Sibelius or Finale

[shanabit]

Which is your pref and why?

Which one would you recommend over the other?

I dont know squat about either as Ive always written by hand. I wouldnt know what to look for in the demo as well

Im wanting to orchestrate things, have it play a sample library, burn to WAV or export as midi or wave to a DAW for further development

thanks

[celticrogues]

The main thing to look for in the demo is ease of use, and customizability, so that the software, "computer" aspect never gets in the way of what you are doing musically and creatively. I guess it all comes down to personal preference. I am a happy Sibelius user here; I tried Finale for awhile and got it to do what I wanted, but always sort of felt like I was fighting the program. Sibelius on the other hand, just feels really natural and fun for me.

Download both demos and try them out - do some writing and see which just feels better for you. They both have basically the same features, and for the most part you will be able to do anything you want to with either program, so the most important thing is to find the one that feels good.

Both programs will let you write lyrics with chord charts on top of them too like you posted for here:
Lyrics/Chord Software

Cheers!
-Mike

[jojamba]

they essentially do the same thing - the question becomes which one do you feel less intimidated by? which interface do you more identify with? try them out if you can - its the same with DAW's man....everyone is saying this is better and that - at the end of the day it becomes about which one you like the mos and are better at!

[Whitlam]

I have used both and have found that Sibelius is a little bit easier to use straight out of the box. Finale requires a bit more getting used to ........ but having said that I ended up with Finale as I found it easier for compound rhythms and unusual formatting.

I do recommend Demo-ing both to find out which one will work for you.

[blaugruen7]

some years ago it was an easy decision in the direction of sibelius.
much easier and faster to use.

[author]

SIBELIUS!



If you have a passion for writing and reading music, you WILL love it!

It is easy, reliable, logical, beautiful; you can do everything in it, and the support is not of this world (ever heard of Daniel?).

Try both, and you won't be in doubt.

[studjo]

yup Sibelius

[jmarkham]

Originally Posted by shanabit

Which is your pref and why?

Which one would you recommend over the other?

I dont know squat about either as Ive always written by hand. I wouldnt know what to look for in the demo as well

Im wanting to orchestrate things, have it play a sample library, burn to WAV or export as midi or wave to a DAW for further development

thanks

For your workflow, I think Sibleius will work rather well. I find it to
be more like working with paper than Finale.

The MIDI emitted is good .. and the integration with Protools is reasonable.

I wish they would make a Rewire version of Sibelius.

jeff

[cooker]

Sibelius

[henryrobinett]

I like Sibelius, but then again I've never used Finale. But Sibelius is so easy. I use it almost daily and did so out of the box.

[matyas]

Sibelius all the way. Been using it here since 2000 after roughly 10 years on Finale. The only reason to use Finale is if you know it so well that you don't want to switch, or if you need compatibility with other users.

[n8tron]

just to beat a dead horse

SIBELIUS!

do not even consider finale! it is a nightmare unless you've been using it for years and years and know its quirks inside and out.

[shanabit]

I may be wrong here but I think that Sibelius is the preferred choice

Im checking the demo out now

thanks

[Sergievsky]

I tried an early version of Finale and couldn't get it, but Sibelius was easy and made a lot of sense, and still was a very pro app. But still...now with Finale 2009, it seems that Finale has adopted a lot of Sibelius' feel, and kinda makes me want to take a look at again. Sibelius has a couple annoying things, so it isn't perfect or a no brainer. But it's paid for itself hundreds of times over so I'm not about to complain. But you should still check out the new Finale in any case.

[_Morph_]

Although some of my coleagues prefer Finale, I shied away to Sibelius.
It seems a whole lot easier to use straight out of the box, as someone has already mentioned.

[drockfresh]

Sibelius

It is very easy to use

I never used Finale but when I was deciding a composer friend of mine recommended Sibelius - he called it the 'Microsoft Word' of scoring. He has been a Finale user for years (said finale is probably better for very experimental scores and arrangement but more difficult to use)

I downloaded the demo of Sibelius and it was so simple.
Great Program.

The MacProVideo tutorial is what I used to learn the software.

[SRFProductions]

The majority of composers that I know swear by Sibelius.