Sibelius or Finale? It’s Your Turn…
Posted by jamesfrankel on March 16th, 2008
In an effort to promote a bit more discourse on my blog, I have posted the following question that I believe should generate quite a few comments: Which notation program do you prefer: Sibelius or Finale and why? I will remain neutral on this one. The point of this entry is to investigate why people prefer one program over the other to see if any themes emerge. So…it’s your turn! Please take a moment to post your opinion on this question, or post a reaction to something that has already been posted. I look forward to hearing from you!
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March 16th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Sibeliushas been my choice for about 9 years now. I go back to Sibelius 1.0 so whenever that one came out was when I started. Before that I was an Encore user back then the thing that really got me was the pre-designed band templates when the early version of finale didn’t have that and all I would see when I started up Finale was a single blank measure. Being someone who hates to read a manual I just never knew where to go from that blank measure. When I opened Sibelius for the first time I was greeted by this wonderful list of pre-set ensembles to just be able to begin writing for my band and I was sold. I realize this is not the case now but I have spent all this time and money learning keyboard shortcuts now that I just do not want to invest the time to learn the Finale program. The other reasons that I keep Sibelius as my tool of choice is the fact that I teach a summer institute about music technology for music teachers and we use Sibelius so I have to stay up to date to be able to assist with the instruction in that class. Both programs are remarkably easier to use now but Sibelius is the winner in my book.
March 16th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
I started with Finale 2.0 several years before Sibelius. While I’ve never made the switch, I’ve been ever thankful that Sibelius was there providing the impetus for the evolution of Finale. Early Finale required a PhD in computer programming to understand both the manual and the software. I still believe that Sibelius is probably the hands-down winner when it comes to intuitive ease of use, however I have “grown up” with Finale and am stuck in my ways. Some really good points in Finale’s favor of late is its ability to interface with SmartMusic, a program that I feel will soon become invaluable to music education. I was amazed when I converted my first Finale file into an on-screen sheet music file and opened it in SmartMusic. The other plug-ins (MiBac, Band-in-a-Box, scanning, etc.) are also helpful . . . . and I’m sure that if I looked into it, they’re probably also available within Sibelius. Again, I’ve been a Finale user for so long it might be difficult to change!
March 17th, 2008 at 7:47 am
No question in my mind. I use Sibelius. I know that Finale has more capabilities, but as far as user interface, it lags WAY behind. I am very good with digging in and exploring computer programs, so I have no problem with that. The thing that just bothers me about Finale more than anything else (and I had Finale 95 and Finale 97 back in the day) is that it always seems to be one step behind Sibelius.
In Finale’s favor, SmartMusic is brilliant. Sibelius is compatible with StarPlay, which is a new program that appear to be similar to SmartMusic.
For good or bad, I seem to relate Finale to Microsoft and Sibelius to Apple.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
[…] programs Sibelius and Finale. If you use one of them and have an opinion you would like to express, head over to his post and add a comment. If you have been thinking about using a notation program and are curious what […]
March 20th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
i have been using and teaching finale for over 20 years, but have become concerned about its development. its interface has not really had much of an overhaul in the last few versions and the osx version seems to not be as snappy as it should. over the years i have tried sibelius and this spring i have been enjoying using it on a daily basis.
right now i would compare finale and sibelius to the recording programs digital performer and pro tools (joel’s microsoft/apple comparison works also)
dp does a fine job for whatever i need and really works well with midi, but the layout and ergonomics of protools make it the better recording platform. i now feel this way about sibelius and will be switching over our school lab whenever our current budget crisis passes.
March 26th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
For me, it’s all about your personal workflow style and what you feel most comfortable using. I have been a Finale user for 11 years. Finale does everything I need it to do… and that is to assist me in creating printed music documents. I did a chart in Sibelius last summer and discovered it to be a very functional program. However, I was slow and just not at ease with interacting with the features. The workflow (for me) was just not what I was use to. If I work with Sibelius for the next 11 years, I’m sure it would feel just as natural as using Finale. But, I see no reason (from personal use) to make a switch. I will continue to learn Sibelius just so I can help others. But for my day to day need for creating printed music, Finale still has my vote.
