I'll stay with Sibelius because....

[artfarm1]

....because my friend Russ Anixter has said he's installing Sibelius on his computer after 25 years of being one of the worlds' foremost Finale user.

(....Russ is the Anixter of "Anixter/Rice Music" in New York....one of the world's leading music preparation companies. He's responsible for major, major Broadway and other work all over the world.)

He says he's had it in his office for a few years, because they've had to be compatible for some copying/prep/orchestration work that comes into them.

So...I figure that because they HAVE to deliver (no delivery, no work!) that Russ isn't going to use something he's not happy with.

That's a pretty great endorsement for where Sibelius is at these days.

It gets 'better with age'.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

And I won’t install it on my machines because I hate it. Lol

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Ps - does saying “major” twice make it more major?

[mhschmieder]

I was thinking the same thing. I was wondering which things only classify as one "major" vs. two "major major" qualifiers.

[cuttime]

Don't forget that in "Catch 22" there's Major Major Major Major!

[bayswater]

Ps - does saying “major” twice make it more major?

It's a common form of emphasis in some places.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Ps - does saying “major” twice make it more major?

It's a common form of emphasis in some places.

Oh, I’m totally, totally aware of that. I see it as a big, big, attempt to inflate an adjective for emphasis.

[stubbsonic]

I hate Finale and Sibelius. I suppose the amount that I hate them is about the same, but the hate itself is different. Each hate has it's own unique flavor, as the pain they inflict reaches different parts of my brain.

Finale makes everything difficult, its clunky and tedious.

Sibelius is limited is not intuitive.

Both have documentation that requires "cleverness" on the part of the user.

I think its part of the reason why Dorico holds some promise to me.

[artfarm1]

Major, major...

D/C?
Csus4?

Yes, Dorico might be nice at some point in the future.

But copyists like Russ need something that can produce for him today.. or in the next hour.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Finale, while not perfect, produces great scores. I’m sure Sibelius can as well. Not so sure about the others since I haven’t used them. Whatever floats your boat. However, once again, just because one person says so doesn’t mean it’s true as a “rule.”

D/C! Touché. Touché!

[artfarm1]

Yes...'there are many roads to Rome'

[FMiguelez]

After almost 2 decades of not using it, I finally started using Finale heavily again.

I think it is a GREAT program. It still has a few quirks that could be better, such as playback controls, but mostly, I'm in awe of what it can do and what I can do with it.

I can't think of a simpler and more straightforward way to enter notes... import them, or copy manually with Speedy, Hyperscribe or Simple tools. So, just give a note a value, and play the note(s) in the keyboard. What could be simpler than that?

The fact that THOUSANDS of scores have been done with Finale for decades, perfectly and with no issues, indicates that the software is mature, ready and functional. Same thing with Sibelius.

Both are so great that choosing one over the other is a matter of simple preference. This situation is NOT unlike orchestral sample libraries.... Most similarly-priced libraries are equally useful and they all sound amazing these days. It basically boils down to our own skill of using them and producing great results with them.

Finale is what I used and knew in college, and that's what I will be using for the foreseeable future.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I’ll be sticking with Finale until it won’t run any more. As you know, I can’t use F25 since they removed the movie features. The workaround is ridiculous. But no other programs give me the depth of control over the printed page that Finale does. I was their poster boy a few times, but disinherited them with F25. So it’s 2014.5 from now on. I did try SillyBelius for a year but never really took to their methods. I know some high end folks like it because they learned it in college. I guess it’s a matter of sleeping with the devil you know.

[mikehalloran]

When my daughter was composition major at Universty College, Dublin for a year, she found herself the only Finale user in a Sibelius shop. I offered to pay for the crossgrade but she declined. She managed just fine.

[artfarm1]

Back in the "not-too-long-ago-day" (well...late '80's) I was doing some hand copying work to make a few extra dollars.

Had to get the write pen, nib, paper, vellum....etc.

Loved the physical aspect of it; but I was a pretty mediocre copyist for hire. (like, I got worse at it because I was focusing more on my own music and wasn't too worried if it looked like a textbook as long as my players could decipher the music).

For my own work, I had the old IBM Electrographic mechanical pencils and leads. Still have some left! Collectors items! Have a bunch of Alpheus score paper that I still haven't touched. Love that stuff.

Then, Encore came out. That was pretty cool!
Then, got into DP notation about the time Finale was happening, and saw that Finale was the way to go.

Then, Sibelius came out and it just kind of 'spoke to me' and I could relate to it somehow better than Finale.

They're both great! Both awesome in what's possible for us musician/composer/arrangers.

Like DP, I haven't even tapped the full potential of any music software program. There's still stuff in DP I haven't used and that I'm learning after over 20 years of working with it.

This forum is one of the greatest resources on the internet, too! Long live Motunation.

Can't wrap my head around Dorico yet. Have the demo, but it ain't Finale or Sibelius yet. It's got Yamaha support, which should be pretty stable for a software company. Here's hoping that Finale/MakeMusic(?) and Sibelius/Avid are around for a long time to come.

So, yeah....'there are many roads to Rome'....am still traveling.