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Can someone with experience with both give a brief comparison?

I own and use both. Neither gives really hgih-quality engraving comparable to specialized packages such as Lilypond. Sibelius in my experience, is on the whole, more intuitive; Finale, is on the whole, more flexible.

They're close enough in overall results and capabilities that it's more of a "rotary vs. piston" question. On the other hand, an incredibly smart marketing move was establishing the sibeliusmusic.com site.

I own both as well and would encourage you to download both of the trial versions and compare. Depending upon what your needs might be, one might work better than the other.

Make sure you get into the programs a bit. Out of the box, Siblelius willblow Finale out of the water.

Personally, I prefer Finale. Sibelius did not offer me the flexibilty the Finale offers. It also violates (is that the right word here?) many music engraving stanards or rules.

Neither gives really hgih-quality engraving comparable to specialized packages such as Lilypond.

I think I would have to diagree with Chuck in terms of professional results. To my knowledge, most publishing houses currently use Sibelius, Finale or Score. If one knows how to use the program, you can get the results any publisher might be looking for.

Are there publishers out there using Lilypond? I know many individuals do and it has caught on!

BVD Press wrote:I think I would have to diagree with Chuck in terms of professional results. To my knowledge, most publishing houses currently use Sibelius, Finale or Score. If one knows how to use the program, you can get the results any publisher might be looking for.

Bryan, I think it's the case that publishers have lowered their standards rather than most engraving packages having gotten that much better.

http://lilypond.org/web/about/automated ... tware.html

Lilypond produces wonderful output, but it's like TeX--it's not a WYSIWYG package and the input language is somewhat cumbersome. Like TeX, getting high-quality output from Lilypond is a multiple-attempt prospect.

The music in the Mutopia project http://www.mutopiaproject.org/ looks pretty darned good for an automatic engraving system (it uses Lilypond).

For me, Sibelius is a convenient shortcut to getting something readable out. You might have to play with things a bit to get what you want, however. I use Finale mostly when the need arises and Sibelius won't get the job done easily.

Any of these products can be used to produce unreadable parts with terrible page turns. So one shouldn't skimp on riding the learning curve for any of these--and one should carefully review the output before releasing it on an unsuspecting public.

I'm of the opinion that were a common input file format adopted by the software vendors, things might get better in a hurry, as a customer could use whatever engraving package that produced the best output.

But that ain't gonna happen anytime soon, methinks...

Any of these products can be used to produce unreadable parts with terrible page turns. So one shouldn't skimp on riding the learning curve for any of these--and one should carefully review the output before releasing it on an unsuspecting public.

This so true! I can make some of the ugliest parts on the planet with either Finale or Sibelius. I am sure I might be able to do it with Lilypond as well! The trick is to get the good results!

I'm of the opinion that were a common input file format adopted by the software vendors, things might get better in a hurry, as a customer could use whatever engraving package that produced the best output.

Would be nice! Recordare is working on the XMl file, but I hyave never had too much luck with the whole process. I have alwys found it quicker to just start from scratch. Then again, if I was asked to engrave a Mahler score I might think again!

I worked with Finale before I tried Sibelius. Because of that, I found Sibelius to awkward and the results not worth the effort to change.

I agree with an earlier posting with one caveat: download the trial versions and work with them for a month but... find someone who knows the program who will help you get going.

I helped someone with Finale this week. He'd been working from the manual for six months but I showed him how to do more (and do it quicker) in one 90 min. session. He couldn't get over what he'd learned.

If you depend on the manual (online or printed) to help you, it's going to be uphill for longer than the trial period allows you to have a trial. The question is, can you find someone in Mountain Brook, AL?

Alex C wrote:
If you depend on the manual (online or printed) to help you, it's going to be uphill for longer than the trial period allows you to have a trial. The question is, can you find someone in Mountain Brook, AL?

If not, try here:

http://www.finalemusic.com/forum/

Usually the forum is extremely helpful and quick! There are poeple from around the globe who watch the lista nd you will usually get a response at all hours of the day or night!

For anyone who's interested:

There's a book out there that discusses how to correct some of the default settings in these programs to conform to "correct" engraving practices. It's called "Music Engraving Today" by Steven Powell. It was recommended to me by a publisher who found my Sibelius output to be subpar. I've since found it to be quite helpful (you could find the basic information in any book on engraving, but he writes specifically with Finale and Sibelius in mind).