Finale, Sibelius Etc - Music-Web Forums

Boneman · #1 22-11-2006, 11:21 AM

What about a thread for music software use? I know there is a wealth of information on the respective sights but what about having one here?

kenm · #2 22-11-2006, 11:37 AM

There is quite a lot of discussion of other notation programs on the Finale mailing list at finale@shsu.edu. The members include some who particularly value Sibelius for the way it stimulates Make Music to incorporate new useful features into Finale.

VicDiesel · #3 24-11-2006, 03:44 PM

Finale finally has irritated me long enough. It refuses to see my midi keyboard, and entry without keyboard is stupidly complicated. Plenty of other irritations with editing as well. So I've upgraded to Sibelius.

Actually, my last score was done with Lilypond, which is free and gives quite beautiful results.

Victor sez check it out.
score.pdf

MaestroX · #4 24-11-2006, 03:51 PM

Lilypond gives a great output, but I've heard it has a steep learning curve.

Congrats on the move to Sibelius

Are you using 3 or 4?

VicDiesel · #5 24-11-2006, 04:15 PM

Yes, Lilypond requires a certain twisted mind.

I have Sibelius 4.

Victor.

Thorolf · #6 24-11-2006, 06:02 PM

Of course, Finale is very inefficient without MIDI. I use Speedy Note Entry all the time.

Strange thing you have problems with Finale and MIDI. Not that it’s easy, but in the end, I’ve always managed to get a stable solution on my Macs. What is your setup?

Regards

Boneman · #7 26-11-2006, 10:53 AM

I just like the way Sibelius looks and prints out. Plus ease of use and helpful tech support.

Vergouwen · #8 06-01-2008, 12:00 PM

Sibelius seems to be market leader (correct?). I agree with Boneman: Sibelius is easy to use. Lilypond, despite being challenging to get into, has a superior typesetting (or so they claim).

Now, Finale has a fairly large user-base as well. I’m not so familiar with Finale; what are the strong plusses of Finale?

Exen · #9 07-01-2008, 02:38 AM

I always found Finale, was just easier to use all around, Ive used lilypond, Sibelius, notion etc, and Ive always went back to Finale.

I can't really say why finale works better for me that would seem like strong pluses for you, but from my point of view regardless, its just a straight forward interface, nothing flashy about it you have your note entry, embellishments etc. I have been working with Finale a little before 07 came out, and have stayed with it all the way up to my upgrade to 08, and I really enjoy working with it.

Sibelius had a nice interface, but I didn't need all the shiny, I needed this is what you have heres your staves, get after it, which I get from Finale. Notion was about the same for me and its layout was strangely familiar (read very close to Sibelius). I can't remember much about Lilypond other than I didn't like it.

PeterG · #10 07-01-2008, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by Thorolf

Of course, Finale is very inefficient without MIDI. I use Speedy Note Entry all the time.

Strange thing you have problems with Finale and MIDI. Not that it’s easy, but in the end, I’ve always managed to get a stable solution on my Macs. What is your setup?

Regards

Hi Thorolf,
Are you running Finale 2008 on your Mac's? and if yes, have you got any experience with Leopard? I noticed that they have an maintenance update out now that solves a few major problems, like the fact that you can't save a sounds file (.wav or in fact any format; I can't do it in 2007 on Leopard either; very annouying as I need to get my old Windows based laptop to be able to save to wav.).

I'm on the point of wanting to actually purchase either Sibelius 5 or Finale 2008 to be used on my iMac and am collecting info for the decision. I've been using Finale so far so my impressions are a bit Finale oriented.

I got the impression that Finale is very Windows oriented and, even though they say they test for Mac performance, they do not seem to have this in the development phase and always need updates to cover it. Also some functionality of the GPO additions seems missing as a result when run on Mac (at least for 2007 that was the case; no ambiance reverb as an example). And I'm not sure that you can add additional virtual instruments that do not come with the Finale package (but I must be honest; I have none so far to test it with, so may be someone can tell me?). This is important to me as I want to bew able to use the separate Steinway package of Garritan that they are still developing (unless it's no better than the one build in ofcourse but they claim it will be). Sibelius seems to be able to add any virtual instruments as the discretion of a click.

Having said that, I have some troubles with the demo version of Sibelius 5, and it's more expensive than Finale (no one in his right mid will pay the 600$ for it I guess as you can download notepad for free and then get 100 $ discount). The money saved can then be spend on additional virtual instruments I figured. Right? or is Sibelius the better choice for my iMac and if yes, why?

Oh, and come to think of it; can Sibelius, like Finale, be installed on both a Windows and a Mac machine with only one license?

Peter