Finale and Sibelius

[Sean Greene]

I prefer Sibelius because 1) It looks much better on the page than Finale and 2) It's much more intuitive to use than Finale. I bought the academic version 6 a couple of years ago and it's already paid for itself. I have heard the 7th version requires a ridiculous amount of storage space - so I probably won't update, but for my projects, Sibelius 6 is perfect. I, too, used Finale for years and didn't see it getting any better with subsequent releases.

Sean

[Ben]

FYI, I just went through the installation of 7. The software itself takes up ~800MB, but the sound library (totally optional instalation) is the big stuff. I am getting callibrated to 7, there are some significant changes in layout from 5, but it is very intuitive. I like it, and I haven't even bothered with the tutorials yet.

[pgym]

I prefer Sibelius because 1) It looks much better on the page than Finale

Although I prefer Sibelus, I would note that while Sibelius's output looks better out of the box than Finale's, Finale provides the user with a significantly more robust capabilities for tweaking the appearance of final output than does Sibelius (at least through Sib 6), so if one has the time and the need, one can produce significantly better looking output in Finale than Sibelius.

[BVD Press]

And Finale 2012 came out today:

http://www.finalemusic.com

For my uses, what a massive disappointment. And I stress massive in strongest way possible.

[Mark]

And Finale 2012 came out today:

http://www.finalemusic.com

For my uses, what a massive disappointment. And I stress massive in strongest way possible.

I rarely use my copy of Finale and when I do I don't remember enough about it to find it very useful. So, instead of upgrading Finale, I followed Bryan's advice in this thread and got the Sibelius crossgrade. It was definitely a good decision. Sibelius is much more useful and for the occasional user, like me, the better choice.

[BVD Press]

I rarely use my copy of Finale and when I do I don't remember enough about it to find it very useful. So, instead of upgrading Finale, I followed Bryan's advice in this thread and got the Sibelius crossgrade. It was definitely a good decision. Sibelius is much more useful and for the occasional user, like me, the better choice.

I can't wait for my commission check I am glad it worked out for you!

[sailn2ba]

I was incorrect about not having direct online access to Finale (PrintMusic) support. Address is right on the first page of the online help manual. Haven't gotten results, yet, but my question appears to be being handled quite professionally.

[imperialbari]

Finale 2012 - A Review

BY JARI WILLIAMSSON, OCTOBER 07, 2011

http://www.finaletips.nu/index.php?opti ... icle&id=88

[pgym]

So, the big new features in Finale '12 are Unicode and PDF support?

Gee, welcome to the 21st century, MakeMusic.

[Alex C]

Academic Superstore has Finale 2011 for $200 and Sibelius for $234. Go for a full featured application. You never know what you'll have the opportunity to do and... you might make your money back. I have, many times over.

[Amilcare]

As a longtime FINALE user, I must say the 2012 edition is very disappointing. My principal concern is portability between mediums, and I still can't see SIBELIUS as useful in this. If all you do is a single version of a piece, the SIBELIUS will suffice. If you want to transport your music to new groups, then choose FINALE. The biggest lack in FINALE 2012 is no native 64-bit version. With the ARIA player, having 8 GB of RAM for playback is thrilling.

[BVD Press]

As a longtime FINALE user, I must say the 2012 edition is very disappointing. My principal concern is portability between mediums, and I still can't see SIBELIUS as useful in this. If all you do is a single version of a piece, the SIBELIUS will suffice. If you want to transport your music to new groups, then choose FINALE. The biggest lack in FINALE 2012 is no native 64-bit version. With the ARIA player, having 8 GB of RAM for playback is thrilling.

Can you explain "portability between mediums"? I am not sure I am following...

[Dan Schultz]

.......If you want to transport your music to new groups, then choose FINALE. .....

Aren't all of the 'big players' in notation programs leaning towards .xml to the job for them and not caring much about compatibility issues?

Used to have the same problems with graphics design tools like AutoCad and others. They didn't seem to care how much aggravation file interpretation was and relied of third party players to pick up the loose ends.

[Anterux]

After I read all these comments, and being an old time Finale user, I installed Sibelius today.

My first impression is very bad.

Sure it's "intuitive", but I learned the "Finale filosophy", and it works great for me.

The magnetic layout is the only thing I think Sibelius has better. So for editors it must be a big help.

