Sibelius 6 Is Here!

[TheNossinator]

What's new in Sibelius 6, you ask?

No more tidying up scores
Magnetic Layout takes care of almost every detail of score layout for you - so effortlessly, you'll hardly notice. As you write, it gives everything just the right amount of space and avoids collisions - producing beautiful results. This one feature saves you up to half your writing time.

Sync with sequencers and DAWs
Pro ToolsOnly in Sibelius: Add a live performance to an audio recording, or sync a recording with your score playback. You can do all of this and more thanks to ReWire support, which lets you sync Sibelius playback with products like Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic, GarageBand and more.

I for one am very excited about this, I know what they mean about that Magnetic Layout saving time - that annoyed the hell out of me to no end.

So, anyone else as excited as me, or should I go back to my box?

[kristofori]

At 5/23/09 02:38 AM, TheNossinator wrote: So, anyone else as excited as me, or should I go back to my box?

Haha, I saw this in my mailbox from digidesign, but I haven't checked it out. I've been holding off to buy a notation software because I use finale songwriter, but ever since I upgraded my PT rig to Version 8 I've been really digging the notation view for midi and when I found out I can export to Sibelius that made me lean even more towards Avid's software rather than Finale. But from what you're saying, I think I'm pretty much sold if I can rewire sibelius into protools. I am SO SICK of transcribing my stuff to Finale for school projects, this should make things 1000x easier.

Thanks for the heads up! I'm definitely sharing in your excitement. :)

[MJTTOMB]

by all means, ditch finale.

I've used them both, sibelius is a gazillion times better.

[MusicalRocky]

That sounds so hot. I want.

[Fuoco]

At 5/23/09 08:44 AM, MJTTOMB wrote: by all means, ditch finale.

This man speaks the truth. Finale has killed my inspiration a few times because of its problems.

At 5/23/09 10:11 AM, MusicalRocky wrote: That sounds so hot. I want.

Me too. I'm totally pumped for this.

[RedHatCore]

YES!!!!

You've just pissed me off SO much.

And made me really happy...

[Khuskan]

Ahh Sibelius. The only audio tool designed specifically to annoy the user with its functionality.

The sad thing? There isn't anything better out there to write scores in.

[TheNossinator]

At 5/23/09 11:17 AM, RedHatCore wrote: YES!!!!

You've just pissed me off SO much.

And made me really happy...

Hehe, I can see the 'really happy', but 'pissed off SO much'?

At 5/23/09 11:36 AM, Khuskan wrote: Ahh Sibelius. The only audio tool designed specifically to annoy the user with its functionality.

The sad thing? There isn't anything better out there to write scores in.

I don't have too many problems with the functionality of Sibelius 5, and version 6 seems to clean up most of them. What specifically did you have in mind with 'annoying functionality'?

[Khuskan]

At 5/23/09 07:00 PM, TheNossinator wrote: I don't have too many problems with the functionality of Sibelius 5, and version 6 seems to clean up most of them. What specifically did you have in mind with 'annoying functionality'?

Mostly how you have to jump through hoops to get the result you want from the track due to how Sibelius expects you to stick to conventional music notation standards all the way through. You can't just stick semiquavers in and then make the notes add up to a bar by yourself, you have to manually split the bar up into quavers then semiquavers, potentially destroying any work you've done so far.

That and the bugs. Oh god the bugs. Some have been persistent since very early versions of Sibby. Lack of reliable autosave means work gets lost a lot - I remember somehow ending up with a Sibelius file that played the same bar three times... at once. Sometimes the simple act of cutting and pasting ends in a crash.

I appreciate they're probably improving it in later versions, and I'll continue using it simply because there is nothing better, but that doesn't stop me from thinking 'why is there nothing better?'.

[RedHatCore]

Sibelius has been like a dream so far.

However, FL Studio, Garageband, Logic, Cubase, and many many more... THEY are the ones that should be busted for stupid functionality.

Having to stick to the researched, mastered, refined form of composition that has created the world's most intricate music... doesn't seem all that bad to me!

[Envy]

At 5/25/09 09:27 PM, RedHatCore wrote:

Having to stick to the researched, mastered, refined form of composition that has created the world's most intricate music... doesn't seem all that bad to me!

I expect you'll be verbally attacked for this statement. Although I'll stay away from it because it's just ignorance. I forgive you.

[RedHatCore]

At 5/25/09 09:31 PM, Envy wrote:

At 5/25/09 09:27 PM, RedHatCore wrote:

Having to stick to the researched, mastered, refined form of composition that has created the world's most intricate music... doesn't seem all that bad to me!

I expect you'll be verbally attacked for this statement. Although I'll stay away from it because it's just ignorance. I forgive you.

I would hate to start a dumb little flame war... so, please PM me with an explanation of what you mean by your post. Thanks.

