Sibelius Software recently released version 5 of their popular flagship music notation package. Sibelius has come a long way in the past few years, and the improvements that the company has made in terms of reliability and usefullness have really begun to pay off. This article presents a review of the Sibelius 5 music notation software (full version) from the perspective of a music educator and amateur composer.
The New Sounds of Sibelius:
Sibelius'
music notation software has shown the most significant improvements in
the area of audio playback. The company lived up to its promise of
full VST instrument support for playback of the notation files it
creates. In layman's terms this means that the old, tinny sounding
MIDI accompaniments that have plagued music for decades can now be
replaced by realistic sounding, acoustically mastered instrument voices
that bring your compositions to life without needing live musicians.
The new instrument sounds, named Sibelius Sound Essentials, work
seamlessly within the software to provide lifelike reproductions of the
notes, their articulations, and dynamic contrasts. On the downside
these new sound samples tend to eat up a lot of processor power, so
lower end systems may hesitate a bit when loading. Overall though, the
new sound fonts are a very appealing addition to the overall package.
Additional sound packages are also available for purchase through
Sibelius to expand your library to include highly accurate
reproductions of world instruments, rock and pop instruments, and even
voices for the choir.
Part Manipulation and Editing in Sibelius:
This
feature was actually added to Sibelius back in version 4, but it is
such a wonderful upgrade from the old methods of part extraction and
printing that it deserves to be mentioned again. In version 3
extracting parts was a tedious and sloppy process. Changes to the
score required that you re-extract all of the affected parts, readjust
their layouts, and in essence waste a lot of time on minor details. It
was very easy to forget which parts you had adjusted and which you were
ready to publish. Beginning with Sibelius 4 , all of the parts were
placed in an easy to use pull down window and each of the parts was
dynamically linked to the master score. If you made a change in the
score it was reflected in the individual part automatically and vise
vera. This addition alone makes an upgrade well worth the cost. In addition, Sibelius 5 continues it's tradition of producing some of the finest print output of any music software notation package. Reading music printed by Sibelius is easy on the eyes and layed out correctly with little user manipulation required.
Sibelius 5 and The Ideas Hub:
Perhaps
the most interesting and forward thinking innovation of the new
Sibelius 5 music notation software is the addition of what has been
termed the "Ideas Hub." Think of it as a multilayered clipboard for
you to save small chunks of music to paste in at any place and on any
instrument with a single click. Once you have finally finished a motif
you can save it to the Ideas Hub, name it, tag it with other reference
information, and easily access it later in the same music score or in a
completely different score. These few sentences simply do not do this
feature justice. Try it out for yourself by downloading a demo version from Siblius.com today.
Should you upgrade to Sibelius 5?
The short answer to whether you should upgrade to Sibelius 5 is yes, the long answer to the question of whether you should upgrade to Sibelius 5 is... Maybe. The Sibelius 5 package offers some great upgraded features, but unless the new instrument sounds and the ideas hub are important to you you would probably be okay sticking with version 4. However, if you are still stuck on Sibelius 3 then the choice to upgrade becomes a definate and enthusiastic yes. The amount of improvement from the old Sibelius 3 is so significant and helpful that you owe it to yourself to find the money in your budget to get version 5 as soon as possible.
MusicEdMagic also has a review of the new Finale 2008 Music Notation Software Program as well. Be sure to check it out if you are attampting to decide which software package to go with!