Comments on: Sibelius or Finale?

By: Greg Smee

Greg Smee — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:10:53 +0000

I am a Finale user since 2002, getting the upgrade every year. That’s my problem. I bought 2010 only to find one of my most important plug-ins was gone….the MiBAC Jazz Rhythm Generator. 98% of what I do is jazz oriented and that plug-in literally saves me days of time. Even though the real musicians in a rhythm section, especially the drummer, improvise their part within the given framework…you just can’t write that, but the plug-in gives a good idea for playback. I make CD’s and send them to prospective buyers. Who wants to hear a jazz piece without at least some semblance of a rhythm section? I also have has the usual bugs, crashing on playback, poor customer service ( unless you are a true computer geek to understand their manual), and forget trying to use Garritan Big Band.
My computer has 4 gigs of memory, they recommend at least 1 gig, and still won’t play well.
So, this leads to my question. Does Sibelius 6.1 have A jazz rhythm generator and does it have an Auto Harmony, like Super Sax. etc.? Just in case you are wondering, I only use those harmonies as a basis. I still go through and change the harmonies as I see fit and for playability. Part of that problem with Finale is their limited recognition of advanced jazz chord symbols. I may specify a CMaj7 and harmonizes with C6

By: Robin Hodson

Robin Hodson — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 05:08:42 +0000

Hi Folks,

Robin Hodson here (I was with Sibelius for 12 and a half years and am now with SoundTree). For either Sibelius or Finale users, I have some great free help files to get you up and running fast – just email me if you want a copy: robinh@soundtree.com.

I think our collective view on Notaion is that it’s not in the big league yet with S and F for full-on notation – but indeed, time will tell. Plus I have yet to meet anyone who actually uses it beyond a few broadway folks.

By: Charles

Charles — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:23:53 +0000

Hi,
It’s a long story, but my copy of Sibelius only arrived yesterday, so I can’t speak to that. I’m not sure what you’re doing, but if I would offer general advice on getting your MIDI from Logic to Finale, I would say this: It sounds like a resolution/quantization issue. Logic’s resolution (I think, off the top of my head) is 640 pulses per quarter note. It’s a much finer resolution than you would ever want to see notated. Finale allows you to quantize notes in Hyperscribe but doesn’t give you that option when importing MIDI.

In Logic, when you’re making a MIDI performance, in order to give it a human feel, you typically use several tools for that, and rarely make sure that every single quarter, eighth, whatever is snapped in a rigid metric position. I would say to save a dummy copy of your piece, and with that one strictly quantize it to the smallest rhythmic level you’re using (16ths in most cases). That would take care of the rhythmic/metric start points.

Oh, and I haven’t had need for it, but there’s a possibility to quantize destructively. Choose MIDI > Region Parameters > Apply Quantization Settings Destructively

The other half of the problem is probably note length (duration). Again you’ve got a resolution issue. Logic knows precisely how long every note is, at too high a resolution for useful notation. So, depending on the passage, you could either force legato or correct note overlaps (under the Function/Notes pull down in the piano roll editor), for example, or go under the list editor and manually correct note lengths there. Maybe there’s a better way to do it, globally for example, but if there is, I don’t know it. But it seems to me you could save yourself a fair amount of editing this way, even though I also think you can’t avoid SOME editing.

I hope that helps. Let me know if it works out? Good luck!

By: lesterbeat

lesterbeat — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:09:00 +0000

To the people who have used both, I’m curious which program would suit me better. I’ve been struggling with Finale but I think the problem is how I use it. I load in midi files created in Logic and then spend a lot of time and tedium shortening notes, erasing rests, etc. Is Sibelius better for this or is my method inherintly problematic?

Thanks.

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:10:19 +0000

Thanks for the heads up on Notion, Chad. Seems they don;t have a demo available at the moment, but I’ll revisit at some point and check it out when they do. Actually, I’m still waiting for my copy of Sibelius to arrive. Long and ugly story so far, but I won’t bore you with the details. Not yet, anyway.

By: Chad Criswell

Chad Criswell — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:00:43 +0000

Charles,
I’ve used both Sibelius 6 and Finale 2010 and I’m with you that in general Sibelius is easier to use, looks better on screen, and benefits from the ReWire support. In doing some research into other music writing software programs though I came across another one that you might also want to take a look at.

There is another music notation product called Notion (Notion 3 is coming out soon) that started life as a performance product but has evolved into notation as well. If you are doing anything with live performance you might want to take a look. I saw it in demo out at the 2010 National Music Educator’s Conference and I was impressed. It also has ReWire support by the way. Now I just want to get my hands on a copy to do a real review of it. If you are interested at all I have done a comparison of the features of Finale, Sibelius, and Notion (http://www.musicedmagic.com/computers/professional-music-notation-software-reviews-and-buyers-guide.html) and the more I look at Notion the more I want to try it out and see if it truly can stack up against Sibelius and Finale. Time will tell I suppose.

-Chad