Sibelius 2.0 Out for OS X (finally)
I wonder how long it is going to take for Finale for OS X to come out? Any thoughts on how big a coup (if any) it is for Sib to beat Finale?
Anyone had much experience with Sib 2.0 on PC? I can't wait for the upgrade...
I will finally have no reason to boot into to OS 9 once I get the upgrade. :cool:
Anyone had much experience with Sib 2.0 on PC? I can't wait for the upgrade...
I will finally have no reason to boot into to OS 9 once I get the upgrade. :cool:
Comments
---------
RosettaStoned
<strong>chuckster, what are your thoughts about Sibelius? I am an avid Finale user, and I've never tried Sibelius. What do you use it for, and what are it's best features? I've heard good things, and I think it's a BIG deal that Sibelius for X is out before Finale X. Any insight you can share? Thanks!
---------
RosettaStoned</strong><hr></blockquote>
I really love it. I have not used Finale extensively - I only downloaded the demos of both Sib and Finale to make a decision.
Sib is very easy to use. I read through the ~30 page tutorial, putzed around on it for a day, and that week I finished a 9 page piano score with slurs, expression markings, etc. (took about 5-6 hours total for the score). I think it looks great (whether or not the music is worth listening to...).
I guess the one feature that really makes it easy to use is the extensive set of keyboard shortcuts. I mean, we are talking a TON of keyboard shortcuts. They give you this cardboard sheet that you can fold into a little stand up "cheat sheet" (kind of like a menu at a restaurant) - but, before too long, most of the common commands become second nature. Entering notes becomes very rapid either from the computer keyboard or using their real-time entry method from a MIDI keyboard.
Thus far, I have only used it to score music for solo piano, piano + SATB choir, and piano plus solo violin. It's worked great so far. Also, their support seems to be great - I have posted to their chat page on several occassions and have gotten a response both from Sibelius tech people and random users within a day.
Anyway, at this point I can't wait for the upgrade to arrive (should be early in April). I will post again once I get it going.
Hope that helps.
Good luck,
Chuck
[ 03-18-2002: Message edited by: chuckster ]</p>
I guess I am supposed to complain a bit, so here goes:
-The copy protection scheme is a bit draconian requiring a fax, phone call, or internet connection. If you want to use the software on multiple computers (i.e. save your work on different machines), you have to transfer the license/ability to save between the computers which requires typing in a long number. This disables save on the originating computer until you retransfer the license back. I have seen threads on the Sib chat page in which people have run into problems with losing the ability to save do to hard disk crashes, etc. This requires a call to tech support (so, probably a bit of a waste of time).
-Very expensive (>$425). I'm a student, but I don't happen to be in a music program, so I couldn't get the educational discount.
-A couple of times, my keyboard controller has not been recognized properly. This may have more to do with OMS - I don't know. This issue is apparent when I start the app, so I just quit and restart the app and it goes away.
-One time, a tie wasn't positioned properly, so I had to manually reposition it so that it was more visible. Not a general problem, but it still happens.
Anyway, I can gripe about a lot of software (such as I have seen 4 kernel panics on three different TiBooks running Office X - ), but for what I do (which is admittedly relatively simple compared to what the software is supposedly capable of), it does the job very easily. The demo's free, and it does everything except save, so people should try it out before shelling out the cash.
[ 03-19-2002: Message edited by: chuckster ]
[ 03-19-2002: Message edited by: chuckster ]</p>