid official stance on 10.9 support is: "Avid currently states that Media Composer 7, Pro Tools 11, and Sibelius 7 are NOT supported with Mavericks. They will announce support for the new OS with future releases." Are they in-able to take proper care of the products they sell?

Since nobody else has written about version 7 of Sibelius and the recent events about the developers and Avid, I feel I should comment about it. The new in version 7 isn't so much the features, it is the interface. Sibelius has the ribbon now, known from MS Office. The ribbon was implemented strictly: no way to turn it off or customise it. Since the developer had to sign the MS rules of interface design, that means the OS X menu bar doesn't contain any stuff anymore. Basically, in order to bring Sibelius' interface in line with MS Office, the developer has decided to abandon Apple's human interface guidelines for OS X. Well, some users may like that, some don't. It's really a matter of taste. Personally, I find the ribbon better than the (not customisable) tool bar Sibelius had before – you know, the one with big icons for "New document", "Save" (a floppy disk), "Print", etc. etc. etc.. Still: I feel a typical (customisable) OS X toolbar, menu bar and inspector would have been a better solution than the ribbon. Some use this app for engraving music, some use it for composing – many different processes, and each one of us has his individual style to use the app, so customisation would allow to reduce clutter. Still: you have to give the devs credit to have the courage to change something in the UI – compare that with Finale, which is still stuck in a sort of Classic Mac OS UI (ok, not the worst of all possibilities). Other notable new features of Sibelius 7: it runs in 64-bit and it got a new sound library included (which sounds quite ok). Anyway, here the more important part: in July 2012, Avid (which bought Sibelius in 2006) announced it is "streamlining operations". That means they closed the Sibelius headquarters in the UK and the whole programmer team was laid off. As far as I know, Avid has communicated that Sibelius will be developed by a new team in the Ukraine. I am not sure what this will mean for the software – but usually that is the beginning of the end… so I can well imagine that version 7 is the final act for Sibelius (Jean Sibelius composed 7 symphonies, by the way). One can read at the "Save Sibelius" Facebook-page that now the whole Sibelius team was hired by Steinberg/Yamaha in England – to write a new music notation app? However, given the uncertain situation I would advise not to invest 600$ in Sibelius 7 right now. If you want to get seriously into music notation (play-in rhythmically with a MIDI-controller, Repitch-Tool, etc.) and composing, get Finale. It much more user-friendly than it was 10 years ago, and at this point, I think it's the better app than Sibelius (I have licenses for both). Then there is the new Notion 4. If Finale has it strengths more at notation, this app certainly has its strengths at composing. Very easy to use interface, and the best sounds you can get for the money (sounds better than Finale or Sibelius, in my opinion). Also, it comes with an iPad app, which is very nice. Notion 3 was a bit buggy sometimes, but I haven't tested version 4 yet, maybe it is a more mature app now. If you want good print quality with little learning curve, go with MuseScore, it's free/open-source and a great, great project. Of course there is other good software for the mac, like "Harmony Assistant" and "NoteAbilityPro". Both are capable and have good, well, even some great features, but regarding print quality I'd still suggest Finale, Sibelius or MuseScore (or LilyPond, if you are a coder). Although for composing these two may also be interesting; you really have to try what fits you best. The situation with Sibelius is very unfortunate for all of us who depend on music notation apps. In the short-term, you can still use Sibelius of course; also, you can get Finale quite cheaply if switching from Sibelius. And now you can export your projects using the MusicXML format. So, at the moment it's not a huge problem. Still – if Sibelius becomes abandonware, we loose all: it is (or was) good to have a strong competitor for Finale, so the devs were forced to do development. Sibelius was/is a very strong competitor. Many features (ease of use being one of them) in Finale are probably only there thanks to the competition. Anyway let's hope Sibelius doesn't get abandoned; or let's hope the old Sibelius dev team can write an even better new notation program at Steinberg/Yamaha.

Why pay for just a score reader if you can get the same with a full blown sequencer as Cubase? Yes, it handles more complex scores but for 99% musicians it is not needed. Way too expensive imo

Amongst the "complex" scoring programs outthere, this is the simplest one. I'm a computer engineer by school, but never succeeded in managing Finale! Sibelius is ok. (I mean: the best program for a given purpose is the one where you have to dig the less possible into the manual, and this is one) Due to the high price, I can't advise it for simple scores — my reference, there, is old Cubase 4.0 in OS9, and the closer to it is Logic, even if I cry everyday for the lost simplicity of my old Cubase... :-( So there should be a Sibelius Lite for normal human beings who don't need to rule a philarmonic orchestra; us, poor composers simply can't afford those overpriced monsters... Except for the price, it's a must-have.

Been working with Sibelius 5.2 for a little while now. Quite the leap from Guitar Pro! Of course, GP is a lot less expensive, but it just can't touch Sibelius, the "kitchen sink" of notation programs. Ease of use was immediately apparent - though there are some features that require tutorials/help files, still I find it a very intuitive program to use.

Well, version 5 is not ready for prime-time. I've been a user for several years starting with version 2. Each upgrade up until v. 5 added features without adding significant bloat. Not so with 5: it's pokey to start up, sluggish on anything older than the latest Macs, crash-prone, and worst of all, they've changed drop-down menus and dialog box functions so that one has to do extra clicking with a mouse (excessive trips to the mouse was one peeve I had against Finale). I waited to review this as I wanted to give tech support a chance to help me resolve issues, but they've been unable to do much. I also was waiting for a 5.1 update that might address these nagging issues (I recall a quick release of 4.1 last time), but it's been several months since 5 was released. Now that the developers have a good chunk of the market share, I'm sensing the complacency that plagued Finale: new versions are bloatware that have a few features heaped on rather than being a more efficient tool for musicians. I may look elsewhere for my notation needs, specifically for a developer who is still hungry for market share!

sibelius came to mac os x first and best. finale is like the quark or pro tools of it's market. it was too lazy for too long thinking it had a monopoly. i dropped it in favor of the eager development team and friendly support behind sibelius and i haven't regretted it for a second. good riddance finale!

Wonderful thing. It costs much, but it's worth the money. I used MusicTime for years, but I'll switch to Sibelius. It's really simple to create some sheets. Thanks!

An outstanding notation package. It easily surpasses other programs in visual aethetics, ease of use, and OS X compatiblity. I spent years using FInale, and when I entered my first score in Sibelius it was a joyful epiphany: formattings were automatically correct and I didn't have to spend hours pushing every little musical symbol on the page around several times to get it in the right spot. What took me hours to do in Finale (particularly extraction and clean up of parts) takes me only a few minutes to complete in Sibelius. Highly recommended for those serious about notation.