An other thing I found interesting was some composer assistant tools that finale doesn't have.

A big problem of finale (mesure based composing) is the same in Sibelius.

Finale sounds much better. Much much better!!!! Out of the box.

I couldn't get any good sounds out of sibelius. Just simple midi soft synth.

What have I to do to get something like garritan? and humanized playback? Finale wins clearly on these aspects, in my opinion.

[PMeuph]

After I read all these comments, and being an old time Finale user, I installed Sibelius today.

My first impression is very bad.
Sure it's "intuitive", but I learned the "Finale filosophy", and it works great for me.

First, I would say, give yourself at least 25 hours of work to get use to it. Try some small projects, transcriptions, etc.

A big problem of finale (mesure based composing) is the same in Sibelius.

What do you mean by this?

Finale sounds much better. Much much better!!!! Out of the box.
I couldn't get any good sounds out of sibelius. Just simple midi soft synth.
What have I to do to get something like garritan? and humanized playback? Finale wins clearly on these aspects, in my opinion.

For the sound, if you have Sibelius 7 you need to install the extra DVDs. The click on Play, Configuration and select on of the Sibelius sounds.

Also, as a composer, you might like Score exchange

[Anterux]

I'll try that. Thank you!

Measure based... I dont know how to explane well... my English is difficult...

If I want to write something whithout measure bars, or, something like in Messien, that measures are the result of the music and not "music to fit in the measures", so they change a lot.

In Finale (and in Sibelius also, I think) I have to think in measures, even if I dont want them, or, if they should be free and placed where I want, the same way as I place comas in this text.

Sorry for my English

[PMeuph]

Measure based... I dont know how to explane well... my English is difficult...

If I want to write something whithout measure bars, or, something like in Messien, that measures are the result of the music and not "music to fit in the measures", so they change a lot.

In Finale (and in Sibelius also, I think) I have to think in measures, even if I dont want them, or, if they should be free and placed where I want, the same way as I place comas in this text.

I get it now....

What I have done in the past, in Finale, is use a really big time signature (say 16/2) and hide it and hide extra beats. This way I was left measures taking up one staff each.

It is not as easy as it would be on paper, but it gets the job done and it synchronizes pretty well in the play back.

FWIW, most of the Messiaen I have seen has measures, there are just no time signatures. That is easy to do.... The only messiean piece I can think of without bars is the Appel interstellaire from "Des canyons aux étoiles…"

In the following example you could notate it in 7/8 but hide the 7/8 time signature at the beginning.
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/20- ... s/4003650#

[imperialbari]

I think I understand Anterux, at least to some degree.

My reason for starting on Finale 20+ years back was about my joints going so inflamed that I could no longer hold a pencil but for very short periods. While I wrote scores in handwriting, I could write in independent meters for the various staffs/parts with asynchronous bar lines. If I had a brilliant idea for a chord not placed on the downbeat of a bar, I could write out that chord at its desired position without filling out rests in front of it. It would sit lonely until I had worked my way backwards from it or approached it from the left.

That is not possible in Finale. I have heard Finale described as a systems of databases, where each bar in each staff is such database determining each note or rest rhythmically by its relation to the left bar line. So if I want to write the said odd chord ahead of an even progress from the left, then I have to fill in the rests between the left bar line and the desired position of the chord.

Asynchronous time signatures and bar lines can be done in Finale. Only it takes quite a bit of work.

Writing complex time signatures in Finale is not very difficult. Already back in 1993 I could set up a score with bars of 31/8 or 33/8 with full control over the beaming of sub-groups.

Just come to my mind that I could solve the problem about the asynchronous time signatures by means of very long bars. At least the opening and the final bar line usually is shared. Would take some planning though.

Klaus

[Anterux]

There is measure bars in Messian but no time signature. Great! I want that!

But I want really that! I dont want to have hidden time signature. I dont want to think about time signatures. I want to place them (measure bars) where I want whithout having to think what time signature it is, because thats the point! Not having a time signature is different from hiding a time signature.

I think this is a problem with most score editors. And I think this has to do with MIDI legacy... I dont know...

[Amilcare]

Please visit my Ponchielli webpages. Converting from one band instrumentation or further is not a problem in FINALE. I haven't played with SCORE MANAGER yet, but it may make it easier;-)

http://www.shsu.edu/~org_neh/