Sibelius 3

Rating:
Summary: Powerful Yet Easy to Learn
Review: I have always written music the old-fashioned paper-and-pencil way and have never been capable of producing a fair copy in ink. So in order to give a more permanent form to some dreadful music I've accumulated in notebook sketches -- my aural communication to the ages -- I've been looking into music notation software. I ended up buying Sibelius 3.1, although Finale 2004 was also a strong contender and I downloaded the demo versions for both. Finale has a reputation of being difficult to learn and use, so I decided on Sibelius.

After just two days -- about twelve hours using the program -- I have mastered it to the point of being able to do cross-staff beaming and other moderately "advanced" things. It is essential to know how to select passages and input notes, but this is well explained in the clear and comprehensive User Manual and once you get this far, the rest pretty much falls into place.

The screen is attractive and uncluttered, with a large useful workspace. That the program is very well-designed is clear from the start, and as you use it and encounter inevitable problems (such as not enough space for an inserted clef, reshaping of ties, etc.) you will really appreciate the ability of the program to recover from errors in an intuitive way. Sibelius just has a way of "doing the right thing", which from a programming perspective is very difficult to achieve. And once you have discovered the joys of copying (which depends on a mastery of selection), you will find you can create fair copies even faster than you could write out a sketch using pencil and paper.

Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Powerful Yet Easy to Learn
Review: I have always written music the old-fashioned paper-and-pencil way and have never been capable of producing a fair copy in ink. So in order to give a more permanent form to some dreadful music I've accumulated in notebook sketches -- my aural communication to the ages -- I've been looking into music notation software. I ended up buying Sibelius 3.1, although Finale 2004 was also a strong contender and I downloaded the demo versions for both. Finale has a reputation of being difficult to learn and use, so I decided on Sibelius.

After just two days -- about twelve hours using the program -- I have mastered it to the point of being able to do cross-staff beaming and other moderately "advanced" things. It is essential to know how to select passages and input notes, but this is well explained in the clear and comprehensive User Manual and once you get this far, the rest pretty much falls into place.

The screen is attractive and uncluttered, with a large useful workspace. That the program is very well-designed is clear from the start, and as you use it and encounter inevitable problems (such as not enough space for an inserted clef, reshaping of ties, etc.) you will really appreciate the ability of the program to recover from errors in an intuitive way. Sibelius just has a way of "doing the right thing", which from a programming perspective is very difficult to achieve. And once you have discovered the joys of copying (which depends on a mastery of selection), you will find you can create fair copies even faster than you could write out a sketch using pencil and paper.

Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: It Just Keeps Getting Better~!
Review: I upgraded from Sibelius 2 to version 3, and I'm SO thrilled with all of the new features!! No other notation software is taking the advancements in musical technology as seriously as Sibelius. My scores not only LOOK good, but they sound AMAZING. It's just wonderful.
All of the little fixes are great in this version, and I love some of the new plug-ins.
It's 100% stable in both platforms, too~!
My co-workers and I completed two large shows using Sibelius 3 (on both platforms) during the first week of it's release, and we had NO problems at all.
I could go on and on about how wonderful this program is...
If you're a first-time buyer, don't hesitate. It's one of those programs that doesn't take much time to learn, and once you get the very basics, everything falls right into place. You can guess your way through it, pretty much. It's really fun - you're bound to have one of those "wow" moments when you ask the program to do something for the first time, and you just guess, and it does it.
Perspective "power users" or professional users like myself: If you're using anything other than Sibelius for musical notation, you really should start thinking about your future.
Finale users... I'm SO sorry... Amazon only has 7 copies of Sibelius 3 left, so you better purchase NOW~!