Keith Mason
Music Tech for ME
March 31st, 2008 at 7:17 am
We have Finale in my school’s electronic music room on a Mac - and my wife wanted us to purchase Sibelius for our home PC to work on compositions and arrangements for the small youth orchestra she conducts. I have found the Sibelius much easier to use than Finale and now end up taking work I need for school home to do on my Sibelius because it is so much easier and faster. Maybe I haven’t given the Finale enough effort to understand or maybe there is a difference in vedrsions between a Mac and PC with the two programs - but my anecdotal evidence says Sibelius works better.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Like most teachers in my area (East Lothian, Scotland) I use Sibelius. This situation has, in some way, come about due to generous discount for educational users. It would take the appearance of a program of amazing value for me even to consider using anything else. What impresses me about Sibelius is that fact that, while they could have sat back and watch the money roll in from Sibelius 1.0, they have continued to push the envelope and now offer a programme that few could have thought possible years ago.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:12 am
I can’t compare the two, unfortunately, because I have only used Finale. But I like what Mike Compton says above about being glad Sibelius is around to encourage Finale to improve its interface. I chose Finale, however, because I had been told it was the industry standard used by publishing houses. I prefer to do my own engraving, which enables me to be more responsive to clients, and more quickly, so that seemed a reasonable choice. (I am a composer interested in young people’s education rather than a formal educator). And for some reason, it comforts me knowing that if I have occasion to use some little-used item of notation, I can probably find it in Finale (even if I have to pore through manuals or online help for an hour!) There are many, many features in Finale which I would like to see more “visible” and “usable”, such as MIDI editing (when necessary). While I generally create my renderings using only what markings I put in my scores, there are times one needs to understand what is going on under the hood. There are so many pieces to Finale, and I find them to feel more like a jumble of blocks, rather than one integrated program.
I’ve been using it for over 3 years now, and manage to produce good scores, but I am still using, mostly, the tedious point-and-click method of entry - note by note, and have not yet learned the keyboard method, which is another world, it seems to me. I keep telling myself it is time, and then keep procrastinating LOL!
But I do like Finale’s integration with Garritan Personal Orchestra and Smartsynth, which makes it easy to produce good quality digital renderings of my work easily, and Finale’s flexibility and it’s ability to create publication-quality scores (which maybe Sibelius does, too?).
If anyone is interested in hearing music generated directly from the written score, using good orchestral samples, I invite you to visit my listening website (www.soudclick.com/kepeaceusa). I also have selected scores for some of the music there on my lulu site: stores.lulu.com/ke_peace, where you can view the entire score as Finale creates it (along with alot of mouse-arm elbow grease on my part LOL!).
Thanks for a very interesting dicussion, everyone.
BTW: one more little dig on Finale — I was a software engineer for 14 years, so….!
April 9th, 2008 at 8:24 am
PS. I was one of the composers on the Garritan Christmas Album James mentioned in another blog entry — all of them using Garritan orchestral samples. Very nice to listen to, and it truly shows how far the digital music world has come. In fact recently on the Garritan forum, there was some discussion about the possible future of sampling technology (this gets a little technical here), regarding the possibility of rendering instrumental sounds realistically using, not recorded samples of real instruments (which takes alot of space, alot of memory), but very precise algorithmic synthesis which is accurate enough to reproduce enough of the actual qualities of real instruments that the sounds synthesized with these algorithm sounds real. This would take far less space and memory. That may be the future of digital sound, and would bring together the best of the “sample” world and the “synthesis” world.
April 19th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I hate to throw a wrench in the works but… in the classroom, I don’t use notation. Pretty much at all, software or otherwise. I know this might be heracy to some but I am of the belief that training the ear and mind is more urgent than notation. My students use GarageBand and Logic Pro. They do dictations galore and learn music theory via the piano keyboard. I teach over 250 students a year. i have a four year sequence and on average one third of all my seniors go to college for music technology or composition. One third of them never played an instrument before they came to my classes. Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe in learning music notation and my students know that if they want to get to college they will need to know notation. We have many ways to accomplish that in and out of school. I also think that if you want to print something for others to play or for publication, a notation program is probably the best way to go. However, I just spent several hours preparing student scores for the MENC Electronic Music Search and I used Logic Pro’s notation screen. WOW! The lines between notation, sequencing and recording software is certainly fading away…
May 20th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Barbara, I agree with you totally. It is more important for students to learn to hear music than to write it down (I think of a parallel — we hear language first before we learn to read and write..). And, I think, that hearing is not just the brain registering sound, but also learning to get the mind around what is perceived. A music mentor of mine advised me: Listen to any and all music, but especially music you don’t like! (that’s how the brain learns new things — by confronting the unfamiliar…) And another time, he advised me to listen to Stravinsky on one CD player, and Tsaikovsky on the other, at the same time (which I did). It’s all about the ear and the mind.
June 20th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
I use Sibelius. I tried Finale way back in the Windows 3.1 days - but, the interface was just weird!
Sibelius has done some great things recently. I still use Sibelius 4, but plan on upgrading to Sibelius 5 soon. The fact that they are now part of Avid is huge. The ability to use VST plug-ins is one of the best features of Sibelius 5, and is one of the main reasons I’d like to upgrade soon. I think the fact that Sibelius is part of a leading music tech company will only work in its favor for the future. The Scorch plug-in is also a nice feature that deserves wider recognition and use (it’s like the “Flash” of music notation).