[Khuskan]

At 5/25/09 09:27 PM, RedHatCore wrote: Having to stick to the researched, mastered, refined form of composition that has created the world's most intricate music... doesn't seem all that bad to me!

The vast majority of music these days cannot be adequately expressed in traditional score notation. Scores are fine for composers, but not for producers - they leave too much open for interpretation.

[RedHatCore]

I see where you're coming from. I suppose what I originally meant to convey was this:

Production of music is a different level, expecting that from Sibelius is like asking a diner for Wi-Fi, they might be able to, but probably not--- and not like you want it, but, what did you expect, they sell food!

Sibelius does what it is supposed to do VERY well. Sequencers do their job, but there is so much you can do with one, that you often need to "jump through hoops," whilst the refined form of composition that is considered "traditional" is very standardized, the sound you want can be written easily.

Perhaps saying that most sequencers don't function well was a rash overstatement, but my point remains that Sibelius is a pretty solid piece of software, ESPECIALLY after this upgrade! Not only that, but with the addition of ReWire, the more of sequencing is now added to Sibelius.

Quality notation meets quality sequencing--- the music world is reaching a new era of composition.

[Khuskan]

At 5/26/09 10:33 AM, RedHatCore wrote: Sibelius does what it is supposed to do VERY well. Sequencers do their job, but there is so much you can do with one, that you often need to "jump through hoops," whilst the refined form of composition that is considered "traditional" is very standardized, the sound you want can be written easily.

I personally think it's the other way around. Sequencers are a very raw way of creating music, you can put whatever notes you want whenever, but you have to do more work with said notes to create something that sounds 'traditional' in the way you expressed - however, they are a LOT more flexible. Within Sibelius, you are bound by the rules of western music composition, so while I agree that makes it easier to compose western style music - if anything, it channels your creativity into what could be considered the 'correct' writing style making your work sound more polished, it makes it damned near impossible to do anything else.

Sibelius is useful yes, but I don't see how anyone could use it as anything other than a scoring tool. There are so many things that it simply cannot do very well - for example live midi input, note velocity and parameters and VST interaction. Although the latter of these is getting better, sibelius can only really send notes to an external source, even if you plug it in to a massive 30gb orchestra soundbank, you're still going to get nothing like the sound you could have if you do it in a sequencer with more control over the samples.

[EmperorCharlemagne]

Since I write standard musical score (ie composer as opposed to producer), this sounds like the thing for me.

It looks pretty cool, by the looks of it.

NOW ALL I GOTTA DO IS FIND IT FOR FREE HA SOMEWHERE

[Psil0]

I'm curious, can you tab guitar and bass parts in Sibelius? Along with the ability for polyrhythms?

[Khuskan]

At 5/26/09 02:08 PM, Nosferatu-of-Worms wrote: I'm curious, can you tab guitar and bass parts in Sibelius? Along with the ability for polyrhythms?

Sibelius can do that, but it won't *sound* natural. The emphasis of sibelius is writing it out to musical standards, not making something that sounds good in the editor.

[Psil0]

I'm not worried about it sounding good. All I need is an export midi function and I'm good.

[Khuskan]

At 5/26/09 03:19 PM, Nosferatu-of-Worms wrote: I'm not worried about it sounding good. All I need is an export midi function and I'm good.

You'll still get very quantized un-natural sounding results.

[TheNossinator]

At 5/26/09 01:44 PM, Khuskan wrote: Sibelius is useful yes, but I don't see how anyone could use it as anything other than a scoring tool.

I compose within Sibelius. Are you saying my music is crap?
:There are so many things that it simply cannot do very well - for example live midi input,

What?
Flexi-time%u2122 is Sibelius's unique system for notating music as you play it on a MIDI keyboard in real time. There's no need to tap a pedal or play mechanically - just play naturally with both hands, and Sibelius will actually follow you as you speed up or slow down.

You can even listen to the music you've already written as you play in more music on top.

note velocity and parameters

Ctrl + Alt + P = Winnar.

and VST interaction.

I don't have any problems with it, especially not now with ReWire.

Although the latter of these is getting better, sibelius can only really send notes to an external source, even if you plug it in to a massive 30gb orchestra soundbank, you're still going to get nothing like the sound you could have if you do it in a sequencer with more control over the samples.

That's why you use said sequences with Sibelius ReWired into it to tweak the sound to get what you want.

While Sibelius alone won't sound as good as a sequencer alone, you can now ReWire Sibelius into a sequencer, giving ease of composition AND a better quality sound.

[ghook]

At 5/23/09 08:44 AM, MJTTOMB wrote: by all means, ditch finale.

I've used them both, sibelius is a gazillion times better.

Ummmm, Duh!

If anyone is still using finale, they deserve to be shot! (Just my opinion)

[TheNossinator]

I'm resurrecting this thread as I received my copy of Sibelius 6 yesterday afternoon, so if anyone had any questions/queries about it's functionality or how it is to use, feel free to ask away!

[Kausill]

Awesome... :D