Sibelius, Finale, etc?

[J. Mark Lane]

I'm just really frustrated with Tabledit. How many people here are using other notation programs? I want to be able to do mandolin tab, with the notation appearing above, and have all the standard symbols used in notation etc. Also want to be able to "play back" what I've entered on the computer...and to be able to do intelligent chord charting, etc. Anyone doing that with Sibelius G7? Finale? Others? Anyone able to comment comparatively on these programs?

Thanks.

Mark

[David Miller]

I can comment a bit on Finale.....
It is a very powerful program that will basically do anything you need it to..... the catch is, it was originally designed not by musicians, but by typesetters. The original versions of the program were very, very tough to work around from a musician's standpoint. Recent versions are much much better, but there are still times things just strike me as not as intuitive as I would like them to be.
So, yes Finale will do Tab (will convert automatically from standard notation, or the other way) and will give you any music publishing tool you could hope for, just be ready to experience a somewhat steep learning curve in the process.

Best of luck!

[Mandobar]

finale guitar is around $70. does all you want.

[otterly2k]

I will second what collings470 said about Finale...
I use it for choral music arrangements. The program is designed to do everything from scales to symphonies, and so it is very complicated. I find I have to re-learn aspects of it each time I sit down to use it. If there's an abbreviated version (like the guitar version Mandobar mentions) that would do what you want, I'd suggest going that route and not bothering with the full version... both for considerations of cost and the endless hours you could end up spending learning the program rather than playing! This would give you the option to upgrade later if you wanted,.
KE

[John Craton]

I use Sibelius and cannot praise it enough. It's pricey, but worth every cent. I recently upgraded from 1.4 to 3.0 and have had very few problems with it. They also have an excellent tech support staff -- rare for me to have to wait more than 24 hours for an e-mail response. If you compose much at all, I personally don't think you could find a better program. (Finale users may disagree, but as I've had only minimal exposure to Finale I'll definitely stick with Sibelius.) Tops on the market in my book.

[Martin Jonas]

I know several academic musicologists and music editors, and they unanimously prefer Sibelius over Finale. However, there have been mutterings recently about incompatible file formats between the latest version and some predecessors.

As John said, the full Sibelius version is pricey, but both Finale and Sibelius have cut-down guitar editions that can deal with tablature and chording. I haven't used the guitar edition, and don't know anybody who has. The adverts seem to be geared pretty heavily towards the "rawk" target group, but no doubt you'll get a better idea of the capability of the program if you try out the free demo from the Sibelius web site.

Sibelius, incidentally, also have a free web browser plug-in, Scorch, which is a wonderful way of publishing sheet music and tablature on the web. Check out this (http://www.maartinallcock.com/Crazy%20Man%20p1.htm) example of Fairport Convention's "Crazy Man Michael" (nice song to play on mandolin, anyway).

Martin

[John Craton]

there have been mutterings recently about incompatible file formats between the latest version and some predecessors.
This is true. Silbelius 3.0 files cannot be read by older versions, though 3.0 will read all .SIB files regardless of the version used to create them. That can be a minor problem, but only if you happen to be the one with an older program. Scorch will read all .SIB files, regardless of version, but it is a read-only program. It will allow you to both view and listen to music created with Sibelius. My only complaint with Scorch is that it sometimes doesn't recognize tempo markings (quite unpredictable in that regard, as sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't), so you have to keep your cursor over the tempo bar and adjust it manually fairly often. I've also noticed that it will occasionally ignore dynamic markings as well. Still, considering that it's a free program and what all it does do well, it's more than worth the download. A number of composers are publishing their works online in Scorch these days, and scores of them (pardon the pun) are available at the American Music Center website.

If I'm not mistaken, Sibelius allows a free trial version of their program -- something like 30 days. That's a good idea, but don't get discouraged if it takes you that long to figure it all out. The manual for 3.0 is excellent (the one to 1.4 stank, and the techies at Sibelius will admit that), but I don't know whether you can download the manual with the free version. It's not exactly a simple program to use, but that's because it'll do a gazillion things. It is certainly as comprehensive a music-writing program as I've ever seen.

And as to cost: Yes, it's expensive, but I console myself by comparing it to the very first "professional" music-writing program I got back in the early '90's. It was a DOS-based program that was very cumbersome to use and printed out readable but ######-looking scores. It didn't do even 1/100 of what Sibelius will do, and it was around $499, if memory serves. Sibelius (or even Finale) is a bargain by comparison.

[CraigF]

Both Finale and Sibelius have demo programs you can try. You should download both and see which you prefer before buying. I also like Sibelius more. I find it much easier to use and the on screen drawing is far superior.

[WJF]

I have both Finale 2005 and Sibelius 3.1 (latest versions) Finale is an awesome program ... it can do pretty much everything you could ever want a program of this type to do and some stuff that you probably never thought of BUT ... it has a "learner's curve" that is not for the faint of heart!! Things are not all that intuitive and some functions are just downright confusing.

For everyday use Sibelius is what I turn to. The copy it generates its just as nice as Finale's but the user interface is vastly more friendly. Don't get me wrong, it too has a learner's curve but the time ytou'll spend learning to use it productively will be less than with Finale.

For what it's worth ... I've got Tabledit too ... really the ONLY thing I use it for is to check out some of the tunes that others have transcribed using it. Granted, it doesn't cost as much as Sibelius or Finale but it seems really limited in a lot of areas

And finally ... (sorry for the length of this) one other you might want to consider that probably sits between Sibelius and Tabledit in terms of cost and usability is "Noteworthy Composer" ... I messed with this a while ago and remember thinking it was a pretty nice package.

Hope this helps!
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[J. Mark Lane]

Thanks, guys. #This is tremendously helpful. #It confirms that I'm not crazy for being fed up with Tabledit, and it is really helpful in helping me to distinguish the alternative programs. #I think I'll start with downloading the trial versions. #

Thanks again,

Mark

[Pete Martin]

You may want to check out Finales little brother Allegro. #I use Finale and while it does have a learning curve, it is no worse than another other large powerful computer program I've used. #Plus it is very good!