Stirling S Newberry wrote:

>...his being said - it is still based in traditional notation and time
>concepts, people doing electronic music or Penderecki style graphic scores
>are better off elsewhere.
>
>Bottom Line: An excellent product from a company that treats the musician
>badly.  A very common problem in the music software world.  Coda Music
>technologies, Mark of the Unicorn and several others are as abusive of the
>musicians' trust, but know they can get away with it because the musician
>desperately needs productivity tools.

I've been using Sibelius 7 for about 4-5 years now.  I can't really compare
it to any other music processing software as I've not had the opportunity
to sit down and evaluate such things as Notator, Cubase, etc.  But for what
it is Sibelius is an excellent piece of software.  Its not a sequencing
programme (although I understand the Finn brothers are working on this
aspect) but it is an 'expert' copying programme.  Provided you have a
laser printer that can print at 1200, or more, dpi (dots per square inch)
Sibelius will give a score that is as good as, in some cases better than,
a published score from a major publishing house.  It will do, so-called,
avant-garde notation, early music, brass band, guitar, choral.  It will
even space your text under a vocal line intuitively.  I think the fact
that its creators, the Finn brothers (get it-Sibelius!?!), have spent a
long time researching fonts so that they have come up with a traditional
European notation only serves to give Sibelius credibility.  A number of
well-known composers and publishing houses use it.  From what I hear Peter
Sculthorpe puts his Sibelius processed scores onto floppy disc and posts
them to Faber, his publisher, in England, who no doubt clean them up a bit
and then publish the score as is.  I also understand a number of Hollywood
film composers also use Sibelius.  I wonder if I should ask for a
commission?:-)

John Nottle
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