Music software advice

[Dan Schultz]

..... The Finale Print Music I tried wouldn't allow window resizing or multiple windows. It wouldn't run on Vista, even after trying all the patches. ..... Opinions? -hald

I'm having no trouble running Finale Print Music and Vista on my Toshiba. I just checked to make sure I can open multiple windows and resize then as I wish. No problems at all. Everyone seems to be scrambling to get their new releases on the market. Maybe you didn't try the 'latest and greatest'.

[Brassworks 4]

My publishing company started out using a product called "Igor" by Noteheads. It was quite a handy program, actually. But when it failed to support Mac OSX, I was forced to make a switch. I waffled between Finale and Sibelius - trying both demos to full extent. I found Sibelius far easier to learn. Perhaps it had more similarities to what I was familiar with. In the end, I chose Sibelius and I have not regretted it. I do own Finale but I only use it to open files submitted from writers (about half and half). I immediately export to XML and import right in to Sibelius. I find that process offers more accuracy than opening Finale directly from Sibelius.

Another plus to Sibelius is the compatibility of the software PhotoScore. I have even had success with scanning manuscripts and saving in to Sibelius.

I've grown to favor the look of Sibelius charts over Finale - but perhaps I'm just more used to them. Bryan at Cimarron and BVD does excellent work with Finale, creating top notch looking files. Most Finale users, in my opinion, haven't achieved that finesse. Which may be due to the fact that Finale requires more experience to format properly?

Good luck with making a decision. And do download both demos and spend time in each.

[hald]

Wow, thanks again for all
the advice.

"Maybe you didn't try the 'latest and greatest'." - Probably unfortunately not. Whatever I tried I always wound up with these system errors:
"Unknown Error ocurred in .\CopyInf.cpp at line number:383 Other Error: 536870333 Internal Operation:200

This software could not find the required user interface Dll. Please reinstall the software and try again."

-hald