Rating:
Summary: Software for the common/professional musician
Review: My background is in both arranging and composing and playing professionally here in the New Mexico area. Having used both of the top music software's for the last few years I find that when I have to do a project for profit, I always use Sibelius.
Both programs perform equally well, but Sibelius is by far the easiest and most logical to learn and use. The learning curve is very shallow. Everything is very intuitive and easy to find. The use of hot keys and simple, logical key presses and not the mouse make this program quick and through. You do not have to spend time going from menu to menu to find what you need. It can do everything I have ever needed in the way of arranging and composing. From Big Band Jazz to Orchestral works, it is all there. The finished printed work is beautiful to behold. I would highly recommend Sibelius to anyone who wants to get started producing work right away. The latest Sibelius V.3.1 is probably the most advanced product I have found. I have recommended it highly to all my musicians friends, and I have made many converts to Sibelius.

Rating:
Summary: Software for the common/professional musician
Review: My background is in both arranging and composing and playing professionally here in the New Mexico area. Having used both of the top music software's for the last few years I find that when I have to do a project for profit, I always use Sibelius.
Both programs perform equally well, but Sibelius is by far the easiest and most logical to learn and use. The learning curve is very shallow. Everything is very intuitive and easy to find. The use of hot keys and simple, logical key presses and not the mouse make this program quick and through. You do not have to spend time going from menu to menu to find what you need. It can do everything I have ever needed in the way of arranging and composing. From Big Band Jazz to Orchestral works, it is all there. The finished printed work is beautiful to behold. I would highly recommend Sibelius to anyone who wants to get started producing work right away. The latest Sibelius V.3.1 is probably the most advanced product I have found. I have recommended it highly to all my musicians friends, and I have made many converts to Sibelius.

Rating:
Summary: Simply the best !
Review: My musical world literally changed overnight when I purchased Sibelius version 2. I no longer had to worry about how to work the 'tool', as it was not in the way of my creativity! Everything was intuitive and user friendly. I soon composed many original tunes and received a nice publishing contract. I recently upgrade to 3.0, and wow! I love the Kontact player for realistic sounds, and I often use the score-to-audio wav file feature. I can compose and record to CD in minutes. Hard to believe they could improve this product any more. I highly recommend it to any musician or composer. By the way, the layout and user interface is very pleasing to the eye, and the program is just plain fun to use!

Rating:
Summary: This is terrific music notation software
Review: Sibelius 3 is music notation software that not only grows on the musician, but with the musician. It has tremendous possibilities, very advanced features, a multitude of choices.
It is essential to learn the shortcuts from the outset - mouse manipulation is irritating, as with other music software, but working with shortcuts produces miraculously quick results. This is a program for very serious musicians. The features are exactly right, stimulating creativity. I have used this program with children as well - it takes about an hour for the average child to acquire the skill to work meaningfully with Sibelius. In a word, terrific.

Rating:
Summary: Sibelius continues to score points
Review: Sibelius has done a first rate job with this most recent version of their flagship notation application, managing to keep the program extremely user friendly, while incorporating some powerful new features.

The first thing you notice about this program is how *good* Sibelius looks on screen. Visually uncluttered and graphically smart, with a large, clean workspace. The New Score wizard has been completely overhauled, and the redesigned Instruments dialog allows one to re-sort staves, or add and delete instruments on the fly.

The new Focus On Staves feature is also extremely powerful, allowing one to view a subset of staves for more detail.

As to user friendliness, Sibelius 3 reminds me a lot of other well designed power applications which are very easy to do basic things with, and yet, provide a lot of depth and power under the hood when you are ready for it.

If you are a professional engraver, there are some things you will probably still miss in Sibelius, for instance, you still can't create complex bar numbering schemes which include visible multimeasure rest ranges. Also, selection and manipulation of bar numbers on the page in general needs some improvement. (for instance, you can't select multiple bar numbers and move them as a group).

However, based on the quantum leap in features and quality between versions 1, 2, and 3 of Sibelius, it's likely power users won't have long to wait for some of the more pro-specialized or esoteric features that are currently missing. For the majority of users, Sibelius is much easier to use right out of the box than its nearest competitor, Finale, offering excellent printed output and great playback with much less effort.

Add the host of new features in version 3 to an already extremely user friendly notation package, and Sibelius adds up to an excellent software choice for anyone composing or arranging printed music.