Finale vs. Sibelius

[zippy]

So after makemusic's only solution to one of my problems was to buy the newer version, I'm considering switching. :p If I am gonna spend $250, might as well spend it on the competitive upgrade price of a program that actually seems to work. I just want to see if anyone here who uses it could tell me the best/worst features of the program.

[PikaChief]

Hey there,

I used Finale for quite awhile, and only recently switched to Sibelius. I have to say, Sibelius is waaaay easier to use, and faster. Especially where note input is concerned.

[zippy]

Yeah, I pretty much figured that out the first few minutes I had the demo. :p Do you ever get that loud beeping noise when using the garritan instruments? Because I get that ALL the time on finale, and it scares the crap out of me every time. It is NOT cool to be in the middle of writing a quiet string quartet with the volume turned up only to get interrupted by a 5000 decibel BEEEEEEEP. :eek:

[Myrph]

Just to add my weight to the argument, I'd highly recommend Sibelius, having used it in both its 3rd and 4th iterations for composing and arranging and its been an absolute dream to use. I briefly tried Finale, before upgrading to Sib 4, and couldn't get along with it.

I'll admit though, I used it in a purely amateur sense and by no means used all of the features that it has available, however the ones I did utilise were incredibly easy to use.

That being said, haven't used it in quite a few years, so both have likely gone through at least a couple of iterations of improvement, so I can't say if Sib has taken a nose dive and Finale risen to the top, but certainly when I was using them, Sibelius was the better choice, if the more expensive one.

[Jakesnke17]

Having used both...I'd agree with Myrph and say, that Sibelius is by far the better choice. I've used Sibelius for a few years now...and having gotten familiar with the layout...it just seems to run better than Finale. Sometimes when using Finale, it just seems as though...the program wasn't complying with what I wanted to do and I don't know if that's just because of my own...*cough*...complex writings...or that I just wasn't using the program properly. Goes to say...I've yet to have a problem with Sibelius. :)

[zippy]

I don't know if that's just because of my own...*cough*...complex writings...

I've also had that problem on finale. It would REALLY annoy the hell out of me when I would write in high notes for a cello or something, and it would clash with the staves. Good thing Sibelius doesn't do that. :p

Does anyone here use a keyboard to input notes in to Sibelius though? Is it easier/harder than doing the same on finale? That's the way I usually do it since clicking in every note is pretty time consuming, so I really need to know that before buying it. :p

[MrTrent]

I'm very surprised so many people have chosen to be on the side of Sibelius! I don't know how many of you are American, but I have found over the year that Sibelius has been way more popular in Europe and the UK.

I tried Finale, and Sibelius and I clicked with it instantly. So easy to use. Heck, you don't even have to know much about music to write stuff on it. The music writes itself! There are so many great features they have added since I first tried Sibelius 4 ( they are on 6 now). There is a lot of freedom when it comes to making a clean, and professional score.

A little fun fact, award winning video game composer Richard Jacques, who arranged the VGL Classic Arcade Medley, and Sonic Suite, uses Sibelius for his composing and arranging.

Mind you though, I haven't used any expensive sounds for instruments, but Sibelius is no sequencer when it comes to making dynamic midi recordings. Sibelius is purely a notation program for clean scores. If you want to go for sound, go for a sequencer.

[zippy]

But doesn't sibelius come with the same garritan instruments finale does? Because they aren't THAT bad to make recordings with. :p I mean, they are much better than the dead cat sounding violins in finale's softsynth. xD

[Myrph]

It does, at least in the version I used, come with a reasonable set of voices. I believe you can also buy separately higher quality voices to use with Sibelius (and presumably Finale as well), if you need such things.

[zippy]

Yeah, but are they the exact same garritan instruments finale comes with? Because the midi sounds on sibelius are just as scary as finale's. :p

[Myrph]

Nope, it would appear the library that Sibelius ships with are its own batch of voices. Or so says the literature... (http://www.sibelius.com/products/sibelius/6/playback.html)

Edit - Although on further inspection, it would appear there are CDs of Garritan instruments that you can expand your range of voices with...

[MrTrent]

I haven't used Finale in a while, but I always thought the playback was a bit better sounding. In fact, I liked the sounds provided with sib. 5 better than sib. 6

[zippy]

Edit - Although on further inspection, it would appear there are CDs of Garritan instruments that you can expand your range of voices with...

There sure are...if you want to shell out the money on them. Although I have to admit that the Stradivarius solo string sounds are pretty damn tempting to buy. :p